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Their destination was a series of huge old inter-connected buildings on the verge of being completely consumed by the jungle, a fact which meant they were well hidden. The structures looked as if they may once have been blue but were now dull-gray and sad. They also looked as if they were once majestic but for too long now had sat abandoned, left to crumble into ruin. Still, something of their former glory must have endured for the group found themselves staring at the place in subdued fascination.
Aaron led the way behind one of the larger structures and through a narrow gap into a room, empty but for its disintegrating walls. It smelt and looked as if no one ever entered it. This was clearly an illusion however, because at one end Aaron pulled back a huge rotting panel of wood and fiddled with something behind it until a click signaled machinery in motion. A solid wooden door slid slowly into view. Aaron pulled a key from around his neck to unlock it and led them through.
Inside was reminiscent of an old monastery. Everything was clean and well swept but completely bare, with the windows all solidly boarded up. It was quite dark until Aaron turned on a thin flashlight and waved them on ahead. He kept them moving so fast they practically raced down corridor after corridor, ignoring the many doors along the way. Katerina soon lost all sense of direction as they took turn after turn. She guessed they had travelled through several of the linked buildings by the time they finally came to a halt outside another solid door.
The room behind this one looked like a camp kitchen. It was softly lit by lamps nailed to the walls. There were a dozen people there, reclining on benches and old wooden seats — not exactly a luxury resort. As soon as they noticed Aaron, one by one they leapt to their feet paying deference to him. He smiled and waved them back down. “Well, here we are!” Several people laughed, as if at a private joke. “What’s on the menu?” he continued, a lightness in his tone none of them had yet heard.
“Choizo soup,” an older lady was waving them towards an empty table. They were barely seated before it was loaded up with piping hot bowls of soup and chunks of bread. After hours of walking they needed no invitation, digging in ravenously.
As they ate people began presenting themselves to Aaron, one by one. They talked together quietly, rapidly and intensely. Katerina noticed that after five such conversations Aaron’s normally controlled face was beginning to show strain. After each exchange however, he would nod and say something quietly to the other which would make them smile, relax, even look a little abashed.
Noah was also watching Aaron. He said in a low voice to Katerina, “He has quite a way with people, doesn’t he?”
“It doesn’t look like he’s getting good news though,” she murmured back.
They had finished their food and the room nearly emptied before Aaron finally turned his attention back to them. “Right, I’ll show you to your beds now.”
“Wait a minute,” Madeleine began but Aaron was already smiling wearily at her.
“I’ll explain everything in the morning, I promise. You all need sleep first.”
He led them from the room and down a long corridor, at the end of which were two bunkrooms facing each other. Simple though they were, each contained four beds — a welcome sight. The men headed yawning into their room, the women into theirs.
Before shutting her door, Katerina paused and turned back to Aaron. “We appreciate it...what you’ve done. I don’t know what’s really going on here, but I am aware you risked your life for us back at the plane. I am grateful.”
Taken aback, Aaron smiled, “You’re welcome. Sleep well. You are safe here. We’ve been using this base for five months now and no one’s ever come close to finding us. I need to go out for a short while but there are always people nearby watching out for you.”
“Thank you — again. Good night.”
She dreamed of Claudia and Patrick. Patrick died and Claudia stuffed him in an airplane locker. Then a noise woke her. She lay still a minute trying to shake the dream and reorient herself, vaguely aware her pillow was wet from where she had been crying in her sleep.
Turning she saw Alice hopping on one leg as she pulled her jeans on. “What are you doing?”
“Someone opened our door before and woke me. I haven’t been able to get back to sleep,” Alice whispered back, trying not to disturb Madeleine. “I need to get up. I’m going for a walk.”
“Don’t go by yourself. Give me a minute to get dressed and I’ll come with you.”
“No, it’s okay. You must be really tired.”
“I’m not sure I can get back to sleep anyway. I just don’t think you should wander around here by yourself. I mean I’m sure we’re safe, but still...” her voice trailed off, pushing the uneasiness of her dream back. While Alice waited she dressed quickly, asking, “Who came into our room? Could you tell?”
