No-LIMIT-Rooms 06 English

Only with delay did I notice that she was still staring at me half fearfully, waiting for an answer.

"Sorry! No, I'm not angry with you. We've been through this, I understandand accept that you had to be loyal to Rebecca. I just didn't know the extent of her influence on you."

Her relief was plain to see.

The ringing of the phone startled us. In anxious anticipation, we looked at each other for a moment, then I went over and picked up the receiver.

"Johanna Blauert!"

"Hello Johanna, Reiner here!"

"Hello Reiner!" I nodded to Isabell.

"She's awake!"

Just before noon, we were on our way to the hospital with flowers.

The last few hours had been torture. We wanted to leave right away to see Rebecca, because we absolutely had to talk to Rebecca absolutely before Diana did, to find out what she could remember.

But Rebecca still had quite a few examinations ahead of her in the morning.

Reiner had reported that she seemed to have no memory of the accident, but of course she could have been pretending.

On the way through the lobby in the apartment building I had also picked up my mail, among which was a rather thick envelope with money, my cash share of the AI room performance. The SD card, my ID and other important papers were in my purse. My official cell phone as well, but turned off. I would have to get rid that in an emergency. Instead, I still had my mini cell phone.

Isabell was less prepared for a sudden escape, because most of her documents were in Rebecca's possession. So she only had her credit card, a little cash and her ID with her.

In addition, we could not have walked through the lobby with suitcases. This would have immediately called Diana on the plan immediately.

I still hadn't told Isabell about the video. Otherwise, she probably wouldn't have gotten flowers from the store. I myself felt no need to give Rebecca flowers. But I had to at least keep up appearances.

Taking a deep breath, we finally stood in front of the door of her room and knocked. Then we opened the door with anxious expectations.

"Oh, hello Isabell, I'm glad to see you!" Rebecca's voice sounded determined as usual, onlya little weaker. Then her eyes fell on me. "Who have you brought me there?"

43 Amnesia

"Good morning, Mistress Rebecca! This is Johanna, your new slave for barely ten days!" Isabelle's quick reaction surprised me.

"Good morning, Mistress Rebecca! I am glad to see you are better.!" Submissively I lowered my head a little.

Rebecca looked genuinely puzzled. Then she waved us over and pointed to the chairs.

"Sit down and talk to me. Obviously, I'm missing more memories than I thought!"

Isabell and I shared an uneasy look but eventually sat down.

Rebecca examined me closely and then narrowed her eyes.

"Sorry, I still have a bit of a headache. Johanna then?"

"Yes, mistress!"

She seemed to think thoroughly. Then she shook her head slightly.

"Sorry, nothing! Tell me, how long have we known each other, and how did you become my slave?"

Was she acting? Rebecca had always been inscrutable to me.

I moistened my lips and began.

"My room name is Kumiho. I've been in the apartment for a little over a month, and have already had my own show with you. A whole weekend long!"

Her face reflected honest bewilderment.

"Last week there was an accident in the AI room and I was injured. You were visiting me in the hospital and fell. That's when you hit your head."

"In the AI room? But it's not yet ...." She fell silent. Again she narrowed her eyes.

"Kumiho ... Johanna ... Johanna Blauert?" She looked at me sharply.

"Yes mistress, that is my name. You remember?"

Again she moved her head back and forth slightly in denial. Her headache had to be stronger than she indicated.

"Not everything. But there is something. But I have no memory of my accident. How did it happen?"

"Your heel broke off and youfell!" blurted out Isabell.

Rebecca frowned. "My heel?" Then she seemed to remember something. Slowly, she nodded. "Right, there was something. But I can't quite put my finger on it yet."

My heart slipped into my pants. Damn. Last week I had thought this was a great idea, now she had a mind bridge. Stupid, stupid, Johanna!

Rebecca began to smile. "Thank you. Slowly my memories seem to come back.." She frowned. "Shouldn't you two be in training in the covencoven basement?"

"Mistress Diana has given us a leave . Just until you are completely healthy again!" Again Isabell was faster than me with the answer.

Rebecca reached for a glass. Startled, I noticed that her grip seemed shaky and weak. She lifted the glass and it slipped from her hand. As she did so, she looked at us bitterly.

"Then, I'm afraid your vacation will be longer."

