Evelyn thought she saw a shadow move out of the corner of her eye and she swiftly turned her head, glancing behind her sharply. There was no one there and she continued on, her heels clicking on the tiled floor. The sound echoed between the rows of bookshelves, inordinately very loud to her nervous ear. She bit her bottom lip and looked behind her again.
And her heart thumped into her throat.
The man in the overcoat was moving, pushing himself into a sitting position and shaking his head groggily. She let out an involuntary gasp and flew the last few feet to the top of the stairs with only one thought: to get down them and out of the building before he saw her.
Reaching the stairs, Evelyn placed one gloved hand on the banister and looked down. Cold, sheer panic rolled over her as she watched a tall man in a black suit walk across the lobby to the foot of the stairs. Herr Voss glanced up as he set his foot on the first step and Evelyn recoiled, terror squeezing her throat closed. She didn’t know if he saw her, but he was most definitely coming up the steps to the second level.
Evelyn looked back to the other one. He was standing now, still facing the other way. He hadn’t seen her yet. Casting her eyes around frantically, she ducked into the closest aisle of books and ran towards the end. She only had a minute. When Herr Voss reached the top of the stairs, he would have a clear and unrestricted view down this very aisle.
Reaching the end, she turned left, disappearing around the corner. Gasping for breath, Evelyn bent to pull off her shoes again. She could run faster in bare feet, and that more than made up for the precious seconds it took to remove them. Gripping them in one hand, she took off, dashing along the narrow walkway that wound its way along the outer wall of the library.
She had no idea where she was going, or even if there was any way out up here, but she knew she couldn’t go back. Not after she’d knocked out a German agent.
The walkway ended ahead, turning left again at the last row of books. Evelyn looked behind her and slowed. Now what? If she went left, it would end with her crossing the floor and, if they had an ounce of sense, they would know that this was the only direction she could have gone.
Tears of fear pricked the back of her eyes and she blinked them away impatiently. She didn’t have time to panic. She had to think!
She turned up the second to last aisle and gasped as she ran straight into a person. Her heart thumped painfully in her chest and she instinctively fell back a step as the person grabbed her arm. As soon as fingers closed around her forearm, Evelyn swung her other arm in attack only to have it blocked.
“Stop! It’s all right!” a female voice broke through her terror and Evelyn focused on a vaguely familiar face framed with short, black curls. “I can help you!”
Evelyn stared at her. It was the woman who had been picking up books on the floor when she came out of the stacks to face the Security Service agent.
“What?” she asked stupidly.
“I can help you, but we have to move now!” the woman hissed, pulling her down the aisle towards the main floor.
“What…who…who are you?” Evelyn finally found her voice.
“A friend,” she replied, stopping at the end of the aisle and peering around the corner. “It seems as if you could use one right now.”
Evelyn tried to catch her breath, staring at the woman.
“You’re the woman from downstairs!” she suddenly gasped in recognition. “You were surrounded by books at one of the tables!”
The woman glanced over her shoulder, her lips curving faintly.
“Well done,” she commended her. “They’re about seven rows back. They’re each taking one side. Do you see that walkway over there? To the left?”
Evelyn nodded.
“Good. When I say go, run. I’ll meet you at the end of the aisle.”
“Then what?” Evelyn asked, her eyes wide. “We’ll be trapped in the corner!”
“You have to trust me. Are you ready?”
Evelyn looked across the open expanse of floor helplessly. What choice did she have? She nodded. The woman peered around the corner again, holding Evelyn’s arm as if to keep her from bolting too soon. Then her hand dropped.
“Go!”
Later, Evelyn didn’t have any conscious memory of making her legs move, but as soon as the word came out of the woman’s mouth, she was flying across the open space to the narrow aisle behind the last row of bookshelves. She didn’t look to her right, terrified that if she did, the men would see her.
Don’t trip, don’t trip, don’t trip! She repeated the words over and over to herself as she shot across to the safety of concealment behind the last row of books.
A second later, she ducked behind the floor to ceiling bookshelf. No shouts of alarm followed her and she sucked in a deep breath as she continued along the aisle, not slowing her pace. She made it! She’d made it without them seeing her!
Elation warred with the panic coursing through her and Evelyn bit her lip as she reached the end of the aisle. As she had suspected, the outer wall formed a corner, joining another narrow aisle that ran the length of the wall behind the rows of books. Rounding the corner, she leaned against the bookshelf, breathing heavily.
A hand grabbed her wrist and Evelyn jumped, clamping her teeth down hard to keep from crying out.
“Come on!” The woman
