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"I can do this all day Do you understandI want to know, starting hat number are you"

Six had closed her eyes When she reopened theed colors withSix to see the blade twist and glow as it caer, its desperation for blood

"Nowyour nuh to be Number Nine?"

Katarina had shaken her head in an attempt to keep Six quiet, and Six knew that no amount of torture would ever cause her Cêpan to talk But she also knew she preferred death to seeing Katarina one to Katarina, lifted the dagger so the tip was just over her heart It jerked in his hand, as though the heart was ait forward He looked into Six’s eyes

"I have all the tialaxies for this," he’d said without emotion "While you are in here with me, we are out there with the rest of you Don’t think anything has stopped us fro forward because we have you We knowIf you don’t want to see her sliced into little pieces, then you better start talking, and fast And every single word that co"

Six had told hi Lorien and the trip here, the Chests, where they’d been hiding She talked so fast that ht--not wanting to tell hi about the desperation in her voice that caused him to believe it

"You really are weak, aren’t you? Your relatives on Lorien, as easy as they fell, at least they were fighters At least they had sonity But you," he’d said, and shook his head as if disappointed "You have nothing, Nuht"

And then he’d jah Katarina’s heart All Six could do was screale second before Katarina drifted away, herdown the wall until the chain had run out of slack and she hung liht drained fro to kill her anyway," Six says softly "Telling them what I did, at least I spared her from horrible torture, as if there’s any comfort in that"

Six wraps her arms around her knees and stares at some abstract point out theof the train

"Of course there’s coh to stand and wrap my arms around her

To my surprise, Sam is that brave He stands, and makes his way over to her He doesn’t say a hen he sits down next to her, instead opening his arms Six buries her face in Sam’s shoulder and cries

She eventually pulls back and wipes her cheeks "When Katarina was dead, they tried everything, and I , they could to kill , explosives They injected --I didn’t even feel the needle going into as, and it was like the air inside was the freshest I’d ever breathed The Mogadorian who pushed the button on the other side of the door, though, he was dead within seconds" Six takes another swipe at her cheek with the back of her hand "It’s funny, you know, that I think I killed adorians when I was captured than I did at the school in Ohio They finally threwh Seven"

"I love that you told theht," Sam says

"I feel bad that I did it now It’s like I tarnished Katarina’s legacy, or the real Nuht’s"

Sam places his hands on both her shoulders "No way, Six"

"How long were you in there?" I ask

"One hundred and eighty-five days I think"

My mouth drops open Over half a year locked away, co to be killed "I’ for et the hell out of there And then one day, the first one finally did It was after breakfast I looked down and my left hand just wasn’t there Of course, I freaked out, but then I realized I could still feel h, I could And that’s when I understood as happening--and invisibility was the thing I needed in order to escape"

How it started for Six wasn’t all that different frolow in the h

Two days later Six had been able to make herself completely invisible, and when dinner rolled around that day, and the slot on the door was slid open and her uard saw an empty cell He’d looked wildly around and then hit an alarh the cave The iron door had been flung open and four Mogs charged in While they stood there, dumbfounded as to how she’d escaped, she slid by and rushed out the door and down the tunnel, seeing the cave for the very first time

It had been a , interconnected tunnels that were dark and drafty There were ca chahtly lit The Mogadorians inside had hite plastic suits and goggles, but she’d raced by so swiftly she couldn’t tell what they were doing A sprawling rooadorian sitting in front of each, and Six assuns of us Just like Henri, I thought One tunnel was lined with heavy steel doors she had been sure held other prisoners But she sped on, knowing her Legacy was far from developed and terrified she wouldn’t stay invisible for very long The siren had continued to wail And then she reached the heart of the reat, cavernous hall a half mile wide and so dark and murky she could hardly see to its other side

The air had been stifling and Six was already sweating The walls and ceiling were lined with huge wooden trellises to keep the cave froes chiseled into the rock face connected the tunnels dotting the dark walls Above her, several long arches had been carved froreat divide from one side to the other