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She heard voices in the hallway and got up. They were approaching her room. If she was going to get out of here, she might as well try anything and everything. She really didn’t have much to lose.
A key rattled at the lock, and she picked up the metal nightstand with ease. To her surprise, she was able to hold it over her head even with her injured shoulder.
As the door opened, she swung the table at the first person she saw, delivering a strong blow to the man’s shoulder. It was Dolap, who shrugged it off as if it were just an annoyance and wrested the table from her hands. With a look of fury, he raised the table as if to strike her with it, but a voice behind him yelled, “Stop!”
Locsin stepped into the room with Tagaan. Both of them started laughing, and Dolap joined in after a moment, putting the table back down. Beth wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of being cowed, so she sat on the bed and checked her nails with disdain. They actually weren’t too bad, given the circumstances.
“Ms. Anders,” Locsin said after the laughter ceased, “you’re looking well.”
Beth didn’t even look up, concentrating on a chip in her thumbnail.
“I hear you’ve had a healthy appetite. It must be helping your wound.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Beth saw him nod at Dolap, who walked over and yanked aside the bandage on her shoulder.
Locsin peered at it. “Excellent. This has been a very interesting experiment. And thank you for the appraisal of the paintings. Tomorrow I would like you to show me how to verify their authenticity.”
“I doubt I could teach anything to someone like you.”
“You might be surprised,” he said with a sickening smile. “I spent three years at university in Manila before I came back here to carry on the struggle for my people.”
Beth looked Locsin in the eye and laughed derisively. “Every murderer like you thinks he’s a freedom fighter.”
Locsin shook his head. “It’s pointless to get into a debate with you about whether the ends justify the means. Today I had a similar discussion with your friend Juan Cabrillo, and it didn’t go well for him.”
Beth shot to her feet. “What did you do to him?”
“Him and his whole ship, actually. They’re gone. If you were holding out some pathetic hope that he would come rescue you, you might as well forget about it.”
Stunned, Beth collapsed back onto the bed.
“Now get some sleep,” Locsin said. “I want you rested for my lesson tomorrow. Even if you think I’ll be a slow learner, we’ll have plenty of time. There’s a typhoon coming through. By tomorrow afternoon, we’ll be socked in for several days. Good night.”
They left, and Dolap locked the door behind them.
Beth was in shock. She didn’t know whether to believe Locsin or not. But it was likely that Raven had teamed with Juan after Beth was abducted, which meant that if he was really dead, Raven probably was, too.
It felt like there was a hole in Beth’s stomach. Normally, she would sob uncontrollably at the loss of her friends and at the true hopelessness of her situation. But right now there was nothing inside her but anger. She wanted to kill Locsin, Tagaan, Dolap, all of them. She wanted to make them suffer, but she couldn’t. At least she could let them know she wasn’t going to take this quietly.
Beth picked up the nightstand and beat it against the door until her fingers ached.
• • •
AS HE STOOD with Tagaan and Dolap at the end of the hall, Locsin could hear the bang of metal against Beth Anders’s door.
Dolap made a move toward her room, but Locsin put his hand up to stop him.
“Let her vent,” he said. “It shows that the Typhoon is working.”
They continued talking as the banging went on.
“Are we ready for Hidalgo?” Locsin asked.
“We need to bulk up our food stores before the storm arrives,” Tagaan said. “We don’t know how long the roads may be out after that. We also need ingredients to keep our meth lab in operation.” The meth lab was in a remote corner of the cavern because of the noxious chemicals required.
Locsin turned to Dolap. “Since you’ve done such a good job with Ms. Anders, I’ll give you some time in Bacolod tomorrow morning to get the supplies. Pick a man to take with you. You shouldn’t require more than one truck.”
“Thank you, comrade,” Dolap said, obviously pleased with the reward. “She has been difficult at times.”
