Shock

"Hit one of the buttons!" Deborah screeched to Joa

Like a blind person, Joa

"Hurry! God damn it!" Deborah yelled. She could feel herself being lifted off the planking.

Frantically Joa

A high-pitched screeching sound erupted, like chickens being tortured, and with a lurch, the old freight elevator began to rise.

Deborah let go of the strap she'd been gripping, and falling to her knees and twisting, she managed to yank her arms free of the doctor's coat, which was still caught between the closed freight elevator doors. A second later, with an agonizing tearing and crushing sound, Deborah felt the coat disappear into the narrow gap between the front lip of the rising elevator and the stone elevator shaft wall.

"What the hell was that noise?" Joa

Deborah shuddered in the darkness. She knew the crushing sound could have been her body had she not gotten out of the coat. She, too, gasped for breath. "It was my flashlight and car keys being crushed in my doctor's coat."

"We've lost our car keys?" Joa

"That's the least of our worries at the moment," Deborah managed. "Thank God this elevator worked. Those men almost got us. I mean, that couldn't have been any closer."

Joa

"What should we do?" Joa

"This is hardly a high-speed elevator," Deborah complained. "The third floor is probably better than certainly the first and maybe even the second. I don't want to run into those men again."

"Obviously,' Joa

"That's all easy to say now," Deborah said, still panting. "We were under the delusion they were violating ethics here, not commandments. Murder for eggs makes this a completely different ball game."

"We have to get out of here!"

"True," Deborah said. "But without car keys we're not driving anyplace, at least not in our own car. I think our best bet is to get to a telephone in the Wingate Clinic on the first or second floor."

"The problem is, that's probably what they are expecting," Joa

"Maybe we should hide until morning," Deborah suggested. "My guess would be that a very small minority of the people who work here know what they are really doing, and if they did, they'd be as horrified as we are. We could approach someone for help."

"My guess is that they are going to search until they find us tonight. We've got to get out of here."

"But how? Those men had guns, for chrissake!" "That's why we have to find someplace to hole up. We have:; think. We can't be rash."

"The one thing in our favor is the size of this building and the fact that it's so cluttered with stuff,' Deborah said. "There's got to be safe places to hide for a time. Unless they call in a lot of help, it's going to take them most of the night to search with any thoroughness."

"Exactly," Joa

Deborah shook her head and took an uncertain breath. "I'm sorry I brought us out here. It's all my fault."

"This is no time for recriminations," Joa

"Thanks," Deborah murmured.

Joa

"You're right," Deborah managed, trying to get a hold of herself.

A few minutes later, with a final jolting screech, the elevator stopped. Pure silence returned in a smothering rush. The women leaped to the door. As quickly as they could they got it open, only to be confronted by an impenetrable wall of darkness.

"There's no choice; I've got to turn on the light," Joa

"They'll quickly figure out the elevator is here on the third floor," Deborah said. "So they'll be here soon. Let's find a stairwell and get up to the top floor. That's where we should find a place to hide until we figure out what we're going to do."

"Agreed!"

Deborah pulled open one of the doors to the corridor, and Joa

"There's an exit sign," Deborah said, pointing toward the south. "That must be a stairwell. Let's go!"

Joa

"Come on!" Deborah urged pushing into the stairwell.

They started up the stairs at a run but slowed immediately because of the noise they were making. The stairs were metal and reverberated like kettle drums in the confined space.

They got only as far as the intermediate landing before both women froze in place. They'd heard a door somewhere below burst open and slam against the wall. Joa

In the next instant, booming footfalls resounded against the metal treads, accompanied by a flickering glow that filtered up the stairwell. One of the men was ru

Joa

The instant the stairwell door closed behind the man, Joa