Page 86 of Prisoner of War
Her clothes would draw attention but if she kept her nose in the air and looked as though she belonged here, it might deflect questions. If it didn’t, then she always had the knife.
At the end of the corridor, the passage openedonto the rotunda—an elegant stone balcony swept around the full circle, broken only by the big sweeping staircase down to the first floor and the two wings of stairs that curved up to the third. From the ceiling skylights muted light bathed the area, making the white stone of the balustrades glow.
This was the risky part. She had to circle the rotunda to reach the foyer that gave her access tothe outdoor balcony overlooking the front grounds and the administrative building. Even though she badly wanted to stop and take stock, Minnie forced herself to keep walking. It would look odd if she paused to look around.
When a soldier’s head appeared as he climbed up the stairs, Minnie nearly jumped out of her skin. She took a shuddering breath and kept walking, not looking at him. She wasgoing to have to pass almost in front of him. God this was stupid, he would notice something. Her bare feet for a start—his eyes were right at that level.
She hurried her pace.
“¿Apenas un momento, señora?”the man called.
Sweat broke out on her temples. What would a normal person do?
She looked over her shoulder and gave him a big smile. “I can’t stop, I’m very late,” she called out in Spanish,trying hard to emulate Carmen’s accent and pronunciation. She glanced past his shoulder. Another soldier climbed the stairs. This one carried a rifle. It was Soto, but his head was down watching the stairs as he climbed.
“Stop just for a moment!” the first soldier called back. Minnie hurried around the curving balcony. The south wing corridor was about twenty yards away and the little foyer wasjust inside it.
“Hey, I said stop!” He was shouting now. Soto would most certainly be alerted.
She stepped onto the carpet in the corridor and was almost running as she reached the glass doors onto the foyer. She could hear the tread of the soldier behind her, echoing on the terracotta tiles in the rotunda.
She pushed the doors inward and shoved her way through. She curled her hand around thehaft of the knife in her pocket and with her other hand tugged at the knot of shirt tails at her waist, listening for the footfalls of the soldier to change as he reached carpet.
She ripped the last of the buttons undone and held still, her back to the swing doors.
“Lady, I said just a minute!” he exclaimed as he barreled through the doors behind her.
Minnie spun to face him, a bright, enquiringsmile on her face, the shirt pulled aside to reveal her bare breasts. “Hi there!” she told him, walking right up to him.
He stared at her breasts, his eyes widening and his mouth shaping into an almost perfect “O”.
Time slowed down. Sound became muffled. Minnie could hear her heart beat loud in her mind and it was steady and calm.
She withdrew the knife from her pocket when she was a pace awayand triggered the blade as she whipped it toward him. He seemed to move sluggishly. He lifted his hand to fend her off but she slipped the knife past it, aiming for a point just below where she thought his ribs would end.
The knife slid into him with little resistance, right up to the hilt.
Time restored itself to normal speed. Minnie stared at him as he looked down at his stomach and up ather. He looked surprised. Then he crumpled to the floor and the knife was jerked out of him because Minnie still had her hand curled around the handle.
His green shirt turned brown as the blood soaked it.
The hot, coppery taste flooding her mouth made Minnie sick. Her stomach cramped and spasmed and she put her arm across her face. It was only the lack of food this morning that saved her fromvomiting. Trembling almost violently, she leaned down and wiped the blade on the man’s trousers as best she could and tottered toward the other set of glass doors at the end of the foyer. The balcony lay beyond.
She fumbled to knot her shirt together as she went. The buttons were beyond her capabilities right now.
The doors didn’t give under her hands and she stared at the handles stupidly untilshe thought to try turning them. The catch gave way and one of the doors swung open. She slipped outside.
It was the first time she had tasted fresh air in nearly a week and she took deep lungfuls of it, feeling a touch of calm return. The sky was low overhead, black with menace. The air was thick and warm. A storm was building.
She forced herself to keep moving. Soto would not be far behind.
The wide balcony ran the length of the north wing, ending in the decorative open-weave brick wall that was as good as a ladder for climbing. She hurried toward it, glancing out over the balcony to the grounds below.
Then she stopped.
Duardo was walking toward the palace along the concrete path that connected the two buildings. He was about halfway between the two. Farther behind him but hurryingto catch up, was Torrez. There was something about the way he steadily stared at Duardo’s back that made Minnie’s neck prickle with almost painful intensity.
She went to the balustrade to watch. As she spread her still trembling hands on the smooth stone, Torrez swung his rifle over his shoulder and brought it up to aim at Zalaya’s back, just as thunder cracked almost directly overhead with anoise like an explosion.
