The music grew louder. They were approaching the entrance to the interior room. Based on the source of the sound, the entrance to the music room would be around the corner to the right. Luo raised his gun. Adam followed him to the end of the hallway.
The music rose to a fevered pitch. A drumroll. A crash of cymbals. A final smash of the drum—
The music stopped.
“Play it again, play it again,” a man said. He spoke fluent Russian, like a Muscovite, but coarse. He sounded young, not too educated. At least not formally. A kid from the streets.
“Yeah,” a second man said. He sounded frighteningly similar to the first man. “The theme song is the best part. It’s the best part of the show.”
“Second best. The girl in the bikini is the best part of the show.”
“That’s what I meant.”
Luo turned the corner. Hugged the inside wall and glanced into the room.
An enormous television covered the far wall. Two rows of plush leather seats faced the television. The height of the seatbacks prevented Luo from seeing the two men he’d heard talking.
The drumroll started again. A giant wave rolled forward on screen. Some English lettering appeared. The title of a movie, Luo thought. A curvaceous Polynesian beauty stepped out of the ocean. A handsome man spun around and looked at the camera. The theme song blared.
Luo glanced past the television room further down the hallway. More bedrooms. One of the doors was open. Why would one door be open while the others were closed?
Luo motioned to Adam that he was headed past the television room toward the open bedroom door. Then he looked inside the room again. The men remained transfixed by the scene on the television.
Luo darted past them to the other side of the door.
A phone rang.
The music stopped.
Voices sounded. They were coming from the front.
Another set of voices sounded. These were more distant, but they were coming from the back. Someone was approaching from the corner they’d just rounded.
“They’re bringing her up,” one of the men in the television room said. He’d answered the phone and was informing his colleague.
Luo couldn’t retreat. He’d be passing the door to the television room. One or both of the men inside might see him. But Adam was still on the other side of the door. Luo glanced at him.
The kid was already backpedalling. He pointed toward the outer wall. Turned his right wrist to simulate opening a door. I’m going into one of the bedrooms, he was saying.
Luo nodded. Smart boy.
Adam disappeared around the corner.
Luo hustled into the open bedroom. The floor was neither wood nor carpet. It was made of stiff hay, woven together tightly. There was no bed in the room, either. Just an enormous mat on the floor. Luo had seen pictures of such a floor and sleeping device in a magazine once. It was a travel magazine about the Far East. Evidently, this was the Swallow’s Nest’s Japanese room. A portrait of a samurai warrior wielding a sword hung on a wall, but the samurai was Russian-looking, not Japanese. There was no sign of any luggage. Eva didn’t have luggage, hence it was quite possible she was sleeping in this room—
Footsteps approached. One pair, heels clicking against the wood floor. A former soldier, marching in imaginary formation.
Luo ducked into a spare bathroom. A giant stainless steel soaking tub flanked a black lacquer vanity with cabinets covered with rice paper. He hid behind the door, gun raised to his shoulder, pointing at the ceiling.
A person entered the bedroom. Something clattered. Once, twice, three times. Footsteps started up again and faded.
Luo snuck back in the bedroom.
A tray of food rested on a desk in the corner. A steak, mixed vegetables, mashed potatoes, a bowl of borscht, and a basket of buckwheat bread. A glass of ice and a bottle of Orangina.
A man shouted over the din of the music. “I love this show,” he said. He was an ebullient sort with a baritone voice. “Has the girl come out of the water yet?”
A third man, Luo thought. The man who was bringing “her” up.
A muffled answer.
“Rewind it, rewind it,” the third man said. “I have to see this.”
The music stopped. Luo waited for it to restart. When it did, he poked his head out the door.
An elegant but broad-shouldered man in a suit ducked into the television room, his attention fixed on something straight ahead — the television, no doubt — and eyes wide with delight. He disappeared inside.
He left a young woman in the hallway behind him. She too, had turned to face the television. Luo recognized her as the girl from Fukushima. She was tall and lean with broad shoulders and narrow hips. Her dark brown hair fell to her shoulders. It looked recently washed. Good. They had allowed her to bathe. Her slumping shoulders registered defeat. When the third man disappeared into the television room, she glanced down the hallway.
Their eyes met. Luo noted a look of determination in her expression. She was more alert and conscious than her captors thought. She was looking for an escape. Of that Luo was certain.
But he was not certain who this girl was. Once again he didn’t recognize her. All he saw was a scared yet resilient girl. Yes, she had an oval face like her mother. And yes, she had his coloring, and her build seemed appropriate for her parents. Yet none of this was conclusive. This girl might be anyone’s daughter. Only Adam would know if she was Eva.
She stepped back, as though he was someone to fear, but didn’t say anything.
Luo brought his finger to his lips.
Her eyes widened. Only a friend would motion for her to be quiet. She froze. Luo could sense her realization. She understood Luo might be her ally. He might be here to help her. Why else would he be hiding in a bedroom? Why else would he have lifted his finger to his lips?
Luo wished he were on the other side of the entrance to the television room. That way he could simply whisk the girl and Adam down the hallways, up the stairs, and over the wall. But the television room stood between him and the girl. He couldn’t take the risk of dashing past it. Any of the three men might see him. If he were in one of the other bedrooms, he could sneak out and grab her right now. The path to the stairs leading to the tower was clear…
A shadow appeared behind the girl. A hand reached out to tap her on the shoulder.
Luo recognized the forest-green jacket sleeve.
Adam had come to the same conclusion.
CHAPTER 45
The path to the stairwell was clear. All Bobby had to do was yank Eva out of the doorway and pray that the opening sequence to Hawaii Five-O kept the men in the media room occupied. The man who’d escorted Eva past the bedroom where Bobby had hidden had made them crank up the volume. The three men glued to the television screen wouldn’t hear anything. The only risk was that one of them would turn around.
Bobby slipped out of the bedroom and skulked down the hallway. Eva stood nine paces away, back to him. He still hadn’t seen her face. She was a bit taller than he remembered, but then again, three years had passed. Maybe she’d grown an inch. And she was thinner. That made sense given she’d been in Fukushima. If she were part of a volunteer organization they probably didn’t feed her well. And besides, how could anyone not lose weight on a Japanese diet?
Six paces away.
And then he wondered, why had she gone to Fukushima in the first place? What sane person — let alone one who’d grown up around the Ukrainian Zone of Exclusion — would volunteer to go to a radioactive place? The question never bothered him before, but now it consumed him and would not let go.