Scars Of Defiance (23 page)

General Steinman didn’t look amused, but turned and opened
the door for Sierra. “Dr. Roth, is the prisoner awake?”

“Not yet, General. Ah Sierra, come in.” Dr. Roth turned to
the general. “Your services are no longer needed, General Steinman. I’ve
secured the prisoner.”

“Reginald ordered me to guard the boy. It’s not up to you to
dismiss me.” General Steinman was a military man to the bone. His perfect
posture and immaculate uniform were indications of how dedicated he was to his
position.

“Yes, it is up to me, because I’m the one who asked Reginald
to place you outside my door. I no longer need your services. You are
dismissed.”

“I must hear the order from Reginald.”

Dr. Roth picked up his phone and dialed upstairs. After a
few moments he handed the receiver to General Steinman, who muttered a “yes
sir” and gave the phone back to Dr. Roth. He threw a vicious glare at Dr. Roth
and turned on his heel and left the infirmary.

Dr. Roth ushered Sierra back to the exam room where Paul
was. He was awake, and she rushed to his side and took his hand, kissing it
repeatedly. “Paul, I was so scared! You were lifeless.” She bent forward and
kissed his lips, claiming them as her own.

He brought up one arm and cupped her cheek. His thumb
smoothed away the tears off of her soft skin as he pushed her back a little.
“Don’t cry. I’m alright.”

“I can’t help it. I thought I’d lost you, again!” All new
tears flooded her eyes.

“I’m not that easy to kill,” he said with a smile. His
fingertips traced along her cheek and down her neck. “Your skin is soft as
silk. I’ve thought that since the first day you and I practiced going under the
house and my hands went under your shirt, accidently, of course.”

He was attempting to get her mind off of last night, and she
was grateful for it. She never wanted to be in that situation ever again.

 “How are those ribs today, Paul?” Dr. Roth asked.

“They hurt, but they’ve taken my mind off of the other pains
in my body. Funny how that works, isn’t it?”

Sierra smiled. “I know exactly what you’re talking about.”

“Alright, you two. I believe we’re ready to move forward.
I’ll make the phone call to make sure the other end is ready to go. Paul, you
should pretend to be asleep, and Sierra, why don’t you sit on this chair here
and hold his hand with that doe-eyed look of concern you do so well. This way,
if anyone comes into the clinic, like Reginald, we’ll be prepared.”

Sierra sat beside Paul and lovingly held his hand as they
listened to Dr. Roth talk to someone on the phone. Dr. Roth used a lot of code
words and indirect language that made it hard to decipher what he was saying
exactly.

“How soon can your men be ready?” Dr. Roth’s eyebrows shot
up quickly. “Well, then, it’s now or never. We go now.” He hung up the phone
and looked at the two of them. “Follow me.”

Quite a pair the two of them made. Sierra limped on her
splinted leg while allowing Paul to lean on her for support. Paul could barely
walk from lack of strength, barely breathe from broken ribs, and he needed to
cough but knew better than to. They followed Dr. Roth into a supply closet just
off the main exam room. A false wall had been built at the back of the closet,
creating a secret room three feet by four feet wide on the other side. They
entered the small cubicle, and Dr. Roth explained further. “You both are going
to need to sit in the area behind this wall for several hours, if not days,
until the rest of this plan transpires. Can you handle it?”

They looked at each other and smiled.

“But you’ve got to be quiet, no noises, coughing, sneezing,
or laughing. The door will always be open, and the light will be on, so any
sounds in this room will be heard by anyone out in the exam room.”

They both nodded.

“There’s food and water up on that shelf, and this here is a
port-a-potty. I hope neither of you is too shy. I don’t know how long it will
take to complete this leg of the plan, and once you are closed in here, I can’t
talk to you without risking giving away your location.”

“Alright,” Paul said.

“If you need to communicate with me, use this code guide.
The basic necessities are in there with a drug name listed as the code name.
Write your drug name on one of these pink slips, and slide it under the wall
right here. Penicillin means you need water. Insulin means you need food, and
so on. I’ll keep my eye open for pink slips. Make sure you stand and stretch
regularly to keep adequate blood flow in your legs.”

