Akello’s pounding starts up again, and the yelling, now that I’ve made no move to engage with him.
“What was that?” Leo says, flipping at once into alert mode. “Linds, what’s happening? Are you okay? I’m coming down there now, hang on.”
I swallow the lump that’s formed in my throat. I don’t know how to voice what I’m thinking—that Akello looks like he wants to strangle an apology right out of me? That I don’t even blame him?
“Yeah,” I say. “Yeah, thanks. Careful, though, Akello looks... upset.” He’s intimidatingly tall, but his height has never felt quite so threatening. Usually, he’s calm, thoughtful. Steady. Warm.
What do we even do to keep this from escalating further? Akello has several inches on Leo, and it isn’t like Leo’s equipped with anything that could give him an advantage. If Akello turns on Leo, if something happens—I don’t even know what I’d do. Heath and Leo together could hold their own, but Heath isn’t here. Heath is more than halfway toNautilusby now.
And what if more people join up with him outside my door? What if it’s Leo and Haven and Natalin and me against all the rest? The only way Leo will have the upper hand here is if Akello never sees him coming.
“Bring some zip ties, just in case,” I tell Leo. “There’s a whole drawer full of them in Medical.” Assuming he’s coming from Control, where he stayed on duty all night, Medical will be an easy detour.
“Got it,” he says. “Keep him distracted. I’ll be there soon.”
“I just want to talk!” Akello yells, still pounding the glass.
I slide off my stool, walk slowly to face him. Now that he has my attention, he’s quiet again, though anger still simmers in his eyes. I’m putting a lot of faith in the thin pane that separates us, that it is stronger than it looks.
Our height difference is incredible—he towers over me. I straighten my shoulders, hold my head high. I may not have his height, but I can match him for presence.
“You want to talk?” I tilt my head, narrow my eyes. “Sotalk.”
“You’ve made a big mistake.” I can feel his intensity even from this side of the glass. “You lied about Mila, and no one trusts you.”
I give a little half laugh. “You think I don’t know that?”
“I’m just telling you,” he says. “People are starting to talk. People aresayingthings, wondering what else you and the others are hiding.”
“I don’t see anyone else trying to break down my door. All I see isyou.”
“If you had nothing to hide, you wouldn’t be holing up in here. You’d answer our questions instead of leaving us to come up with answers on our own.” The way he saysanswerssends a chill down my spine.
“Well, if this is your answer—coming to my door and blatantly accusing me of making the wrong call, without stopping to consider that there was no good alternative? Your answer is nosolution.”
“Tell us, then,” he says. “Tell us—”
But his words die out as Leo catches him by surprise. Before Akello even realizes what’s happening, Leo has swiftly bound his wrists behind him with the zip ties. Tears spring up in my eyes at the sight of it. It’s only for a minute, I tell myself. It’s only temporary.
“She’ll give answers when we have them,” Leo says. “And unfortunately, we don’t have them just yet.”
Akello’s usual gentle nature is overwhelmingly apparent in the way he doesn’t fight back against Leo—his passion, his desire that things beright, are tempered now by an even-keeled calm. Perhaps he was only trying to get my attention; perhaps he was no threat at all. Are we justified in temporarily binding him simply because Ifeltthreatened? Have I really become so ruled by my own fear?
“Come with me,” Leo says. “Lindley’s got work to do. You can yell at me all you want, all right?”
Akello nods, eyes sparkling under the recessed spotlights just outside my door. This one heartbreaking look: it says more than any of his words ever could.
He’s lost everything, like every one of us.
He couldn’t stand by and do nothing.
He had to dosomething.
I know the feeling.
Leo glances over his shoulder at me as he leads Akello away.Thank you, I mouth.
Always, he replies.
