Page 144 of Hidden in Memories
Another, longer silence.
“I daren’t,” Erik says eventually.
Without thinking Hanna makes another suggestion.
“What if we do the opposite—Zelda and I will come in and get you. Would you come with us then?”
Erik says nothing. She can hear his shallow breathing.
She looks up at the dark-blue night sky. She sees the white moon, almost full, over in the east. The headlights of the patrol cars cast a harsh light over the white landscape. The hotel complex looms in the shadows like a gigantic eagle’s aerie.
There are fifteen minutes to go before the SWAT team goes in.
Time is running out.
She thinks about Filip, held captive inside. About Erik, who doesn’t know where to turn.
If she is going to save a life, it has to happen now.
What she is planning to do goes against all the rules, but there is no other way. She quickly disconnects the link to her colleagues so that no one else will hear what she says to Erik.
“Stay where you are. I’m coming to you.”
Then she grabs Zelda’s leash and walks quickly and resolutely toward the hotel, even though no one is allowed to get closer than one hundred yards.
Through her headset she hears the sniper from the SWAT team reporting on her movements: “Negotiator with dog on the way to the white side. I repeat, negotiator with dog on the way to thewhiteside.”
She increases her speed, breaks into a run so that no one can stop her, and heads for the side door next to the main entrance.
“Hanna?” Daniel shouts from behind her. “What the hell are you doing?”
Without slowing down she turns her head, gives a dismissive wave, and disappears into the hotel before Daniel or anyone else can intervene.
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The darkness that envelops Hanna when she slips inside is so compact that she feels as if she is wearing a blindfold. She takes out her flashlight and chases the shadows away.
She is in the foyer. To her left is the reception desk, covered in brown-and-white cowskin, and straight ahead lies the wide staircase that she remembers from her previous visit.
The main entrance is to the right.
The air is cold and musty. The only sound is her own ragged breathing.
Where is Erik?
Zelda whimpers softly by her side.
“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Hanna whispers, clutching the leash tightly. “Let’s find your daddy.”
Her phone vibrates in her pocket. Daniel is trying to reach her, but Hanna rejects the call. He immediately tries again, but Hanna rejects that one too.
She is going to get into so much trouble for this afterward.
If there is an afterward.
She makes her way cautiously toward the staircase with its dark carpet. Her heart is pounding so loudly that Erik ought to be able tohear every beat. She peers up at the ceiling; the red-painted stairwell forms a square atrium, all the way up to the top floor.
That’s where the bar is.
