No-LIMIT-Rooms 05 English

"We were orphans, she was adopted, I wasn't. She has a different last name."

Rebecca looked a little puzzled. Then she pursed her lips and nodded. "Okay, that sounds plausible."

"Fear?" Deliberately provoking, I asked her this question, taking the initiative again.

"Excuse me?"

"You said fear. You use fear to intimidate, to keep former employees from doing stupid things. That has to be put across in a credible way. But also in such a way that they don't immediately run to the police and press charges. So not fear of them getting hurt or killed by you, but fear of the police, right?"

Now I had seen through her. Even before she could answer, I attacked further. "That's why the total surveillance in every corner of the house: it's about blackmail! Drugs, tax evasion, what else? What do you have them all on?"

I thought I could detect a trace of admiration in Rebecca's gaze.

But I couldn't savor my triumph, because Isabell interrupted me: "I don't understand anything anymore: Who is Laura Zamora now? And what's all this talk of blackmail?"

I looked at my sweetheart. "What does she have you in the palm of her hand? What does Rebecca know about you?"

She made a pout. "My mistress knows everything about me, of course. Why shouldn't she?"

"So, is there anything in it that the police would be better off not knowing, or the BKA?"

Slowly she seemed to understand. Half indignant, she looked at Rebecca. "That's complete nonsense, isn't it? I've been around so long, I would have noticed that if you had blackmailed someone..." She fell silent. Obviously something occurred to her. Horrified, she looked first at me, then at Rebecca.

I recognized her pain, but wanted to know.

"Who?"

Tears came to her eyes, "The girls in the cells!"

"Who?"

She seemed suddenly disgusted with herself. "All of them!"

Before I could stop her, she jumped up and stormed toward Rebecca with the words, "You've turned me into a monster!" She was also too surprised to react in time. Isabell grabbed the water bottle and knocked Rebecca down.

She just managed to soften the blow with a deflecting hand movement, but she went down almost instantly. I recognized a gaping wound on her head.

Isabell raised the bottle to strike again.

"Bella!", I screamed. "Don't!"

She paused and looked at me, puzzled. Then her eyes fell on the bloody bottle in her hand and on Rebecca lying motionless on the floor. As if waking from a nightmare, she backed away, dropping the bottle.

No, no, no! Damn it! I pulled myself out of bed, ignoring all the pain, and knelt down next to the unconscious woman. She was breathing. Weak, but alive. I looked around in a hurry. Isabell stood pale and motionless next to me. My gaze fell on Rebecca's Manolos. Hm, I called that compensatory justice.

The nurse was on the spot within two minutes after I pressed the call button. After a brief moment of shock, he reacted calmly and professionally. Four minutes later, Rebecca was on her way to neurosurgery. Later, someone from administration came and questioned Isabell and me.

"Just twisted!" I held up the heel of her left shoe. "Then she hit the table and passed out."

The clerk looked at the blood stain on the table. Then he accepted the heel.

"I'll have to take that with me as evidence for the insurance company!"

"Of course!", I answered him.

"And you, can you confirm it all like that?" He turned to Isabell, who had not spoken a word since the matter.

She didn't seem to hear him.

"Listen, my friend is in shock. How about you have Doctor Meier paged? He's a mutual acquaintance and should take a look at her, would that be possible?"

"I don't really know..." he began.

"Shock, doctor, hospital? Hello? Do they have him paged or should I ring the alarm again?"

To be fair, I should say that I was standing half naked in front of him. My bandages had loosened somewhat, as if by chance, shortly before the nurse had come in, and had not been renewed since then. And of course I hadn't found time to put on my jogging suit in the last two hours. Whereby, if I was honest, I preferred to stay like that than to get into that awful thing again. But of course there were practical reasons why I put myself on display. Those who stared at me probably didn't notice possible inconsistencies in the story. At the moment, it wasn't clear how Rebecca was doing or if she would retain any damage. I didn't know anything. Except that my lover had just tried to kill her.

"Um, you still have to sign the accident report!" he weakly tried to contradict. But I remained persistent.

"There's still time for that tomorrow. And now call the doctor, or do you want someone else to fall over here and hurt themselves?" I took the papers from his hand. "Come on!"

As if I had kicked his butt, he left the room.

Hopefully the doc was on duty and available right now. A little luck really couldn't hurt at the moment. We needed an ally.

