Chapter 62

I had hoped against hope that I’d end up together with Alex in her own bed. That way, although the kidnappers might get away, at least Alex would be safe with a minimum of drama. I wasn’t that lucky.

I woke up, headache-free, to find myself in a chilly, almost silent, pitch dark, windowless room, permeated by a familiar unpleasant odour that I couldn’t quite identify. Definitely not Alex’s bedroom. The room was so quiet and dark that I strongly suspected it was a basement somewhere, making me worry about whether the panic alarm’s signal would penetrate outside. I was lying on a thin mattress behind a warm body that had to be Alex. She was quietly whimpering in her sleep. At least there were no kidnappers in the room with her or I might not have awoken at all.

I immediately reached into a pocket and took out the panic alarm. My exposed dick could wait since every second was vital. The movement must have disturbed Alex because she started to stir. I desperately tried to slide back what felt like the panic alarm’s protective cover, but I couldn’t get anything to move. I mentally cursed myself for being so stupid: I had always intended to sleepwalk during the dead of night so I should have practised beforehand at sliding back the panic alarm’s cover by feel.

My priority now was to stop Alex from screaming. By luck my hand found her shoulder, which I squeezed reassuringly. “Alex, it’s Jon Snow,” I whispered urgently. “I’m here to help. Please stay calm. I’m trying to activate a panic alarm to let the police know where we are but I can’t see what I’m doing in the dark.”

Alex stopped moving but she grunted as though trying to communicate. Some fumbled exploration revealed that she was bound hand and foot and gagged. And I belatedly worked out that the unpleasant smell was urine, so I guessed she hadn’t been allowed to use a toilet.

I realised I wouldn’t readily be able to untie Alex’s gag in the dark so I put the panic alarm away and took out Hector’s knife. “Please hold still. I’m going to try to cut off your gag with a knife, and I don’t want to cut you.” Using my fingers to guide the blade, I managed to slip it between the gag and the side of Alex’s face. I started to saw and was surprised at how easily the knife cut through. Still fumbling in the dark, I managed to pull the remains of the gag from Alex’s mouth.

“Oh thank God!” Alex whispered. “It’s really you, isn’t it? I thought I was going to die down here.”

“Does this room have a light?” I asked. “I need it to see what I’m doing with the panic alarm. And I’d rather finish freeing you in the light because I don’t fancy doing it in the dark with a blade this sharp.”

“The light switch is next to the door, a couple of inches to the right and about two-thirds of the way up. We’re in a windowless basement so it should be safe to switch it on. I think the foot of the bed points roughly in the direction of the door but your side of the the bed is quite close to the wall so you’d be better off finding the wall and working your way round.”

Impressed by the way Alex had observed and recollected her environment, I dismounted from the bed and, after belatedly putting my dick away, groped blindly in front of me for the wall. I encountered cold concrete after a couple of tentative steps. I followed the wall, scraping my fingers and knuckles on the rough surface, navigated a corner and continued until I encountered the wooden door frame. I groped up and down until I located the light switch. It activated a naked bulb dangling from the ceiling. The basement room had probably once been used as a storeroom, but was now virtually empty apart from the bed.