The room reminded Judith of those found on cruise liners, small and packed tight with a single bed, a short dresser, a mirror, and a bathroom. One difference stood out. The lock on the door operated from the outside.
“It’s like they were planning for us to be here.” Judith looked at the doorknob.
“Not us, the kids.” Luke worked his way around looking in every drawer, behind anything that would move, even removing the lightbulb from the lamp on the dresser. “This operation has been planned to the smallest detail. My guess is that some of the kids were supposed to be locked in here. They must have doubled them up in one of the other staterooms.”
“Can this boat really make it all the way across the Pacific? I thought you needed a big ship for that kind of voyage.”
“Much smaller vessels cross the oceans all the time. Columbus’s ships were quite a bit smaller than this thing.” Luke stood on the bed and removed the diffuser over the ceiling light and studied the bulbs and wires. Judith didn’t need to ask what he was doing. She no longer thought his paranoia was misplaced.
It took another fifteen minutes for Luke to satisfy himself that no listening devices or spy cameras were in the room. “I’m not surprised,” he admitted. “They wouldn’t need to listen in on the children and they didn’t know that we would be … joining them.”
“How much time do you think we have before … you know?”
“We sleep with the fishes?”
“Not funny.”
“Sorry, humor is my last resort of sanity.” He sat on the edge of the bed. “Not long. The engines don’t sound like they’re laboring and the boat’s motion indicates that they’re pulling through the harbor at a leisurely pace. I imagine there’s some kind of speed limit for ships entering and leaving port. They’re too smart to draw attention to themselves by plowing through the water faster than they should.” He worked his lips as he thought. “Pennington won’t do anything until we’re well out of port. The boat is pretty stable right now, so we must still be in the calmer waters of the bay. We should be able to tell the difference when we hit open water.”
A long but narrow window was in the outboard bulkhead, the side of the room where the bed sat. Luke stood on the bed and looked out. “I can still see the shore. We can’t be more than a mile out yet.”
“But every minute puts us further away.” Judith stepped on the bed and took a look for herself. It brought her no comfort.
Luke sat on the bed again. Judith joined him. “This is as bad as it gets.” He lowered his head into his hands. “I can’t think. I’m out of ideas.”
Judith put a hand on Luke’s knee and squeezed gently. “We can’t give up now, Luke. We’ve found a way out every time. I thought everything was over when Ida’s home went up but you pushed along. We got past Pennington in La Jolla and in the Ridgeline camp. Every time we faced the impossible something right happened. We did what we had to do. Now we have to do it again. The first thing we have to do is get out of here. Everything hinges on that.”
“Easier said than done … What did you say?”
“I said we have to get out of here — ”
Luke’s head snapped up. “No, you said everything hinges on us getting out.” He stood. “Morons,” he whispered and stepped to the door. Keeping his voice low he said, “You can reverse a lock on a door, but it’s much harder to reverse the hinges. I need something strong and narrow; something like a nail.”
“Where are we going to get a nail?”
“We’re not, but we might find something similar. Start looking.”
Judith stood and glanced around the room. The decor was plush but she saw nothing that could be used as a tool. She had to think outside her normal perceptions. Stop seeing what is and see what can be. “The bathroom.”
Judith led the way and the two crammed themselves in the small space. Judith forced her eyes to trace the objects before her: toilet, small shower, lavatory … “The sink.”
“What about it?”
She reached for the rod that worked the sink’s stopper. “There’s a rod that works a device on plumbing below the sink.” She pulled it up. “It’s an old and proven system. We have a line of faucets and we worked hard to move away from this system; it’s too old-fashioned for us.”
“Fortunately, these people haven’t caught up to you.” Luke dropped to his knees, grunting as he did. The pain on his face reminded Judith that the poor man had taken two beatings. This posture had to set every nerve on fire.
“Let me do it.”
“I’m already here.” He opened the cabinet. “I see the plumbing. Typical P-trap. Almost everything is plastic.”
“PVC,” Judith said. “Can you see the plunger rod?”
“Yeah, but it’s not a rod, it’s a strap. It won’t work. Too wide.”
“Wait a sec. Let me think. It’s been over a year since I looked at the designs. I wanted to change everything but my advisors reminded me that below the sink everything works pretty much the same.” She closed her eyes. “Okay, what you’re seeing is the adjustment strap. It has a series of holes, right?”
“Right.”
“Okay, the pop-up rod attaches to the strap at the top. You might have to feel for it, but there should be a set screw that holds the rod to the strap.”
Luke grunted. “Man, this hurts.”
“No. That would get me kicked out of the male chauvinist country club.” He groaned. “My side feels like it’s on fire … found it.”
“You’ll have to loosen it.”
“The head of the screw is knurled. I was … ow … afraid that it would need a screwdriver of some sort.”
Three painful grunts later, Luke pulled his hand from beneath the counter, a screw in hand. “We got lucky. It wasn’t that tight.”
Judith saw blood oozing from Luke’s fingers and it shredded her heart. She reached for the plunger rod behind the faucet spout. It came free easily. In her hand she held a chrome rod about six inches long.
Helping Luke up, Judith waited for him to catch his breath and for his pain to settle. Perspiration dotted his forehead. The job might have been easy for a man not beaten into unconsciousness earlier that day.
“I don’t know how all this is going to end, Luke, but I want you to know, you’re the bravest and noblest man I have ever met.” She kissed him on the cheek. To her surprise, he blushed.
He pushed away from the lavatory and Judith noticed that he carried his arm across his chest. He didn’t say so, but she could see that the injured ribs had been damaged even more.
At the door, Luke placed the blunt end of the rod beneath the pin on the top hinge. There were three hinges, smaller than those found in a home but still large enough to require a pin for setting. He paused then stepped away from the door.
“What’s wrong?”
“I need a minute.” He looked at the door. His breathing came in gulps. A full minute passed before he spoke again. “There may be a guard on the other side of the door. We’re going to have to work quietly and be ready to fight should he come barreling in. I’d feel better if we had some kind of weapon.”
“Like what?”
“Cattle prod, machine gun, bazooka. I’ll take anything right now.”