Isabell was really in shock. But the last thing I wanted to do now was to have her taken to the emergency room as well. As soon as I had noticed her condition, I had put her on the free bed, put her feet up and covered her. If my medical knowledge did not deceive me, that should be enough for the time being.

Now I sat down with Isabell again and stroked her wet hair out of her forehead. She felt cold and was shivering.

"Hey, Bella, it's going to be okay, you hear me?" I gave her a kiss on the forehead.

In fact, I was lucky for once, because shortly afterwards there was a knock and Reiner entered the room. With one look, he registered Isabelle's condition and immediately stood by her bed.

"What happened? Why is she lying here in bed?"

"She tried to kill Rebecca and knocked her down, now she's in shock!"

Surprised, he looked at me. "What? Why is that?"

"Because Rebecca admitted that she had been systematically blackmailing everyone in the apartment building for years, and using Isabell to do it."

For a moment I feared I was getting a second shock patient, but he quickly regained his composure.

He took Isabelle's pulse, felt her forehead and checked her breathing. Everything I had already done myself for the past hour.

"She needs to go to the ER," he explained, reaching for the call button. I stopped him.

"Not if Rebecca dies! Then she has to leave here!"

Dumbfounded, he looked at me. "How bad is it?"

I shrugged. "I was hoping you could tell us."

"You're crazy!" Again he reached for the bell button and again I intervened.

"Think about it. If Rebecca dies and Isabell is questioned about why she did it, what happens then? What all will the officers find on Rebecca's computer?"

"Do you want me to let Isabell die, too?"

"Are you crazy? I love her! Treat her here! Make her feel better. And then you try to find out how Rebecca is doing. After that, we'll see."

He still hesitated.

Sighing, I thought, why is everyone always so slow on the uptake?

"I'm not reporting you for breaking doctor-patient confidentiality either! After all, I didn't give you permission to reveal anything about my health to Rebecca during my first stay. And by the way, I'd like to see the results of my drug test."

"Why?"

"Because Rebecca gave me a truth drug on the first day and quizzed me about working for the police. And she got it from you!"

His face ran red with anger. "That's a fucking lie. I would never have gone along with that!"

I nodded. "Good, then I can certainly confirm that in the same way that I had heard from Rebecca that you wouldn't have been okay with it if you had found out about it."

He wrenched his hand free.

"Who are you?"

My face took on a threatening expression, "That depends: Either your 'I'm getting out of jail free card', or your worst nightmare! And now see to it that you get Isabell healthy and then find out what's up with Rebecca, otherwise I can't and won't help you anymore!"

After all, now he was acting decisively and competently. I didn't know how he managed it secretly, but he procured everything necessary to treat Isabell in no time. And soon she was feeling much better.

After that he promised to find out something about Rebecca's condition and left us. Besides, he was still on regular duty. I felt a little sorry for him, but I didn't know yet what Rebecca had on him. It was possible that he had a much darker secret than the others in the apartment building.

To be reachable, I put the phone card back into the phone.

"So you do have a phone card?" Isabell looked at me with glazed eyes.

"Of course! How else am I supposed to make a phone call? We need to know what's going on with Rebecca, don't we?"

"I heard everything! You were blackmailing him. Who are you?"

I immediately rushed over to her. "The woman who loves you, my darling!" I kissed her forehead again.

"And who is that? Laura or Johanna?"

I froze. Damn!

Sighing, I sat down across from her on my bed.

"Laura and Johanna."

Silently, she looked at me, waiting for an explanation.

"I was Laura Zamora. Now my name is Johanna Blauert."

"How? I've seen your ID card. Where do you get fakes like that?"

"My papers are not fake, they are real!"

Carefully, she sat up. "How?"

"Witness Protection Program. BKA."

She thought for a moment. "Are you an informant?"

I nodded.

"Did they sneak you in here?"

"No, they didn't."

She tilted her head. "Why, Johanna?"

I didn't understand what she meant. "What do you mean by 'why'?"

"Why did you destroy my world and let me become a murderess?"

Horrified, I looked at her. "You didn't murder Rebecca!"

"Then why did you say that and want to take me away?"

Shit, she might have heard everything, but obviously not understood everything.

"She's alive and in surgery. But if she doesn't make it, I'm going to have to get you out of here so everything doesn't blow up in our faces."

