Among the Shrouded (27 page)

The timers on the lights
clicked several times, signaling that they were about to turn off for the night.  As the lights flickered off, she stumbled to her mattress and curled up with her thoughts.  Strangely, she was less concerned for her own life than she was for the helpless women she had come to know and admire.

“Kate?”
she called.

“Yes,” Kate
replied.

“I have a favor.”

“Yes.  Anything.”

“When you get out…”

“If we get out,” Kate interrupted.

“No.  When you get out, I need you to find my father.  His name is Carlo Rosetti and he
’s the chief of police.”

“Okay.  How will I
find him?”

“Any police
officer here in the city should be able to find him for you.  So, when you do, I need you to tell him what happened here and that I was with you.”

“Okay.”

“And also, tell him I love him.”

“Okay
, Mia, but you will figure something out.  You will get away too.” 

She
could hear Kate crying now.  “Maybe I will, but if I don’t, there’s one more thing.  I need you to tell my father to search for a man named Thomas Pritchett.”

“Thomas?
  Your boyfriend?”

“The man w
ho I thought was my boyfriend.  But now… now I just don’t know what to think anymore.  There’s a chance he is involved in all of this in some way and I need my father to get to the bottom of it.  If he’s involved, he needs be held accountable for his crimes.”

“And if he’s not involved?”

“Then he will need my father’s help, if it’s not too late already.”

CHAPTER

38

THOMAS

Thomas continued to check his rearview mirror for signs that he was being followed.  He was having difficulty driving with his left hand while he applied pressure to his bleeding shoulder with his right, and he was relieved to see the police station just down the block.

Adrenalin
e continued to course through his veins as he parked the car haphazardly and got out, scrambling across the street and into the station.  The elderly gentleman at the front desk looked at him cautiously.

“Can I help you, Sir?” he asked.  “Looks as though you need a hospital, not a police station.”

“I need to speak with Officer Anderson or Major Rosetti right away, please.”

“Major Rosetti isn’t here at the moment, but I can check to see if Officer Anderson is still in the building.  Can I ask what this is about?”

“Just tell him I think I know what’s happened to Mia,” he replied.

He
tried to ignore the shooting pain radiating through the left side of his body as he listened to the desk clerk attempt to locate Jack.  He couldn’t shake the images of the women he had seen at the auction and he was overwhelmed with worry for Mia.  He wanted nothing more than to run screaming through the hallways of the station to find Jack on his own, for he felt as though every moment that he wasn’t looking for Mia was a minute something catastrophic could be happening to her.  However, both blood loss and the early stages of shock were having a disabling effect on him, and he was unable to move from the spot where he was standing.  He was more than a little relieved when after only a couple of minutes, Jack himself appeared in the lobby.

“Jesus Christ, Thomas!  What the hell happened to you?” Jack exclaimed as he hurried to
his side.

“It’s kind of a long story.  Can we talk about it in your office so I can sit down?  I don’t feel so well
all of a sudden,” he said, overcome by wooziness.

“Of course, but w
hat in the world happened to your arm?  Did you get shot?”

“Only sort of,”
he replied with a half-hearted chuckle.

Once they were safely ensconced in Jack’s office,
he took a few moments to compose himself and control his breathing.  Without thinking too much about the emotional toll the night had taken on him, he quickly recounted all of the events that had transpired since they had seen one another just after Mia’s disappearance.  Jack sat in contemplative silence for several moments after he was finished and Thomas sat quietly with his head in his hands.

“So what do we do now?”
he asked.  “We’ve got to find her, Jack.  I know they’ve got her somewhere.  And we have to save the other women too.”

“As much as I hate to say it, I think we need to bring in her father.  He won’t hesitate to send officers to the warehouse for the women.  In fact, I bet he’ll have people over there tonight.  I don’t know if he’ll buy the fact that these people have
kidnapped Mia, but once he sees what’s at the warehouse, it might be enough to change his mind.  Meanwhile, I can find someone to take you to the hospital.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Jack.  Not until you find
her.”

Jack shook his head.  “Then let me at least call around and find someone here at the station to take a look at it.  You’ve lost a lot of blood.  You should probably eat something too.”

“I’ll be fine.  Just call the chief, get those women, and go find Mia.”

