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Something. What?
Slight scratches in the wood by the leg of the bed.
“Aha!” I aha-d, dropping to my knees and sighting along the scratches.
“Dad! What’s wrong?”
“What’s right is the answer. See them, the scratches on the floor by the legs of the bed? As though the bed had been moved aside-like this!”
I pushed hard on the bed in the direction of the scratches.
Nothing happened.
At first.
Then I heard a metallic click and the resistance stopped. I fell forward on my face as the bed moved smoothly across the room. And there, scant inches from my nose, was an inset handle. We both reached for it at the same time. Youth won and Bolivar grabbed it, turned and lifted. It was as thick as a bank vault door, but counterweighted so it opened smoothly.
Light streamed up from the opening in the floor as we looked in.
Angelina looked back and smiled.
“Now that is what I call a beautiful sight,” she said.
Chapter 25
“Were coming down,” I cried out.
“Please do. I would much rather join you up there but I’m sort of tied up. Do you see a button or switch of any kind up there?”
“Yes-here it is, inset into the frame.”
“Press it,” she said and stepped aside.
I thumbed it hard. There was the whine of a motor and a grind of gears as a metal ladder extended down into the chamber below. I was on it even before it touched the floor, down it in a flash and across the room. And into a tight embrace.
“I’m … glad to see you too … even looking like that … but I would like to breathe as well.”
“Sorry!” I broke the death-grip and held her at arm’s length. “Are you all right?”
“I am now. But, please, how is Gloriana?”
I followed her pointing finger. There, stretched out and motionless, was the porcuswine.
“He gassed her,” Angelina said. “Is she … dead?”
Her eyes were closed, her mouth gaping open. I bent over her inert form and smoothed back her quills. There was no way I could get through them to feel for a heartbeat. “There is no way I can tell,” I said. Admitting defeat.
Angelina was digging through her purse. She produced a compact and handed it over. “Try this.”
I opened it, puzzled-but intelligence didn’t strike until I had opened it and seen the mirror.
“Of course!” I bent over the still form and held the mirror before her nostrils.
“Nothing-no! Wait! It’s fogging up-she’s still alive!”
Bolivar was down the ladder now and rooting through his pockets. “If Igor used gas it was probably sleepgas. I don’t think he would be trusted with any kind of poison gas. Herethe antidote.”
I gave our favorite porcuswine a spray in each nostril. Nothing happened. But after another quick blast her eyelid quivered-and her eyes opened. She squealed weakly and stumbled to her feet. I scratched behind her ears and the world was happy again.
Angelina gave Bolivar a motherly kiss on the cheek. “It’s good to see you both. I really do feel alright. Though I will feel even better when you get this thing off me.” She rattled the length of chain that was shackled to her wrist. The other end was attached to a thick eyelet set into the floor.
“1 didn’t notice! I’m sorry.” The molecular debinder made quick work of it.
“This was Igor’s idea. He came down the ladder and that was when Gloriana went for his ankles. Did a nice job until he climbed back out of her reach. He went out again and when he came he was carrying a canister. Then he gassed her. After that he threatened me with the spray so I had to let him put this chain on. This was so I couldn’t reach the wall where I had been working with the cutlery.” She pointed at a long groove that had been hacked into the plaster to disclose an armored cable. “I was trying to cut into it-to hopefully cause a short circuit. If the electric company came around and tried to find the cause of the trouble they might even have found me.
For the first time I looked around the prison cell where she had been kept. A single, armor-glassed light shone from the ceiling. “On all of the time,” she said, following my gaze. “Makes sleeping a little difficult.”
A bed, a sink with a single faucet, a lidless toilet. A food dispenser. Spartan and harsh. My anger chilled into a hard knot of resolve. Chaise was going to pay for this, pay a great deal. And not in money.
“Let us leave,” she said, picking up her purse and turning towards the stairs. “And as soon as we can, I would like a large refreshing drink and some good food. All they left me was that machine full of dehydrated meals. Absolute slop. I was even ashamed to feed it to our sweet Gloriana.” Gloriana grunted when she heard her name-her vocabulary grew daily-and then put her attention back to carefully climbing the narrow steps. We followed her out of the underground bunker.
“Daylight!” Angelina said. “How delightful. Now you must tell me what has happened in the outside world, while I have been incarcerated in this dungeon.”
Bolivar had been busy on the phone, so that when we emerged from the house James was already pulling up the drive in his car. Another blissful reunion and we were in the car and away. While I brought her up to date, James drove us to a shaded mall. He parked as far as he could from the other vehicles, so children could not see me and get nightmares, then he hoofed it to the nearest take-away. Unhappily it was a MacAlpo outlet. But this did not seem to bother Angelina who wolfed down a Double-Doberman as I talked. Gloriana snuffled as she pigged down her double fried potatoes.
“And that is about it. The bonds are safely hidden until I feel like going for them. I don’t think Chaise even knows I’m gone yet. Now that we have both escaped Kaia’s clutches we must make detailed plans of what we should do next.”
“I agree,” she agreed. “As long as it involves grievous bodily harm to himself and his surly associate.”
“Igor’s in the hospital, that’s where James was. He saw my face and had a heart attack. If he had anything to do with Iba’s murder you can easily understand why. He must have thought I was the dead man walking. How is he?”
James shrugged. “He was going into surgery when I left. The doctor said that he is strong, and young, and that should help. I don’t think that we will have to worry about him for some time yet. Meanwhile look here-I got these newspapers at the hospital. The mysterious fire is front page news. And they are still investigating the sabotage of the electricity cables in Swartzlegen.” We read the reports, all except James who was sent back for more food. Between us we had missed an awful lot of meals.
Once sated we gave thought to the future.
“I have a great suggestion,” James said, licking the last of the juice from his Dachs-burger off his fingers and trying not to bark. “Dad, even when that fake scar is peeled off your face, it is not going to look too great. It is turning an interesting black-and-blue already. And I think Mom has had the worst of it, locked in that cell not knowing what was happening. Which is why I suggest that you both head back to the holiday world of Elysium and let Bolivar and me pick up the pieces here.”
“Second that,” Bolivar said, looking up from the newspaper for an instant, before diving back into it.
“Sweet of you to offer,” Angelina said. “But I have one or two things to take care of before I leave.”
“Me too. Like picking up those bearer bonds.”
“No,” Angelina said firmly. “We are not broke-and it is just not worth the– risk. I have the strongest feeling that we should turn our backs and walk away from this one. After fixing Kaia’s clock of course.”
I noticed that Bolivar hadn’t joined the conversation. He had obviously found his perusal of the papers more interesting. I was about to ask him about it when he wadded the sheets into a ball and said, with some enthusiasm: “Got it!”