“We hope not,” Jerricho, the driver, said, “but we can’t take the chance.”
And, just like that, they dipped into an underground parking lot and parked. She looked at him and said, “Now what?”
“We’re here,” Diesel said. He hopped out, opened the vehicle, and helped her out. Then he quickly removed the duffel bags that they had and some of the gear that they had taken off the guards. Keeping an eye on her and Marge, Diesel and Jerricho ushered the two women between them, as they led the way to a set of stairs, where they were quickly moved upstairs.
“Is this a hotel?” Eva asked.
“No,” he said. “We have an apartment. A safe house.”
But it was an apartment in a big building, so, as they moved through the hallways, she was surprised that nobody else appeared to be around, and then, just as suddenly, the guys had a door opened, and they were inside.
She took a step in and noted several bedrooms and a bathroom, all fully furnished. She turned to look at him, smiled, and said, “Now all we need is food.”
“Not to worry, it’s coming.”
She nodded, walked over, and took the first bedroom, which had two twin beds. She dropped onto the closest one and closed her eyes.
“Are you sure you want to sleep?”
“No,” she said, “not at all. Maybe a shower first but it just looked too inviting not to lie down.”
“Maybe, yet the food’s coming. So how about a quick shower and then food?”
She looked over at Marge, who was sitting on the edge of the second bed. “Marge, do you want a shower first?”
Marge shook her head. “No, I’ll eat, then shower, and then sleep.”
So Eva got up, looked at the guys, and said, “I guess you can’t magically produce some clean clothes, can you?”
“I can have them for you by morning,” he said.
She nodded and headed to the bathroom. She stripped out of her clothes, entered the warm flowing water, and scrubbed herself down, top to bottom. By the time she was done, she felt the weariness pulling on her. She put her uniform back on again, and, while busy braiding her hair into a long braid down her right shoulder, she stepped back out and headed for the kitchen.
There the smells hit her first.
“I didn’t realize that it had arrived.” She looked at the array in astonishment. “I didn’t hear this arrive, and there’s so much of it.”
“Won’t be for long,” Marge said. Her plate was already heaped high.
It was noodles and who-only-knows what else, but she didn’t care. Eva held out her empty plate, and Diesel pointed at the food and said, “Serve yourself.”
She helped herself to a decent portion, then sat down. “I feel so much better after a shower,” she said, “but it also made me more tired.”
“To be expected,” he said. “After eating, you can go to sleep.”
“Good. I’m looking forward to it,” she admitted. “As long as we’re safe, then hopefully I’ll sleep.”
“We are right now. We’ll run guard on four-hour watches,”
She stared at him. “And that implies that it’s not safe then?”
“Safe enough,” he said. “This is a precautionary measure.”
“I hear you,” she said, “but it doesn’t sound very precautionary. It sounds proactive and defensive.”
He just grinned and said, “Let us worry about that.”
“I guess I will, since you’ve done well so far.”
“Exactly,” he said, “this is what we do. Remember that.”
She nodded slowly and looked over at Marge. “How are you doing?”
“I’ll be a lot better when I’m back on friendly soil, like I said before,” she said. “But food is helping, not being in that damn lab is helping. And the fact that I know a shower is right around the corner and a comfy bed makes it even better.”
“Right,” Eva said, “the beds in that place were terrible.”
“Just cots, I presume?” Diesel asked.
“Exactly, they didn’t care about our comforts at all.”
“No, and why would they?” he said quietly. “You were expendable.”
She winced. “Do you really think they were looking at it from that point of view?”
“I would think so,” he said. “Either you performed or you didn’t, and they would get someone to replace you.” He looked over at Marge. “How many captives did you see?”
“Several,” she admitted. “Sometimes the guards told us what happened. Sometimes they didn’t. The people were just there, and then they were gone.”
“And then I arrived,” Eva said.
“You were the latest, yes,” Marge said, “but in no way is it done.”
“Right.” Eva nodded and continued to eat.
Marge quickly finished off hers and said, “I’ll go have a shower now.” She got up and excused herself.
The men looked over at Eva. “Are the two of you okay?”
“We’re fine. We’ve been through a lot together, but I was a relatively new acquisition for the captives,” she said, “so I don’t really know how much Paul and Marge have gone through themselves.”
“Right.” The guys didn’t say anything more.
She smiled and said. “Are you worried about her?”
“Of course,” Diesel said. “There are a lot of reasons to be worried. But the bottom line is, you’re here now, and we’ll do our best to get you back to the US safely.”
She had to be happy with that.
Diesel didn’t think Eva really understood how ill Marge was. She had probably made a point of not letting Eva know. It was also possible that Marge didn’t know how ill she was, but there was a yellow tone to her skin. The whites of her eyes were not a healthy-looking white. And he’d seen what appeared to be a tumor on the back of the woman’s underarm area. And one under her jawline, probably resting at the top of her throat. She needed medical attention. She needed it fast.
What he also didn’t know was whether she had contracted whatever it was that was hurting her at the lab. Was it possible that the Chinese lab was actually utilizing these