“You really think they’ve got her?”

“Yeah.  I do.”

“I hope
you’re wrong,” Jack said.

“Me too
.”

CHAPTER

39

KATE

There was a crack, like the sound of a firework exploding.  At first, Kate was positive it was a part of the dream she’d been having.  When she heard the noise a second time, this time fully awake, she sat straight up on her mattress and called into the night.

“What was that?  Did you hear it?”

“I heard it,” Anya replied.

“It was
a handgun being fired,” Mia answered.

“A gun?” cried Lera.

“Yes.  And it sounded close,” said Mia.  “Depending on what part of town we’re in, it may be a gang or drug related.  We should be safe down here.”

The irony
of Mia’s words wasn’t lost on her.  “Funny, that this is the safe place to be,” she remarked.

Suddenly,
she heard another gunshot, but this time it was louder and closer, causing her to cover her ears.  The basement was thrown into chaos as the women began crying and calling out to one another. 

“They’
re right above us,” Mia said cautiously.  “It sounds like they’re inside the warehouse.”

“Who
do you think it is?” Lera asked.

“
I don’t know.  But whoever it is could mean trouble for us,” Mia replied.  “During my life I’ve observed that people who do bad things tend to hang out with other people who do bad things.  A lot of times they end up turning on each other.  If that’s what’s going on then we need to be ready in case they bring whatever is going on up there down here.”

She
was petrified and felt more than ever like a caged animal.  “What should we do?” she screamed.  “We’re trapped in here!”

“Get down low.  Make yourself small.  Cover your head and your ears.”

“Do you think they’ll come down?” Lera cried hysterically.

“I
hope not,” Mia answered.

She
lay silently thinking of her sisters.  During her imprisonment, they had been her sole motivation for survival and escape.  She imagined them, lost and afraid, perhaps separated from one another and she knew she had to be strong if she ever hoped to see them again.  She would have to survive whatever was about to happen.

“We’re going to be okay,” she said aloud, in an attempt to bend the universe into her submission
.

“
You can’t honestly believe that,” Anya whispered.

“I h
ave faith,” she replied.  “We’re going to get out of here.  I can feel it.”

Two more shots were fired
in the warehouse above her.  She drew her arms over her head and curled into a ball in the corner of her cell. 

And then, she heard the door opening at the top of the stairwell.

It was agonizing, listening to Lera quietly whimpering in the adjacent cell, knowing there was no way to console her.  She waited for the men, whoever they were, to turn on the lights and descend the stairs, but the basement remained pitch black. 

She
focused on her breathing and the conscious thought that they were all going to be okay.  The mood in the basement had changed and the initial chaos had given way to silence as the women prepared for what was coming.  After what felt like an eternity, she saw a shaft of light piercing through the darkness at the end of the corridor.  She didn’t dare to uncover her head, but she managed to peer between her arms as the light grew closer.  She couldn’t yet see the men but the sound of their footsteps grew louder with every breath she took.  Finally, the beam of a flashlight swept across her cell and the men stopped just outside her door.

“Clear!” called the man into the night.  “Can someone try and find a light switch?”

“We’re working on it,” came an unfamiliar voice from the top of the stairs.

“Derek?” she heard Mia say.

“Who’s there?” the man said, s
winging the beam of his flashlight into Mia’s cell.  “Mia?”

She
watched as Mia sprang from the floor and reached for the man from between the bars of her cell.  “Yes!  Oh my God, Derek!  You’ve found us!”

“Mia!  What the hell are you doing down here?  I thought you were on vacation or something!  What’s going on?”

“There’s too much to explain, but right now, you have to get the other women out of here.  Some of them have been here for months!  Please!  Hurry!”

She
struggled to make sense of what was happening.  Only moments before, she’d been contemplating death and the possibility that her dreams of escape and of rescuing her sisters would die with her.  But now, as she watched Mia and the man she called Derek talking across the hall, she couldn’t help but feel excitement building in her soul.

“Mia?” she called.

“Yes?”

“What’
s happening?”

“
We’re getting out of here, Kate!  Somehow the police found us and we’re going to be out of here in no time!”

“Can this be true?” Lera asked
, tears streaming down her face.

