Hey Jude

It was only a few metres between McCartnnon's apartment door and the elevator, but walking from one to the other felt like a far greater distance. My palms sweated as I waited for the elevator.

When the doors to the elevator opened it was, thankfully, empty. I went down to floor seventeen before doing the elevator trick just in case someone stopped the elevator between the one I was on and the secret floor. Accidentally taking someone down there with me would complicate things rather.

By the time I actually reached the secret floor, my adrenaline had spiked to a point where I could transcend my fear. Well, enough to keep my head clear, anyway. I accepted that I would likely soon die in a way that was both stupid and ineffectually heroic and stepped out of the elevator into the empty corridor beyond.

I looked around for surveillance cameras as I walked down the corridor, but couldn’t spot any. Not that that necessarily meant anything. They could be made as small as a pinhead, couldn’t they? I took a deep breath in and pushed the button on the door.

I let my breath out in a relieved sigh when the door slid open. The only living things in the room beyond were the caged non-humanoid demons. They immediately started making a racket and throwing themselves against the bars of the cages in a way that they hadn't when McCartnnon had been with me, like they somehow knew I was an intruder. I hurried through to the door on the opposite side of the room and quickly pressed the button.

From the moment the door slid open, I had the attention of every single kid in the room. I stepped inside, self-conscious. When the door slid shut behind me and blocked the sound from the other room, the only things that could be heard were my shoes on the concrete floor as I slowly made my way down the row of cells and my own hastened breathing. The children watched me passively as I passed them, their expressions blank and unreadable. I didn't know who else to talk to, so I headed to Alex's cell.

He smiled when he saw me, looking tired but relieved. I pressed the button to open the slat of glass so that we could speak.

"You came back," he said.

"I needed to know the truth," I told him. "Now that he's not here, can you be honest with me? Are you guys really demons? Are you really evil?"

"Yes," he gritted out like the word annoyed him. I didn't think he was telling the truth. But... I didn't think he was lying, either.

"I don't know what to do," I told him frankly. "McCartnnon talks about killing you when you turn eighteen. Are you evil? Or am I supposed to save you?"

"If I'm evil, then so is everyone else in this room," Alex said. "So is every other kid who has died in this place. There've been a lot of us. So — look, can you just talk to someone who's not me? I don't know what you're supposed to do. The girl behind you, Delphi, she can see the future. If anyone can help you, she can. Though be careful if you take her advice, since she's evil and all."

That last bit was spoken with extreme sarcasm, and I found myself liking Alex even more as I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

Alex had looked frustrated and the other kids stared at me with blank eyes, but when I turned around to face Delphi she was smiling at me, already waiting for me at the glass door. She looked to be about ten years old and was of Aboriginal descent. Her dark brown hair was long and wavy and she had full cheeks that lifted when she smiled. How far could she see into the future? Further than Wiley, I assumed, if her ability would be of any help to me down here. I opened the slat to speak to her.

"I've been looking forward to meeting you," she said as soon as I opened the glass slat. "I guess you have some questions for me, then."

"You can really see into the future?" I asked and she nodded. "Do you know what McCartnnon's up to? What he's doing to people?"

She tilted her head to the side and scrunched her face up. "Isn't that technically the present?" She reached a hand forward to grip the edge of the opened slat. "But yes, I do know. There's a delicate balance, though. Having more knowledge doesn't always lead to better decisions. Things that should be better decisions don't always lead to better outcomes. I do need to tell you one thing, though: this isn't a trap. I know it seems too easy, like he's setting himself up for failure and he can't possibly be that stupid, but there's a reason for that and you'll understand it one day."

"This is going to be a very frustrating conversation, isn't it?"

"Yes, but a fruitful one." She ran her fingers idly along the edge of the glass. "Next question."

"Is he messing with people's minds? Controlling them?"

She smiled. "And now for a series of questions to which you know the answers but are too insecure to trust your own judgment on. Yes, he is."

"You guys aren't really demons, are you? You don't seem evil."

"See, I told you. No, we're half blood."

Like Zion, I couldn't help but think, because everything came back to Zion.

My expression must have changed, because she gave me a sympathetic smile. "He's fine. You'll see him again soon,” she said and then amended, "Well, probably. The time stream's a fickle thing, and there's only one thing on it that's inevitable, guaranteed. No, I won't tell you what that is. Your path does tend to lead back to him, though."

It was a little creepy that she knew who I was thinking about, I supposed, but I was too busy being relieved to let that bother me too much.

"Next question," she prompted.

