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“Fine. Whatever. You just make sure they get out, I’ll cause a diversion.” There wasn’t time to argue anymore. I headed toward the door with determination. “Give me thirty seconds, then head for the exit.”
I opened the door, looked both ways, and boldly stepped into the hall. I felt like an idiot. I may as well stand there and yell, “Come and get me!” I was making a huge target of myself.
Please make the Snake want me alive badly enough not to order his men to shoot me on sight. I began walking down the hall, away from the exit and toward where Dr. Rogers had indicated the Snake’s office was. I needed their attention fast. I tried not to look too careless so that the Snake wouldn’t get suspicious if he were watching. I walked up to the office door and knocked, quickly pressing my back against the wall beside the door as if I planned to sneak in when someone opened it to look. I forced myself to stand still, ignoring my fearful instinct telling me to run back down the hall. The thirty seconds were up by now, the others would be heading for the exit. I willed myself not to look back down the hall to check on them.
Dear God, get them out of here. Nervously, I put my hand to the knob. Knocking hadn’t seemed to get the Snake’s attention. I had to do something more. If the Snake could see me, he could also see the others making their escape. I needed to force him to ignore them. I threw the door open. For a split second I could see everyone inside the room. The Snake sat at his desk, shrouded in shadows. Scarface and four other thugs stood around him, staring at me. There was a pause as an evil grin spread across the Snake’s face, barely visible in the dimly lit room.
“Grab him!” He pointed a bony finger out of the shadows at me.
I turned and ran. I had their attention, now I just needed to keep it.
Don’t let there be more men after Matt and the others. There was no way to know how many there were or if the others were safe. Footsteps pounded the floor behind me as I ran straight down the hall, risking a glance toward the exit. The hall was empty. I hoped that meant that the others had made it out and not that they had been recaptured.
I pushed that idea out of my head and glanced back at the men behind me. Scarface led the pack only a couple of steps behind me. He lunged. I put on a fresh burst of speed and swerved as if I were avoiding a tackle in a football game. His fingers brushed my jacket.
Too close!
I was coming to the end of the hall, out of room and out of time.
Lord, let one of the doors be open. If it was, I could hide inside and buy time until they got to me. I had gained a little ground, but would lose it all as soon as I started trying doors. Moving fast, I bounced like a pinball from one side of the hall to the other. At each door I twisted the knob and shoved at the same time. I used each locked door as a springboard to catapult myself to the next door. Every time I hit a door, pain shot through my side. I didn’t care. I would be in a lot more pain if they caught up with me.
Two locked doors. Three. Four. Each door I tried, I lost a little of the distance between me and Scarface. I nearly ran into him as I sprang from door four to door five.
Last chance, Lord. I twisted the knob and shoved. The door popped open, causing me to fall to my knees on the floor of a large, cluttered storeroom. Scrambling to my feet, I dove into the piles of junk just as Scarface and his men burst into the room. Don’t let them hear me. I burrowed between boxes deeper and deeper into the mountain of debris. When I could go no further, I settled down to catch my breath. My ribs ached and every breath burned. I had managed to squeeze myself into a cave made by several poorly stacked boxes. Boxes were above me and on every side. The only opening was the small space I had crawled through. Even that had enough other boxes in front of it to block the view. I closed my eyes and took deep breaths through my nose to ward off the claustrophobia that welled up inside me. Perhaps this hadn’t been such a great idea.
I could hear cursing and falling boxes as Scarface and his men rifled through the junk to find me. I looked down at the luminous face of my watch. I had kept them running for nearly ten minutes. Surely that was long enough for Matt to get Gene and his dad out.
Protect them. Curling up tightly in my dark hiding place, I ground my teeth together and willed myself to stay still as my childhood terror of tight spaces cried out for me to do anything that would get me out into the open again. And protect me. I wasn’t going anywhere else. I’d accomplished my goal of diverting their attention, but my secondary goal of finding my parents wasn’t going exactly as planned. Fear piled on top of my growing panic. I’d be seeing them soon, all right, as the Snake’s captive. I pushed the thought down quickly. I couldn’t afford to panic.
One of the boxes surrounding my hiding place shifted as a box near it was thrown aside. I only had a few moments before someone uncovered my hiding place. I accepted that realization with a mixture of resignation, fear, and more than a little relief. Resignation, because I had been able to allow the others to escape. At least, I hoped I had. Fear, because I had been in the Snake’s clutches before and I knew I only had worse treatment to look forward to. Relief, because even though it wasn’t logical, my brain was screaming that even facing Scarface had to be better than this dark hole.
My heart thudded in my ears as a dagger of light pierced my dark cave. Please allow Matt to bring Chris soon. Help us all to be rescued before the Snake can...
“I found him!” A thug shoved aside the boxes above me and turned to call the other searchers.
I took advantage of his distraction and jumped to my feet. Leaping over the boxes, I tried to make one last break for it. At this point that capture was unavoidable, but I didn’t intend to go down without a fight.
The man who had uncovered my hiding place cried out in surprise and grabbed at me. His hand swiped my right leg, knocking me off balance. I tripped, slamming my left side hard against the edge of a box. A groan escaped my lips as pain shot through my ribs, driving me to my knees. I tried to force myself back up, to keep going. It was too late. Scarface and his goons were already there. One of them grabbed me by my wrist and yanked me to my feet. I kicked at him angrily as I tried to wrench my arm from his grip. He howled as my shoe hit his shin, then dropped my arm. I turned quickly, looking for a way out, but was grabbed by the other two thugs. They held me firmly between them, pinning my arms painfully behind my back. My side throbbed and any movement caused me to feel as if my arms were being ripped out of their sockets.
“You gave us quite a run.” Scarface smiled at me gloatingly. “Didn’t you know you would be caught eventually?”
“Maybe.” I glared back defiantly, swallowing the panic closing my throat. “But ‘eventually’ bought me more time for SATURN to get here. We’ll see who’s smiling then.”
With a movement almost too quick for me to see, Scarface backhanded me so hard my head snapped back. I felt a warm liquid run onto my lips and realized my nose was bleeding. He followed quickly with a chop to my injured side. The men holding me let go as I dropped to the ground. Stars swam in the darkness that washed over me as I gasped for breath against the agonizing pain.
“I could kill you right now.” Scarface snarled. “Then there won’t be anything for SATURN to find but a mangled body.”
My vision was beginning to clear, but the pain was so intense I couldn’t move. “The Snake won’t let you.” I tried to cover my terror with more defiance. The fear and pain made me feel like throwing up. “He needs me alive.” Slowly pulling myself to a sitting position, I wiped the blood from my face with my sleeve and glared at Scarface again.
Scarface stepped closer to me angrily. I tensed, expecting him to kick me or retaliate in some way. I hurt too much to defend myself or even move out of the way. I was lucky just to be conscious.
“Pick him up,” he commanded his men sharply.
I cried out as they jerked me to my feet. Scarface wouldn’t dare kill me, but I wasn’t sure how much he would do up to that point. I was willing to gamble that the Snake wanted me in fairly good condition for later. I suppressed a shudder when I thought what “later” might mean. At the moment I would focus on the fact that “later” bought me more time now.
Scarface stepped close to me and grabbed me roughly by my chin. He brought his face close to mine and snarled.
“The Snake will make sure you are hurting lots very soon, boy.” His hot, sour breath assaulted my nose, but his grip on my chin kept me from turning away as he continued, “You’ll be wishing I had killed you now. I just hope the Snake lets me get in on the action.”