The overhead
fluorescents suddenly came to life, bathing the basement in harsh light.

“Oh God, Mia! 
You’re hurt!” Derek exclaimed when his eyes finally adjusted to the light.

“It’s nothing.  I’m fine.
  Leave me, just get the others out.”

Derek took off down the corridor and the basement was thrown into
a state of pandemonium once again.  She heard the other women screaming and crying to be let out of their cells.  The voices of other police officers could now be heard from the far end of the hall and after several moments, she heard the sound of the first lock being cut off. 

She and Mia
stood across the hall from one another in a state of utter disbelief.  “Is this really happening?” she asked.

“Yes.  It’s
happening.  Somehow, they found us. I don’t know how, but they did,” Mia replied.

“It’s a miracle,”
she said, unable to believe the reality of the celebratory hysteria surrounding her.

“It really is,” Mia agreed.

Slowly and methodically, the officers made their way down the hallway, cutting the locks with bolt cutters to free each of the women from their cells.  She watched as Anya and Lera’s doors were finally opened and they frantically scrambled into the hallway, throwing themselves into one another’s embrace.  As the officer approached the final two cells, he turned to Mia.

“Kate first,” she said.

The man, who was dressed in a navy blue uniform, his badge clearly visible on his chest, took the bolt cutters and easily broke through the lock which held her cell door securely shut.  As the lock fell to the ground, the door swung open and she stepped into the hall.  Suddenly, she remembered the box hidden below her mattress and went back into the cell to retrieve it.  By the time she returned to the hallway, Mia had been released as well.

Lera
nearly knocked her over as she gathered her in an unexpected embrace.

“Thank you,” she whispered into
her ear.

“For what?”
she asked.

“For being my friend and taking care of me.
  And for saying all those prayers.  I heard you, you know.”

“I didn’t do anything special.”

“It was special to me.  It gave me hope,” Lera said as an officer wrapped her in a blanket to escort her from the basement.

She
looked down the corridor.  Lera and Anya were the last of the women being led up the stairs by the officers.  Mia stood beside her and took her by the hand.

“So now what
?” she asked, her mind reeling from the night’s events.

“Assuming t
hey’re following protocol, everyone will go to the hospital where you’ll be treated for injuries, dehydration, and malnutrition.  They’ll take rape kit samples and you’ll give your statements.  INS might get involved.”

“And then?”

“And then I don’t know.  But we’ll figure it out together, okay?”

“
You’ll stay with me?”

“I will.”

“Okay.  But, Mia?  What about my sisters.  I don’t know where they are.  They could be here in America already.”

“
We’ll find them.  I promise.  You have my word on it.”

She
walked with Mia out of the warehouse and into the brisk night air.  They were surrounded by ambulances and police cars with their lights flashing.  She watched as a gurney was loaded into one of the ambulances with what appeared to be a dead body.  The left arm of the victim fell limply off the side as the paramedics hoisted the stretcher into the back of the vehicle.  When she saw the corpse was wearing a red sweatshirt, she felt strangely conflicted, knowing she should never be happy about the death of another human being.

With all fifteen women safely out of the basement, the officers began to load the
m into ambulances two and three at a time.  After spotting Lera and Anya huddled together under a blanket just outside the entrance to the warehouse, she ran across the parking lot to speak with them.

She
slowed as she approached them, unsure of how to behave with her friends now that they were no longer bound by captivity.  It was a surreal situation and she struggled for just the right words to adequately express all she was feeling.  However, before she could say anything, Anya began to cry.

“Kate,” she said, “if someone had to be with me through this nightmare, I am glad it was you.”

“Me too,” said Lera.

Lost for words,
she shed tears of her own as they were helped into the back of an ambulance.  They were being escorted from the warehouse to the hospital and as they drove out of the lot, she spotted Mia through the window.  She was embracing one of her fellow officers.

She
smiled to herself, knowing it was because of her gift that Mia had become an instrument of change, facilitating both their discovery and release.  Somehow, her gift chose to bring Mia into her life as the means of ending her imprisonment.  With that knowledge, she closed her eyes and used her gift to send yet another message into the universe.  This time she made sure to speak the words aloud.

“
I’m going to find my sisters,” she said.