"You reacted so calmly, so hardened. And you arranged everything as if it had been an accident. Why would you have to take me away. And where?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "If Rebecca doesn't make it, then there will be a thorough investigation. Possibly an autopsy. They'll quickly determine that the wound doesn't match the table, but the bottle. We would then first go into hiding with friends, then see further."

The ringing of the telephone startled us. We looked at it as if frozen. Hesitantly, I grabbed the receiver, Isabel's face consumed with fear before my eyes. "Yes?"

"She'll pull through. And probably won't retain any severe effects. There could be some amnesia, though." Reiner.

"Wait a minute!" I turned to Isabell. "It's Reiner. She's alive and coming through, it's going to be okay!"

It took her a moment to realize, then her face relaxed and she lay back.

"When will she wake up?", I asked into the phone.

"Tomorrow morning, if all goes well."

I looked at the clock. It was almost dinnertime. "Is Isabell officially a patient here now?"

"Would probably be better. She's not doing that well."

"Good, will you take care of the paperwork? Besides, she needs a sedative, she's still a mess."

"I don't need a sedative!" objected Isabell very vehemently, almost shouting, from across the room.

"I heard, she's getting one," Doc promised. "But, Johanna, we need to talk, urgently."

"I'm here!", I promised.

After dinner, which we left practically untouched, Reiner visited us again and gave Isabell the sedative. She protested weakly, but was probably basically happy about it.

As soon as it started working and she fell asleep, I got dressed and met Reiner in his on-call room.

"So, Johanna, what makes you think I would be blackmailed?" he began our conversation.

I shrugged my shoulders. "Why should you be the only one who isn't being blackmailed there?"

Thoughtfully, he looked at me. "Who are you, Johanna, and what role do you play in all this?"

Meaningfully, I tilted my head. "I have my own interests, but good connections."

He laughed. "Sure, that's why I should get a phone card, because they're so connected."

I quickly fished my phone out of my pocket and held it up. "Yes, so they could bring me this."

Astonished, he stared at it. "Is that a cell phone?"

I tossed it over to him. "Cute, isn't it?"

He deftly caught it and looked at it. Then he looked at me again. "Are you a spy?"

"Sure, Johanna Bond, at your service! Nonsense, this is a China gadget. But it works. I have someone covering me. And if I don't check in regularly, he calls the police."

Clearly unsure what to make of it, he handed it back to me. "Not unreasonable. But why?"

"Because I'm looking for my sister who was kidnapped."

"But surely not from Rebecca?" His tone betrayed disbelief.

"No," I confirmed, shaking my head. "But from the owner of the Rooms: Morosov. Vladimir Morosov. I think you know him?"

Reiner nodded. "Fleeting. Rebecca introduced him to me once. What makes you think he owns the Rooms and kidnapped your sister?"

It did not escape me that he had also changed to the you, so I had overcome his first defense. However, it would be more difficult from now on. How could I get him on my side? How much was I allowed to entrust to him, was I allowed to trust him at all? The enemy of my enemy is not necessarily my friend.

"Isn't that obvious? Where did the money for the apartment building come from? There were hundreds of millions invested, who has that and is putting it into an illegal enterprise, besides the mafia?"

"Now the mafia, too? Can it get any bigger?"

"Sure, but if I were to explain the connections to you, I'm afraid I'd have to eliminate you!"

His facial expression told me that my joke had not arrived. Sighing inwardly, I clarified for him, "It was a joke. I don't know anything for sure, I'm just following clues and having guesses."

"By whom was your sister kidnapped now? Morozov?"

Again I shook my head. "No, that was the Russian mafia in Berlin."

"Why? And where is the connection to Morozov, for example, because he is Russian?"

Impatiently, I shook my head. "Long, messy story. In short, they wanted me, but only got my sister. I've been looking for her ever since. And now I suspect she's with Morosov, or at least at his ranch."

"When was she taken?"

"Two and a half years ago."

"What makes you think she's still alive?"

"Because she was seen in Cyprus three months ago in the company of Morozov."

"And how do you know all this?"

Ah, that was the point, wasn't it? From my mysterious friends and helpers. The ones who got me into the Rooms to get the data from Rebecca's computer. The data about Morosov, the Rooms, everyone involved, and their dirty secrets.

