A Second Hostage
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The vault. I had to think for a moment, but I knew how to get there from here. There wasn't exactly an exit that let out right where I was, but there was a good spot that let out on the opposite side of the hall. I just had to be extremely careful.
I slipped back the way I had come, this time delicately climbing straight down a small passageway that I had purposely avoided while following their trail. This let me crawl underneath the floor of the hall I was near and climb back up inside the opposite wall.
While I crawled, I heard thundering footsteps above me, at least three or four people running down the hall, away from Lero. I froze, my heart chilling. Had he changed? I didn't hear any screams or sounds of fighting or fear. No, those men must just be running around looking for me. Or maybe Lero had escaped, but I doubted that. He was heavily outnumbered.
When the footsteps had disappeared into parts of The Hole unknown, I pressed my ear against the wall I planned to exit from and listened. Listened for the sound of breath, a careless word, or a light step or shuffle. I knew that I was in the hall leading to the vault, with the entrance to the clearing room where I believed Lero was held to my left. To my right would be an expanse of hallway wider than most in The Hole since carts often had to be pushed through here. The hall took a sharp turn to the right not too far down, so it was unlikely anyone would be over that way. The main danger came from being spotted from the left, if the door to the vault was open.
I was betting that they had closed it. If they did see me, I could just escape back into the wall—I wasn't worried about that. But I didn't want them to know that I knew where they had Lero. They would probably move him, or tighten security even more. Besides, I could not run around these walls forever. Eventually, they'd pin me. I'd rather they not have any idea where I was.
My ear told me that there was no one out there, and I had to trust it. Locking my breath in my chest, I eased the secret panel loose and slid it open just enough to fit my head through, then peered out into the hall.
No one in sight. Thank the heavens. To my left, the door leading to the vault. It was closed, but not all the way; through the small crack left ajar, I could see two pairs of feet. One meant nothing. The other was bare and had three scars across its ankle. That foot belonged to Seamus, who had once tried to knife-fight someone equally as foolish by holding a blade between his toes and trying to knock his opponent's blade free. He had won, if the story he told about it was true.
But that wasn't important (and never had been). That was Seamus, and if he was there, Lero was there.
Now, how would I get him out? Leaving him wasn't an option. I didn't even consider it. There was something insidious going on and it involved us both; we needed each other. And I...I just couldn't leave him to be killed.
I pulled back into the wall and slid the panel shut, retreating further into the darkness while I tried to come up with an impossible rescue.
Fighting them was not the answer. Maybe I could beat one, but five? And if I burst in there with a weapon, someone might get hurt. No, there had to be a better way than going for the kill.
I cast my mind back. Did any of the passages let out in the vault? No...no. Jed didn't want people sneaking in and out of the vault. This was the closest one, and he only allowed it so messages could be delivered to the guard if they needed to. I couldn't get any closer than this. Jed was too...
Jed! Only now did it occur to me that this was his doing. Having all the men and women in this place united against Lero and me...I hadn't given it much thought, but I had assumed this was some kind of a mutiny by a select group within The Hole, a silent nighttime attempt to capture us. But seeing Seamus and Vahn, as well as others, all after us...I knew these men. I knew the cliques and who liked to work together. Half the men who had grabbed Lero couldn't stand Seamus. They were following orders.
Who else but Jed?
I began to move. Jed. Sneakier than all of us, wily and plotting. A man of many layers. A scarred enigma. One who was too generous and kind this evening, letting us stay with hardly any explanation at all.
He was going to be the one doing the explaining.
I knew how to get to where Jed would be. I never fully trusted him—well, I rarely fully trust anyone, but I really kept Jed at an arm's length—and he always seemed like someone who had plans for whoever he was talking to. Like he wasn't really there, speaking with you, but somewhere off in his own head, dreaming something up. Not in a cute way.
I knew that Jed wouldn't be running around the halls looking for Lero and me. He'd be sitting back, getting reports, and running everything as smoothly as he could. Not in his quarters; those were secure as could be, and he couldn't get messages in there. Jed would be nearby the vault, in the study that hardly got any use. If you were looking for Jed, you'd find him there more often than not, thinking or planning or writing something down, whatever it was that he was up to. Plenty of message access. Very central to The Hole in general.
If this was his plot, then he'd be masterminding it from the study. And I knew just how to get there.
Time was not on my side, and I did my best to outrun it. I couldn't move particularly well in these walls, but I hurried as quickly as I possibly could, ignoring the scrapes and splinters that came along with it.
The only tough thing about reaching Jed was that this particular exit into the study came out of the ceiling, and I had to be perfectly, unerringly quiet to reach it without him noticing. Luckily, that was my profession. When I made it to the slab of wood that marked the hole, I listened carefully for noise. No one ever went in this study except for Jed. If someone was in here, it was him.
"What is taking them so long?"
Jed's voice, down below. Talking to himself—I could tell by the tone. I slipped my old dagger from the scabbard around my ankle; easy to do while I was crouched spider-like in the ceiling. Then, in one swift movement, I slid aside the ceiling slot and dropped into the room.
"What—"
It was all Jed had time to say before I got behind him and brought the blade of the dagger up to his neck. He was taller than I was, but that didn't make it too hard to make the steel touch his skin.
"Myra." Jed spoke with calm. "What do you think—"
I tightened my grip on the dagger, forcing the blade against his neck. That shut him up fast.
"I'll ask the questions now, Jed," I said. "And I'll start with the obvious. Who are you working for?"
"Why do you—"
I sighed. Drew his blood with the knife with a small twitch of my fingers. "You know that I don't really care for you, Jed. The only reason you're alive right now is because you have answers. Give them to me, and we'll leave with them. Don't, and we'll leave with your head."
"We," Jed repeated, but he sounded a little more worried now. "You and that Lero character. If that's even his real name."
I didn't bother answering the implied question of 'why'. I just said, "Let's go," and, holding him from behind with the dagger firmly in place on his neck, I guided him toward the door and told him to kick it open. He did, and we stepped out into the hall.
"I'm taking us to the vault," I said. "The closer we get without you talking, the deeper this dagger is going to cut. If we get all the way there and you haven't told me what I need to know..." I let that hang in the silence of the hall, and I started walking him forward.