“What happens next?” Sierra asked him.

“I figure I have about thirty seconds to execute the next
step.”

Dr. Roth took some supplies down from the shelf in the
closet. He smeared some thick putty substance over his temple and then took a
bag of blood and squirted it on his head and down his lab coat. “Don’t worry,
it’s my own blood. It’s time to start this charade. You two have officially
fled the palace. Now step inside and pull the wall shut.”

Dr. Roth placed some blood on his hands and haphazardly
stumbled around the exam room a bit, touching this and that. He squirted a
splotch on the floor and deposited the blood bag in the bio-hazard waste
container. He pulled the phone over to the puddle of blood and dialed the
upstairs number.

“Help!” he gasped. “Infirmary, escaped.” Dr. Roth dropped
the receiver on the floor and laid his head in the puddle of blood and waited.

Behind the false wall in the supply closet, Paul held Sierra
close to his body in anticipation of the shakedown.

“What if they find us?” she whispered.

“They won’t. Dr. Roth is very smart. He knows what will look
suspicious and what won’t. An open closet with the light on isn’t suspicious.
They’ll be searching the palace and the grounds.”

Dr. Roth’s voice sounded into the closet. “Silence, they’re
coming.”

Paul and Sierra looked at each other, both shocked that even
their whisperings could be heard. The door to the infirmary slammed open, and
frantic voices filled the room, chaotic and frustrated because they couldn’t
awaken Dr. Roth.

“What the hell happened in here?” Reginald’s voice
thundered. “Doctor, wake up, damn you. Search the palace! Alert the guards to
be on the lookout for a man and a woman. Shut down the border, ground all
flights. No one in, no one out. That girl is as slippery as a greased pig.”

Other voices barked out orders into handheld radios.
Victor’s voice sounded into the supply closet. “What’s going on!”

Reginald said, “Victor, help him sit up.”

Voices silenced for a moment and were replaced with mild
commotion.

“Dr. Roth, what happened?” Victor demanded.

“One of them hit me after I turned my back to put up the
x-rays. I turned to see them running out the door, well not exactly running. He
has broken ribs, and her ankle is still painful. They couldn’t have gone far.
When you find them, bring them to me. I have a score to settle.”

“Get in line.” Victor’s harsh voice caused Sierra to tremble
as Paul held her.

“Get yourself cleaned up, Dr. Roth.” Reginald almost sounded
as if he cared. “We need a description of them. What was Sierra wearing this
morning, Victor?”

“Uh, um I don’t … I think pants … a shirt?”

Reginald let out a huff and said, “You’re an idiot, Victor.”

“Well, she wasn’t wearing a dress. That’s what I mean. Oh! I
remember. She had on a pink top and cream slacks. I remember thinking how ugly
the pants were.”

“Good. Dr. Roth, what was the boy wearing?”

“Just the usual prison suit.”

“There, we have a description. Get it out to the police and
the border,” Reginald ordered.

The exam room quieted down as most of the voices left the
room. “Dr. Roth, may I assist you with your injury?” an unrecognizable voice
sounded into the closet.

Paul and Sierra both tensed. What if it was discovered that
his injury was really putty?

Dr. Roth didn’t panic, though. “Yes. Please scoot that cart
over to me. Thank you. In the cupboard to the left is a suture tray. It’s
labeled such.”

Sierra and Paul listened to the variety of noises coming
from the exam room. Small talk between the doctor and his assistant continued
for about twenty minutes. At one point, Dr. Roth instructed the assistant to
get some supplies out of the closet — the very closet they were hiding in. They
could hear him rifling through containers just on the other side of the wall,
not knowing the fugitives were inches away.

Another breathless voice sounded in from the other room.
“They’ve been spotted! They stole your car, Dr. Roth.”

“Are you serious? They must have taken my keys out of my
jacket. That’s just great! I just paid off the loan! So, where did they spot
them?”

“They made it out of the city and are headed north. They’re
stupid if they think they can get past the border. Every policeman, military
troop, undercover cop, and drug-sniffing dog is looking for them. They won’t
get far.”

“It would appear they’ve gotten far enough without being
seen,” Dr. Roth answered back.

