Phantom Prospect - Alex Archer [71]
No, Annja would have to finish this or die trying.
As she cut deeper into the stone, larger chunks started coming off. She was worried that the constant chipping sound would alert her captors, but they hadn’t yet interrupted her. And Annja was determined not to give them any breaks.
She coughed once and thought she heard something, but after a second, she resumed her work. Another large bit of stone came away in her hands and she saw that she’d actually made a bit of progress.
Annja laid the sword down and tried to squeeze herself through the opening. She had to force one of her shoulders through first and then awkwardly bring the other one along.
It was risky at this point because if anyone came down the corridor, she was trapped.
But no one did.
Annja got herself halfway out. She used her feet still in the cell to give her more leverage to push her hips through. Her butt was squeezed up against the top of the jagged opening and she was worried her pants might get caught.
She pushed as hard as she could and fell out into the corridor.
She was free.
Annja reached back into the cell and grabbed her sword, pulling it out into the dim light of the corridor.
She glanced left and right and remembered that the noises earlier had all originated from the right side.
Time to go find out what this is all about, she thought.
She headed off, sword in hand, to do just that.
28
Annja stalked down the corridor, expecting at any moment to hear an alarm go off. If her captors could control the lights and switched them on, they’d see she had escaped.
There was also the expectation that another meal would be coming. She might well run into the person who fed her.
What a nice surprise that will be for them, she thought.
The corridor sloped upward at a gentle angle. Annja noticed that there seemed to be a constant stream of water running down sections of the walls. Where the walls met the floor, small troughs had been carved to help funnel the water down and away, presumably to some sort of drainage system.
But it made Annja wonder exactly where she might be if there was so much of it running throughout the complex. She figured she must have been in some underwater cavern.
She tried to remember if she’d ever heard of underwater caves off the Nova Scotia coast before and couldn’t. But then again, she’d never really wondered if there were any. For all she knew, there could be vast amounts of them.
Her sword gleamed and Annja kept moving, preferring to stay close to the walls rather than out in the middle of the corridor. She tried to keep her shadow behind her, but with each light she approached and then passed, her shadow would move.
She stopped suddenly.
Ahead of her she could have sworn she heard something out of rhythm with the rest of the ambient noise in the corridor.
Annja checked her position. The corridor curved around to the right and she was in a good position to surprise anyone coming at her. The next light was about twenty feet in front of her and cast her shadow behind her body. There was nothing that could give her position away unless she did something to make noise.
Annja stilled her breathing.
She heard the sound again.
There was definitely something up ahead of her. But who? Or what?
She knelt down and risked a quick peek around the corner. She saw a shadow and ducked back. In the glimpse, she’d made out someone about six feet tall. And he was armed and walking toward her.
He wasn’t carrying a meal tray.
Annja waited until the very last possible second and then as the muzzle of his submachine gun came around the curve, Annja grabbed it and jerked him forward.
The man went with the momentum and tucked himself into a roll, bringing the gun up across his body to protect it and simultaneously get a bead on Annja. Annja came cutting down at him with the blade.
He pivoted and used the gun to deflect her stroke.