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"Oh, we’ve done it already We’re doing it right now Look around you, Theo What do you see?"

He couldn’t help it: he looked at his cell The cot, the hole, the dirtyThere were bits of writing on the walls, etchings in the stone he’d puzzled over for days Most were senseless figures, neither words nor any kind of inized But one, situated at eye level above the hole, was clear: RUBEN WAS HERE

"Who’s Ruben?"

"Ruben? Now, I don’t believe I know any Ruben"

"Don’t play gah Theo would have given his life to reach through the wall and ss did not work out so nicely for Ru-ben Ru-ben, you ht say, is ancient history" A pause "So tell ?"

"What?"

"You heard ht in his chest "What did you say?"

"The fking fat lady, Theo Come on Work with me here We’ve all been there The fat lady inside your head"

The memory burst inside his brain like a piece of rotten fruit The dreams The fat lady in her kitchen A voice was outside the door and it knehat his dreams were

"I have to say, I never did like her very"Yakkity yakkity yakkity, all day long And that stink What the hell is that?"

Theo sed, trying to still hishim in He put his head in his hands

"I don’t know any fat lady," Theo h it It’s not like you’re the only one Letelse" The voice dropped to a whisper "You carve her up yet, Theo? With the knife? You get to that part yet?"

A swirl of nausea His breath caught in his chest The knife, the knife

"So you haven’t then Well, you will All in tionna feel a lot better That’s kind of a turning point, you could say"

Theo lifted his face The slot at the bottole boot, leather so scuffed it looked white

"Theo, you listening to me in there?"

His eyes fixed on the boot with the force of an idea taking hold Gingerly he rose fro around the bowl of soup He sank into a crouch

"Are you hearingabout sorabbed e came down hard, hard, on his wrist A boot heel It s his hand into the floor Grinding and twisting His face was shoved against the cold steel of the door

"Fuck!"

"It hurts, don’t it?"

Spangledin his eyes He tried to pull his hand away, but the force holding hi He was pinned now, one hand stuck through the slot But the pain otohell"

The heel twisted again; Theo yelped in agony

"That’s a good one, Theo Where did you think you were? Hell is your new address, asped

"Oh, maybe not Maybe not just at the moment But you will be Sooner or later, you will be"

Then, just like that, the pressure on Theo’s hand released-an absence of torment so abrupt it was like pleasure Theo yanked his ar hard, cradling his wrist on his lap

"Because, believe it or not, there are things even worse than me," the voice said "Sleep well, Theo" And then the slot slammed closed

VIII

THE HAVEN

The isle is full of noises,

Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not

So instruments

Will hum about mine ears; and so sleep,

Will ain

-SHAKESPEARE,

The Tempest

Chapter FORTY-SEVEN

They had been on the road for hours With nothing to lie on but the hard metal floor, sleep was all but impossible It seemed that every time Michael closed his eyes, the truck would hit a bu so down

He lifted his head to see a glow of daylight gathering beyond the colass set in the door His mouth was bone dry; every part of hi hi position, pushing his back against the jostling wall of the counk froroup were propped on their packs in various postures of discoree, Alicia seeainst the wall of the compartment; her face was pale and day Mausae Alicia’s injured leg the night before, but Michael could tell the wound was serious Only A She was curled on the floor beside him, her knees pulled to her chest A fan of dark hair lay over her cheek, pushed to and fro by the bouncing of the truck

The one

He reh the kitchen and out onto the loading dock and into the street with the others, only to end up surrounded-soddamn s toward theet in, the wo she had, because Michael had found himself, at just that round with it Hollis and the rest of the, Come on, come on, but Michael couldn’t otten how The truck was no more than ten meters away but it could have been a thousand He turned and as he turned one of the virals locked eyes with hi seeood Oh boy, a voice in Michael’s head was saying, oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy, and that hen the wo it with a jet of liquid fire It crisped up like a ball of fat Michael actually heard the pop Then so hi,she was-and she shoved him into the truck