***** Vol.1 Chap.36 Playing cat and mouse *****
Once the decision was made to leave her hiding place inside the crate, Kristin knew she must act fast. Tempted to leave the letter in the crate for George, her instinct told her the safest way was to give the letter to George directly. She did not want to leave the letter behind where it could be found and used as traces of her presence and evidence against George.
Quickly, she shifted the boxes around to get to the top of the crate. Though the crate was half full still, there was some wriggle room. She moved the box of chips covering her hole sideways and poked her head up. With her flashlight, she shone around her hole. After moving a few more boxes around her and shifting more boxes to fill the hole, she got some wriggling room at the top of the crate. Next, she stood on a sturdy box and kept shifting boxes around like a genuine 3D puzzle. Finally, she maneuvered herself to the top of the crate.
Her heart was beating fast because of excitement. She strained her ears to listen for any sound at all. Taking a chance that the guards had not returned yet, in a face-down position at one end of the crate, she tried to push up with the back of her body. A slight creaking sound came from one nail popped loose. She tried again and the first plank broke loose. Inwardly, she realized with gratitude that George did not nail the crate tight the night before.
She listened again. Nothing. With her body edging forward and pushing with her arms up again, another board popped loose. She figured that perhaps two boards should be wide enough for her to get out.
Setting her backpack down near the edge, she turned herself over with her head at the edge of the crate and pushed on the planks with her legs and arms. The first time she grabbed the boards, a nail cut into her hand and she almost yelled out in pain but caught her squeal in her throat, though she cursed herself and her carelessness in silence.
On the second try, and carefully avoiding the nails, with one powerful push, she kicked the board up and catapulted herself out of the crate landing softly on the floor. Quickly she grabbed her backpack and pushed the boards back into place. She was about to look for something to pound the nails back in when the guards stumbled down the stairs. Clandestinely, she ducked after scanning the room for a hiding place. Without a sound, she tiptoed to the far end of the hold, away from the stairs and the incoming guards.
For the next two hours, the two guards and her played cat and mouse with one another.
The guards would start at one end of the hold and open a crate to examine the boxes inside. Dutifully, they would take a few boxes out and check the contents against the manifest. Then, putting the boxes back, they would close the crate and move on to the next one. Every half an hour, the guard, Tyler, would ask Toby to stop for a break. The two would sit down at the nearest crate and chat for fifteen minutes.
At first, she crouched in a dark corner on the far end. When the guards got a little closer to her hiding, she crawled on all fours behind the crates to a new hiding position, keeping always a healthy distance away from the guards.
After a while, she worried the guards would be here all night. She wondered what would happen if George came to see her in their presence. Would they get suspicious of George? Even if George came, how could she climb up the stairs without them catching her? The prospects of staying hidden at this point did not look good. She looked at her watch and the time was already one in the morning. George could be here any minute now.
Just when she was considering this, she noticed someone came down the stairs. George. He carried an empty basket in his hand.
The two guards immediately stopped their searching and walked over to the stairs to meet George.
“Who is this?” The guards shouted across the hold.
“George from the kitchen.”
“It is kind of late for you, isn’t it?” They asked as they approached him in the middle of the hold.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Well, the captain wants a celebration feast tomorrow before we start the mission. I would like to make sure I have enough pancake flour for breakfast tomorrow morning.”
“You mean this morning?”
“I guess you are right.” George laughed and the two guards laughed as well.
“Why are you guys up so late?” George asked.
“Normal security check,” Toby said.
“Oh, we have to check the contents of every crate against the manifest,” Tyler said.
“Well, can you all tell me which crate has the pancake flour?” George asked, half smiling and half teasing.
“Do you not know?” Tyler asked George.
“Of course,” George replied.
“Then why are you asking?” Toby said.
“Just testing how good you are. They said you guys were good.”
“A challenge!” They all laughed, though Kristin did not comprehend any humor in the conversation. She trembled and shook elsewhere in the hold.
“Well, according to the manifest, there are five crates marked ‘Kitchen Supplies’.”
