A rap sounded on the doorway across the hall, and then came the shouts.
“¡Abra!”
The Cazador yelled again, and more deep voices called out.
“Sofia, please, I just need some clothes and shoes,” Magnolia whispered.
The voices continued as the door across from their quarters opened. A woman spoke rapidly, and Magnolia pointed her knife at Imulah to keep him quiet.
Sofia moved to a dresser and pulled out a pair of black pants and a black shirt, and then a black scarf.
Less than a minute later, Magnolia was clothed. Inge and Imulah looked on, but Sofia abruptly pulled off her shirt and brushed her long black hair over her shoulder, exposing the patchwork of raised scars.
“I’m leaving, too, Inge,” she said. “I’m sorry, but I’ve decided I’d rather die than stay here any longer.”
Inge sat on the left of the two beds and looked to the floor. A tear fell between her feet.
“You can come with us,” Magnolia said.
“I… I can’t.” Inge kept her eyes on the floor—the gaze of a broken, terrified woman.
Magnolia knew then there was no changing Inge’s mind. Fear had her paralyzed.
The locked door suddenly rattled, and a male voice boomed outside.
Magnolia tiptoed over to Imulah, pointing the knife at his lap. “Don’t make a peep, or you’re going to lose your peepee.”
His eyes widened.
“You do have one of those, right?” I already know you don’t have any balls.
He nodded.
Sofia replied in Spanish to the man in the hallway, and the door handle stopped shaking. She said something else, and the footfalls continued.
“What did you say to them?” Magnolia asked quietly.
Sofia flashed a pretty grin. “That I’m alone and naked and if they do come in and see me, their king will make them pay with their eyes.”
Sofia put a necklace on, grabbed a book from the top of her dresser, and opened it up. The pages had been cut out, leaving room for a handgun.
She was full of surprises tonight.
“Where the hell did you get that?” Magnolia asked.
“My lover.”
“Lover?” I sure as hell know you’re not talking about el Pulpo.
“I’ll tell you about him later.”
“Maybe he can help us escape,” Magnolia said.
Sofia stuffed the gun into the back of her waistband and covered the grip with her long black hair. “He’s not here. He’s off on a mission.”
“Got it.” Magnolia walked toward the door, but Sofia shook her head.
“Not that way.”
“Where, then?”
Sofia moved to the glass doors that opened onto a balcony.
“Be careful, Sofia,” Inge said. She got off the bed and walked over.
“Make sure Imulah doesn’t rat us out, okay?” Magnolia said.
Inge nodded, but Magnolia didn’t trust the redhead. She moved back to the scribe and said, “Sorry about this.”
He tilted his head, puzzled. Then came the flash of realization in his eyes.
“Please, don’t,” he mumbled.
Before he could react, she swung, hammering the back of his head with the heel of her fist and the butt of the knife hilt, effectively knocking him out cold.
She almost felt bad as she walked away, but Imulah had made his choice, along with Inge. Now she and Sofia were making theirs, even if it ended in death.
“Hope you know how to climb,” Sofia said as she opened the doors. The chiming of the bell grew louder, and Magnolia felt an invigorating gust of fresh air.
She took a second to look out over the star-filled sky, and the moon’s shimmery reflection on the water. The flowers growing in pots on the balcony moved in the salt breeze.
God, this really could have been paradise.
“Let’s go,” Sofia said. She swung her legs over the railing and bent down, then dropped to the next balcony. Magnolia looked over the edge and saw Sofia’s grinning face about ten feet below.
“You coming, or what?” she asked.
Magnolia followed the younger, more agile woman down two floors. Sofia reminded her of a version of herself when she was still in her twenties.
At the third balcony down, two kids looked out from behind cracked glass doors. A well-built man in a tattered white T-shirt and dungarees emerged in the living space behind them, and Sofia put her finger against her lips.
The man nodded and vanished back into his quarters with both kids. That was when Magnolia saw the gun in Sofia’s right hand. She tucked it back into her pants and went over the next railing.
They were on the fifteenth floor, not even halfway down.
A steady clanking sounded over the chiming bells as two elevator cages, one of which she had never seen before, cranked up toward the airship rooftop.
Magnolia looked down. The Sea Wolf bobbed in the torchlight. Still moored to the dock, it was there for the taking. All she had to do was get there and send out a transmission warning her friends not to come… And then get the hell out of this awful place.
They dropped to the next balcony, the next, then another. On the eleventh floor, Magnolia landed off-kilter on the foot she had bruised kicking the Cazador soldier in the jaw.
Sofia was already over the next railing. A shout rang out, and Magnolia limped over to check. On the balcony below, a husky Cazador soldier had Sofia by the throat. He pushed her against the railing, nearly knocking her over the side.
Magnolia moved to the right side of the railing and stuck her knife between her teeth. Then she swung her legs over and crouched down. Grabbing the bars, she lowered herself instead of dropping.
When she was a foot off the deck, she dropped silently and buried the knife in the man’s right kidney.
Letting go of Sofia, he arched backward, in too much pain even to scream. Magnolia pulled the blade out and stabbed him again, this time under the jaw, pushing the blade deep into his brain.
The fat guy crumpled, jerked, and lay still. She bent down and relieved him of her knife and a handgun.
Sofia massaged her neck, gasping for air.
“¿Bien?” Magnolia asked.
“Sí.”
Magnolia moved to the railing and took the lead. She made it down to the eighth floor before the pain in her foot stopped her.
Sofia, still breathing heavily, dropped down beside her.
“You good?” she asked.
Magnolia nodded, seeing motion through the glass door behind Sofia. Another kid stood watching them—a girl this time, no older than seven.
She raised a hand, and Magnolia raised hers to wave. But there was something else in the room.
Cazador soldiers stood in the hallway outside the open entrance door.
“Oh, shit,” Magnolia said.
They dropped to the next balcony together this time, just as the glass window above exploded in a spray of gunfire. The next two balconies went by fast, Magnolia gritting her teeth with each impact.
At the sixth floor, a Cazador soldier stood waiting. He lunged with a spear, which Sofia avoided by jumping to the side. Magnolia grabbed the shaft and pulled, but the guy yanked back.
As Sofia raised her pistol, gunfire rang out several balconies above them. She moved away to avoid the rounds pinging off the rail. Jumping to the side, Magnolia moved under the roof for cover—right into the path of the man still holding the spear.
He jabbed at her head, then at Sofia, as more gunfire came from above. This time, Sofia grabbed the shaft and pulled so hard, the guy stumbled. Magnolia tripped him, and he sprawled near the railing, where gunfire ricocheted off the metal on both sides of his head.
When he got up, Magnolia used the eight feet of space to run and jump-kick him in the chest. The impact knocked him over the side.