Page 62 of V-Day
15.
THE DOOR TO THE GREENroom where Annamaria and her women were kept didn’t open with a security card. An old-fashioned metal bar braced the other side. It was too heavy to pass a knife or piece of wire through the space between the door and the frame to lift it.
Annamaria shrugged. “I can make them open the door.”
While Calli urged the women to dress in street clothes and shoes, and to keep their voices down, Annamaria picked up the wall phone mounted beside the door. She pressed the single button on its face and waited for an answer.
Then she pressed her hand to her chest. “Oh, god! We need help down here! She’s convulsing! I don’t know what to do! Help us!” Then, with a shake of her head. “No, no, the bennies you said I should use on her.Yes, the blonde! We need a doctor! Jesus Mary Joseph, watch out, she—” Calmly, she depressed the receiver, cutting the call. She dropped the phone and let it swing from the coil.
Calli nodded. “As soon as the door opens, two or three of you must yank it and haul it backward.”
Hope and excitement shone from the eyes of the women as they realized their freedom was only a few minutes away. They moved with energy and purpose. Four of them raced to the door and stood to either side.
One of them whispered, “I think that bastard Florian is on guard this afternoon.” She spat. “Wait until he steps through. Then we can take him.”
Calli hurried over to them. “It must be silent, whatever you do,” she said. “If we are to get out of here, we can’t fight our way out. We must sneak out.”
“You’d better be convulsing on a bed,” Annamaria called, “or they won’t come through the door.” She cocked her head toward the door. She was close to it and would hear sounds through it. “Hurry,” she added.
Calli dropped onto the nearest bed, closed her eyes and writhed, trying to imitate how she thought someone suffering through convulsions would move. One woman grabbed her arm. “Help me,” she called out softly. “Make it look as though we’re only just holding her down.”
Calli appreciated the woman’s foresight.
Two pairs of hands grabbed her arms and held her down, just as the bar on the other side of the door scraped against the frame as it was lifted
The door pushed open. Calli squirmed, lifting herself up and twisting.
“Mother of god…” a man breathed from the doorway.
“Come and help us hold her down,” one of the women holding her called. “She’s so strong!”
“Yes, you must stop her from coming to harm. That is all you can do for seizures,” came a second male voice, softer and older than the first.
Bootsteps.
“What on earth…?” asked the older male.
A grunt sounded. A heavy body hit the floor, although the floor did not vibrate because it was solid concrete.
Calli stopped moving and opened one eye a sliver to check the door. She saw an astonishing sight. Four women were holding down a man in a white coat—he had one hand lifted in a gesture of surrender.
Six others were sitting on an Insurrecto, while the remainder of them kicked and punched him. Their expressions were fierce.
Calli shook off the hands holding her and sat up. “Don’t kill him!” she cried out, trying to keep her voice low.
Annamaria looked up from the door she was holding open. “Why not?” she demanded.
“If we kill him, they’ll come after us with more determination. If we just disable them so they cannot follow us or raise the alarm, we may be able to get away,” Calli said.
Annamaria glanced at the doctor, whose head was just in front of her feet. “He will have drugs in that bag of his which will knock them out for twelve hours or more.”
“Is he the one who gave you the benzodiazepine?” Calli asked.
“The local witch doctor.” Annamaria spat.
The doctor flinched. “I must do as I am told, do you understand? If I do not, they would shoot me and find another who will do what they ask.”
“Just following orders, huh?” Calli asked. She moved over and looked down at him. The other women had stopped kicking and punching the guard, for he was unconscious. Calli looked down at the doctor. “You sound like every Nazi war criminal who rolled through Nuremberg.” She pushed at the leather bag beside him. “What have you got in there which will knock you out for twelve hours?”
