Chapter 16: Chapter fifteen

Present day

 

Some people can find an upside to anything. Being kidnapped and made to recreate your work for a shadowy organization, for example, means you don’t have to worry about funding, publication, or university politics, and can just focus on the work. One could find peace in the purity of the science, unbounded by bureaucracy, and settle into a routine that was, if not comfortable, at least enjoyable in a zen kind of way.

Liz was not such a person.

A tinny alarm blared by Liz’s head and she woke with thoughts of escape on her mind. Her captors had provided her with an alarm clock after she had complained about the indignity of being woken by Petrov to fetch her for the morning. She used the few minutes her alarm bought her to dress in one of the two outfits she had been given, a simple white t-shirt and black jeans, then she waited. It was almost eight, Petrov would be there at any moment.

At 8:01 Petrov opened her door and motioned for her to come out. He was never more than a minute late nor more than a minute early. He fetched her himself every morning, either not trusting the other guards to do it or simply following orders to see to her personally. Liz had considered trying to jump him. She was confident she could make something sharp out of her alarm clock, and she might be able to catch him by surprise.

But she wasn’t a fighter, and an alarm-clock shiv isn’t much of a weapon. It might hurt the big Russian, but unless she was very lucky, it wouldn’t kill him, and then she would be in for a beating.

Lucky to kill him, Liz thought with a grimace. Is this who I am now?

This morning, like every morning, she followed Petrov down the hallway from her cell to the lab. There was only one guard visible in the hall, stationed at the other end, but he was carrying an assault rifle. Even if she could get by Petrov, there was no way she would make it past that guard alive. Making a break for it wasn’t an option.

They entered the laboratory and she was under the watchful eye of a half-dozen men with automatic weapons. The number of guards in the lab changed, but it was never fewer than three, and they were always armed. There was no chance she could escape from there.

Danvers met her with that awkward smile that she hated. Liz was not the least bit surprised that Stockholm Syndrome was rare, because she felt about as close to identifying with her captives as she was from taking up a new career as a street mime. Every day she worked under Danvers’ direct supervision, and every day she felt the same loathing for the slimy little man and his attempts to be pleasant towards her. As if she could ever be the least bit friendly with someone who would be a part of a plan to imprison and enslave her. She was constantly biting back a hot remark when he spoke to her; forcing herself to be polite and professional instead lest Petrov hit her again. Every time felt like swallowing cold sick.

“I’ve got a good feeling about today,” Danvers said genially. “We’re getting close on that cerebellum implant, I know it.”

They worked on the cerebellum implant every day, though Danvers also had Liz show him some of the finer points of her prosthetics work most days. Whoever these people were, they seemed intent on taking all of Liz’s research for themselves.

Say nothing, Liz thought. Just keep your head down and focus on the work.

Thoughts of escape were put to one side for a time as the science took up all of her attention. She had learned by painful experience that Danvers could tell if her mind was elsewhere and have Petrov ‘motivate’ her with an open-handed blow if he thought she was slacking, so she put all she had into the work.

After what she estimated to be about four hours, she requested a bathroom break. It was the only time during the day that she was allowed to leave the lab, taking her meals with the other scientists under the watchful eye of the guards.

Petrov took her back to her cell to use the toilet there as she didn’t have access to the bathroom that the other scientists used.

Employees only, she supposed, no prisoners allowed.

Petrov waited patiently while Liz did her business and then led her back to the lab. On the way back, she saw that the hallway guard handing over the post to different man.

Twelve o’clock changeover, she thought. Based on the small noises she had heard at midnight, she figured they were probably on twelve-hour shifts. It looked like they never left the hallway unguarded though, so she couldn’t sneak out unseen.

That left only one real option and she really didn’t relish it.

Before she left her cell, she retrieved a non-essential piece of her alarm clock that she had extracted and hid in her other set of clothes. Then, she flushed and washed her hands, mindful that Petrov could hear the running water from the other side of the door. She knocked to let him know she was done, and he opened the door to lead her back to the lab.

You are reading story Oblivion at novel35.com

She moved to follow him but she slightly stumbled and caught herself on the doorframe, hastily jamming the concealed piece of metal into the locking mechanism.

Petrov didn’t seem to notice, and he didn’t bother closing the door behind them as the door was meant to keep her in and she was already with him.

Liz’s heart was in her throat the rest of the day. It took everything she had to keep her head down and her mind on her work. So many things could go wrong. Petrov might see the piece of metal. It might not affect the locking mechanism the way she intended, it’s not like a broken bit of a clock is a precision instrument after all. And, even if it worked just the way she had hoped, she would still need to get down the hall and past the guard. The guard seemed to mostly face outwards, and she was hoping he might be tired and off his game by almost midnight, but that was still a longshot.

But the other option was waiting for her captors to decide she was no longer useful and put a bullet in her head, so Liz swallowed her fear and did everything she could to avoid suspicion from the guards.

Eventually, Petrov led her back to her cell and shut her in for the night. He seemed not to notice anything was amiss, and left her to her rest.

They worked twelve-hour days at the lab, so Liz still had almost four hours to go. She briefly considered trying to get some sleep, as she was physically and mentally exhausted after working on precision electronics all day, but dismissed that idea as she was too keyed up. Plus, she didn’t want her alarm giving away that something was amiss.

Instead, she sat in the darkness, looking at her clock twice a minute a counting down the seconds before she made her move.

At 11:55 she eased open the door, breathing a silent sigh of relief that her trick had worked as intended, and prepared to sneak up on the hall-guard. She had her alarm clock in one hand, figuring she could smash him in the head with it and she padded down the hall as silently as she could.

The hall was almost completely dark, which she hadn’t expected, and her eyes took time to adjust. Eventually, as she snuck forward, she realized there was no guard in the hallway with her.

Yes! She thought, marvelling at that piece of luck.

That was one major obstacle out of the way. Next up, the door at the end of the hall. She figured it might be locked, and she had been planning to use the guard’s keys. But, she had been into lock-picking as a child, it had been her first avenue into engineering in fact. She had already picked the parts of her clock that could be fashioned into a makeshift pick and torsion wrench while she was extracting the piece to wedge in her cell door. It would be difficult to do it in the dark, especially if the night-shift started in less than five minutes, but it wasn’t like she had a lot of other options.

She reached the end of the hall and tried the door, just in case. She found it unlocked and braced herself as she eased it open and slipped through to the other side.

Petrov was waiting for her.

“Been waiting for you,” he said, eyeing her calmly. “Knew you would try to escape sooner or later. Good trick with the door.”

She tensed up as she briefly considered lunging at him with her alarm clock, but knew it was no use. Jumping a man whose guard is down is one thing, attacking one who is ready for you, with an alarm clock no less, is another. Her hope drained out of her. Her shoulders slumped and she dropped her ‘weapon’ to the ground.

“Good,” he said. “Now you understand your situation.”

Liz turned to go back to her cell.

“Not so fast,” Petrov said, cracking his knuckles. “Still need to learn your lesson.”

Do your worst, Liz thought. You can’t make me feel any worse than I already do.

She was wrong.

You can find story with these keywords: Oblivion, Read Oblivion, Oblivion novel, Oblivion book, Oblivion story, Oblivion full, Oblivion Latest Chapter