"We have to get out of here now!" Isabell was completely panicked.

I could understand her, but of course still had my goal, to free Nadine. To do this, I had to satisfy my clients. However, a cancellation of the order came into consideration for me only if acute danger existed.

Rebecca had retained neurological sequelae from the accident. At the moment it was unclear how permanent they were. Next week she would enter rehab.

She had not immediately called murder, so it was not clear whether she had remembered everything. But even if not, the memory could return later. And she had remembered that I had come to the rooms under false pretenses, at least that's what I thought to see.

We had chatted for another 30 minutes or so, but the tension in the room had been almost palpable. At least Isabell had kept herself well under control for so long. The breakdown came now, outside in the parking lot.

"Calm down, we are not in danger yet. She hasn't accused us or had us arrested. And please remember that I have the BKA up my sleeve!"

"Fuck the BKA, they'll just make us disappear!"

"They won't!" I grabbed her shoulders with both hands and looked into her eyes. "Just trust me! We're not alone, and I'm not defenseless! I train in aikido, and I can do it pretty well!"

Her eyes sparkled angrily at me. "Anything else you haven't told me? What else?"

Well, I could handle her anger, but not panic.

"I work for Russian intelligence!"

"Ha, ha, very funny. I'm serious!"

"Me too!"

"You're crazy!"

"Do you really want to know where that T-shirt came from that I suddenly had at the hospital? It came from a burglary in Rebecca's house the night before, where I put a keylogger and router switch on her computer. In the future, everything she calls up there will be recorded and routed to the FSB!"

"FSB?"

"Subdivision of the KGB in charge of organized crime and money laundering!"

Isabell was still staring in disbelief.

Annoyed, I let go of her arms, nestled the mini-cell phone out of my pocket, and held it up.

"I can summon help at any time!"

Now her eyes widened. "You're serious?"

Wordlessly I nodded.

She began to sway as if she were about to collapse. I tried to hold her, but she slapped my hands away.

"Don't! Don't touch me!"

Her face, pale a moment ago, turned red with rage.

"So it's all a lie? Your sister, the BKA? You're just a Russian spy?" She shouted it so loudly across the parking lot that I winced.

"Shh, no! Everything is true! I did all this because of my sister!"

"I don't believe a word you say anymore!" She turned around angrily and left me standing there.

It was a mess.

"Bella!", I called after her. "You can't run away now, we're in this together. You knocked Rebecca down! But together we can get out of this!"

Her steps slowed down, finally she stopped. I hurried to get to her side, ignoring my crotch pain again.

That would be a longer conversation. Maybe we should look for a bench somewhere.

"And now you want to go on as if nothing happened? Hoping that Rebecca won't remember that I tried to kill her?"

"In short, yes!"

We sat in the shade of two plane trees on a secluded bench in the park.

Again I had told the story of Nadine's abduction, my futile search in Russia, but now also mentioned the events after my return back to Germany: How Holger had approached me and recruited me.

"You're out of your mind!"

I probably was. Any normal thinking woman would not have started the search for her sister, certain that she was already dead. But I never had any doubt that she was still alive and waiting for me. It might sound trite, but we were connected by something inexplicable, always.

I was not religious, did not believe in horoscopes or other nonsense, but in this respect I was convinced: I could feel my sister. I had felt her suffering, her despair, and to some extent her pain. Nightmares had haunted me and fueled my efforts. And then, all of a sudden, it stopped. So suddenly that for some time I assumed she was now dead.

But there was still something there. No more unspeakable pain, only sadness, later anger. I had disappointed her. That was the moment when I decided to look again and Holger approached me.

I didn't answer Isabell now, just looked her in the eyes.

"You're just like Rebecca!"

"Excuse me?"

"You manipulate and go over dead bodies to achieve your goals!" Isabelle's voice was full of bitterness.

"That's not true at all!"

"Oh no? What happens to the people in the apartment building? To Ronja, Linda, Mimi and the others? Ever thought of that?"

"Yes, I did. And I'm sorry, but my sister's life is at stake. If it wasn't me, they would have found someone else."

"You can justify anything with that, can't you?"

"Not everything, no. But Rebecca happens to run a criminal organization in which you played no small part. How many lives has Rebecca ruined?"

"The Rooms are not criminal!"

