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As the son to an ambassador to Japan, he was a liability.
To me, he was perfect.
“And if I do get out of here,” he continued, “she’ll give me some hotel to run on some low-population island somewhere where I won’t draw notice.”
“Will you draw notice?” I asked.
He breathed out a laugh but didn’t answer the question.
“You’re not unique,” I told him, resting my head against the wall and closing my eyes. “Everyone has that point of absolute clarity where conscience isn’t a factor. We are who we are, and we want what we want, and there’s no question of what has to happen. The only difference between you and the rest of the population is that you reached that point and most people will never reach it.”
Not many have the opportunities to be driven to a point of despair or survival and look danger in the eye.
“What you did was calculated,” I said in a gentle tone. “It needed to be done.”
He’d found Micah, but he still hadn’t found a home, and I had no intention of leaving him to rot here.
“I’m lucky,” I said, almost to myself. “I have a family full of people who know what going over the edge feels like. They know there’s a place inside of us where you make the rules instead of follow them. I’m not alone.”
O
ut of the corner of my eye, I saw him turn his head and look at me.
“They’re a storm,” I told him.
He remained silent for a moment, and I could feel the wheels turning in his head. He’d fit in nicely with my friends.
Leaving the thought to linger, I rose to my feet and walked for the door to go shower.
“What did she do to get sent here?” he asked before I had a chance to leave.
I gripped the handle, still.
Dread settled inside me, because she’d interrupted my plans, and things had changed whether I wanted to face it or not.
Would I proceed, considering her a factor?
It wasn’t even a question.
“Just like the rest of us,” I said, “she knows what she did, and no one here is innocent.”
I left the room, but instead of heading to the showers, I charged back up to my bedroom, the house still asleep as I closed the door and placed a steel bar underneath the handle.
Walking to the bed, I pulled off the fitted sheet, lifted up the mattress, and flipped it over. It toppled, partly on the bed and partly on the nightstand, the lamp falling over and extinguishing.
Reaching inside the tear on the bottom, I slid my hand between the springs and pulled out the black laptop, walking it over to the table near the window for some light.
I opened it, powered it up, and waited for the chat to load.
Are you there? I typed.
Copy, he wrote after a pause. He wants you extracted. Soon.
Not yet. There’s a…development.
I didn’t want to say too much in case someone was spying on us, and where she was concerned, I didn’t know who was involved.
Is there anything you’re not telling me? I asked.
