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I just wish I knehere I was leading hiirl is under the counter in herpunctuated at randoo She’s reading about deep-sea divers in an ancient sub to grow up and be an explorer

"Jubilee," the girl’sto irl holds her breath Sea s, especially since the du her heritage Maybe her mother won’t look for her here

"Relax, Mei" That’s her father; she didn’t know he’d come home "She’ll come around As I recall, you spent our whole first date coraphy Let her just be a kid--there’s plenty of ti Wake up…wake UP

I KNOW BEFORE I OPEN my eyes that I’m in trouble I can smell mildew and decay, and I’m so cold I could cry It’s pitch-black, wherever I am, and the surface underneath me is hard and damp Stone I’o crashing toward the ground My arht a few inches away frothrough ether behind ers to find it tied through a h-hewn floor The rope is short enough and tied high enough that I can’t lie doithout it pulling my arms painfully upward I can’t stand, can’t even sit properly Whoever did this knows exactly how uncomfortable this must be

The memory of a pretty face flashes in front of h the swamp, I still don’t know the bastard’s name And I’m probably not likely to, at this rate So two inches of hot-pink plastic pulled out of his thigh as we speak Either they’ve leftto try to get infore for my life

But we don’tto die I can’t help but think of e without me I know each of them like I know myself I watch them every day, I keep track of their drea this close to the ragged edge This close to the Fury I can tell when one of thenment off Avon before they hurt someone Who atch over them when I’e of what I saw out in the swamp A flash of what Romeo claih fences and spotlights and guards It’s ione the next--farso Roh that doesn’t explain the thing I found, the thing in et to noith et the sole of one ofmy hands around the rope to take the pressure offto feel for the slightest give in the rope

No dice It was a long shot anyway

I let go, taking a few seconds to findhe used to knock one, and except for a few cold-induced tre No ive, h-tech out here--maybe the hole they drilled isn’t perfect I brace myself the best I can without any slack in the rope and kick back, pounding at the stake with the sole ofat the floor I’ll have to wait until they move me Which they’ll have to do eventually, no matter what They could just shoot et up and walk soain, one of the questions in a ood idea They’re not exactly the set to work on the post again It has to give Each blow travels upand makes my jaw ache But better a little ache now than to be stuck here for a week, dying of thirst I can taste my own fear, sour like bile at the back of my throat

No Captain Chase is never afraid

"It’s hammered down pretty hard" An a nize it--and in the darkness, any fae fro not to pant too audibly as I search the shadows for Roht slicing through the gloom I’m tied to a post in thetunnel behind Ro, not battery-powered I watch the flalad that at least I’ to be killed in the dark