Page 61 of The Diamond Thief
24
Jade
Irecognize the way I’m waking up before I’m even fully conscious. It’s the same chemical dream feeling I had when I found myself in the fake hotel room of Jacob’s bunker.
Dammit. He did it again. Does he have any other party tricks other than rendering his opponent unconscious? I guess I should be glad I’m not dead.
I can’t wait any longer. I’ll find him and tell him who I am. Who he is. Who we are to each other.
My vision is blurry, but I blink a few times and it returns to clear. I’m back in the hotel room. That’s weird. I try to brush my hair out of my eyes, but my hands are tied to the corners of the bed. I shake my head and look around. The room appears to be empty.
“Jacob?” I call.
I wait and listen. Nothing.
I shout a little louder. “Jacob!”
I sniff the air. There’s still a distinct chemical smell.
I don’t know if it’s from my clothes and hair or if it’s coming from somewhere else. Would the room sense my movement and gas me again? I have no doubt that this setup has the capability.
My eyes dart in the corners, but I don’t spot anything obvious. I arch my back and look behind me at the headboard, searching for any small holes.
They could be anywhere. Something like that is easy to hide.
Dammit. I lie very still and close my eyes, listening for any sound. I still my breaths. At first the thud of my heartbeat obscures everything else, but as it slows down, I hear a faint crashing sound. A man’s voice. A shout?
They’re fighting out there. I haven’t been out long.
If I can get free, I can reveal the slide again and go down to the control room.
Now that I know where it goes, I can shift to the side during my descent and avoid being thrown back in the cage.
More crashes. Jacob!
I don’t think this is about my father. He would have let me know in the car if something was awry. Antony was on our tail. Something made him follow us. But what? Was he on to me?
I have to assume so.
I struggle with renewed fervor at my bonds. I have to get out of these things fast.
I realize that my legs aren’t tied down, so I kick off my shoes, lifting my ankles close to my head.
This is a very particular sort of tie, one of the first ones you learn with Antony’s training. And Jacob left my feet available to me, so that I could work on them.
Interesting. He gave me a means to escape if I wanted it. I act fast. I grab the short end of the tie between my toes and jerk hard. The bonds are impossible to get out of with just one hand, but if you can grab the extra tie with another force and pull, it is possible to get enough wiggle room. I do so quickly, freeing my right hand and then my left.
I shove on my shoes and throw myself to the floor in front of the rhododendron painting. The cameras follow me down. I quickly fingerspell Imelda, and the floor starts to drop.
I roll this time, staying in control of my direction. Halfway down the ramp, I switch to a somersault so that I land to the left of the cage.
The room is chaos and thick with smoke. Tables are overturned. The chair Jacob sat on earlier is in pieces. The chemical smell of a sleeping agent, or maybe worse, a nerve gas, fills the room. I cover my nose. I can’t take a breath down here safely, and now I’ve opened the way to the fake hotel room, so this gas has made it up there. I’m stuck.
Three men are collapsed on the floor. I do not see Antony among them.
Where is Jacob?
I dash through the haze and stumble upon another man. Unlike the others, he had a face mask at one point. His has been jerked off and lies beside him. I pick it up and thrust it on my head, quickly tightening the strap.