"Am I supposed to free you guys? Oust McCartnnon?"

She tilted her head to the side and looked thoughtful. "Well that's a difficult one. Supposed to. If there's one thing I can tell you about the future, there is no supposed to. There's no destiny or fate. Just variables and consequences. The best consequences, for us and for you, result from you doing those things. There's nothing more to it than that."

"But that means I can do it then, right? It's possible?"

"Absolutely."

"Can I do it on my own?"

She shook her head.

"So I'll need allies, then? Who can I trust?"

She gave me a deprecating smile. "And we're back to questions to which you know the answers. If there's anything you can figure out for yourself, it's that. I'm not holding your hand where I don't need to. You try so hard to rely on logic and reason and sometimes that's not enough. Instincts are just facts your brain has figured out but hasn't gotten around to telling you yet."

"Okay, so what do I need to do? Where do I go from here?"

"What did I tell you about not holding you hand? Do you want to be a hero or do you want to be a puppet?" She held up a hand to stop me before I could respond. "No, don't answer that. You don't care about being a hero; you care about being successful. But I care. I'm not going to plagiarise your ideas and the ideas of those around you just to make things a little easier on you."

"Geez, fine," I said. "So if I go out and keep at this and use my instincts, we can win this?"

"I wouldn't trust you to do it yourself if I didn't think you could. It's too important."

I let out a sigh. "Well, all right. Okay. Anything else you need to tell me before I go?"

"One last thing: sometimes tough decisions need to me made, things need to be done that hurt and it's not your fault. Saying this won't change what you'll do, but I hope it'll help you feel a little better about it afterwards."

I had one of those involuntary reactions where all the hair raised on the backs of my arms and neck. "Well," I cleared my throat. "On that particularly ominous note, I think I'll go before I get caught down here and fuck everything up." Before closing the slat I added, "Thank you."

She smiled and nodded at me through the glass.

It was hard to take a private moment in a room where literally everyone was staring at me, but I managed to find one in the space between turning from Delphi's cell back to Alex's. I had my answers, and I believed them, because they made sense and felt true. Now that I knew the truth, I knew what I had to do.

Alex looked more relieved than frustrated when I said a quick goodbye to him before closing the slat in his door and hurrying out of there. Despite Delphi's assurances, I wasn't about to start letting my guard drop. That wasn't the point, was it? No fate, no certainties. If I kept sharp, kept thinking, kept working, I could do this. That was what she'd promised. I'd decided to believe her.

I needed to talk to Wiley and Sal. Delphi said I should choose my allies by trusting my instincts, and my instincts were telling me that Wiley and Sal wouldn't let me down. I wasn't completely free of doubt — I wasn't sure I would ever be capable of that — but it was rather liberating having someone who could tell the future, whose honesty I was fairly sure of, assure me that I was on the right track.

I hurried towards Wiley's apartment. I'd waited a few days before doing anything, and all of this had been going on for quite a while before I was ever involved, but somehow it felt desperately urgent. The door to Wiley's apartment slid open just as I was reaching for the buzzer.

Wiley eyed me critically. "Well, you seem to still be alive."

"Yeah, looks like," I said. "I need to talk to you and Sal about something."

Wiley stepped aside to let me in. "It's her clinic hours right now. She's working for the rest of the day."

Well, that put a bit of a damper on my plans. Now that I'd decided what I should I should do, I wanted to do it immediately. I didn't want to have to explain all of this twice, though, so I supposed I'd have to wait. "When does she get done for the day?"

"Is this actually important?" Wiley asked. He was studying me carefully, and I got the feeling he'd noticed how nervous I was.

"Extremely."

Wiley tapped his chin with his knuckles thoughtfully. "Okay, go get my phone," he said, and pointed towards the couch.

Naturally, I turned to look in the direction he was pointing. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Wiley move and then a second later something swiped across my upper arm, leaving a sharp pain in its wake. I jerked back reflexively, but the damage was done. Wiley was holding a Swiss army knife loosely at his side, blade out, and my arm was steadily bleeding.

"What the fuck?" I asked, and took a step back.

Wiley eyed the blade critically, turning it over to examine it, then slid it back into place and put it in his pocket. "You're injured. I'd better take you to see Sal right away."

My face contorted as I slowly processed what had happened. "You went for a couple of grazed fingers last time!"

He shrugged, unconcerned. "This was easier. Come on. Try not to bleed on the carpet."

It was extremely difficult to make myself calm down, to move past it, and to simply follow Wiley out of his apartment. I was on a mission. How many of the diagnostic criteria for sociopathy Wiley ticked was not the issue at hand.

