Yelled Le Grande finally: "You are in no position to examine the situation. Do you see that twisted hunk of metal outside in the snow?

Do you know why that is? Cheap craftsmanship. SOMEONE did not let the cement sit LONG ENOUGH. Someone did not wrap the chain in the right place. Shoddy work!"

The men eyed the shed with incredulity. All four walls were twisted outwards like flower pedals around the chain, which was still in place at the edge, and the roof was totally caved in. Le Grande was talking out his ass if he thought it was shoddy craftsmanship. Eddie shook his head violently, no, no, nope, no, no how, no way. She kicked the sides in. Right through the walls. All the walls. She didnt have to kick all the walls in. She was just p****d off, and plenty!

Just then, a pine branch snapped against the cabin window with a heartless thwack, and Eddie jumped again like a frightened rabbit fleeing the sound of the farmers gun, so high he almost hit his head on an overhanging rafter.

"Novak has a berserk rage." Said Le Grande with finality. He offered a stern frown and crossed the room with his bourbon held out, and drained like it was a milkshake. Le Grande was a cock-sure, logical frontiersman, a leader brimming with strength and resoluteness. He stubbed his men with bombastic blows to their ego if they forgot to do exactly as he said, and like the look on their faces when they panicked for help, he was always distorting them through exaggeration. Sometimes he took an extra few minutes to fill in or repair a jumped conclusion or a mistimed comment, just so he could watch them sweat. He liked it like that. Le Grande continued on.

"When Novak reaches a certain threshold of strength, she begins producing a massive amount of energy in the form of adrenaline. The adrenaline fuels the surge and vice-versa. This is what really accounts for the damage you see. Damage you see that should have been taken into consideration a bit more carefully Mr Shang."

But Le Grande had a mixture of feelings for Ms. Novak and her extra-ordinary displays of power that wasn't so easy to accept. Novak was making him look foolish. Her will, as yet unbroken. It was something he was perplexed with. Le Grande himself had trapped every terrestrial creature, raised monsters in captivity, and achieved a global reputation for his big game hunting. He broke the will of his captives as soon as possible. Elephants raised in his domestication could not break a thin paper tether once conditioned to accepting a thick chain for some length of time, because years of conditioning made the symbol of any restraint seem as tough as steel chain. But this will-breaking process took time.

"I gave you exemplary technical data on Novaks peak limitations. Your efforts at restraining her are pathetic! Fortunately for you, Novak is not planning to go far."

"What are you saying?" Eddie said with his bourbon in two shaken and cupped hands. His eyes were bulging terribly, like two hard-boiled eggs lain against a pointy patrician lawn ornament. "Are you saying that shes here? Under this cabin? HERE?"

"Are you saying she's out there spying on us?" Added Bill Ozzball.

"Philistine. Do you not perceive what is happening?" Continued Le Grande. "This display is a SOS to a passerby. It is not an escape attempt. And I would not be surprised if she is here now, somewhere in the cabin, listening to our every word."

"The Boss is right." Said Roger Shang coolly. He had been minding his business. Now he wanted to talk. "She wont risk freezing to death."

"Yes", complied Le Grande. "That is correct. We can presume this. Excellent, Mr. Shang. But that is not exactly why she has chosen to stay here with us."

"I dont follow you, Le Grande." Roger Shang knew the wood-burning stove below the cabin was good for another two hours before it needed logs, and Novak wouldnt do anything to jeopardize her only source of heat in a northeasterner unless she had found another heat source. He also knew how well he gagged her, so she must be hyperventilating by now after all that exertion. He had packed her mouth to constrict her throat so she would have to breathe through her nose at all times. And he tied her gag in double knots around her head very tightly. Even if she freed her arms, the chain binding them to the ceiling would be around her body somehow, and that would limit her movement. She was also cemented to the floor, so she must have broken out by kicking. Those meant her legs were free enough to walk, maybe run. Novaks arms were tightly bound behind her with both chain and rope, and expertly bound at that. He had blindfolded her to make sure she wouldnt spot anything sharp or hot enough to loose her ropes. All she had going for her was her incredible muscle power and perhaps some leverage from the cement around her feet, and of course her indomitable will. Thats certainly a lot, but it wasnt nearly enough to escape five miles of deep snow-bound wilderness dragging a few yards of chain behind. No one could do that. So what could it be.

