Phantom Prospect - Alex Archer [66]
She bit her tongue and felt blood flow.
Dammit!
They were going to knock her out prior to getting her out of the shark. Annja tried to cover her nose and mouth with her clothes, but it didn’t help. Annja spat out a bit of ocean water and felt even more tired.
She tried to concentrate on the sword, willing it to help her stave off the effects of the gas.
But it was no good.
I can’t be found with the sword, Annja thought. And as much as she hated to do it, she closed her eyes and the sword disappeared. At least they wouldn’t find her with it and she could use its surprise factor to her advantage when she woke up.
If she woke up.
Annja considered the possibility that they were drugging her now so she wouldn’t give them trouble and they could calmly and methodically kill her at their leisure.
She frowned. No. If they’d wanted her dead, she already would be.
Wherever she was going, they wanted her alive.
And as Annja drifted off to sleep, she found herself wondering what she would see when she woke up.
26
When Annja awoke she was covered with a thin, threadbare blanket made of coarse fibers that poked into the exposed bits of her skin. She shivered and realized that she was in a dank cell. A steady dripping sound of water told her that she might be underground or even below the waterline.
Where the hell am I? She got up and walked the expanse of the ten-foot-by-ten-foot holding cell. The walls were made of smooth stone and small rivulets of water cascaded down, only to disappear into a small drainage hole at one end of the room.
Annja had no memory of being taken out of the shark when they’d arrived, but of course, that would be due to the gas she’d breathed in. She wondered what was so top secret that they couldn’t afford to let her know where she was. Or perhaps they knew about her sword?
She thought about Sheila. Sheila had been well briefed on Annja. That meant there was a leak somewhere. Annja tried to figure out how they could have learned about the existence of the sword. Did Garin have a leak in his organization? Or had Roux sold her out?
Annja frowned. If that had happened, then she would see to taking care of Roux herself.
Light came from a single bare bulb burning overhead. A small pull chain dangled from it and Annja tested it. The light shut off when she pulled and went on again when she repeated the process.
So they weren’t necessarily looking to deprive her of sleep. She nodded. That was good news.
She sniffed and smelled the salt clinging to the air. They were at least near the ocean, but where? Or were they in some sort of massive underwater lair?
She wondered if Henderson was a reality instead of some story Sheila had told her. Annja tried to picture an old guy using his power to wield influence over the world by devising some mechanical shark that could terrorize people. She almost laughed. It sounded like a bad movie on the Sci Fi Channel.
She paced off the cell again just to get some blood flowing and tried to examine the walls. She wondered if they had any type of surveillance in the cell. But after checking the walls for what seemed like an hour, Annja couldn’t find a single camera—pinhole or otherwise.
“Hello?” she called out.
Hearing her voice made her feel better at least. But she sounded hoarse. Some water would be good. She looked around and saw nothing but the crappy blanket they’d given her to ward off the chill.
She sat down and tried to figure out what was going on. Was Cole being held in another cell like this? Did he know what was happening? Or had they killed him?
And what about Sheila? Had she known about this before she jumped or fell into the ocean? Was it all part of some elaborate hoax designed to get the Seeker to move away from the Fantome so they could swoop in and claim it?
Annja thought of the story Sheila had told her regarding the crucifix of Joan of Arc. She wondered if that was true. Was there another relic of Joan’s that could affect the vulnerability of the wearer?
Immortality.
She whistled to herself. Imagine