Page 45 of Prisoner of War
So now she led Minnie across the room with confidence despite the dark. Minnie heard fumbling and the motion of airacross her face. Carmen had opened a door. She was led through the doorway into more black. She blinked. To their left dim light showed them the shape of the passage they stood in.
Carmen spoke in a murmur, right by Minnie’s ear. “End of passage, service stairs, up to third floor, sneak along main passage to attic entry and up.”
Minnie nodded, though she didn’t know if Carmen could see the nod.They had already discussed this during the long day observing the palace. The attic had been Carmen’s childhood playground. No one ever ventured up there except Carmen and, on occasion, Nick and her father when they had come to find her. From the attic they would be able to sneak around the palace and collect the information they needed. Carmen had seemed confident that the attic was a strategicposition. “It runs the length of the palace and there’s a half-dozen entrances. It’s perfect.”
They moved along the passage and when they got closer to the light Minnie could see it came from beneath a door at the end of the passage. Carmen pushed the door open an inch at a time, peering around it. Then, satisfied, she pushed it fully open. It was a stairwell and a metal staircase wound upward,lit by the dull orange glow of emergency lights. This would get them to the third floor.
Carmen took off her shoes and indicated that Minnie should do the same. She placed her forefinger against her lips.
They climbed the staircase as quickly as they could. In that echoing funnel, Minnie realized she was incapable of moving silently. The salt-encrusted nylon of her coveralls swished with eachstep she took. There was nothing she could do about it. She was naked beneath the suit. With her heart in her mouth, she concentrated on climbing with as little noise as possible, keeping her thighs far apart so the legs of the suit wouldn’t rub together and her arms out from her sides.
There were doors at every level and Minnie realized that at any moment someone could step through one of them.Her heart pattered along, loud in her ears. Sweat broke out on her temples.
At the third-floor doorway, Carmen again eased it open. They would have to use one of the main corridors to get to the attic staircase now. She let the door swing shut and put her rubber shoes back on. Minnie slipped on her borrowed tennis shoes. Carmen had found it enormously funny that Minnie fit into gym shoes Carmenhad used when she was ten.
Carmen eased open the door enough to slip through and Minnie followed. Immediately, their surroundings changed. The carpet beneath their feet was thick and muffling. Minnie could sense the quality even though the light in the wide hallway was dim. At the edges of the carpet, highly polished floorboards gleamed. At intervals sat elegant antique chairs with satin backsand claw feet, or carved wooden pedestals holding up huge bouquets of flowers. It was plush. Silent.
They moved down the middle of the carpet. Minnie winced with almost every step. She was swishing and in the dull silence it was loud.
They had covered twenty-five yards when a voice spoke to them out of the darkness, the Spanish harsh. “I can hear you moving. Do not run, or I will be forced toshoot you.”
Minnie froze. Her nylon suit had given her away.
Carmen’s hand landed on her shoulder. Squeezed. Minnie felt her move away and knew exactly what Carmen was thinking. The man had spoken of only one and she was the one he had heard. Carmen still had a chance to escape and must take it. Minnie silently wished her luck and turned to face the voice in the dark.
“I’m not running,” shesaid and threaded her fingers together to hide their trembling.
Another small silence.
“Americana?” It was a different voice. This one came from behind her.
She swiveled again to face it. Instinct prodded her. “Not bloody likely, mate,” she said. “Can’t you tell the difference between Australian and Yank?”
“There is...difference?” A door opened nearby, spilling light onto her. The man whohad spoken was also illuminated. He was young, unshaven and held a submachine gun to his face, aiming at her.
Another two men stepped into the pool of light. She realized with a sinking heart that she had been surrounded and had not noticed a thing until the voice spoke out of the dark. The same voice now spoke, still issuing from the shadows. “For an Australian, you are a long way from home.You have been discovered in a position most difficult to explain.” She sensed movement and the silhouette of the man came into view. He moved slowly because he used a cane. He leaned heavily upon it.
This was the dangerous one, Minnie realized. This man outranked everyone here.
He stopped a few paces from her and studied her. He was still in shadow and weak light, but she could see an eye patchand a thick moustache, which might have looked melodramatic on anyone else, yet on him seemed to imply danger. This man had seen things and suffered. He was experienced in the harsher qualities of life.
“Do you have an explanation for your presence inside the palace?” he asked. His English was good.
“I might,” Minnie said airily.
He moved impatiently, the cane thudding the floor, and steppedcloser. The light hit his face squarely and Minnie sucked in a breath as shock slammed through her.
It was Duardo.
“What is it?” he said sharply. “Why do you stare at me so? Do you know who I am? Is that why you tremble?”
Adrenaline was making her shake, making her feel sick. She was unable to tear her gaze from his face. Was this Duardo? How could it be? He was the enemy, he didn’t know her.It couldn’t be him. Yet...itwasDuardo. Somehow, he was here, inside the enemy’s quarters. What sort of dangerous game was he playing? Even though she did not understand what was going on here, she had to play along.
“No, I don’t know you,” she said, keeping her voice low. “I tremble because your friend over there is pointing a bloody great big gun at me. Am I supposed to chuckle about it?”
He smiled, but it didn’t reach his calculating eyes. “You have courage,” he said. “I applaud that. I am Colonel Bruno Zalaya y Fuentes.”
Minnie could feel her already laboring heart actually stop in its tracks for a split second. Duardo...was Zalaya? Duardo was the man that did such dreadful things to people, was the evil lynchpin that Nick intended to deal with?
“I see you know the name,” Duardocontinued. “Which makes you more than just a tourist with too much curiosity.” He looked around at the men in the corridor. “Take her back to my office. I will complete the interrogation there.”
The younger Insurrecto with the gun stepped closer to her and motioned with the muzzle that she should turn around and move. He glanced at Duardo. “And then, the whorehouse?”
Minnie had no trouble translating“whorehouse”—it was the same in both languages and she recognized the hungry look on the soldier’s face. A shudder rippled through her.
Duardo/Zalaya considered her for a moment. “An intriguing idea,” he said softly. “I’ll decide once she has given me some answers.” He glanced at the soldier. “To my office, immediately, Soto. And no dallying on the way.” Then back at her. “Yes, do not dally atall. I greatly desire to...question this one.”