"Do you work for the police?" he probed when I didn't answer right away.

"No, although I have contact with them. The fact is: based on credible informants, I firmly believe that my sister is at this very moment at Morosov's ranch in Cyprus. And I know that I must find her and free her at all costs!"

"Does Rebecca know?"

"No, however, she has already figured out fractions of it."

You could see him thinking. "I still don't understand the connections. Why don't you fly to Cyprus, and look for them there? And why are you telling me all this?"

"Sure, I'll fly to Cyprus, invade a highly secured private property of a Russian oligarch there and search that for my sister. Do I look like a superhero?" My voice dripped with sarcasm. "No, Rebecca will inadvertently sneak me in there as her slave and ponygirl. That's why all the fuss. And I'm telling you this because I've noticed that you're not Rebecca's friend, and she doesn't trust you either."

"And what makes you think I'm not involved in it too, in the whole affair?"

"You're too poor!"

His mouth remained open for a moment in astonishment. Then he regained his composure and began to laugh.

"No one has ever called me poor," he began when he had regained his composure. "That's a good one!"

Annoyed, I waved it off. "I didn't mean that you are a Hartz4 recipient. But you don't live beyond your means, rather below it."

Now he seemed interested. "What makes you think that?"

Grinning broadly at him, I said, "If you want to know about a very handsome bachelor, all you have to do is ask the women around him."

Understanding, he nodded. "You took house gossip as your source? Not very reputable, or even reliable, don't you think?"

"Come on, I've known you for over a month now, don't you think I've been making inquiries about you since day one? Like about anyone involved with the Rooms to get to my sister?"

That was no lie, even though he had not been the focus of my research.

"Still, my question: why me?" His expression became defensive.

"I need a friend and helper in the Rooms who has free access everywhere, and can also get someone out quickly in an emergency if things get dicey. For example, if Rebecca finds out who I really am and what I'm up to."

With his index finger, he pointed to the cell phone I was still playing with in my hands.

"What about that one, and the one who got you that?"

"Do I have reception down there with that? Besides, it may take too long."

"All right, I understand that. And I thank you for your trust, but why do you think I'm actually helping you? What do I get out of it? And don't think I forgot about your blatant blackmail attempt earlier. It didn't go over very well with me."

"I apologize for that. But somehow I had to get you to help me first. After all, now you're also involved in covering up a crime."

He first turned pale, then his face turned red with anger.

Immediately I raised my hands to calm him down. "So do I, so take it easy. No, I have no intention whatsoever of blackmailing you. Quite the contrary. Perhaps I will succeed in destroying the evidence with which Rebecca has you in her hand, whatever that is."

I wanted to hope that it wasn't murder or something similar, but I honestly didn't trust him with that either. On the other hand, I lied to him brazenly now. At the moment, I saw no way to help him at all, unless I blew up the rooms, along with all the servers worldwide. But he also seemed to doubt that.

"Not likely. But thanks for the offer."

Fine, then plan B. "I don't work for the police."

"Said you already."

"I am an official informant of the BKA!"

His facial expressions were almost like watching a movie. Disbelief, annoyance, fear, doubt and reflection.

Finally, he caught himself. "Is there a difference?"

"The BKA is not necessarily interested in what you did. They're interested in gang crime on a large scale, like Rebecca is. Something could possibly fall under the table if they need a key witness. Or did you kill someone?"

"No, I didn't."

"You must have realized a long time ago that this whole place is going to blow up, right? Rebecca and the others already have their sheep in the dry for sure. And who's going to stay here and pay for everything?"

I finally had him, I could tell by his expression.

"Does that happen to a lot of people, that they underestimate you, Johanna? You've obviously figured out more about all the connections in a month than I have in years."

For a moment I thought about how to take it, but then took it as a compliment.

"Let's just say I know a lot of people who don't want to play poker with me anymore."

"Count me in from now on!" His grin looked tortured.

40 Order executed

There were still many things to clarify, but we postponed that until later, after all Reiner also had to work. I would remain in the clinic at least until the day after tomorrow. There was enough time for further talks. In addition, I still had to think about how I could quickly alert him in an emergency so that he could get me out. It was getting more and more complicated. But my hand was now full. I couldn't get any better cards than that. I could only hope that my trumps would be enough to win the game.