“It was a guy. I had a feeling it was David, by the set of his head or...something.”
The men’s bedroom door was slightly ajar and as if magnetized, they both tiptoed over and looked in carefully. To their surprise only one bed was occupied — Josiah’s. They crept silently on to the room where they had eaten earlier but it was empty. In the half-dark Katerina squinted at her watch and saw it was nearing four in the morning. Unsure what else to do, they started down fresh corridors, moving silently in unspoken assent. “Maybe we should go back and check their room again,” Katerina suggested, just as a faint laugh caught their attention. When they followed the sound, they discovered light peeking out from under a closed door.
Inside they found Noah and Caleb stretched out on couches, chatting. It was the first well-furnished area they had struck; a library with wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling books. Noah told them Josiah’s snoring had woken them, so they had re-located there.
“Where’s David then?” Katerina asked.
“In the room, isn’t he?”
Alice shook her head, sinking down onto the couch by her brother. He moved over to give her space. Katerina wandered around looking at the books. They were fabulously old. Most of them had titles written in some swirling script she had never seen before. She touched the spines appreciatively, noticing they were all clean and dust-free. “Do you think this is Aaron’s library?” she speculated.
The others were silent, watching her. Sleep was stealing up on them again. Alice closed her eyes and leaned back, feeling safer with her brother nearby. It had always been like that. Noah had consistently been her hero, bodyguard and protector, the one she relied on because everyone else in her life relied on her.
They were all yawning, struggling to stay awake, when Katerina reached to her full height and laid hands on a Hebrew book she had spotted. She wanted to see if it would hold any clues to her new ring. Instead, as her hands grasped its beautifully decorated spine, with a gentle rustling sound part of the end wall shifted and slid smoothly back revealing a dark tunnel beyond. Shocked she backed up, heart racing.
“Wow, look at that!” Noah exclaimed, sitting instantly upright, weariness gone in a moment. “That’s impressive! Shall we...?”
Katerina was already fumbling around inside the entrance. She exclaimed, “Got it,” as she pulled a switch and illuminated the tunnel with light.
The others needed no prompting, joining her excitedly. Noah was last through the door. He laid hold of the wall to partially shut it. But in one rebellious move the whole wall slid smoothly back across and locked them in instead.
“Uh-oh,” Katerina murmured. “What now?”
“There’ll be a way to open it back up,” Noah reassured. “Whoever built this wouldn’t trap themselves in. Why don’t we go down and have a quick look around then come back and figure out how to get it open again?”
Curiosity won over reason and they headed down into the tunnel. About two hundred meters in, it took a sharp twist and expelled them into a cozy, welcoming room filled with numerous low couches and soft cushions. It had high, rounded, cave-like ceilings and more books, filling bookcases on three walls. Through an archway was a second smaller room. This one contained several desks, even more books and a huge map covering one wall. The boys were drawn to the map immediately, but after several minutes looked uncertainly at each other.
“Am I right,” Noah frowned, “in assuming this is not a map of any country that exists?”
Caleb nodded. “I’m pretty good at geography and I’ve definitely never seen these places before.”
“Well, what’s it of then? A made-up place? A writer’s world?”
Katerina had gone straight for the desk. She interrupted, “I think you’d better see these — they’re pretty interesting.”
They all came to look. The desk was hidden beneath piles of photos which again depicted places none of them recognized: unknown cities, strange countryside, unfamiliar castles, palaces, prisons and people. All were tagged with various labels with hand-scrawled comments on them: ‘Alexandre’s second maid — allergic to fish’, ‘Diana’s school friend — uncompromised’, ‘the Amadi Festival — too heavily guarded’, ‘Diana’s winter palace...’
Intrigued, they each gathered handfuls and made themselves comfortable on the couches in the outer room studying them, hopeful they would hold some clues to where they were and what was happening to them. For half an hour they studied, exchanged and discussed the pictures, until Caleb suddenly turned white and sat bolt upright, frantically flicking through his pile.
