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IT WASN’T QUITE WHAT he had expected, Dominic thought, as he looked into the room beyond the sliding wall. But on second thought, he didn’t really know what to expect. He glanced around the once hidden, now exposed, room. It was nothing more than a room. No fancy or high-tech equipment. Not a map, nor a “Mission Impossible” style wall of glass that one could wave an arm about and bring up maps and schematics. No blinking diodes and screens. No bars or bunk beds. No sink, toilet, or drain. Not even a chair. As he took in the contents, or rather the lack of contents of the room, he readied himself, waiting for something to pop out at him.
He looked over his shoulder at the soldiers. They had not moved and offered no advice, no orders. As inconspicuously as he possibly could, he took inventory of the soldiers, noting the earpiece wires hanging from the backs of one ear on each of the men. Both were dressed in the same manner as those who manned the security lines in the public areas of the airport terminal. They had TSA badges sewn onto the black baseball caps covering their short cropped hair. The same badge was displayed on their shirtsleeves and onto the fronts of the crisp, white shirts that fit tightly to their bodies. The shirts were tucked neatly into black pants that fell to a cuff at the top of black-laced, rubber soled shoes. No military boots here. To the casual observer walking through the maze of walkways, halls, and corridors of the old airport, and with the exception of starched white shirts, as opposed to the wrinkled, untucked and unkempt white shirts of the generally talkative Transportation Security Administration agents who manned the lines, these agents would fit in completely, going unnoticed as anything different. Dominic noted that the agents had remained on the outside of the sliding wall, while he and Tonita had been prodded to cross the track that the wall slid on, and they now were on the inside.
“Sorta anticlimactic, don’t you think?” Tonita asked as she looked around the room.
“I like it that way.” Dominic moved his gaze around the room and up to the ceiling. “Doesn’t look like much happens here.”
The clicking sound of metal on metal caused both Dominic and Tonita to turn around and come face to face with the barrels of MP5’s, raised to shoulder level and pointed directly at them.
“I think I’ve figured out why the room is empty,” Dominic said, as he intertwined his fingers with Tonita’s, gripping them tightly. He tried to smile, but it quickly faded. “They obviously don’t want us to leave.”
***
TONITA MOVED CLOSER to Dominic, pressing her shoulder against his. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it when she could not find the words. She closed her eyes as a strange thought crossed her mind, asking if she would hear the shot first or feel the bullet rip into her body first, followed by the sound of the bullet exploding from the gun? She tried to dismiss the gruesome thought and concentrate on something else—like the sound of something scraping and sliding. Stone over...She opened her eyes to the real not imagined-sounds of stone sliding over stone, as the wall, that had slid open to reveal the room inside, was now slowly closing.
“I don’t think they’re going to shoot,” Dominic said, releasing Tonita’s hand from his grip. He wiped his sweaty palm on the leg of his pants.
The wall continued sliding easily on the narrow track.
Once the wall had finally closed completely, Tonita breathed again. “That was fun. What more do you have in store for us?”
“Like I knew that was going to happen.” Dominic moved to the sliding wall, inspecting it. “This is ingenious really. Walking down that hallway, I doubt anyone would realize that it can move.” He lay face down onto the floor, peering into the slight crack between the floor, the track, and the wall. “Look, whoever designed this even put in base molding that slides along with the wall.”
“Remind me to tell Bob Villa.”
“I’m just saying that it’s really pretty ingenious.”
“Oh. And so is being trapped in a room with no window and no doors.”
“There’s a door.”
“Well then, go ahead and open it...if you think the soldiers and those big guns on the other side are gone.” Tonita walked around the room letting her hand slide over the marble tiled walls. “What the hell is this?”
“I think someone is trying to keep us and does not want us to discover something.”
Tonita stopped, turned around, and stared at Dominic. “What? Please tell me that you not telling me the obvious?”
“Look. Sorry. But I’m just as scared as you are. And I’m just talking out loud to calm our nerves.”
“Well, actually, you’re getting on mine,” Tonita said, as she turned back and continued to slide her hand over the marble walls.
“All right. Let’s look at this logically,” Dominic said. “The soldiers or secret service, or whatever they are, could have just shot us. But they didn’t. They could have searched us for weapons. They didn’t. They could have taken away our documents.”
“They didn’t,” Tonita repeated for him. “I get the picture. Someone wants to detain us and knows that we’re no threat to them.”
“Right.”
“So this someone could be a friend?”
“Right.”
“We’re just being held here while this friend is where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Waiting for what?”
“I don’t know.”
“But you think that this friend is on his way?”
“That’s what I’m thinking.” Dominic leaned against the wall. “Either that or we could die here and no one would ever know?”