Робин Кук - Pandemic

At some point, because of the lack of sensory input and despite his anxiety and fear, Jack actually fell asleep while sitting propped up against the wire-mesh door. He had no idea how long he’d been asleep when he was awakened by what he thought had been a noise in the oppressive silence. Straightening up, he strained to hear more, unsure if the noise had been a hallucination or real. But then there was the unmistakable sound of a distant door opening, suggesting the initial noise might have been a key being inserted into a lock.

Jack leaped to his feet. Hearing someone coming was both welcome and terrifying at the same time, evoking a schizophrenic response. He didn’t know whether to hold his ground or flee into the dark depths of the cage. Then suddenly light entered the dark room in the form of dancing flashlight beams rather than the overhead lights being switched on. To Jack’s wary mental state, flashlights seemed to auger something underhanded that needed to be feared. What he had been secretly fantasizing would happen was the general lights of the slaughterhouse suddenly coming on, and surprised workers discovering him. Someone coming in surreptitiously with flashlights was the opposite extreme, and it terrified him.

Desperately, Jack wanted to hide, but there was no place to go. Still, he spun around, and by running his hand along the wire mesh, he fled as fast as he could into the black depths of the cage, heading toward the sealed double doors at the very back.

Suddenly a voice with no accent broke the oppressive silence: “Dr. Stapleton! Where are you? We don’t have much time.”

Jack stopped and turned back. He could see it was two people rather than the five who had brought him. Both individuals had flashlights, which they were using to shine into the wire cage. The beams were sweeping rapidly around the interior, searching for him.

Taken aback by hearing his name, since neither group of security people that afternoon had used it, Jack was encouraged. He was even more encouraged about the lack of accent, combined with the comment of not having much time. He couldn’t imagine someone saying that if they meant him harm, but he could if it were the opposite and they were under pressure. Hoping the rules of the game, whatever the game was, had changed, he called out, “I’m back here,” and he began to quickly retrace his steps. As he got closer the two flashlights were directed at him, and he had to shield his eyes with his hands from the glare.

“Please, hurry!” the same accent-free voice urged. “As I said, we don’t have much time. We need to get you out of here, and we need to do it immediately.”

“That’s music to my ears,” Jack said. As he reached the embedded door, he was able to make out the man who was speaking to be significantly taller than the other, even a bit taller than Jack. The second, silent man was remarkably slender and a good deal shorter. The bigger man handed his flashlight to the other, which afforded Jack an even better chance to see him without the glare. Jack now could tell that he was a youthful-appearing Asian who spoke American English. He was dressed casually but smartly in an open-neck shirt, sport jacket, and jeans. Jack immediately saw that he was carrying a crowbar, which gave Jack pause with the concern it might be used as a weapon. But the man immediately put Jack’s mind at ease by saying, “I want to pass you this crowbar under the door. It’s best that it appears as if you found the crowbar and thereby managed to break out of here of your own accord. Understand?”

“Whatever,” Jack said. It sounded good to him. He had no idea why it was necessary, but he thought he could worry about that later.

The man quickly bent down to slide the crowbar between the door and the floor, but there wasn’t enough room. He stood back up, with his expression registering disappointment.

“There is a grate twenty to thirty feet down to my left,” Jack said. He pointed. “It would be easy to pass it through the bars.”

“Okay, perfect,” the man said. In Mandarin he directed the other man to shine one of the lights in that direction. A moment later he and Jack met up at the heavy grate. The man passed the crowbar between the bars with ease, and Jack took it.

Without wasting any time, Jack hurried back to the embedded door. Using the straight end of the crowbar, he inserted the claw teeth between the door and the jamb, just above the strike plate. He had to use considerable force and wiggle the tool back and forth a few times to get the teeth to sink in deeply enough. Using the length of the crowbar as a lever arm, Jack was able to bend the door enough to pop the latch out of the strike plate. The door swung open, and in the next instant Jack was out of the cage.

“Drop the crowbar!” the man ordered. “The idea is that you found it in the cage and used it to break out.”

Jack did as he was told, although he didn’t drop it but rather put it on the composite floor to avoid the clatter it would have invariably made.

“All right, let’s go!” the man urged. He took one of the flashlights from the slender fellow, and Jack got a quick glimpse at the second man’s face. To his surprise, it was Kang-Dae, Wei’s man Friday.

As a group they half walked, half ran back along the slaughterhouse floor to the office. Then, after quickly traversing the office, they held up at the door to the outside.

“Kang-Dae will go out and make sure we are good to go,” the younger man said. “We’ll wait here.”

“Fine by me,” Jack said, even though he wanted to get the hell out of the slaughterhouse as soon as possible.

The silent Kang-Dae turned off his flashlight, cracked the door, and slipped through. He moved like an apparition. One minute he was there, the next he was gone.

“I appreciate you coming to get me,” Jack whispered. “Thank you.”

“You are welcome,” the man said.

“What is your name?” Jack asked.

“Call me David,” the man said.

“David it is,” Jack said.

A moment later there was a furtive knock on the door. David cracked it open. It was Kang-Dae. As usual, the man didn’t speak but rather merely nodded to indicate the coast was clear. In response, David turned off his flashlight, pushed the door fully open, and gestured for Jack to exit.

Outside, there was a single light over the door. Otherwise it was intimidatingly dark as the Farm Institute was completely encompassed by forest and there was no moon visible. The three men ran a short distance across the macadam parking area to a black Range Rover parked alongside one of the semi-trailers.

While Kang-Dae climbed into the driver’s seat, David went directly to the rear of the vehicle and opened the back. He motioned for Jack to climb into the storage area. “Sorry, but you have to ride back here until we get through security. It’s not far.”

Jack hesitated for a brief moment. Having been just sprung out of one situation of confinement, he wasn’t joyous about climbing into another. But he understood the rationale. With some reluctance, he clambered in, rolling onto his back in the process. David activated the hatchback closing mechanism. A moment later, Jack again found himself in absolute darkness.

The car’s motor started, and the vehicle backed up and then pulled forward. Jack sought something to hold on to in the darkness as he bounced around, but he couldn’t find anything to grasp. Fortunately, it wasn’t a big problem, since the roadway was reasonably smooth. It was only the turns that were mildly difficult to manage. Presently, Jack felt the SUV slow down and stop. There was some conversation in what he assumed was Mandarin, and a moment later they recommenced moving. They didn’t go far before they stopped again. On this occasion, Jack could hear one of the vehicle’s doors open. A moment later the hatchback lifted and the tailgate dropped down.