“Just let her look in.”
Obviously irritated, Teterya lifted the flap covering the window. Alex stepped out of the way so El-Hashim could move in for a look.
El-Hashim hesitated, then stepped forward and peeked inside. After several seconds, she stepped back again and said, “What happened to her?”
“There was another prisoner who liked to use her as a punching bag.”
“Liked?”
“The problem’s been remedied.”
Teterya gestured, not hiding his annoyance. “May I check patient now?”
Both Alex and El-Hashim moved to the side so Frida wouldn’t see them as the doctor opened the door and went in.
They heard Frida say, “Can I…get some water?”
Her words punctuated by pain.
“Yes,” Teterya said. He called out in Ukrainian.
Irina, who was waiting nearby, rushed over to the sink and started filling a pitcher.
“I thought…I heard my…friend’s voice,” Frida said.
“Friend?”
“Maureen. She’s another prisoner. Is she here?”
“No. Am sorry. Probably only medicine. Will sometimes make head think things.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes,” Teterya said.
Irina entered the cell with the pitcher and a glass.
“Here you are,” the doctor said. “And please to take this. Will help you back to sleep.”
For several seconds, Alex heard only subtle sounds of movement.
Then Teterya said, “Okay. Just rest. Tomorrow you sore but feel little better. Am sure.”
The doctor and nurse exited and shut the door.
“We need to get out of here, now,” Alex whispered.
Teterya nodded. “Yes. Now would be good.” He said something to Irina, then looked back at Alex and El-Hashim. “Follow me.”
“Wait a second,” Alex said. She gestured to El-Hashim’s scarf. “Time to take it off.”
“Now? But—”
“No excuses this time.”
After a brief hesitation, El-Hashim reached up and removed the hijab from her head, revealing for the first time more than just her eyes.
If there was an ounce of Middle Eastern blood in the woman, that’s all it was. An ounce. The gray-streaked blonde hair and pale skin both belied those brown eyes. Contacts, undoubtedly. Her eyes were more likely blue or even gray. If Alex had to guess, she’d say the woman was northern European or Scandinavian.
She eyed Alex defiantly. “Happy now?”
“Surprised,” Alex said. “I guess you’re lucky the Crimean authorities are very tolerant when it comes to religious garb.”
“The Crimean authorities are pigs,” El-Hashim — or whoever she was — said. She rolled the hijab into a ball and tossed it into a nearby corner. “Can we go now?”
The doctor stared at El-Hashim in surprise.
“Doctor?” Alex said.
“Sorry,” he said, blinking. He grabbed two flashlights off the counter. He gave the miniature one to Alex, retained the larger one for himself, and led the two women out the back door of the infirmary. Instead of heading left toward the stairwell, though, he went right. There were only a few more rooms in this direction. The one he took them into turned out to be a storage room stuffed full of shelves and boxes.
“Is this way,” he said, weaving a path through the mess.
When he finally stopped, he stood in front of a set of double doors to what looked like a cabinet built directly into the wall, about three feet above the floor. He opened the doors and revealed what amounted to a large, empty, wooden box.
“Is for moving…items, you know? Up and down.”
“Supply elevator?” Alex suggested.
He nodded. “But only work if person here and person downstairs. See button?” He pointed at a red button mounted beside the jamb just inside the door. “I go down and push. When you see button light up, you push, too, and everything work.”
“Okay,” Alex said. “I got it.” She looked at the box dubiously. “Is this strong enough to hold both of us?”
“I think no problem.”
“You think?”
He shrugged, and made his way out of the room.
Alex was pressing a hand against the box, checking how sturdy it was, when El-Hashim said, “What happens once we’re on the outside? Will your father meet us?”
“No. A couple friends of mine are waiting to help us.”
“So where is your father?”
Alex couldn’t help but laugh at the irony. “Not a clue. He’s not that great at keeping me informed.” Satisfied that the box was strong enough, she looked at El-Hashim. “Maybe you can tell me.”
“Why would I know?”
“You’ve talked to him more recently than I have.”
“But he sent you here.”
“Text messages and e-mails, remember?”
El-Hashim shook her head. “Your father is…unusual.”
“You think?”
“I was actually surprised he sent you here to help me.”
“Why’s that?”
“The deal we were working on, I’m fairly sure he was not as interested in it as he was pretending to be.”
Alex shrugged. “Not my area.” She wanted to bring the conversation back to her father’s potential whereabouts, but didn’t know how to do that without making El-Hashim suspicious. She changed the subject. “I’m sorry we couldn’t bring your friend along.”
“She’ll be out soon enough. She knows that I’ll make sure of it.”
Then she’s about to be very disappointed, Alex thought.
The red button suddenly glowed and Alex waved at El-Hashim. “Get in.”
El-Hashim climbed into the box, and pressed against the back wall so Alex could squeeze in next to her. Once Alex was sure she was all the way inside, she reached out, pushed the button, and snapped her hand back in.
The doors closed automatically and the box began a slow, steady descent, plunging them into darkness. It was several seconds before a set of closed doors appeared, light seeping in around the edges.
This would be the first floor. They continued their descent and soon everything was dark again. When they reached the next floor down, the elevator jerked to a stop, and the doors opened, revealing the waiting doctor in a dimly lit room. As the women climbed out, he put a finger to his lips, telling them to be quiet.
The room was about half the size of the storage space upstairs. It smelled of musk and dirt, and was packed with decaying cardboard boxes. Cobwebs clung to the corners and draped over the cardboard. The room looked as if it hadn’t been disturbed in several decades.
The doctor leaned in close and whispered, “We need go two doors. Must be very quiet. Three doors down is main part of basement.”
As soon as Alex and El-Hashim nodded, he went over to the door and opened it.
The hallway was low and narrow. Like the tunnel to the isolation area, single lightbulbs hung from the ceiling at consistent intervals, creating pools of light surrounded by areas of shadow. About thirty feet down the hall, more light spilled out from a window mounted in a closed door. Alex assumed this was the main basement entrance the doctor had mentioned.
Teterya stepped into the hallway first and headed in that direction. Alex motioned for El-Hashim to go next, then brought up the rear. They’d gone only a few feet when they passed a darkened doorway.
That would be door number one.
Alex hoped number two would come as quickly, putting them as far from that lit doorway as possible, but her wish was not to be. The second door was only a handful of steps from the third.
It also had the added bonus of being closed.
The doctor approached it quietly, then turned the handle and pushed. The squeak that followed was brief, but to Alex it sounded like an explosion that reverberated down the hallway. Her gaze shot over to the lit window, expecting to see the shadow of a guard at any moment. But the light remained undisturbed.