“What? What’s wrong?” Noah demanded.
Wordlessly, Caleb flung a photo, then a second and a third at Noah. The other picked them slowly up off the floor. They were photos of Caleb — by himself, with individuals, with groups. These were written on too. ‘Caleb — parents fighting’... ‘Caleb — intimidated by Andrew’... ‘Caleb — can’t swim well’...and the first one Caleb had found, not even a photo of Caleb but of an older couple, looking lovingly into each other’s eyes; ‘Caleb’s mother — affair — Professor King.’
Speechless, Noah looked up at Caleb who was now pacing frenetically. “My mother’s having an affair? I had no idea! I know my parents have been having problems — there’s always so much tension at home but none of us, my brother, my sisters, none of us knew why...who took these? How do they know all this? Have they been following me? For how long? Why have they done this? It’s sick!”
The girls were silent because now they had found photos of Katerina: her parents, her friends, Patrick, Patrick kissing one of her friends — not even Nicole. Katerina speaking animatedly in a lecture. Swinging high at a playground, a far-away expression caught on her face. Throwing up at a party with some guy stroking her hair — not Patrick. Crying at her grandmother’s funeral, dressed inappropriately in red because that had been her grandmother’s favorite color. Noah surreptitiously studied that photo for some time because the red highlighted her beauty extraordinarily, tinging her skin with rosy color, making her hair blaze and her eyes glow very, very green.
They found David’s photos next. Only there were very few and they all seemed recent. Nor were the comments particularly insightful — all bar one. It said clearly and boldly, ‘Watch him. He could be a plant.’
They kept searching and found Josiah’s, Madeleine’s and Alice’s, then eventually, near the bottom of all the piles, Noah’s. There were several of him with incredibly gorgeous girls. A few with Alice, a few clowning around on the sports field, a couple where he was photographing weddings or sports events, one where he had just thrown a successful punch, a look of rage on his face directed at his opponent on the ground. This one read ‘Noah — watch his temper.’ Katerina held back a smirk.
Half an hour later they were done and stunned into silence, each gripping the photos that had most impacted them as if those pictures could explain what exactly was going on. Eventually Caleb got to his feet. His face was weary, his eyes bloodshot from unshed tears. “I’m going back to the bedroom. I don’t think we should be caught down here or let on that we know anything. We’re obviously right in the middle of something dangerous. The more innocent we act the better.”
He waited, his stance daring them to challenge him. Katerina understood — he was angry over the photos of his mother; he did not know how to deal with that. She got to her feet too. “I agree. Let’s sleep on it. Aaron will have to explain things in the morning.”
The trip back up the corridor was a silent one, everyone too drained to talk. Noah took the lead, studying the closed door at the end of the tunnel carefully for an opening. He had nearly checked all of it when he swung round to urgently wave them into silence mouthing, “Listen!”
By standing completely still they could all hear it; a woman screaming, muted through the thick wall but faintly distinguishable nonetheless. Then gunfire. With a quick movement, Noah flicked the light switch off and they waited silently in the dark. There was a tiny bead of light coming through a hole about head-height, so Noah fixed his eye to it.
He watched as the door on the far side of the room was flung wide and a group of men entered. They stood back deferentially as a tall figure followed them in. He was dressed in black, his face half shadowed by a hat. Inexplicably Noah immediately felt nervous.
“My Lord,” someone out of Noah’s line of vision was speaking, “they were in here. See, they were on the couches.”
“Well, fool, they are here no longer.” The man’s voice was low, deep and threatening. Though quiet, Noah could hear him clearly. The sound made his flesh crawl.
Behind the man there was a commotion and several men dragged a kicking fighting and gagged Madeleine into the room. Noah drew his breath in sharply and Caleb whispered, “What is it?”
“Wait!” Noah muttered, keeping his eye pressed closely to the tiny peephole. The tall man was looking at the girl as if she was a bug he would like to squash. Something in his face must have reached Madeleine because the fight in her faded and she went still.