"The methods of secrecy are! Tax evasion and money laundering are not legal either!", I reminded her.

Isabell wanted to say something, but then closed her mouth again.

I followed up with, "Look, you can end this now: Call Diana, tell her everything, including the fact that the Russian secret service now has access to the rooms via Rebecca's computer. Then she can still put in the emergency brake, remove the access and close the company in a controlled way. Everyone can escape. Everyone except my sister."

"You wouldn't let that happen."

"Come on, let's go to town!" I stood up. "There was an electronics store somewhere up ahead!"

Without looking back, I started walking. She would catch up with me. If not, I had to try plan B. I just didn't know a plan B yet.

Isabell caught up with me. We entered the small electronics store and I went to the computer section. There I selected a relatively inexpensive tablet. I also purchased four new SD cards.

Confused, Isabell had followed the whole time. When we stepped out of the store again, I went to a small restaurant where I chose a table in a corner.

"What are we doing here?"

"Some food, what else? My treat. Please pick something for us, I need to prepare something for a minute."

The waiter arrived with the cards. I ordered a fruit spritzer, Isabell a mineral water.

Fortunately, the tablet's battery was half full. I took the SD card out of my pocket and put it in the slot. Then I called up the video.

When the waiter came back, Isabell, still confused, ordered the dish of the day for us twice.

As soon as he was gone, I started the playback.

We didn't have two and a half hours more here, so I kept jumping ahead to the interesting parts.

Isabelle's face became paler and paler. When the food came, I paused. She hardly touched it, but kept looking at me. I enjoyed the food. Finally it bursted out of her.

"How can you eat so calmly now? You were right, Rebecca had drugged and interrogated you! What's next?"

I chewed my cud in silence. "So you still had doubts about me? Why should I show you the rest as well? You're going to go to Diana and tell everything, aren't you? I'm not going back!"

Lurking, I looked at her. Of course, she had been thinking about really doing this all along. But she should see the obvious for herself.

"Twenty!"

"Excuse me?"

"Twenty and the others! The ones who ended up in the basement through blackmail. Will Diana just let them go?"

"Ah, that's the question, isn't it? And what happened to the others, the ones before that?" She had understood. Satisfied, I shoved the next bite into my mouth.

"We have to get them out!" she said quietly.

I nodded, rather casually, not really taking her seriously.

"I'm serious: we have to get her out, and destroy the evidence Rebecca has in her possession against her!" she suddenly repeated so loudly and fiercely that I was startled.

Coughing, I gasped for air and beat my chest, trying to loosen the bite in my windpipe. When I finally did, I looked at her with watery eyes, "How do you imagine this?" My voice was a croak.

"I don't know, but that's my condition: The girls in the basement or I'll bust you!"

Damn, I had underestimated Isabelle's guilty conscience.

She still looked questioningly.

"All right, I'll try."

"No, you will do it, not try!"

For a tiny moment, a vision of Isabell with green skin, round face, big eyes and pointed ears popped into my head. But at the moment I didn't find it funny.

"I'll need your help, I can't do it alone. And I certainly can't ask my friends for help!"

"Agreed!"

I nodded. "All right!"

Now Isabell began to eat, and I had lost my appetite.

By the time she was done, my food was cold. We pushed the plates aside and I started the recording again. I jumped to the end where Rebecca ordered me to be knocked unconscious.

Isabell turned pale again. Horrified, she looked at me, and I nodded. Startled, she watched how the Dalek hit my head.

Now I had Isabell on my side, because that convinced her. She would not buy Rebecca flowers again.

While the waiter was clearing away, I copied the file. One copy was given to Holger, the other I would send to Walter. Doubles are better than singles.

I paid and we left the restaurant.

Outside, I got my bearings.

"Isabell, we have to go to the post office. I need to mail the SD cards. Do you know where there's a store around here?"

"Hold on." She pulled out her cell phone and turned it on. Briefly, she called up a map search.

"Yes, not far from here. But we have to hurry, I have to go to the basement and it's getting tight!"

"You go back then, I'll be home later."

She hesitated. Then she turned to me.

"We're really going through with this? We're destroying the Rooms?"

I looked at her.

"No, we're helping to end something early here that would have ended soon anyway. And we try to get the victims out of the line of fire beforehand. The BKA has been investigating for some time. The rooms will continue elsewhere. The other studios are not affected. It's possible that many of them will be able to continue working there."

