Chapter 10

I WAS IN A WILD DESOLATE LAND, SLOGGING along through waist-high grass and being clawed by overhanging tree branches that ripped my skin and yanked at my hair. There was a deep rumbling roar and lightning flashed and the tree split in half beside me. I screamed and ran and fought my way through the overhanging branches and the ground shook as the tree fell just behind me. Then I was free. No longer were there tree branches clawing at me. I ran through drenching rain. I was free. The rain would not stop me. Ahead lay brilliant sunshine, warmth and comfort and the good land I was seeking. But just then there was an earthquake. I was being violently shaken.

As I drifted to consciousness, I realized it was a big rough hand that was shaking me, not an earthquake.

"Come on, get the hell out of there," a deep voice growled.

I rolled over on my back and clearly looked up. I saw the dark sullen face of. the guy who had hauled me down to Frankie the night before.

"Gome on," he yelled again, grabbing the covers and yanking them back.

I sat up and looked at the windows. Sunlight was streaming through them.

"Ferdie says he can use you, so get out of there."

He grabbed my legs and yanked me around. His hand shot out and got tangled in my hair and he tugged me up.

"On your feet," he ordered.

I staggered from the bed and wobbled around in a circle, trying to get awake. i

"I'll wake you up," he said.

He caught me by surprise. Before I knew what was happening he had shoved me in the shower and turned on the cold water. I screamed and jumped up and down and beat on the shower door. And then through the cobwebs in my head, I realized that I could turn off the icy torrent. My hand shoved a knob in and the deluge stopped. I shoved against the shower door and it gave way. I stepped out a sodden dripping mass of wet hair and blue skin.

My tormentor stood across the room, lounging against the door casing, sucking on a cigarette and staring at me.

"Grab that towel and get dried off," he ordered.

I reached for a big towel and began mopping my head. My body was next and I damn near rubbed it raw. I was awake. And I was so God damn mad I could have slit his throat.

He shoved away from the casing and headed into the bedroom. "Come on," he ordered. "Ferdie's waiting on you."

He went to the hall door and opened it and stood aside. We stood there for a moment, glaring at each other.

He pulled his snub nose from his jacket pocket and thumbed back the hammer. "I'll give you to the count of three to get the hell out of here."

I raced through the opening and his foot shot out. I took a header and belly flopped across the hall carpet, ' burning the hide off my belly and thighs.

"Where do you think you're going in such a rush?" he asked. "Now get down there to the elevator."

I got to my feet and headed down the hall. I heard his thudding footsteps behind me.

"You know the routine," he rumbled. "Push that button."

I jabbed at the button and we waited in the quiet hall. The elevator door finally rolled back.

"Do as you did last night," he ordered. "Go straight into the cage and plaster your face against the wall and keep it there'. "

I heard the elevator door slide shut. We began dropping. And then we were stopped and the door rolled back.

"Turn around and come out slowly, as you did last night," he ordered.

This time when I stepped from the cage I was on cold concrete.

"To the right."

It was cold and damp down there, but I marched straight ahead, listening to his thudding footsteps behind me. I could suddenly smell perking coffee and the aroma of bacon.

I suddenly realized I was hungry. I hadn't eaten since the steak dinner at the Rodeo the day before. "To your left now."

I went through a doorway and was in a bare room with four scarred tables and with dilapidated chairs at them, which had been wired together.

"Sit down there," he ordered. He looked toward a doorway in the wall nearby. "Okay, bring her breakfast," he yelled.

A wrinkled little Filipino came shuffling through the doorway, carrying a big tray.

"She won't bite," he said, wagging his head toward me. "Put it down on that table."

The old man shuffled closer.

"Put your hands in your lap under the table."

I was surprised that they were feeding me so well. There was steak and eggs and hotcakes and maple syrup and butter along with hot buttered toast and marmalade and a big pot of coffee. I wondered if I could get outside all that.

I picked up the platter of steak and eggs. It was hot, so I grabbed up a napkin and used it to drag the plate off the tray.

"Come on, come on, you haven't got all day. Ferdie's waiting on you. You've got ten minutes to eat."

I ignored him and picked up a fork and a steak knife and went to work.

I ate as fast as I could. I didn't know how long ten minutes would be. I finally finished and poured a cup of coffee and pulled it to me.

I looked at the brute. "Have you got a cigarette?"

He nodded and pulled a cigarette from his pack and tossed it on the table. He circled around and came in from the front, striking a match on a book. I leaned toward the flame, knowing I couldn't start anything. The snub nose was in his other hand and I was staring down the barrel.

I dragged on my cigarette and sipped my coffee.

"Come on, come on. I haven't got all day. Either drink that coffee or forget it"

I tried to gulp it, but it was too damned hot. I burned my mouth and started swearing.

"Let it go," he said. "Get up and get going."

I shoved back the coffee and stood up. Once more we stood there, glaring at each other.

"Frankie told you last night," he said, "that you would be a guest here and could do as you pleased. But you haven't acted like a guest, so until you do, we won't treat you as one. Now get back out there in the hall and turn to your left. I'll be right behind you, so don't try anything cute."

I headed down the hall toward an open doorway. We went through and out to the brilliant sunlight.

"To your left again," he ordered.

I headed down a flagstone path, under spreading maple trees, and past carefully tended gardens of flowers that were a nodding explosion of colors. Ahead lay a low stone building with a red roof.

"In there."

I went through another doorway to the cool dark gloom of the building. I saw a short stocky sunburned man with grizzled gray hair and an iron gray drooping mustache. He was sucking on a curve-stemmed pipe and staring at me.

"This is the extra help you asked for, Ferdie," my guard said. "Put her to work."

Ferdie nodded and pulled back his jacket and patted a .45 as he looked at me. "I won't be far away. I know how to use this, so if you want a slug, I can accommodate you. Now get outside there and I'll show you what to do."

Then began one of the most hellish days I had ever put in.