High up in one corner of her room, mounted at the juncture of two walls and the ceiling, was a small speaker enclosure.
Pal had noticed it before, but because she had always had too much else on her mind, she had given it no thought.
Now, the day after her exacting participation in the four-way orgy with Heidi, she lay on her bed, still exhausted, unable to regain as yet the strength torn from her during the degrading and shameful episode.
Her eyes caught on the dark wood that housed the speaker, and she wondered why it was there. All the time she had been imprisoned in the room, there had been no sound from it.
Her experience in the hospitals had taught her that speakers can be used as microphones, also, when connected in certain kinds of intercom systems.
She doubted that this installation was intended as a listening device, for several reasons. First of all, she had seen no indication of any kind of staff here. There seemed to be only Paul and Jonas. They could hardly interrupt their separate and individual duties for spot checks of the "cells" occupied by Heidi, Betty, and herself. At least, not with any degree of security.
And if it were up there to betray her activities, they would most likely have discovered her escape attempt before she had stumbled into Stillwell in the lobby.
They also could have heard her pattering about when she was on her douche-hunting junkets.
No, she deeded, it was not a snooping device, as such. But she wished it would act like a decent speaker. Why didn't they play some music over it, or something? Did they want to drive her out of her mind from boredom?
She wished she had never noticed it in the first place. She wished most heartily that she had not started thinking about it now. It was just one more thing in a long list of petty little irritations that she would prefer to get out of her mind.
Like the food. Especially the evening meal!
It was always some kind of a TV dinner. Probably because that was as simple to serve without an accredited staff as anything else. And maybe they bought them in such quantity that it was also the least expense. They certainly must have loaded up on those fish dinners! She had had them several times in the past few days.
The memory of fish suddenly reminded her of the ocean-front smell that emanated from Heidi's pissy cunt when they had all begun to revive after the orgy.
She could still see the happy smile and relaxed expression on the German girl's face as they left her alone in her room. And the shocking picture of her pitifully marked body!
Oh, if I could only get out of here! Pal thought. If I could just get the police to bust in here, those two would never see the light of day as long as they lived.
She tossed around restlessly on her bed, trying to get her thoughts shifted away from the helplessness and the hopelessness of her situation.
She wondered what Paul Harshman and Jonas Stillwell did when they weren't tormenting helpless victims. After the orgy in Heidi's room, Paul had told her she had twenty minutes to use the bathroom before she was locked up for the night. Then he and Jonas had taken the elevator up in a hurry.
She lost precious time by forgetting to retrieve her treasured douche hose, and had to go back for it. Still, she had been able to sneak in the lab, fill her violated uterus with gas fumes, and flood herself thoroughly with water before she showered, without getting punished, so she must have made it in time. It was impossible to know without any clock or watch around.
Suddenly, she realized that she had left her douche hose in the bathroom, so frightened had she been that she would not be back in her room on time! If it was discovered, she might lose the use of it, and could well expect punishment for baring stolen it from the lab. Maybe they had found it the same day!
She swung her feet out over the floor and made a quick check. The current bit her a quick jolt before she could get her heel up off the studded tile. She cursed silently for a while, then got an idea she knew she had to try.
She worked and tugged at her sheets until she could loosen them sufficiently to get at the short, rubberized under-sheet that was standard protection in hospital beds. When she had managed to get it out, she examined it. The rubber was in good condition. It looked as though it might be new.
She trailed it onto the floor below the bed, then carefully stretched out a foot and pressed down on it. So far, so good, she thought, as she felt no shock.
Taking a deep breath, and mustering up all the courage she possessed, she got both feet onto the sheet, then squatted and put her weight on the end of the sheet toward the door. She reached back and pinched up the corner of the other end and inched it toward her, then held it down with one foot until she could get the opposite end flattened out.
Inching her way bit by bit, she finally reached the door and carefully opened it. Then she tested the bare spot by the door, and knew the current was off.
There was no one in the hall, so she made a dash for the bathroom, ran in and got her hose, and hurried right back to her room. In a few seconds, she had the hose stowed away in her water closet.
Then she wondered how she could get the damned rubber sheet back under the bed-sheet without standing on the floor. She certainly didn't want them to find out that she had discovered a way to outmaneuver the shocking system.
It came to her with a surprising clarity that she didn't have to reset the current. She hadn't done so before, when she first left the room. They had no reason to squint through the notch on the outer door edge to see if the switch in the frame was depressed or not. They always just came down the hall, opened her door, and left it open as they entered.
She picked up the insulating rectangle, brushed it off, and replaced it in its proper spot, then hastily remade the bed – a simple task for the fastest successful bed-maker in her nurse's training class.
When she got back on top of the covers, she felt better than she had for quite a while. A little tingle of independence had returned with her execution of the rubber-sheet caper.
She knew it was a smell thing, but it was just one more item she had in reserve that they didn't know about. The sheet, and the fact that she knew how the current-switching operated, so she could take advantage of the rubber insulation.
Now, if there was just some way she could make it pay off…