Phantom Prospect - Alex Archer [70]
Fine, she decided. Let them. The next time mealtime comes around, I will get the hell out of here and find out what is really going on.
Heaven help them then, she thought with a smirk.
After dinner, Annja used the pail for the first time—after she shut the light off. It was an awkward and humiliating experience, but necessity demanded it.
She dozed for an hour or two, keeping herself partially primed to any sounds that might signal a change in procedure. She expected it, since they would know she might have figured out their initial routine by now.
If they were going to alter things, then she wanted to be ready for it. And this time, she’d have the sword out when they came with her food.
Still in the dark, she crawled back to the door and used her hands to explore the shutter. Even though it was locked shut, she could tell it opened to the other side of the door. That meant that the shutter could be lifted up and the meal tray slid through.
But this time, Annja would be sliding her sword through instead.
The trick would be to grab the hand as it came through the shutter and then use that to gain leverage.
She frowned. But what then? She couldn’t very well hold them in place and tell them to open her door at the same time. In order to do that, she’d have to give up her control and trust that they would.
And why the hell would they do that?
Annja slumped over and sighed. There had to be a better way.
She looked back at the shutter. It was large enough to accommodate the pail but not by much. Annja was slim and lithe, but she wouldn’t be able to wriggle through that opening.
She had to make it bigger.
Annja summoned her sword and set to work on the shutter. She expected that it would probably have been locked with just a simple bolt. But she had to be careful. If they heard any noise in her cell, she would have visitors soon enough.
And she didn’t yet know if they could turn the lights on and off without her consent.
She had to risk it.
Annja braced the tip of the sword at the edge of the shutter and then stabbed at the opening. The blade striking the metal shutter produced a loud metallic clanging sound that made Annja wince.
They had to have heard that, she thought.
But nothing happened and no voice came over the intercom. Maybe they weren’t paying attention to her cell right now. Maybe they were preoccupied with someone else.
Annja bent back to the door and rammed the sword blade at the shutter. She heard a clink and then the bolt snapped off and the shutter flew open.
She dropped to her knees and peered through the shutter. The corridor outside was dimly lit with bulbs set into the stonework at intervals of maybe thirty feet. They cast long shadows and Annja couldn’t see much beyond the range of their light. As it was, her head barely fit through the opening.
But it had been a glimpse of the outside world. And she felt stronger now that she’d managed to get something they didn’t want her to have.
I have to get out of here now, she thought. Even if they didn’t hear her, they might get suspicious if I sleep for too long.
She looked at the edges of the opening and saw that the stone seemed solid enough. But she figured if she could enlarge the opening perhaps by a few inches all around, she’d be able to squirm through and then get the hell out of Dodge.
It was worth a try.
It hadn’t been that long since her last meal. That meant the time to act was now.
She pressed the sword’s blade on a stone edge and started almost shaving the stone away. At first, nothing happened, but once Annja used her shoulder to put more weight on the blade itself, small flecks of rock started flaking away.
She started sweating. This was going to be a long haul.
But Annja had little time to consider the exertion required. She kept working on the stone on all sides, using the blade to whittle away at the opening. A small pile of stone and dust started building up both within her cell and on the floor of the corridor outside.
She sighed. It would have been so much easier