Tony found the door remote in the inside pocket of the dead man's wool blazer. "Here it is!"

         Lucky moved to Tony's side and looked at the slim metal object along with him. "Which button?" He asked, looking at a grid of nine buttons, all with strange markings on them. Maybe if Lucky had been older or Tony militarily experienced, they'd have recognized the symbols as stripes from army uniforms dictating rank among officers.

         "I don't know. Anyone care to guess?" Since no responses were forthcoming, Tony tried to remember if the keeper ever took the remote out of his pocket when he came and went. There was no image that came to mind. With no clear idea of the use of the buttons, but with hope in his heart, Tony pushed the top button on the grid. Nothing happened. He ran through three more buttons until he came to the center button. He pushed it and for a moment nothing happened, but suddenly the door to what had been Bobbie's cell opened smoothly.

         "Oh!" Chloe cried in surprise. "Look!" Lucky took Bobbie's hand and helped her to her feet. He also grabbed the gun from the floor and put it in his waistband at the back of his jeans. Four of the captives looked into the hallway, fearing a guard or something else might try to stop their escape.

Lucky was the first to step over the threshold and grinned. "Are you guys ready to go home?" Bobbie and Tony followed him quickly.

                  As Chloe was about to step into the corridor, she looked back at Brenda softly humming and rocking in her corner. She turned and said "Brenda, come on. It's time to go now. Time to go home. To Jax." That caught Brenda's attention and she stood and took Chloe's hand, the way a lost child in a grocery store would.

         "We're going to see Jax now?" Brenda asked.

         "Yes. Yes we are. Come on," Chloe put her arm around Brenda's shoulder and urged her through the door. They quickly caught up with the other three and stopped short at the double door at the end of the corridor. They tried other combinations and single buttons on the remote. Some of the surrounding chambers had opened, but they had proved to be empty and much the same as the ones they had just left.

         Lucky took the gun from his waistband and shot at the edge of one of the door hinges. One more shot and he had two hinges off. After the last hinge was blown, Tony and Lucky eased the door away from the wall. Suddenly an alarm, like the klaxon of a fire truck began to wail. All five hostages covered their ears and began to run. On the way down the corridor, they came across more rooms, all unlocked. A kitchen, an exercise room, a bathroom. All stainless steel and immaculate.

         As the alarm continued to ring, Bobbie found a room with a bank of monitors along one wall, a faded piece of paper on an empty desk, the Keeper's infamous list - and a clock ticking loudly. She took note of the wires, the suitcase and that the clock that was speeding backwards. They must have tripped an alarm that set off this timer. Lucky ran in and paused when he saw the suitcase and the timer on a table on the far side of the room.

         "What's that?" He asked warily.

         "My guess? A going away present from our former host."

         "Oh God!" The two of them struggled to find a way to disarm the bomb, but they did not have any experience to aid them. Bobbie sat down on the edge of the table and looked around in frustration. Suddenly, she jumped up.

         "Lucky!"

         "What?" He asked over his shoulder. He was still puzzling over the bomb.

         "Look!" Lucky looked back at his aunt to see her lift the receiver of an old fashioned telephone.

         "A phone!"

         "Yes and I know just who to call!" She dialed a familiar number as her hands trembled. The bomb said they had less than twenty minutes to get out.