Then it hit him.
Whatever was in that container was being taken to the gala.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
CARMEN LAY PERFECTLY still in the darkness, listening to a distant thump that carried through the walls of her room. Strangely, it sounded like the rhythmic beat of jazz. It was the first time she’d heard anything like it since arriving on the island, and it made her wonder what was going on. Maybe the guards were partying down the hall.
Ignoring the sound, Carmen turned her thoughts to more pressing matters. The time had come to initiate her plan of escape, so she went over the details one last time: how she would draw the man over, how she would subdue him, then what would happen next. She had been over it a hundred times or more, but it wouldn’t hurt to do so one more time.
In preparing for what was to come, Carmen hadn’t focused solely on the mental aspects of her plan — she had also practiced the difficult physical movements. When the lights in her room were turned off, she had repeated the series of moves hundreds of times until it had all converted to muscle memory. At this point, she felt certain she could execute everything with perfect precision.
She had chosen the time to act after carefully studying the staff’s routine. She had decided against taking action when her meals were brought to the room, and that was because there were always two people present. Instead, she decided to act during the first night check. Approximately two hours after dinner, an attendant would come to make sure she didn’t need anything. If she needed to use the restroom, the attendant would call a guard in to help.
At first, Carmen couldn’t understand why they didn’t just send two people to begin with. Then it hit her: early evening was when the changing of the guard took place, which meant there were fewer guards to go around. It was the weak link in their process, and Carmen meant to exploit it.
The sound of approaching footsteps drew her out of her thoughts. She tensed as the steps stopped outside her room. As was the case with each visit, she heard the sound of a card being swiped through an entry pad, followed by a click as the door lock disengaged.
In accordance with her plan, Carmen kicked the covers off of her legs.
The door opened a second later. Through half-closed eyes, Carmen studied the silhouette standing a short distance away. Perfect. It was the same man who had come at dinner. He was just under six feet tall, and she guessed he weighed somewhere around a hundred fifty pounds. He was a slightly built man who could easily be overpowered.
The man stepped inside without turning on the light. “Last call. You need anything?”
Carmen made a slight gagging sound.
“Hey, I asked you a question,” the man barked.
Carmen gagged again, this time louder.
The man stepped farther into the room, leaving the door half open. “I can’t hear you. Speak up.”
“I… I can’t…”
“Son of a…” Clearly frustrated, the man came halfway across the room. “All right, now what did you say?”
Carmen was given a cocktail of drugs each day, and her goal was to give the impression she was having a reaction to one of them.
“I feel weird,” she said through clenched teeth. “I think it’s that last shot you gave me.”
“It’s the same thing we give you every day. You’ll be fine. Now shut up.”
“I can’t… I can’t breathe.”
The man hesitated. Human subjects were the critical pieces of Brehmer’s work. If any of them were lost because of some oversight, it wouldn’t go well with the employee responsible, and Carmen had counted on the man recognizing that.
Swearing softly under his breath, the man pulled a stethoscope from under his white lab coat and came closer. When he was two feet from the bed, Carmen moved like a cat. In one swift motion, she lifted her legs in the air and clamped them around the man’s neck. He managed to let loose a shout, but it was quickly cut off as Carmen hooked her feet together and brought tremendous pressure against his throat.
Scratching and clawing, the man tried to break free, but his spindly limbs were no match for Carmen’s muscular legs. Like a python suffocating its prey, she squeezed tighter every time the man tried to breathe.
Over time, his struggles diminished, and a minute later, his body went limp.
Carmen stayed in place, allowing herself time to recover. She was heavily sedated, and it had taken everything she could muster to finish the job. But she also knew she couldn’t rest for very long. The man had managed to call out, and it was possible someone had heard him.
Once her strength returned, Carmen used her legs to pull the man farther onto the bed. She had about a foot of slack in her cuffs, so she was able to go through his pockets and remove a set of keys. In thirty seconds, she was free.
She slid her legs over the edge of the bed and stood. Not surprisingly, she was hit with a wave of vertigo. She grabbed one of the bedposts and steadied herself. In addition to being drugged, she hadn’t walked very much for days.
Despite her impaired condition, she needed to get moving. There wasn’t time to rest. Reaching out, she removed the strap from around the man’s neck. At the bottom of the cord was the card he had used to gain access to the room. Carmen hoped it would open all the doors in the facility. If not, her plan to escape would quickly come to an end.
Before leaving, she searched the rest of the man’s clothing for anything that might be helpful. Most of the items were useless, but she found a small Swiss Army knife in one of his pockets. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing.
After pushing the man’s body under the bed, Carmen walked to the door. She eased her head out and looked both ways. The dimly lit corridor was empty. Stepping into the hallway, she realized the sound she’d heard before was even louder here. It was definitely jazz. Perhaps there was a party going on in another part of the building. If so, then that might mean there were fewer guards in her ward.
Carmen saw a door at the end of the hall. It probably led to a stairwell, but before going there, she needed to check the room next to hers. While there, she had heard something interesting — the same people who came to see her also visited the room next to hers. That meant it was likely that another captive was being held there.
She couldn’t leave without at least trying to help.
Moving quickly, Carmen walked to the next door. A clipboard rested in a plastic sleeve affixed to the wall. She pulled it out and looked at the name printed at the top. She recognized the name immediately.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
FROM THEIR TABLE on the dais, Zane let his gaze sweep across the room. Despite the size of the crowd, he was able to pinpoint most of the security personnel, and none of them seemed to be looking toward the dais. He hoped that was a sign that he and Danielle weren’t being singled out for attention.
After taking a sip of champagne, Zane casually checked the time on his burner phone. Someone had just announced that the evening’s program would begin in ten minutes, which meant he needed to get moving.
He looked at Danielle, who had just taken a sip of her champagne. “Are you ready?”
She looked at him over her flute. “I think so.”
Zane wondered if she was nervous about being left alone. “Just remember, if you think something is about to go wrong, then let me know. I can be back here in minutes. There are at least sixty members of the public in this room, which means Brehmer wouldn’t dare do anything over the top. For all he knows, some members of the media might have slipped in.”