Sapphire Angel - Superheroine

Chapter 27 - Someone Found

"Beth Harper," O'Shea said with an amused smile as Beth walked to the bars separating their cells. The stubble on his face was thicker than in the photograph Stanley had shown her, adding to his rugged good looks.

"Dirk O'Shea," she replied.

He raised an eyebrow, clearly surprised she knew his name.

"Stanley showed me your photo," she explained.

"Same," he said with a slight grin as he climbed to his feet, still holding her gaze. She found it hard to pull away from the twinkle in his eyes.

"How did you end up here?" he asked, moving closer to the bars separating them.

"Grabbed in a parking garage. You?"

"Jumped outside my car, near Philip Gruden's home," he said, his face turning sour. "Totally careless, and too focused on what was in front of me. Stanley probably thinks I'm dead. When did you last talk to him?"

Beth bit her lip and looked away for a moment to compose herself. After a few seconds she turned back toward O'Shea.

"Last night, I think. I can't be sure because I was unconscious. I last saw Stanley at the hospital, when John died." Her voice cracked as she spoke, and she looked away again.

"Damn," O'Shea murmured. "I'm sorry. I didn't know he didn't make it."

She took a deep breath, composing herself. "We need to stop these people."

"Obviously. But to do that, we need to get out of here. That will take some doing. But it can be done."

"How?" she asked. "The key is out of reach, I've got these handcuffs on, and we're behind steel bars."

"Yea, what's up with the handcuffs? Why you and nobody else?"

Beth shrugged and shook her head. He worked for Stanley, but she wasn't ready to tell him her secret.

O'Shea moved toward the lock to his cell.

"These things are pretty basic," he said. "It wouldn't take much for me to pick it."

Beth's head jerked up. "You can pick that?"

O'Shea shrugged. "I've learned a few tricks over the years. But I can't just use my fingers. A couple of paperclips would be a good start. I just don't know where we're going to get anything like that. I've only been here and the outhouse."

"They've had me in the farmhouse," she said.

"For what?"

"They want me to tell them what I've learned about their operation. I didn't talk. But I think they will try again soon."

"They won't let you out of their sight in there."

"Maybe, maybe not. I can be persuasive. We have to give it a shot."

O'Shea nodded, but said nothing.

"Have you learned anything about what's going on here?" Beth asked.

O'Shea shrugged. "Not really. Just that the people in here are being used for something. An experiment, maybe? That's a guess. But everybody in here is around the same age. Maybe they satisfy a demographic or something."

"You don't," Beth observed.

"Yea, I thought about that. I'm probably not as old as you think, but I get your point. It could be they just had nowhere else to hold me and didn't want to kill me. Or, if they're doing some sort of medical experiment, they're keeping me around in case they run out of ideal candidates. I did hear them call me a 'last resort,' whatever that means."