I clamped a hand over my bleeding arm to stem the flow of blood and followed Wiley. I trailed after him in silence, relying on him to lead me, though I knew the way to Sal's clinic.

As we walked, I counted the drops of my blood that dripped onto the stone floors of the corridor. Eleven, twelve, into the elevator. Seventeen, eighteen, out of the elevator. Twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight, Wiley prodded at the buzzer on Sal's door until Sal opened it.

Sal gave me a quick glance over before shooting Wiley a look of exasperation. "If I ask nicely, will you please stop hurting him during training when it's not necessary? I do have other patients, you know."

"It wasn't part of training," I told her, then followed Wiley when he shouldered past Sal into the room.

"Then why?" Sal asked.

"I don't know why I did it, but according to Jude it was for a very important reason." Wiley hoisted himself up onto Sal's desk. "Perhaps you could enlighten us, Jude."

Sal led me back towards the examination table and directed me to sit down on it. "Perhaps you can enlighten us while I get this healed. Multi-tasking."

"Right." I watched Sal as she worked and tried to put my thoughts in order. Now that I had them here, ready to listen to me, I wasn't quite sure how to say what I needed to. It was just such a big thing, and I understood so little of it. Wiley was watching me with impatient expectation, though, so I figured I'd better hurry up with it.

"It's about McCartnnon," I said, and then fell silent again, unsure where to go from there.

"Did he do something to you?" Sal prompted after a moment when I didn't continue. Wiley didn't say anything, but he was watching me carefully.

"No," I said firmly, and tried not to think too much about what she might have thought McCartnnon had done to me. "He... Have you noticed that he seems to have a lot of control over people? Like, beyond what his position of authority warrants."

"He's at the top of the pecking order around here." Sal had finished healing me and was now cleaning the blood off of my arm with a damp cloth. "I don't think much would be beyond what his position warrants."

I shook my head, annoyed. This was hard to explain. "I don't so much mean officially. I mean... I mean Wiley, come on. The degree to which you listen to what that asshole tells you to do. That goes beyond self preservation. I don't think you're that scared of him, at least not in a way that would make you obey him out of fear of repercussions."

Wiley looked uncomfortable, but hardly convinced.

I let out an annoyed sigh. "You wanted to slit his throat earlier. You hate him. You don't like the idea of what he might do to me. But you told me to go with him. Why?"

It was odd, seeing Wiley look so lost, so confused. Like some kind of internal battle was being waged. I wondered just how deeply McCartnnon had fucked with his brain. Was he even capable of accepting the truth?

"Okay then, why don't you tell me why?" Wiley challenged after far too long a pause.

"He can control people," I told him, forcing more confidence into my voice than I truly felt. "I'm not sure how it works, but he seems to tell people that they will do something, and then they're incapable of disobeying. I saw it with my friend, the first time I met McCartnnon. He just ate up all the shit McCartnnon was spewing and rolled over. It took about two weeks for him to realise he'd misjudged McCartnnon, and he was so confused about how he could ever have been suckered in. I was confused too. That he can control people... It makes sense."

"That's a power that exists," Sal said carefully. "It's rare, but..."

"Why the hell would Jude be the only one to see through it?" Wiley demanded.

"I think I'm immune," I told him. "And I'm pretty sure McCartnnon knows it. And yes, I know that the logical thing to do would be to kill me or at least keep me well away from him. I've been assured, though, that it isn't part of some trap."

"Assured by who?" Wiley asked.

I scratched the back of my neck. "Yeah, that's the other thing. McCartnnon’s keeping kids locked up in glass cells on a secret floor. I think the youngest I saw was about five or six. The oldest is almost eighteen. They don't last past that, apparently. He says they're demons, but they say they're half demons, and I'm more inclined to believe them."

"You're serious," Sal said.

I nodded.

Wiley rubbed at his forehead. "God, Jude, you've been here less than a week. Really?"

I decided not to mention that I'd known most of this since my first day and had simply dawdled. "I need to do something about all this, but I can't do it alone. Please believe me. I wouldn't come to you if I didn't think this was important."

Wiley sighed and tipped his head up to stare at the ceiling as though it held some answers. “Is there any way you can get me in to see those kids? I can tell at a glance whether or not they're demons. Kind of have to be able to with my job. Demon kids'll kill you if you're not fast enough with the trigger, and kids who aren't demons... well, people frown on you shooting them in the face, however accidental."

