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A hand, still sticky from playing with his penis, slipped intohis and the white figure led him down a passageway and up a flight of steps. Thedust was thick here; he sneezed resoundingly several times. Igescu would haveno trouble following them because of their newly made footprints. They had toget out ofthe secret ways, for a while, anyway.
Dolores, whose footprints were as clear as his, seemed to realizethat theybetrayed them. She stopped before a wall, unfastened several latchesand slid back the section. They stepped into a room with gray-and-white marblewalls, redmarble ceiling, black-and-red marble floor, and furniture of white orblack marble. The chandelier was a mobile composed of thin curved pieces ofcolored marble with sockets for candles.
Dolores led him across the room. She had dropped his hand and herright handwas pressed against her breast, which must hurt very much. Her facewas expressionless, but the hot black eyes seemed to promise him revenge. If she had wanted it, she could have abandoned him in the passageway, hethought. Perhapsshe wanted to take revenge personally.
He caught a glimpse of them as they passed a tall mirror. Theylooked like two lovers who had been interrupted in bed and who were fleeing a jealoushusband. She was naked, and his penis, still wet and tipped with aglobule ofspermatic fluid, was projecting from his fly. They looked comicalenough; thepurse added an incongruous, doubtful, touch.
There was nothing comical about the pack behind them. He crowdedon Dolores' heels and urged her to go faster. She said something and half-ranthrough thedoor and down a luxurious hall with thick carpeting. Near the end ofthe hall, by a curving stairway with marble steps and a carved mahoganyhandrail, shepushed open another door. There was a suite of four rooms done inopulentEdwardian style. The bedroom contained the entrance to the intramuralpassageway; a bookcase slid aside to reveal an iron gate of twosections secured by a combination lock. Dolores turned the dial swiftly as if she hadmuch practice with it. The two sections of gate were pushed aside. Whenthey were onthe other side, she pushed them together and spun the combinationdial on this side. Apparently, this action activated a mechanism, because thebookcase slid back into place. The light through the opening had shown him thatthey were notin a passageway but in a small room. Cool air moved past him. Doloresturned on a lamp. He saw several chairs, a bed, a TV set, a bar, a dresser withmirror, books, and cabinets. The cabinets held cans of food and delicacies; one cabinet was the door to a well-stocked refrigerator. A door off the room ledto a bathroom and a closet full of clothes. Igescu could hide here for along time ifhe wished.
Dolores spoke in Spanish, slowly. He understood the simplesentence. "Here we are safe for a while."
"About my biting you, Dolores," he said. "I had to. I must getout of here."
She paid him no attention. She looked at her breast in the mirrorand murmured something. Teeth marks and a red aureole ringed the nipple. She turned and shook her finger at him and then smiled, and he understood thatshe was gently reprimanding him for being over passionate. He must not biteher again. After which warning, she took his hand and pulled him toward the bed.
He lunged away, tearing loose from her grip, and said, "Nothingdoing! Showme the way out of here! Vamanos! Pronto!"
He began "to inspect the walls. She spoke slowly behind him. Herwords were clear and simple enough. If he would stay for a little, he would beshown the way out. But no more biting.
"No more nothing," he said. He found the control, a piece ofcorner carving which could be moved on a pivot. The dresser moved out on one side. He went through while Dolores yelled at him from the room. She sounded somuch like Sybil giving him hell, although he understood not a word, that he wasable to ignore her. He carried a sharp-edged rapier, one of a set on thewall, in onehand and the flashlight in the other. The handle of the purse wasover his left shoulder. The sword gave him confidence. He did not feel so helplessnow. In fact, if he got a chance, he would leave the passageway and walk outthe front door and if they got in his way, they would get the blade where itwould do them the least good and him the most.
The way out did not come easily, however. The passageway ran intoa stairwaywhich led steeply upward into the shadows. He backtracked to look forone-waywindows or entrances to rooms but could find no unlocking controls. He returned to the stairway, which he walked up with as little weight on his feetas possible, He stuck the sword through his belt and held the flashlightin his teeth while he braced his arms against the walls. If the stairwaystraightenedout, it would not drop him down a chutey-chute.
The stairs held, and he was on a narrow landing. The door waseasily openedby a conventional knob. He stepped cautiously out into a curving- walled room with a great window lit by the moon, a dim pale eye in the haze. Looking throughthe window, he saw the yard and trees and driveway at the front ofthe central portion. He was in the cupola on the left wing, just beside theoriginal Spanishbuilding. It contained three rooms, two of which were empty. The doorto the third was part way open, and light streamed through it. He crouchedby it andslowly extended his head, then had to withdraw it while he shook andspurted andclenched his teeth and clamped his lips to keep from groaning.
CHAPTER 18
Afterward, he looked through the doorway again. The baron'sgreat-grandmother was sitting on a high stool before a high tablewith a slopingtop, such as old-time bookkeepers (Bob Cratchit) used when they wroteaccounts (for Ebenezer Scrooge). He could not see what was on the table exceptthat it was a large paper of some sort. Her jaws were moving, and now andthen he could hear something but could not tell if the words were English or not. The only light was from a single lamp suspended from the ceiling directlyoverhead. It dimly showed walls with large, thick, black painted symbols, none ofwhich he recognized; a long table with racks of bottles containing fluids; aglobe ofEarth with all sorts of curlicues painted in thin lines over it, sitting at theend of the table; a large birdcage on a stand in one corner with araven, itshead stuck under a wing; and a robe hanging on a hook on the wall.
After a few minutes of muttering, the baroness got down off thestool. Her bones snapped and creaked, and he did not think she would make it tothe robe, she shuffled so slowly and shakily. But she got the robe down and putit on with some difficulty and then proceeded with one foot dragging after theother toward the long table. She stooped, groaning, and straightened up with morecreakingsand with an enormous book in her arms which she had taken off a shelf beneath the table.
It did not seem likely that she could get far with thisadditional burden, but she made it, huffing and creaking and even lifted the book aboveher head to slide it over the front of the tilted-top table. The book slid downuntil stopped by a strip of wood fixed horizontally halfway up the top. Another stripat the lower edge of the top kept the paper from falling off. Hecould see that it was a map of the Los Angeles area, just like the maps servicestations giveto their customers.
His view of it was blocked by the baroness, who climbed back uponthe stool, swaying so that he once started to go after her to catch her. She didnot fall, and he settled back, asking himself what he cared if she fell. Butconditioningtook over at the oddest moments, and he had been taught to be kindand respectful to old ladies.
The back of the robe was white with a number of large blacksymbols, some ofwhich duplicated those on the wall. The old woman lifted her arms toflap thewide sleeves as if she were an ancient bird about to make a final flight. Shebegan chanting loudly in a foreign tongue which sounded like thatused at times by others in the household. Her arms waved; a large gold ring on afingerglinted dully at times, seeming like an eye winking at him.