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Scrambling to our feet, we rush at him. Erik grabs his gun, tucking it into the waistband of his pants.
“Where are the others?” Dante demands, pressing the muzzle of his gun to the wounded man’s temple.
“There are none,” the guard splutters. “Only me.”
“We’ll find them,” Dante threatens.
“Only my family. Please don’t hurt them,” he begs, clutching his bloody shoulder.
“We won’t hurt your family,” I say softly. “I promise. We need to know if there are other guards.”
“No one else is here but the scientist,” he says quickly.
“The scientist?” Dante repeats, daring a glance at me.
“Are you going to kill him?” the guard asks in a tremulous voice.
“We’re going to save him,” I say.
The guard’s eyes dart to each of us, trying to make sense of who we are and why we’ve come. “They don’t keep him here.” He nods to the silent cell block behind him. “He lives in the old warden’s house.”
I’d expected to steal a machine, not stumble upon a scientist tucked away on a prison island.
“If you’re smart,” Dante says, his gun still on the guard, “you’ll get your wife to tend to that wound and then you’ll get off this island. If you come back for us, she’ll be burying you. Do you understand?”
The man groans a yes, clearly torn between his duty and his life.
“I can’t promise they won’t hurt your family if you attack us again, Lucas,” I say, reading the name tag on the guard’s antiquated uniform.
Dante doesn’t lower his gun as the man shuffles toward the exit and I wait, dread pulsing through me, to see if he’l
l shoot him. As soon as he gets to the door, Dante calls out and I freeze expectantly. “Lucas, I wouldn’t bother contacting your superiors—not if you want to protect your family. I’d hide if I were you.”
“Where?” Lucas asks in a hopeless tone. “There’s nowhere to hide from them.”
“The Icebox,” Dante answers.
“That’s four hours from here.”
“You better get moving then,” Dante says. “And don’t look back.”
He nods once at us, revulsion and shame mingling in his features.
“Why would they keep a scientist on the island but outside the prison?” I ask. “They have all these cells.”
“Prisoners are happier when they forget they’re in a cage,” Erik reminds me.
“But if he’s not locked up, why doesn’t he leave?” Valery asks in a shaking voice. Her features are pale with fear.
“Look at this rock,” I tell her. “There’s no escaping.” I keep my thoughts about the composition of the prison to myself. If the Guild has artificially altered it, I need to study it more to understand how and why they’ve used such resources, although I have a pretty good idea already. Whatever secrets the Guild keeps here are locked not only on this island but also in time, like the moments I warped to guard my rendezvouses with Jost at the Coventry.
“Actually, it’s a good thing that he’s not locked up,” Dante assures Valery.
She gives him a blank look. I’m not sure I know what he’s getting at either.
“The scientist will have food,” Dante says, making for the exit. “I’m hungry.”
THIRTY-EIGHT