I glanced at my watch. Still well before any time anyone might deem 'dinner'. "I can take you down. There's a good chance there won't be anyone but the kids there."

Wiley nodded firmly, looking glad to finally have some clear course of action. "All right. What's the security like?"

"Uh... non-existent? As far as I could tell, anyway. No card scanners or alarms or anything."

The look Wiley gave me was one of extreme incredulity. "So this super secret floor has less security than anywhere else on base?"

"It's stupid, I know! I know, okay? It seems really suspicious, but this girl who can see the future told me it's not a trap. That's the best I've got."

Wiley eyed me flatly. "Girl... How old is she?"

I made a face. "Like, ten?"

Wiley buried his face in his hands and groaned. "Oh my God, ten? Jude, we're going to risk our lives on the word of a ten year old who may or may not be a demon?"

"Do you have a better idea?"

Wiley dropped his hands from his face. "No. Let's go. Sal, if this gets me killed, delete my internet search history."

"I'll erase your hard drive, how about that?" Sal offered.

Wiley hopped off the desk. "Excellent." He pulled her in and pecked her on the cheek, the first sign of affection I'd ever seen him show anyone. "I'll call you after. Might want to be ready to close up early for the day."

She nodded and saluted, and after giving her a quick grin Wiley led me from the room.

"So, how do you get to this secret floor?" Wiley asked as we walked down the corridor. There were only really two directions we could go in and I assumed one of them led to a dead end, but for once I was the one leading the way.

"There's a trick with the elevator buttons."

"Hmm. Well, at least there's some security. Still, this really is ridiculously fucking suspicious. He let someone who hates him, supposedly the only person who can defy him, in on his secrets? He's a grown man and the leader of an entire base, not a teenager. I can't believe he'd be stupid enough to, what, let you close and try to impress you because he thinks you're hot stuff?"

My face crinkled up in disgust. "Somehow that theory is even more off-putting than this being a trap."

"So it's not in any way... confirmed," Wiley made a vague hand gesture, "that he's attracted to you?"

"He made me quiche?" I offered. "He's so fucking strange that I don't even know."

Wiley nodded. "Strange, and probably up to something. But he didn't... that's good."

I cleared my throat awkwardly. "Yes, I thought so." We'd reached the elevator, and I was glad of the opportunity to change the subject. We stepped inside and I stood in front of the buttons. "Okay, watch this." I paused with my fingers hovering over the buttons. "Oh, wait, can you tell me if anyone's going to get on between here and the secret floor? You know, with your future seeing thing. I'm not even sure if the elevator would allow it, but better to be safe."

Wiley nodded. "Go ahead." A moment later, when I was holding down the first button, he said, "Okay, you're fine."

I did the trick with the buttons and then turned back to Wiley. "So, that's pretty much the extent of the security. You now know all you need to to be able to break into the secret floor."

Wiley's brow wrinkled. "Well, I guess nobody's likely to just happen to stumble across it. I mean, it's passable? I suppose if he has everyone who knows under his control he doesn't have to fear betrayal either... Well, unless he brings in someone like you, so suddenly we're back to this being stupid again."

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. We stepped out onto the secret floor.

"You know, they could have at least made some effort with the decorating," Wiley commented as we begun walking down the corridor. "I was hoping for something a little different from the rest of the base. Fluorescent lights and bare stone just isn't very creative."

"I think there are enough surprises down here without the need for creative decorating."

"Hmm. Non-humanoid demons too?" Wiley said as we approached the door at the end of the corridor. It was easy to forget he could see the future when he was generally so good at covering it up.

"Oh. Yeah. I forgot to mention them. Is that important?"

"No, probably not."

We reached the end of the corridor and he pressed the button to open the door. His lack of concern helped me relax a little, but the racket the demons made was still intimidating.

"They didn't do this when McCartnnon was here," I told Wiley.

"Hmm," Wiley said again, but it was thoughtful rather than indifferent.

"What? Does that mean something?"

Wiley shook his head dismissively. "Later."

He paid the demons no attention as we made our way through the room, his attention focussed on the door at the other end. I was watching him carefully, so I saw the moment his attention from the present moment wavered, when his brow tightened and his lips pulled down in a frown. He didn't speak until we were through the door, though.

Wiley cast his eyes around at the kids in their cells. "Definitely not demons. Some of them don't look entirely human, either, so half blood sounds about right."

"Don't they?" I asked as we slowly began walking down the row of cells.