“She bit me,” one of the men was objecting.
He was ignored. The tall man demanded, “Where are the others?”
“We think we’ve found most of Aaron’s men, but he doesn’t appear to be here. It will take us some time to search the whole area...” The speaker’s voice trailed away as the tall man stared at him. There was silence for a moment then the man gestured, and Madeleine was dragged back out of the room.
“We’ll take them with us. Now torch the place. That’ll smoke them out or kill them. And bring that boy to me, I have questions...” his voice faded away as he swept from the room. The rest of the men followed quickly.
“They’re going to burn the place down,” Noah whispered, turning back to the other three. He couldn’t see their faces in the dark, but he heard an anxious intake of breath from someone.
“Who is? And what about the others? What about Madeleine?” Caleb asked.
“I don’t know who that was, but I saw Madeleine. She was fine. I think they’re taking her with them.”
Caleb moved instantly but Noah anticipated it, putting a hand to his chest to stop him. “Get out of my way!” Caleb hissed.
“They have guns. They mean business. They’ve killed some of Aaron’s men, if we go out now they’ll kill us,” Noah reasoned urgently.
“They’ll burn us alive if we don’t!”
“I think we’ll be okay back down the tunnel. The fire will burn itself out eventually.”
“Maybe we can get out here before they start the fire...”
“But we don’t know how to get out here,” Noah tapped on the wall. “Maybe we can find a way out down at that map-room.”
He more felt than saw Katerina push past him and start examining the wall carefully for a way to open it again. In the end, when she gave up, because no one else had a better idea they decided to do as he suggested and look for a way out of the map-room. As Noah took the lead once more, behind them the building began to flicker and glow and burn.
Again, no one quite knew what to do once they re-entered the underground rooms. Alice slumped exhausted onto one of the couches as the other three roamed around restlessly, crisscrossing each other as they examined the walls for possible exits until she felt dizzy watching them. “Maybe one of the books will open a door again?” Katerina suggested eventually. No one responded but the men joined her as she started pulling on random spines.
No one answered Caleb’s next question either, “Where do you think they’ll take Madeleine?”
They had no answers and no ideas.
After another ten minutes, Alice jumped up, muttering, “That’s it! I can’t stand this anymore, I need to do something.”
This was so unexpected from the normally quiet Alice that it stopped the other three in their tracks. That was how they were standing when the wall directly behind them slid dramatically back and a group of men began pouring through the gap, Aaron in their midst. He stopped in front of them with the same astonishment with which they were eyeing him. As two of his men lowered a third man, cut and bleeding, onto a couch, he said, “We’ve been betrayed. Someone got out during the night and led our enemies right here...it’s a disaster...” His voice was rich with exhaustion and emotion. “But how are you here?”
Noah answered for them, “We found this passage by accident — we were on our way back out when we heard...I guess we heard the people who betrayed you. We ended up back down here trapped. We were trying to find a way out,” he added, glancing at the exit.
Aaron’s concern subsided abruptly. “Well thank God,” he said.
The man on the couch groaned and for a few minutes Aaron turned his attention to him, ignoring everyone else. The man was bleeding profusely from a nasty chest wound. Another man was trying to staunch the blood, while two more physically restrained him as he writhed in pain. Aaron was gentle with him, helping to hold him still but talking quietly to him too. As he had achieved with the people upstairs earlier, his words began to calm the man until he stopped fighting so hard.
Katerina turned away after a minute. The blood was making her feel squeamish again. When she looked back Aaron was on his feet, studying them. “We’ll stay here and wait this fire out. They think I’m long gone and you’re probably dead so we’re as safe here as anywhere,” he decided. “Why don’t you try and get some sleep and when everyone’s feeling better, I’ll explain what’s happening.”
Though they wanted to object, desperately wanted answers, they were all exhausted, and Aaron looked beyond the point of reason anyway. So instead they found couches, cushions or floor space and lay down. Sleep came quickly, thankfully.
