Following Teterya’s instructions, she stayed directly behind him as he walked rapidly down the hallway toward another doorway she hadn’t been through before. With every step, she was expecting someone to say something to her, shout at her to stop. At the very least, she was sure one of the prisoners they passed would recognize her.
But they didn’t even look at her, and no one said a word.
There was a speaker box next to the door. The doctor pressed the button at the bottom of the box, and a voice spoke. As the doctor replied, he tilted his head up to face a camera mounted above the door. When the voice spoke again, the doctor stepped to the side, giving the camera a view of Alex. Motioning with his eyes, he told her to look at the lens.
Steeling herself, she tore her gaze away from the file folder and looked up. Her heart was pounding.
The voice spoke again, and the doctor quickly responded.
A pause, then a buzz sounded as the door was unlocked.
The room on the other side turned out to be a stairwell that led to the basement, which was nothing more than a single long corridor that ended at a barred door. The walls were covered with green peeling paint, the floor made of bare concrete. Though otherwise clean, Alex was pretty sure it was a place that didn’t see a lot of traffic.
There was another camera in the ceiling above the barred door. Just before they reached it, there was a loud clank, and the door swung open a few inches.
The doctor let Alex pass through first, then closed the door behind them. It clanked again as some unseen guard relocked it.
More concrete — walls, ceiling, and floor. Running along the center of the ceiling was an electrical line that was broken up at consistent intervals by glass-dome light fixtures, each with a single bulb inside. Cameras were mounted along the ceiling as well, about fifty feet apart.
The corridor curved to the right, and as they traveled through it, Alex realized that Teterya’s attention was focused on the ceiling ahead. With a sudden stop, he looked back past her, then ahead again. One of the cameras was directly above them, but because of the curve of the passageway, the cameras behind and in front were well out of sight.
A blind spot.
Teterya quickly pulled an envelope from his pocket and handed it to her. “I forget before. This message come for you this morning.”
“Have you read it?”
“No. Is sealed.”
Alex started to open it.
“Read while walk,” he said.
With a nod, she pulled the paper out, laid it against the file, and began following the doctor again.
The note was short and handwritten.
TOO DANGEROUS. RECOMMEND ABORT. PLS CONFIRM.
C
Now they think it’s too dangerous?
It had been too dangerous since the day they’d laid out this plan. So had something happened? Had she been compromised? Should she get the hell out of here now?
“Hurry,” Teterya whispered harshly.
She glanced up. The distance between them had increased to about twenty feet. She picked up her pace.
“A problem?” he whispered without moving his lips.
“No. No problem.”
It didn’t matter what the note said. She had to talk to El-Hashim. She had to find out what the woman knew about her father.
Soon the tunnel straightened, its pools of light fading off in the distance, giving the illusion the passageway went on forever. It wasn’t long, however, before Alex could see another barred door. As they approached it, there was a familiar clank, but as they passed through the doorway, they weren’t greeted by an empty corridor. Instead, two guards Alex had never seen before stood in the hallway, waiting.
Teterya shared a few words with them, then the guards led them to a staircase that took them back to ground level.
The building they found themselves in felt very much like the cellblock buildings in the main part of the prison — same gray walls, same oppressive feel. The difference came when they followed the guards onto the blocks. There were only six cells, three on each side, their open metal doors revealing they were only big enough for a single bed and a toilet.
They were also empty.
The same proved true of the cells in the second block. In block three, however, two of the doors were closed.
After block three, the guards led them through a double-gated security checkpoint that, given their escorts, went quickly and without incident. A couple of turns down a short hallway brought them to a wide corridor. One wall was lined with thick glass windows that looked out into the yard of the isolation area. Except for two more guards out for a smoke, the grounds were deserted. Alex noted that the three guard towers along the walls had clear views of every inch of the yard.
No-man’s-land. All of it.
An elevator ride took their small group to the fourth floor. They went through another checkpoint, and two cellblocks identical to those below. The entryway to the third, however, was not open like all the others had been. In addition, a guard was sitting on a chair beside it.
As soon as he saw them, he jumped to his feet.
There was a quick conversation between the escort guards and the man at the door before it was opened. Teterya went through first, with Alex right behind him. When it appeared as if the escorts would join them, the doctor said something, and after a bit of back and forth, the guards stayed on the other side.
Another order from the doctor and the door was closed.
This new block was unlike any of the others. In fact, the only thing that gave it away as being part of a prison complex was the metal door they had just come through.
They were standing in a foyer that opened up into a large living room space, with a hallway on one side, and an open kitchen on the other. The décor was hotel chic — marble and silk and porcelain and bamboo — with beautiful paintings on the walls where windows would be, and a large-screen television sitting on a teak cabinet.
What the hell?
This was obviously the luxury suite for prisoners who could afford it, and Alex suddenly understood why the warden had been so accommodating. El-Hashim must have paid a fat wad of cash to be transferred here.
El-Hashim herself was standing in the living area. She and her three friends had all scrambled to their feet as Alex and Teterya entered, holding scarves up to hide their faces as they stared at their two new guests.
Alex kept a step behind the doctor, with her head tilted down in hopes she wouldn’t be recognized right away.
“Good afternoon,” Teterya said.
“What do you want with A’isha Najem?” one of the protectors barked. Alex guessed this must be the one called Marie.
The doctor moved out of the foyer and into the living room proper, Alex keeping pace.
“It is requirement,” he said. “All prisoners in isolation have medical check every two days.”
“Does it look like we are in isolation?”
“Does not matter. You are in isolation facility, you must have check.”
El-Hashim and Marie huddled for a moment, then Marie said, “Okay, fine. Just make it quick.”
Teterya bowed slightly. “I would like to use bedroom. Which one better for you?”
At the mention of bedroom, the women gave him a wary look, but the presence of a nurse seemed to stifle any objections they may have had. Alex half expected them to recognize her now, but they only seemed to see the uniform.
“That one,” Marie said, pointing at a door on the left wall.
“Good,” Teterya told her. “Who will be first?”
There was a small desk in the room. Alex opened the file on it, then sat so that her back would be to the doctor and whomever Teterya was examining.