"It's subtle." Wiley tapped on the glass wall of a cell as we passed and indicated the little girl inside. "Her eyes are bordering on lime. Not exactly a normal human shade."

Wiley continued walking past a few more cells, and then stopped to point out a teenage boy in one. "It's often the guys you can really see it in. Not so much the little ones, but as they get older they have a certain... unusual beauty about them."

The boy stared back at us, making me feel a little awkward about Wiley using them as some kind of lesson on the subtleties of half demon traits, but I could see what Wiley was talking about. In some ways the boy's features reminded me of Zion, though this boy looked kind of Nordic and Zion was Italian on his mother's side.

"I had a friend who was a half blood who looked like that," I told Wiley. It felt weird, talking about Zion, but he'd been on my mind so much that I wanted to at least mention him. "Just ridiculously beautiful."

"A guy?" Wiley asked, and it was only then that I realised what I'd said could be interpreted as a little... yeah. It was just the truth, though. Not an opinion, just a fact. Zion had been gorgeous.

"Yeah."

"Hmm." Another 'hmm'. This one I was fairly sure meant Wiley had decided to decline to comment. "It's also why I can pull off long hair. I'm far from being half blood, but I've inherited a lot of the physical features."

Wiley's unusual hair colour and his crazy eyes distracted from the rest of his appearance, but now that I was looking more carefully I could see what he meant. I wouldn't have said his features were effeminate or child-like, but there was a certain softness to them not generally found in men.

It was my turn to say, "Hmm."

We continued walking. Most of the children just watched us from where they sat on their beds or leant against the glass, but a few of them came up to the boundaries of their cells to get a closer look at us. Those who did, I smiled at. Some smiled back, some didn't respond at all, and some fidgeted uncomfortably or backed away from the glass as though my smile had been some kind of threat.

Alex grinned at us when we reached his cell, and Wiley waved his hand towards him. "And some just turn out looking like regular humans. Depends what their fathers look like and whether they take after them in appearance."

I smiled and waved to Alex. Wiley was right; he just looked like a normal teenage boy. The only things that stood out about him were his slightly overgrown brown hair and his unusually pale white skin, likely a result of being stuck in an underground cell for so long. The boy in the cell next to him who McCartnnon had said was the next oldest was similarly normal looking, his generally ragged and ungroomed appearance the only thing setting him apart from a regular human. Well, that, and he was licking the glass wall of his cell.

I turned around to open the glass slat in Delphi's door, but found that Wiley was already doing it.

"I knew you'd make the right decision, Jude." Delphi gave me a broad grin. "Literally knew it, I mean. But I'm still proud of you."

"Uh, yeah." I gestured to Wiley. "This is Wiley. I figure he knows what he's doing more than I do."

"Mm, yes." Delphi tilted her head to the side to study Wiley. "My name's Delphi. No, not my real name, but you don't get that yet. Jude, me and Wiley are going to have a conversation where I rehash everything I've already told you and then he gets annoyed that I won't tell him more and decides he doesn't like me, but ultimately concludes listening to me is your best chance of success. Talking to the other kids will be a better use of your time."

"Sounds like fun," Wiley said, but he already sounded a little irritated. I got the feeling he preferred to be the one in control.

I, on the other hand, was happy to surrender it to someone who had more insight than me, even if she was ten. Normally I favoured independence, but I knew when I was out of my depth. I would appreciate anyone right now who could give me a little direction in all this madness.

So I gave her a smile, saluted, and when Wiley showed no objections I began wandering down to the other end of the row of cells. There were so many kids that I didn't know who to talk to. They were starting to show an interest in me, though. They'd been eerily dead eyed at first, but were now beginning to act like kids, curious and excited.

A young girl hammered on the glass of her cell as I approached it. The glass was too solid for it to make a sound, but the motion was enough to draw my attention and I stopped in front of her cell door and opened the slat.

"Hi, can you please open up all the windows?" she asked.

I glanced around, then realised she meant the slats in the doors. "Oh. Sure."

I moved to open the slat in the door of the cell next to hers, then hesitated. Would I have time to close them all before we left?

"Yes, you'll have time to close them," Wiley shouted down to me, then turned back to his conversation with Delphi. Time shenanigans sure were useful.

As I walked down the row of cells, opening the slats as I went, the whole place began to come to life. Every single one of the kids came to their doors when the slats were opened, though some still remained passive faced and quiet. Those who were tall enough waved their arms out of the slats and the younger children pushed themselves up onto the tips of their toes so that they could shout through their slats at the children in the cells opposite theirs.

