Rustles

Part 10

That politeness would have been the last she’d hear from them and for a week she believed it.

“Mat, I need a case of beer!” she called out over the bar, saw herself that he was too busy making coffees that seemed popular this evening. The place was filled with Spanish and Italian students, all too drunk to remember anything in the morning. Why they needed coffee was beyond her comprehension.

“I can’t right now!”

She went instead. The beers were kept cool in the lower room behind the backroom, hidden away behind the cases of hard liquors. While the music was loud enough to leave anyone without hearing in the front, it hardly affected the back rooms. She took her time, enjoying the calm atmosphere.

She was reaching for the box, when she felt the rumble under the dirt floor. At first she mistook it for a sudden change in the music bass, but the steadiness the rumble had, brought her back to reality and she froze on her spot, hands reached out and eyes diverted to the direction the vibrations were coming from.

It came in from under the external wall. It was sneaking in following the softness in the soil, missing the old well and monster size stone they never got out.

The stone! She didn’t wait a second longer and ran straight to it. She felt how it reacted to her movement and speed up, only to hit the stone and stop.

She waited. She didn’t think it was hit too hard. She wasn’t sure how, but she knew she had to get off the stone somehow, get her jacket, which still hid the phone number in the pocket, her phone and call the doctor to come and pick her experiment up. Preferably without the bloodshed this time.

But she didn’t want to move off the granite.

She heard slight moaning from the dirt and she held her breath. She watched as a hand steadily climbed out of the soil before it was followed by another. She took a step back while the hands pulled the rest of the man on surface and he heaved himself on the stone.

There was something familiar about this figure. He wore similar trousers as the rest of the team, so she assumed it had to be one of them. He didn’t look like sergeant or the two soldiers she’d met. Suddenly it dawned on her that the man she was looking at right now was the same shadow she’d seen days ago! That was enough for her to run after the phone and that piece of paper.

“Don’t!” she heard a cry behind her, but she didn’t stop.

Instead she slammed the door closed, grabbed her jacket and began searching through the pockets. She unwrapped it as fast as she could and grabbed for the bar phone. She dialed the number.

“Hi, doctor?” she called out immediately when she heard the click. “Hi, um, I think you’d like to know that one of your experiments is right now on Neil street 89?”

“Who is this?”

“I’m Margaret Jakobs, you gave me your phone number a week ago. Can you come and take it away?”

“Yes, yes, of course. Just wait there, we’re coming!”

Busy tone echoed back and she put the phone away, right in time to stop Matteo going in the back room.

“You can’t go there!”

“Why not? I need that beer!”

“I-I’ll get you your beer!” Thankfully someone called him away to make Bloody Mary.  

She put her hand against the door and tried to decide if she should go in or wait outside until others arrived. He might be gone by now? And if she didn’t get the beer herself, Matteo would go in there instead.