"You mistake her intentions." Said Le Grande. "You think she is hiding from us. But she isnt. She is waiting for us." He stood still now. He was listening for something. His eyes shined with an animal intelligence. He said, Think if the roles were reversed. If you were chained and freezing to death, in some basement, waiting for a Sultan and his entourage to bring you thousands of miles East for a complete reprogramming, youd want to break free as soon as possible.

But you can only surge your adrenaline for so many times before you have to recuperate. You'd bank that some knight in shining armor would swoop down from his helicopter and see your SOS in the way you left it. And the Canadian police are searching every crevice of these hills. For the time being, at least, she has sent an effective distress with her splaying of the shed metal.

Le Grande paused to look at his antiquated pocket watch. The sound of its ticking made him smile, as it came and went enigmatically, when seemed to his recover composure. The only option left open to you would be to incapacitate the kidnappers until their arrival. And how might you do that, Ms. Novak?

Then Le Grande eyes flashed. They grew egg-like and luminescent at the corners. He began to move very slowly and methodically, very tactfully, toward the center of the cabin. Le Grande walked like a ballet dancer. He walked in spurts. He stopped. He tip-toed a little.

"Boss, what are you doing?" Said Eddie.

"Shhhh!"

He let the creak of his boots accent sound into the cabin wood floor. Le Grande was leading a trail of sounds over to the main bedroom. The whole time he crept, he pointed down, mouthing the word Novak in a mealy O-shaped blossom. Then he held out his hand and mouthed for Eddies Boot. His beady eyes were fixed on Gretzel, but his pointed finger was directed at the bedroom. Eddie hurriedly took off his left boot. Le Grande picked it up. He studied the open door of the bedroom. With the boot in hand, he looked like he was ready to bowl a round.

"Observe." Le Grande said. He tossed Eddies boot into the bedroom and watched it land with great thrown-boot clamor. There was a racket of falling sticks. Smoke rose. The floor had caved in. "She's weakened the ancillary cabin joists, no doubt attempting to claim us as I would with a Mandarin tiger pit. The only room not supported by these joists is this one. For the time being, were safe. But it appears we cannot leave this cabin without succumbing to a floor collapse. Most impressive."

Sweat leaked down from her brow, staining the black blindfold with salt crystals. For almost fifteen minutes, she had applied continual pressure to the main joist but not broken it. The chain that bound her arms had not broken as well. Some loops of chain were off her arms below her navel in a slack hoop around the top of her butt, but it wasn't enough to get free. She recovered from her chest expansions, and a loop of chain slid a little lower. Her upper body was no longer really shackled which gave her the freedom to push her arms outward and flex her pectorals in tandem. Kate rocked her upper body back and forth in a wide liberating arc.

There was the oxygen problem which Le Grande has anticipated. Kates gag made it difficult for her to breathe and her blindfold kept her guessing as to her whereabouts. It would not be a straight run to victory. She may as well hyperventilate if she continued to work this hard. The rope binding her upper arms to her torso felt frayed but the two layers wrapping her forearms, not to mention the chain, made it impossible to pull her arms behind her back. She had pushed down on the ropes and sawed sinewy strands of fray twines against foundation brick, but the chain was blocking any real chance of escape. Whoever had tied her up knew their business.

She could bend her legs. Sometimes it was sitting down in the chain loop that let her take pressure off her calves and thighs. She rocked on her back and spread her legs wide. She stood upright and wiggled and shook as if she felt the Bahamian Wind.

But she was getting so tired now. So sleepy...

By FKIOWA