Imprint of Honor by Phil Huddleston

Author:Phil Huddleston [Phil Huddleston]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Phil Huddleston
Published: 2023-12-09T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Four

New Geneva

Outside the cell window, it was black, blacker than the inside of the blackest pit of Hell. Ligeia hadn’t slept all night. She guessed it was about four in the morning now. Maybe five, she wasn’t sure. Absolutely nothing had happened all night. Sometimes she would hear something, or think she had. But it would turn out to be nothing. She was beginning to doubt her senses - and to doubt if anyone would actually come.

What if they don’t come? Is today the day? Will Danton kill me today? He has no reason to keep me alive, not really. There’s more propaganda value in announcing my death than in keeping me alive. If I know that, then he surely does.

A scrape brought her to crisp reality. The scrape of a shoe on the stone floor outside. It came again.

That was real. Not my imagination.

Ligeia shot to her feet, went to stand against the wall, such that when the door opened, she would be behind it. It was all she could think of doing that might help.

She heard the sound of a key in the lock. Then, slowly, the thick door opened, an inch at a time. When it was half-open, it stopped.

A whisper came. “Ligeia?”

Stepping forward, Ligeia peered around the door. It was dark - all she could see was a shadowy figure, a hooded outline that she could not recognize.

“Here,” she whispered.

“Follow me. Be quiet. Your life depends on it.”

Ligeia nodded, even though it was invisible in the darkness. Stepping out of the cell, she carefully closed the door behind her. She followed the faint outline of the person. At the end of the hall, there was a door to a stairwell. They passed through, went down another level, and came to a narrow service corridor. Stepping as carefully as she could, nevertheless Ligeia tripped on a raised floor tile, and nearly fell, catching herself at the last second only by reaching out to meet the wall with her hand. It made a distinct slap of sound on the wall surface. The person in front of her stopped, frozen at the sound. They stood for a long moment, afraid to move. Eventually, when there was no reaction, her guide began moving again.

Following, Ligeia began to see a bit of light up ahead. Soon enough, they came to a door, with light shining weakly through it. Her guide stopped at last and turned to her. For the first time, Ligeia could see her clearly.

“There’s a subway station across the road. In a couple of minutes, there’ll be a diversion on the other side of the hospital. That’s when we go across the road, as if we are doing our normal business. Once we’re in the subway, we’re reasonably safe. But stay close,” whispered Admiral Phoebe ‘Mad Dog’ Walker, Hero of Orinoco, commander of the entire RDF Navy, and one of only a half-dozen people Ligeia could trust with her life. Phoebe handed something to Ligeia, a small pulse pistol.

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