“Well?” Suzanne questioned. From where she was she couldn’t see what lay ahead.

“It looks encouraging,” Donald said. “There’s a relatively normal looking corridor beyond a glass door.”

“Then let’s move,” Richard called impatiently from behind Suzanne.

With both hands on the doorjamb for support, Donald moved first one foot onto the sloped floor and then brought the other to it. As he’d anticipated he began to slide once he let go. He slid for about three feet with his hands flailing to keep from falling. At that point the floor angled out to be almost level. He turned and warned the others.

Everyone was careful except Michael. Having grown up in Chelsea, Massachusetts, where he’d played hockey since age five, he wasn’t concerned about the slick floor. But its angle took him by surprise. His feet went out from under him on his first step, and he careened into the others like a bowling ball. In a flash the entire group was a pile of entwined naked limbs.

“For chrissake!” Donald snapped. He extricated himself and helped Suzanne to her feet. The others struggled up by themselves. Michael was hardly remorseful. Now that his eyes were open, he was much more interested in appreciating Suzanne’s body. Richard swore and cuffed Michael on the top of his head. Michael shoved Richard in return, effectively sending them both to the ground again.

“Knock it off!” Donald shouted. Being careful not to fall, he separated the two divers. Richard and Michael obeyed, but continued to glare at each other.

“My god!” Suzanne voiced. “Look!” She pointed back at the doorway they’d just come through. Everyone gaped in astonishment. The doorway was silently sealing over, as if the metal wall were fusing together. Within moments the opening was gone without a trace. The wall was seamless.

“If I’d not seen that with my own eyes, I’d never believe it,” Perry said. “It’s supernatural, like a movie special effect.”

“I can’t begin to understand the technology,” Suzanne said. “I think it lets the Russians off the hook.”

A deep gurgling sound then issued from the central grate. All eyes turned in its direction.

“Oh no!” Suzanne said. “What’s coming now?”

Before anyone could respond, a clear fluid that looked like water bubbled up through the central floor grate. The group shrank back, then scrambled toward the glass door. The angle and slippery surface of the floor forced them to their hands and knees. The first to the door began to bang on the glass, desperate for a way to open it. Behind them the inrushing water had become a geyser; the water level was rising rapidly.

Within minutes they were waist-deep in water. Moments later they were all treading water watching with horror as the ceiling approached. Even if they could keep treading indefinitely, there soon would be no room to breathe. Rapidly the group was forced together while struggling for the last remnants of air in the very peak of the ceiling. As the strongest swimmers, Richard and Michael were at the center directly below the grate and, in a desperate attempt to find more air, they stuck their fingers through the holes and tried to pull the grate from its housing.

But their efforts were fruitless. The grate would not budge, and the water level continued to rise until the room was filled to the ceiling. No sooner had everyone gone under, than the room began to drain, and at an extraordinary rate. Within seconds there was headroom again; within minutes Donald and Richard, the tallest of the five, felt their feet brush the floor.

Soon there was a loud, rude sucking noise as the last of the water disappeared down the drain, and the group was left in a wet, naked heap in the central basin of the concave floor. For some time no one moved. A combination of utter terror, panic-driven exertion, and having inadvertently swallowed sizable gulps of the fluid left them physically and emotionally exhausted.

Donald finally pushed himself up to a sitting position. He felt light-headed. He had an odd feeling that more time had passed than he could account for. It occurred to him that they might have been drugged by the water that had filled the room. He closed his eyes for a moment and rubbed his temples. When he reopened his eyes he looked at the others. They all appeared to be sleeping. He looked toward the glass door when his gaze shot back to Suzanne.

“Good Lord!” Donald muttered. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Suzanne was bald! Donald ran a hand over the top of his head, but he’d kept it shaved for several years. He felt for his mustache. It was gone! Raising his forearm he saw that, too, was totally devoid of hair. He glanced down at his chest; there wasn’t a hair there.

Donald shook Perry, then nudged Suzanne. When both of them were awake enough to understand what he was saying, he filled them in.

“Oh, no!” Perry cried. He sat bolt upright. Using both hands he reached up and gingerly touched his scalp. There was no hair, only smooth skin. He pulled his hands away as if he’d touched something hot. He was horrified.

Suzanne was more curious than dismayed. Something had rendered them completely hairless. How had it happened-and why?

“What’s happening?” Richard asked. His words were slurred. He sat up, then had to steady himself. “Ooo… I feel like I tied one on.”

“I’m a bit dizzy myself,” Perry admitted. “Maybe there was something in the water. I know I swallowed some.”

“I think we were drugged,” Donald said.

“We all swallowed a lot of the water,” Richard said. “It’s hard not to in that kind of ordeal. That was worse than submarine escape training.”

“I think I know what is going on,” Suzanne said.

“Yeah, me, too,” Perry said. “We’re being tortured and humiliated.”

“All techniques of interrogation,” Donald added.

“I don’t think it has anything to do with interrogation,” Suzanne said. “The strange intense light, the acrid gas, and now the depilation suggests something else.”

“What’s depilation?” Richard asked.

“It’s what happened to your head,” Perry said.

Richard blinked. He stared at Perry, then touched the top of his head. “My god, I’m bald.” He looked over at Michael, who was still slumbering. Then he reached over and gave him a shove. “Hey, you hairless wonder. Wake up!”

Michael had trouble opening his eyes.

“I think we’re being decontaminated,” Suzanne said. “I think that’s what all this is about: getting rid of microorganisms like bacteria and viruses. We’ve effectively been sterilized.”

No one spoke. Perry nodded as he considered what Suzanne had said. He thought it was possible.

“I still think all this is to prepare us for interrogation,” Donald said. “Sterilizing us doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t know if it is Russians who are behind this or not, but somebody wants something from us.”

“Maybe we’re going to know pretty soon,” Perry said. He nodded toward the glass door, which was now ajar. “I think the next stage is ready.”

Donald unstably struggled to his feet. “There was definitely some kind of drug in the water,” he said. He waited until a fresh episode of dizziness passed, then headed toward the open door. Where the slippery floor angled up he had to go on all fours. Once he reached the doorway, he stood up and looked down a white, fifty-foot corridor.

“I feel drugged but I also feel strangely hungry,” Suzanne said.

“I was just thinking the same thing,” Perry admitted.

“Listen, you guys,” Donald called. “Things are looking up. There’re living quarters down at the end of this hallway. Let’s mobilize!”

Suzanne and Perry got their feet under them and stood up, battling the same fleeting dizziness Donald had experienced.

“I guess living quarters means beds,” Suzanne said. “And that sounds good to me. Besides, I want out of this room in case that water comes back.”

“My feelings exactly,” Perry said.