Frau Roslyn took several quiet steps forward, passing the door on the left that led to her office, and another on the right to the makeshift first aid station. Again, Marion followed.
They stopped a couple feet shy of the end of the hallway. If anyone had walked by, the light from the lobby would have been more than enough to expose Marion’s presence.
Frau Roslyn leaned to her right, looking into the lobby. The angle would give her a view of the front door. When she straightened and turned around, she whispered almost too low for Marion to hear, “Two soldiers, but they’re still outside. Come on. We don’t have much time.”
She pushed past Marion and opened the door to her office. Unlike the back entrance, the hinges on this door were well oiled and made no sound. Frau Roslyn motioned Marion inside, then she closed the door, easing the latch into place.
“The soldiers,” Marion said, “they won’t hurt the children, will they?”
The woman shook her head. “Jan is up there.”
Jan was Roslyn’s cousin. A large Swiss-German man who had the benefit of being a former member of the Swiss government, something Roslyn would have made sure the soldiers knew.
“Where’s Iris?” Marion asked.
Roslyn put a finger to her mouth, then turned and edged her way around the large metal desk that seemed to take up half the room. She reached up and made sure the curtains across the window on the back wall were fully closed. Then, instead of sitting down in the old wooden chair, she continued past the desk to the sidewall. Like the rest of the room, the wall was painted off-white. On it were hung several framed pictures of Frau Roslyn with children who had at one time or another lived in the orphanage. They all seemed to be smiling and happy and content.
The old woman moved one of the pictures to the side and touched a spot on the wall. There was a faint click, then the wall eased open an inch. Roslyn reached around the edge of the opening and pulled the wall out like a door.
Marion’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Come, come,” the old woman said.
Marion hesitated a moment longer, then moved around the desk and joined Frau Roslyn.
Since the hidden door swung out into the office, Marion had not been able to see what was inside until the door was all the way open. The space it revealed wasn’t large, maybe a meter deep at best, and only as wide as the opening. It was made even more cramped by the fact that it wasn’t empty.
One of the older boys was inside. He was maybe thirteen or fourteen. Marion had seen him many times before but couldn’t remember his name. In his arms he held another child. A girl, much younger than he was. Her head rested against his chest and her eyes were closed in sleep.
It was Iris. There was no mistaking her.
The old woman held her hands out, and the boy gave her the child.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
“She slept the whole time, Frau Roslyn.” The boy smiled. “She was very good. Are they gone?”
Before Roslyn could answer, the loud pounding of feet came from the stairs near the front of the building.
“Madame Krueger? Madame Krueger?” a voice called from the direction of the footsteps. Male, deep. One of the soldiers, using Roslyn’s surname.
Roslyn looked back at the boy. He was still in the tiny space behind the secret door. “Out,” she said. “Quickly!”
The boy stepped out into the office.
“Madame Krueger?” the voice was closer.
“Take her,” Roslyn said as she held Iris out to Marion. “Get inside. You have to hide.”
“What?” Marion said.
“There’s no time,” the old woman said. “Please. Take her.”
Marion instinctively pulled the child into her arms, careful to point the end of the stunner away from the girl’s back.
“Now get in,” Roslyn said.
“I don’t think I’ll fit.”
“They’ll take her if you don’t.”
Marion nodded as she realized there was no choice. She stepped past the woman and the boy into the small space in the wall.
“I’ll let you out when they’re gone,” Roslyn said.
“What if she wakes?” Marion asked.
“I gave her something to help her sleep. You’ll be fine.”
Before Marion could say anything else, the secret door closed, entombing her and Iris in the wall. The seal was a good one. There was absolutely no light. Marion could never remember being anyplace so completely dark. For a moment she allowed the fear to shake through her like a deep chill. But then she heard the office door fly open, and she froze.
“What are you doing?” It was the same voice that yelled from the stairs, muffled by the closed secret door, but still distinct.
“One of the boys was missing,” Roslyn said, her voice calm and unhurried. “I came to look for him.”
“What were you doing down here?” the soldier asked.
“I… I got scared,” the boy who had been taking care of Iris said. “I was hiding.”
There was the sound of movement, then the scrape of metal along the floor. The desk, perhaps, being pushed back or out of the way.
“Please, no,” the boy yelled out.
“You want to be scared?” the soldier said.
“No. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have hid. I wasn’t thinking.”
Silence for a moment.
“And you were alone here?”
“What?” the boy said. “Yes. Alone.”
“Please,” Roslyn said. “The boy is young. He saw his parents killed in the middle of the night, so naturally he gets scared sometimes.”
“We’ve all seen people killed in the night,” the soldier said. But Roslyn’s words must have gotten to him. The harsh tone in his voice was gone. “Next time, you don’t hide, you understand?”
“Yes, sir,” the boy said.
“Go upstairs with the others.”
Again movement. Feet, not as loud as the soldier’s, moving out of the room.
“Come with me,” the soldier said.
“Where?” Roslyn asked.
“I’m the one who asks the questions.”
“Of course.”
There was the sound of several feet walking out of the office, and then there was silence.
Marion waited, hoping that the sleeping child in her arms would remain that way.
What could the soldiers want with her? Her difference from the other children should have made her less desirable for the soldiers rather than more. Her kind was seldom wanted. Not just here in Cote d’Ivoire, but in most countries throughout the world. Yet this wasn’t the first time the soldiers had come looking for a child like her.
The darkness made it impossible for Marion to know what time it was. She began counting off minutes in an effort to remain calm. But after a while she lost her place and gave up. Where was Roslyn?
Finally, she heard footsteps enter the office. It sounded like more than one person, but she couldn’t tell for sure. She tried to angle the stunner so it pointed toward the door just in case.
The steps seemed to stop near the desk. She thought she heard someone whisper, but she wasn’t sure. Then the steps came forward again, stopping less than a foot away from her on the other side of the wall.
She brushed the button on the stunner with her thumb, checking its position so she’d be ready.
Something scraped along the wall. A picture being moved.
