15

“Who’s waiting?” Kendra asked.  She wore only a hospital johnny, and held it tightly closed around her as she stood.  She screamed immediately.  The muscles in the front of her thighs felt like hot brittle glass.  She sat quickly on the bed.

“What is it now?” asked the first goon impatiently.

Kendra didn’t answer him.  When her heart rate was just about normal, she looked around expectantly.

“Come on!” said Goon One, but Goon Two looked around also.

“What?” he asked.

“I need a bathrobe,” Kendra said reasonably. 

“Forget it.  We’ve seen everything you got.”

Who undressed me?!  She tried not to let her dismay show as she stared blankly at the soft soundproof tiles above her.

“Aw, geez,” said Goon Two.  He went to a wall and pushed something.  A narrow door, also covered with soundproof tile, opened.  Goon Two took a bathrobe from the small closet beyond, and brought it to Kendra.

“Whatcha do that for?” growled Goon One.

“She reminds me of my little sister,” Goon Two said. 

Kendra shrugged into the thin bathrobe, then lay on her belly with her arms crossed in front of her, and waited for her thighs to stop burning.  “Who’s waiting for me?” she asked the first goon again.

“You’ll see soon enough.  Let’s go.”  He bent forward as if to grab her.

“Wait!” Kendra shouted.  “I need to stretch the front of my legs too.  Whatever you knocked me out with seems to cause muscle cramps too.” 

“Nah,” said the second goon as he first arched his back then swung each arm in a circle, limbering up.  “You just haven’t moved in three days--”

“Shut up,” the first goon cut him off, and looked nervously toward the corner of the ceiling behind him, confirming Kendra’s suspicion that the room had been bugged.  She pushed herself up on her elbows, and waited again for her legs to stop hurting.  Her arms trembled so much that she wondered if she could hold the stretch.

“So you two have been on guard duty for three days?” Kendra tried to sound as if she sympathized.  She had to gather as much information as she could.

“It was easy while you were out of it--”

“Shut your face,” the first goon cut him off, “and keep it shut!”

“You’re not the boss of me!”

While the two goons argued, Kendra tried to think of an escape plan.  It seemed possible if the two goons were her only guards.

“Enough!” said Goon One.  “We’re going.”  He grabbed Kendra’s arm, but she brushed him off.

“I can walk now.”  She stood up.  Her legs quivered she was so weak, but she had no pain.

As soon as she stepped out of the soundproof room, any hope of escape left Kendra.  The floor of the corridor was cement, and the walls and ceiling were stainless steel.  She saw no drains or windows to slither through.  The steel was seamless except for the rectangles of florescent light every ten feet.  Her guards hurried her along so fast that the lights flashed by, like the white stripes on a highway, but in slow motion.  The effect was sort of hypnotic.  Maybe her mind was not as clear as she thought it was.

Kendra saw no point in resisting.  The people with the knowledge she needed were somewhere ahead of her.  The trembling in Kendra’s legs increased as she did her best to hurry.  Before they reached the first turn in corridor, her legs gave out. 

Goon Two scooped her up, and rushed on.

“Don’t you have a cart or something?” Kendra asked, irritated by the jostling she got with his every step.  He didn’t answer her.

“If you’d just feed me, I’d be strong enough to walk,” she said.

Goon Two looked at Goon One, who shook his head curtly.

The corridor ended in a T-junction.  They made a right.  Kendra had the feeling they were underground.

After hundreds of yards of more jostling, they stopped.  Goon One knocked on what seemed to be just more stainless steel wall until a section slid back to reveal a large and elegant conference room.  Around one of the three tables in the room sat Xenopoulos and five businessmen.

Goon Two set Kendra down inside the room.  Both goons then stepped back, into the hallway.  The door slid shut, appearing just as seamless on the inside as it had done on the outside.  Straightening her bathrobe, Kendra met the gaze of each businessman in turn.  They were an international bunch, but still managed to look rather homogenous in their dark suits.

A second table at the periphery of her vision drew Kendra’s attention.  On it was spread a buffet so huge and elegant that it appeared to have been landscaped.  Her stomach growled.  Xenopoulos must have heard it, because she smiled nastily.

“Please have a seat, Miss Tanagawa,” she said, and gestured toward the lone chair on the near side of the table.

As she took the few steps to the chair, Kendra couldn’t help but glance at the wall behind her captors.  Surely a conference room so elegant should have a large bank of windows there, but the room had no windows.  That scant verification that she was being held underground was enough to lift Kendra’s spirits.

Her arm trembled as she pulled the chair away from the conference table.  Kendra sat quickly.  She hoped that no one had noticed, but when she looked up, she saw Xenopoulos’ smile widen.

“It seems we always meet when you are hungry,” the spy said, then glanced to her left at the businessmen.  They all smiled, as if amused.  They were not kind smiles.

The scent of smoked salmon wafted to Kendra.  Her mouth watered.

“We will wait to eat until our business is concluded,” Xenopoulos said.

Kendra had the feeling that her captors intended not to feed her unless she cooperated.  She looked into each of the six pairs of eyes that faced her, and knew that she was right.

“We brought you here,” began the Chinese businessman seated directly across from Kendra, “to discuss the terms under which you will surrender your research--”