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“But you’re back,” Alex said. “What happened?”
“This place is surrounded by an electric fence. I tried to climb it, but it shocked me and I fell. Then he drugged me again and brought me back here.”
An electric fence? What kind of place was this? “You said they. How many are there?”
“Two,” Tracy said. “The blond guy and the dark-haired guy who abducted us. He’s the one who takes us out on these ... dates.”
“You two need to be quieter,” Amy said. “He might be listening.”
“There wasn’t a speaker on the camera in my room,” Alex said. “How can anyone hear us? Is there a listening device in the hall?”
“I’ve never found one. But he could be on the stairs behind that door, trying to listen to what we’re saying.”
“Well, at least they can’t see me anymore. I pulled the camera off the wall and smashed it.”
There were several seconds of silence before Marla said, “You may have just gotten us all in trouble.”
“You all need to fight back,” Alex said. “Don’t give in to what they want. They took you against your will. Stand up for yourselves. Make them uncomfortable.”
No response.
“They’re afraid,” Amy finally said.
“But if we stand together, what can they do?”
“What they’ve done before. Cut off our food. Put us in the dark for days,” she said, her voice catching. “Maybe kill us. I want to make it through this. Get home. I miss my daughter. I don’t want to disappear like Sarah did. You must be in her room.”
“She is,” Marla said.
So some of the women were gone. Probably dead. No wonder they were so afraid. Sarah had to be Sarah Breedlove.
“Look, you all do what you need to do. I won’t go along with what they want, but that’s my decision. I want to make it difficult for them. Make them deal with me as an equal, not a victim. But you’re right. It might make them angry enough to retaliate.” She paused a moment before saying, “You said they put drugs in tea?”
“Just at night,” Tracy answered.
“Why?”
“So we aren’t any threat when they come in with fresh supplies.”
“Just one of them comes?”
“Yes. As far as we know.”
Good. Now Alex knew when she could overpower one of them. “Tracy, so the blond guy carries the keys? But the dark-haired one, the one on the dates, abducted you? Is that the case for all of you?”
All three of the other women answered yes.
“He’s the man who must be in control,” Marla said. “In his thirties. Nice-looking.”
Exactly what Alex profiled. Again, good.
“You woke up pretty quickly,” Tracy said. “Whatever they gave me knocked me out for at least a couple of days.”
“I had a tunnel collapse on me, and I inhaled dirt,” Alex said. “He must have given me a smaller amount. He was probably afraid I’d die if he didn’t.”
Alex was about to ask for more information when she heard a sound coming from down the hall to her right. Then she heard metal panels sliding shut. She kept hers slightly open. She wanted to get a look at her captors, but a man walked by so quickly she didn’t get a good look at him. After he had checked all the doors, he hurried past Alex again. All she could see was a man with long blond hair. He kept his head down. She couldn’t see his features at all.
When the door at the end of the hall shut, she once again heard grinding metal, first one panel opening and then another.