After searching around a bit, they got to those crates.
“These must be the crates you want.”
“Not bad, but which one?” George teased them.
Kristin, hiding at another end of the hold, sat on pins and needles while George had a fun time with the guards. Somehow, she needed to let George know she was no longer in the crate.
They all walked around, looking for the crate. She made herself seen by George when the guards busied themselves looking for the crate marked kitchen supplies. He made no sound but pointed to her and signaled her to get to the stairs. George walked around some more and stood in front of another crate.
“Hey, fellas. I’ve found it. Do you mind giving me a hand here?”
The two guards came over. George had positioned himself in such a way that the two guards had their backs toward the stairs.
“Can you gentlemen open this crate for me?”
“Sure.” Happy with the diversion, they helped him. Besides, everyone loved him.
Without another cue from him, she sprinted up the stairs and walked quietly amidst the noise of the banging from the two guards. Once at the top of the stairs, she peeked down the hallway to be sure no one was there and tiptoed her way to a narrow spiral staircase that led directly to the kitchen. She wasted no time climbing the spiral staircase, but froze halfway up the stairs. Guards’ conversation came from the kitchen.
“This is crazy. What a lousy job we have.”
“I have been crawling over chimneys and air ducts all night long. I am ready to throw in the towel.”
“Yeah, me too. None of us had ever seen this Sobin… traitor. I believe she is a ghost.”
“A ghost in the captain’s dreams, for sure.” The two guards laughed.
“The captain is severely paranoid.”
“Yeah, but he is still the captain.”
Please, God, let me be a ghost, invisible to everyone. Step by step, she descended the stairs and hid behind the steps while praying silently.
“Where is George? I want some of his world-famous coffee!”
“I bet he is asleep. The captain supposedly had ordered a fancy everything-in-the-kitchen-sink breakfast for tomorrow.”
“Yeah, the captain knows how to impress the guests.”
“Hey. Here is half a pot of coffee. It’s still hot.”
“Alright, let’s fill our thermos and get out of here.”
“Sounds good.”
The two guards left.
Timidly poking her head up to survey the kitchen, no one was there. Quickly and stealthily, she bounced upstairs and slid into the kitchen, locking the door behind her not wanting any guards to come in while she looked for a hiding place in the kitchen.
Whew! That was close.
The kitchen was not spacious at all, just about the size of her studio apartment, with barely enough room for one person to turn around. Right now, she must figure out a place to hide till George came back in case other guards came into the kitchen looking for coffee. Surely she did not want to be caught red-handed in the kitchen sipping coffee.
But there is no place to hide in this small kitchen.
The oven? Too small. Top cabinets? Too high. Bottom cabinets? Too crammed with utensils already.
Where? Where?
She scanned the kitchen repeatedly. Finally, her eyes fell on the meat locker at the corner. The locker was barely big enough for a person to sneak in there behind two sides of beef hanging on hooks. That seemed to be a perfectly good place to go for the time being until George came back. She wondered if she hid there, would he be able to find her?
As she hesitated, she heard some footsteps down the hall heading to the kitchen. She wasted no time to unlock the kitchen door so as not to arouse suspicion, then sprinted inside the meat locker and closed the door.
Uh oh! She suddenly realized she made a major mistake. She was now locked inside the locker. The locker door did not have the mechanism to open the door from inside. Her overactive mind conjured up pictures of herself frozen as a human popsicle hung on a hook inside the meat locker. Too late now.
While waiting for George, a few guards came in.
“No one’s here.” One guard said.
“Let’s search the room, anyway.” Another guard replied.
“Go away! No one is here.” Kristin said to them softly from inside the locker.
The guards continued to open every cabinet door to look, then slammed the door shut.
“Shhh. Don’t wake up the guests.”
“I don’t care. If I have to do this lousy job at night, I don’t care if I wake anyone up, especially the captain.”
“Yeah.”
After a while, the two guards left not having found what they were looking for. She was relieved that up to this point, no one had looked in the meat locker for her.