Minty by M. Garnet Page A

spent the day in this room. She walked, not to pace in anxiety, but to walk for exercise. She felt it would be better to use her muscles and become tired than to sit restlessly. She was trying to think about something she knew nothing about.
    Late in the day she was brought a fast food meal from a local hamburger place. She ate the meat, not the bread or the fries. She drank all the shake, needing the calories. She found the last of the water in the bottle. She used the lavatory, forcing herself to forget her shyness.
    It got dark but there was light — overhead were dirty windows that she could see stars through, as well as the reflection from some outside streetlights. Inside there were lights in the railings. The men turned a light on in her office so they could watch her. She was satisfied, so she lay down on the floor and curled up to sleep.
    She woke up in the morning to a very loud scraping sound. She saw her guards had their backs to her, looking down. She got up, approached one of the windows, and saw a large car coming in through the doors on the first level.
    Someone got out. Her guards turned around looking at her, then one came in. He walked up to her intending to take her arm, she supposed to take her down the stairway. She was leaning on the back of a metal chair. As he got close she turned, letting her momentum bring up the chair with the swing, taking the full force of it into his chest, sending him backwards through the window and across the railing, out of sight.
    But her success was short lived. The second large man was on her. He had her face down on the floor with his entire weight across her back. She felt first the breath knocked out of her, then the inability to draw in more air. She saw black circles forming behind her eyes.
    At last he rolled sideways as another entered the room. Between them, each held an arm and wrist and pulled her to her feet. She didn’t fight any more. She just let them drag her down the stairs as she drew much needed oxygen into her lungs.
    Two men in very expensive suits were standing with deep frowns as they brought her down. No one was helping the guy who was picking himself up after the fall from the upper railing.
    The two men took her over to a metal table and sat her on a metal chair, then pushed her up to the table. One of them stood behind her with his large hands on her shoulders to keep her firmly anchored in the chair.
    One of the well-dressed men walked over to her. He stood looking at her for a long time and frowned again. He reached over, grabbed her chin, and forced her to look at him. He leaned closer, looking into her eyes as if he were trying to find something. Evidently he didn’t find it, because he pushed her face away and said something low in a foreign language. The other man stepped forward.
    “Your name is Minty Macik. How long have you known the nightwalker Alexander Bider?”
    She watched the man as he sat down on the corner of the table. She looked around. Okay, these guys must be the bosses or something important. How about starting out by co-operating and telling the truth?
    “Yes, I am Minty Macik. But you have made some mistake here. I have no idea what a nightwalker is. I don’t know anyone by the name of Alexander Bider.” She looked up at them. She had her hands in her lap. The heavy hands on her shoulders made sure she didn’t move.
    “Don’t play games with us. Are you saying you don’t know this male?” He messed with his phone, then turned it around. It had a picture of her and Alex leaning against a car.
    She looked at it with shock, then looked up at the man. “I have met this man only twice. I never knew his full name. I only knew him as Alex.”
    He looked at her and laughed. “Are you telling us that he didn’t reveal that he was a nightwalker?”
    She looked around at each man. “I don’t know the term, and I don’t know what it means. As I said, I only met Alex two times — both times was for a short duration