She seemed to think, then nodded.

"Well, no turning back then."

We hugged and I gave her a kiss goodbye.

"Take care of yourself, Bella. Think about the surveillance in the house. And don't trust anyone there!"

Isabell nodded, then hurried to get back in time.

The post office was quickly found. It was a receiving office in a kiosk. I addressed two envelopes, one to Holger, one to Walter.

I put the SD cards in there, each with an explanation - Walter's was a bit longer - and handed them in.

Back on the street, I looked for a quiet corner and dug out my mini cell phone. I really wanted to call Walter before he received the card.

This time I was able to reach him. After greeting him, I told him about the interrogation on drugs by Rebecca. A corresponding copy of the recordings was on its way to him.

He was almost blindsided. All the more so when I asked him not to do anything for some time.

"Johanna, if I become aware of a crime, I must act immediately, I am obligated to do so!"

"Then you'll need to leave the envelope closed."

"It doesn't work that way, and you know it!"

"So open an investigation file. But hold off until I can give you more details. Do you want to arrest an individual or break up an organization?"

"What about the missing girls? Do you know anything new there?" he evaded without answering.

"Yes, they live in the basement of the apartment building, probably held there by coercion or extortion."

"If the missing women are being held down there against their will, I must act immediately!"

"They're not being held down there by force, they're being held down there by pressure. Until I know exactly what the leverage is and where it is, they'll never testify against Rebecca. They'll claim to be there voluntarily. Just like I went down there by myself voluntarily."

"You had lied to me, Johanna. You knew about the cellar from the beginning. Pony ranch, very funny."

"Not from the beginning, but yes, I knew there was a basement. And by now I can tell you not only exactly what is happening down there, but also how to get in there. Because the entrances are very well hidden."

"Did you describe that in your letter?"

"No, you will have to wait until I get back to you."

"What are they up to?"

"Go back in, find out what the women are being blackmailed with, secure the evidence, and then get back to me."

"You're walking a very fine line there, Johanna. Both legally and personally. That can put your life in danger. Even if they haven't actually killed anyone there yet: When it comes to personal existence, people become unpredictable!"

"I'm paying attention, plus I have allies. My friend Isabell will support me."

"Your girlfriend? Does she know about her new identity?"

Drat. "Yes, I confessed everything to her. She is my partner. You yourself said I could tell my partners!"

"Yes, before the wedding. Not after a few days!"

"Are there specific rules about this?"

He sighed. "No, of course not. What's her name?"

"Isabell Ullrich, with double l." In addition, I told him her birthday and place of birth.

"Very well, then I will open the investigation file. And you better take care of yourself. I don't want to be investigating a homicide there!"

"I promise!" I didn't have to confess to him that it had almost come to that.

"Good, then you'll get back to me soon. If I don't hear from you in the next two weeks, I'll torn the place torn apart, evidence or no evidence!"

Great, just a tiny bit of extra pressure.

"All right. See you Walter!"

"Take care, Johanna!"

I ended the conversation. Now I had to go back. My worries had not diminished.

The doorman intercepted me directly as I passed: "Ah, Mrs. Blauert! Please report to Ms. Blaureuter immediately. She is expecting you in her office."

He pointed to the express elevator, which went directly to the executive floor and only worked with authorization.

"Uh, yeah thanks."

Aaron from security stepped up to my side, "Good afternoon Mrs. Blauert, I'll escort you upstairs!"

"Good afternoon Aaron!", I greeted back in an occupied voice.

For a moment I thought about escaping, but then decided against it.

He let me go first into the elevator and together we went upstairs. When we reached Dianasoffice door, he knocked and we only had to wait a short time before she invited us in.

He opened the door, gestured for me to enter, but did not enter himself, closing the door behind me from the outside once I was inside.

"Good afternoon Mistress Diana!" I lowered my head in greeting.

"Hello Johanna! Have a seat!" Smiling noncommittally, she pointed to the armchair in front of her desk. "Something to drink, a coffee perhaps?"

"No thanks."

"Good, then we'll get right to the point. You were already with Rebecca today, that was good. However, you should have signed off with me first!"

"Sign off?"

"Yes, you are officially on sick leave, and you have to sign out with me when you want to leave the house."