Page 44 of Prisoner of War
For the rest of the day, they dozed and watched the movements of the men between the buildings. In the mid-afternoon when they were both awake, Minnie pointed to the front gates. “No one is coming in or out of those gates, have you noticed? There are armed guards,the gates are closed and even the street outside is empty.”
Carmen yawned. “They’re gripping too tightly,” she said. “Keeping themselves apart, controlling too hard. Serrano must be getting desperate. No other country will recognize him. He’s killing the economy here, making the money dry up, so he can’t even buy himself recognition. No wonder the Mexican government approached Nick.”
At thatlatitude, darkness fell early, even in summer. Once it was fully dark and even though they were both dying to move, they stayed where they were and discussed their plan. “After midnight,” Carmen suggested. “They’ll be asleep or sleepy—even the guards. Fewer people wandering the grounds too.”
Minnie chewed at her lip. “I think it should be even later than that. Serrano and his men strike me asthe sort that party hard in the evenings—booze, women, gambling. The closer to dawn the better. They’ll be bedded down with a woman or sleeping off their rum.”
“Neither of us have a watch. That could be tricky to judge,” Carmen pointed out. “Wait too long and we’re back to daylight.”
“So let’s keep count of the number of windows still lit on the second floor. That’s where all the bedrooms are,right?”
“Along the north wing. Sure.”
“When they’re all out, or most of them, we make a move.”
* * * * *
Minnie nudged Carmen awake with her elbow. “Every light but one is out,” she whispered. The dark and still night seemed to demand whispering and her adrenaline had been steadily building the last few hours. “It’s been at least a couple of hours now since I saw anyone moving anywhere. There’sjust that one last light. No one’s cast a shadow across the window, though.”
Carmen rolled over and studied the shadowed building. “The external spotlights are still on. Suspicious bunch, aren’t they? Never mind, we can go around the back way. There’s an old coal chute...well, you’ll see.”
They carefully got to their feet, stretched and massaged away kinks and cramps. Carmen spent a few minutesfeeling around the ground beneath the trees. She straightened up with a satisfied sound and put something in the pocket of her oversized jeans. Then she led Minnie back along the line of trees until they reached the sheer rock face that provided an unscalable defense at the back of the presidential grounds.
From there, they could see the back of the building with the wide, elegant terrace andthe paved section where, once upon a time, rows of cars and a helicopter or two stood waiting to be used.
“Is that where...?” Carmen asked.
“Yes.” Minnie’s heart stuttered and thudded on. “They took him on a stretcher through that door there.” She pointed to the unremarkable doorway Duardo had been hurried through.
“That’s where the infirmary was,” Carmen confirmed.
The paving below the terracewas empty. Already, grass grew between the stones, giving it a neglected, sad look. “It seems like such a long time ago,” Minnie confessed. “But also, like it happened just yesterday.”
Carmen shifted her feet, the oversized rubber shoes squeaking in the grass. “Let’s go,” she murmured and strode out into the open grassed area between the trees and the palace itself. Minnie hurried after her,barely keeping up with her shorter legs. Carmen arrowed straight for the corner of the building and didn’t stop when she reached it. She moved with the wall a bare inch from her shoulder all the way to the north end of the building and halted at a section of the wall that had a sheet metal patch on it—as if it had been riveted over a hole in the wall. Carmen dug into her jeans pocket and withdrewwhat looked like a thick, six-inch-long twig.
She worked the end of the twig between the metal and the brickwork behind it, using a lot of effort. Minnie took a startled half-step backward when the patch moved a fraction of an inch from the wall.
Carmen slipped her fingertips between plate and wall and waved Minnie over, indicating she should do the same. Confused, Minnie did as she was asked,feeling thick, heavy and cold metal press against her fingers.
Carmen pulled on the sheet, putting her full body weight into it. Nothing happened. Still uncertain about what Carmen was trying to do, Minnie copied her and tugged on the sheet as well.
Although there was no sound, she felt the sheet giving way with slow reluctance. When it had moved far enough away from the wall, she recognizedit for what it was. The sheet was merely the front end of a vee-shaped bin that was hinged at the bottom of the vee. They were pulling it out from the wall.
As it swung lower and lower, she saw that the sides of the bin were vee shaped, but there was no back wall to the bin. Just a pitch-black maw. This, then, was the coal chute.
Carmen touched her shoulder and indicated that she should climbin. Minnie looked at the solid blackness beyond the opening and shook her head. Carmen rolled her eyes with exaggerated movements and pushed her aside. She threw her leg over the side of the bin and wriggled into it until she was sitting on the bottom of the bin. For Carmen it was a tight fit. Her hips were bigger than Minnie’s. But if Carmen could get through it, Minnie would slip through withno problems.
Carmen inched her way forward and Minnie saw from her progress that the chute did not drop but sloped gently.
Encouraged, Minnie climbed into the bin herself. She jarred her butt against a thick metal handle on the inside of the bin and realized that she should use it to close the hatch behind her. She grabbed the handle, tugged on it and the hatch moved sluggishly. It had takenthe two of them to open it. How the hell was she supposed to close it by herself, with no leverage? Her feet hung in the complete darkness, with nowhere to anchor herself.
Then she felt Carmen’s hands on her feet, steadying her. The hands took a better grip on her ankles and pulled.
Understanding flared in her. Minnie gripped the handle tightly, rolled onto her stomach and let herself slidedown the shoot until her arm was extended. Then she planted her other hand flat against the inside of the framed opening and pushed like hell with that hand while she pulled on the handle with the other. With Carmen’s pulling on her legs, they slowly closed the hatch. It seated itself solidly and Minnie could understand why no one had recognized it as a way into the building. It was too small, tooold and looked like it had been riveted into the wall.
Carmen helped Minnie down to the ground and onto her feet. They were in a half-basement, the old coal chute finishing a couple of feet above the concrete floor. There was no source of light in the room at all.
Carmen took Minnie’s arm and moved slowly across the room. She had explained to Minnie on the way across to Vistaria that this wasone of half a dozen secret entries she had used throughout her high school years to sneak in and out of the palace and avoid her father’s interrogation every time she wanted to go somewhere with her friends. It had also allowed her to move about the city without a security detail.
