I glanced at my watch. It should take about three hours to reach the old copper mine. That was where they had put this prison/torture chamber. In the past they had mined straight down for the copper, open pit style. As a prison it had no need for walls or electric fences, as the steep sides of the pit were their own form of containment.
I wasn't exactly sure how we were going to get out of the prison. Most of my plan involved improvising on the go. In all actuality I really didn't have a plan other than to get in and get out with Deshavi and head south.
The chopper was more or less in a stationary holding pattern in the air. The time was about right, we must be there. The crate started downward. It seemed like a long time before the crate jostled painfully down onto some kind of cart that was soon moving along.
I could hear voices outside in Russian, which although I was somewhat rusty at I understood and could speak it quite well. They were complaining about getting two new shipments so late in the day. Then one got the bright idea of, why not just leave them in the storage building for the night and deal with them in the morning. The other agreed to the plan and I couldn't believe our good fortune.
I had expected to have to roll out of the crate with guns blazing, but now we could come out undetected in the night. The voices grew fainter and fainter. I waited exactly an hour, after the last noises had faded away, before starting my escape from the crate. One problem with that though. My legs wouldn't move!
I had to kick the pre-weakened side out at the end of the crate and my numb legs wouldn't move. Screaming inside with effort and self-loathing from my body's ineptitude I tried to force my dead legs to life. Nothing doing. I brushed at the sweat rolling into my eyes, as I faced an irrefutable fact. I was old.
"Oh God please let me keep what little pride I still have left and make my legs work!" I whispered into the darkness, as I tried to move again. I got the same result as before. I was old and feeble, ready for the old folk's home at Happy Level Acres or something.
Not even the anger I felt at that conclusion of thought was enough to budge my legs into action. My head sank down onto my shoulder and after a sigh of defeat I pressed the com button at my ear. I had insisted on radio silence until my signal.