Voices on a handheld radio reported in distorted voices,
“Suspect’s vehicle crashed.”

“What location?”

“Three mile hill. They went over the edge.”

“Edge of what?”

“What do you think? The cliff. We’re going to need … going
to need, ah hell, there’s no way they survived that.” A loud distortion of
sound blared through the radio.

Dr. Roth asked, “What was that?”

The other voice answered, “It sounded like a — ”

The radio’s voice was nearly indiscernible. “The car
exploded! It’s in flames. We need a fire truck.” There were a lot of voices in
the background. “Cancel that. We need a helicopter. We’re just going to have to
wait for the fire to burn itself out.”

“How far down is the vehicle?”

“At least five hundred feet,” the radio banter continued.

The three men in the infirmary talked together. Dr. Roth
said, “Reginald is not going to like this one bit.”

“Tell me about it. I don’t want to even cross his path for
fear he’ll shoot me just to feel better.”

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“It wouldn’t matter.”

“How’s Victor going to take this?” Dr. Roth asked.

“Victor couldn’t care less, I’m guessing. He’s been seen
with the daughter of General Steinman ever since Sierra disappeared a few days
ago.”

“Elinore Steinman?”

“Yes.”

“Victor is a piece of work, really,” the third voice stated.

“He’s Reginald’s piece of work, and we all have to live with
it,” Dr. Roth said plainly. “You two better get back to your posts before
Reginald sees you’re gone or I’ll be treating you later.”

“Um, we realize we don’t really have to ask, but can you
keep what we just said, you know, confidential?”

“Of course.”

The two men left the room and silence settled in.

*****

There was no verbal communication between the doctor and his
escapees throughout the morning. Paul sat on the small chair, and Sierra sat on
the floor, but only after she insisted on it because of his ribs. They kept
their whispering to an absolute minimum. Paul and Sierra ate minimal food and
drank some water. The less in their systems, the less they’d need to use the
bathroom.

Paul struggled several times with his insatiable urge to
cough. He knew it would hurt like hell, not to mention it could give away their
location. He sipped water and cleared his throat as quietly as he could.

Throughout the day, various palace staff members came into
the infirmary with a wide assortment of ailments. Everyone voiced their concern
for Dr. Roth’s well being and had their own comments about the situation
between Sierra Montgomery and her mysterious friend. Most of the palace
employees felt Sierra was right in trying to flee. But with every admission to
Dr. Roth, a plea for him to keep it quiet followed.

That evening the word came in:  the bodies of the two
escapees were being brought to the palace for identification. Paul and Sierra
listened to Dr. Roth’s one-sided phone conversation.

“Burned beyond recognition? Then what makes you think it’s
them?” Long silence. “Well, only if I had dental records or some other form of
medical … wait, I performed x-rays on him. I could make an identification based
on those. I have her dental records on file.”

A voice from the exam room said, “Well, ole Reginald’s
knickers are sure in a twist over this one. Not only did these two get past
him, his guards, and his police, but now he’s lost Sierra Montgomery for good.
She was to be the force to bring him stability in power.”

“I’ve never quite understood that,” Dr. Roth said.

“What part? The fact that the Montgomerys were in power
before Reginald’s father, or the fact that having Sierra in the palace would
calm the people?”

“I thought King Louis held the power and he was only married
to a Montgomery.”

“The Montgomerys held the power in this country for several
decades leading up to the overthrow of the king. The king was just their
puppet.”

“Don’t you think the citizens of Rendier would suspect
Sierra was being abused or controlled? I would think it would cause more
uprisings than calming. Did Sierra even understand the whole family line
issue?”

“I don’t know. You know, Doc, I’m shocked you aren’t up to
speed on this subject.”

“You forget, I’m from Baylend. That, and I’m locked down
here next to the dungeon. I don’t get out much.”

The two men laughed.

The door to the infirmary opened, and a quick shuffling of
feet could be heard. “General Steinman, sir,” the unknown voice said.

“At ease, soldier. Dismissed,” General Steinman said. The
door opened and closed. “Doctor, I need you to take a look at something.”

Paul’s throat began having another spasm. Sierra placed her
hand on his knee in concern as he swallowed repeatedly in an effort to stifle
the cough.