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He was on a bench He ith Sarah and Bryson in a dimly lit room with iron bars all around--a prison cell There was no one else in sight Had they been Lifted?

"Dude," Bryson said "That lady must’ve knocked half of your brains out of your ears with that blow I saw it You’ve been out for a while"

"What …" Michael groaned It hurt to speak

Sarah was next to hi was a lie," she said "They won’t tell us much Just that we’re under arrest The cops here are terrible"

"What …" Michael said again Maybe he’d suffered soe and that was the only word he’d ever utter for the rest of his life "Did you see Gabby?"

He turned to Bryson, who didn’t see his hands together as he stared at the wall ofup, top to bottoet a chance someday … Just five minutes That’s all I need"

Michael wanted to ask what in the world he was talking about but had to focus on breathing

"We don’t knoas her," Sarah said "In fact, it doesn’t even make sense if it was her After she Sunk us into the Sleep, soed in and taken over operations"

Bryson just scoffed at that

Michael was beco more convinced by the second that he had been hit too hard to recover "Wait … what’s going on? What do you guys know?"

Sarah kept talking, but she didn’t seeht after Weber gave us the Lance device It was somehow linked to the Squeeze IThey had plenty of ti you, it was Weber," Bryson said He sat back against the ceave us that Lance thing and Lifted out of the Sleep, and then suddenly other people took over That’s too convenient She set us up"

"But why?" Sarah asked "We already had tons of reasons to be arrested Michael’s supposedly a terrorist, and everyone on the planet thinks I did so to my … parents" She faltered but quickly recovered "Not to mention the umpteen times we’ve broken laws in the Sleep It doesn’t add up If Weber--or anyone else--wanted us in jail, all they had to do was turn us in Call the cops"

Michael just kept looking back and forth between his friends, trying to connect the dots Bryson was slowly nodding, considering

"Huh," he said And then he repeated it "Huh"

"Guys" Michael shifted in his seat, wincing froered "Callabout? What did Gabby mean back there? Have they even Lifted us out of the Deep yet? Where are we? What happened? Is this a real jail or--"

"Michael," Sarah said softly, but firh to cut him off "Michael They tricked us Someone did"

"How?" he asked "What did they do?"