When I'd opened up all the slats, I slowly began to wander back down.

"What's your name?" a girl asked as I passed, raising her voice to be heard above the rest of the kids. She looked about twelve, on the cusp of puberty. Her pale skin, red hair, and freckles across her nose were so normal that they made her dramatically mauve eyes all the more noticeable.

"Jude. Uh, what's yours?"

"Nola. Hold on, wait!"

While she dashed to the back of her cell, I heard a boy further down the row shout, "His name's Jude!" to another of the kids.

Nola returned with her blanket in hand. "Jude, watch this!"

She tossed her blanket into the air and it billowed like a parachute and hung there, rippling, as if held aloft by a gust of wind.

"Stop showing off!" one of the other kids yelled at her, but she ignored them and smiled at me proudly.

"That's pretty cool," I told her. "I don't have any kind of neat powers like that. You're lucky."

And then I felt stupid because of course she wasn't lucky, she lived in a glass cell deep underground. But, I reminded myself, she hopefully wouldn't for much longer, and after she was free she would still have an awesome superpower.

She seemed satisfied with my praise, so I kept walking.

I didn't notice that the cell doors were arranged in pairs until I saw some of the taller kids reaching out and linking hands. If one cell had its door on the left the ones next to it would each have their doors on the right so that, in cases where both kids were tall enough, it was possible for them to touch.

Most of them couldn't reach far enough, though. I felt like maybe I should offer them my hand or something, but I didn't know if that would be welcome so I awkwardly wandered past. They weren't animals in a zoo, even if they were behind glass. It was uncomfortable to me to be here in a way that I'd made myself ignore. But me being uncomfortable didn't matter to them. That was probably how it should be.

When I reached Alex I found that he'd linked hands with the shaggy guy in the cell next to his.

"This is Max," Alex told me, swinging the guy's arm. He jerked his chin in the direction of the cell on his other side which housed the pale skinned boy with the black hair and dark, empty eyes. “That’s Darcy.”

Wiley turned his head to look at us. "Darcy meaning 'dark'. Clever. You name him?"

"I name the ones who can't tell me their names." His gaze shifted to Delphi. "Or won't."

Delphi shrugged. "None of us are who our parents thought we would be when they named us. Some of us don't want to be our parents' children anymore."

"I'd've put someone more creative in charge of naming, but whatever makes you happy I guess." Wiley turned back to fully face Delphi, ending the conversational diversion. "Okay, so what about reporting this to Ark Initiative? They're the ones things of this level are supposed to be passed on to."

Delphi shook her head. "It's the most sensible move, but in this case it's also the wrong move. I'm manipulating a lot of variables to make this work. If it passes into their hands I don't have enough control to influence how things go, and every scenario I've worked through involving them has led to them messing it up. They're just too arrogant. You're going to have to do this internally."

Wiley sighed. "I think success would be likelier if you let us in on a little more. A good start would be telling us why McCartnnon is acting like an idiot."

"No, I don't think you'd be more likely to succeed if you knew that. I know for a factual certainty that you wouldn't. If you know too much, you'll make the wrong decisions."

Wiley made a sound of frustration that bordered on a growl. "Well maybe I don't trust that I would agree with a ten year old on what outcomes are best! Seriously, you are ten."

I remembered what Delphi had said about this being an unproductive conversation that I didn't need to listen to and kept walking down the row of cells. As I passed Darcy's cell, he flapped his hand out at me. He could barely reach out of the cell, but his eyes were on me and he waved his hand insistently, so I took hold of it. He brought his other hand up and held onto my hand with both of his, clinging tightly. I wondered if I was going to have trouble getting it back when I needed to leave.

The girl in the cell next to his was waving her hand out of the slat, so I took hold of it with my other hand and she clung on just as tightly as Darcy was. She looked to be eight or nine, about the same age Darcy was.

Darcy was still staring at me with a gaze devoid of emotion. There was clearly more going inside of him than showed on the surface, though, if he cared about holding my hand. A sniffling sound drew my attention back to the girl, and I realised she'd started crying. Shit. I was stuck between one kid showing more emotion than I was comfortable with and another not enough.

I was kind of relieved when Wiley started walking along and closing up the slats and told me it was time to leave. Darcy released my hand obediently when I tugged it away, but the girl whimpered and resisted until a teenage boy in the cell across from her shouted at her and she relented. I gave him a grateful smile and waved to Darcy and the girl before joining Wiley in closing up the slats.

"Guys, behave!" Alex shouted when some of the kids resisted, drowning out their protests. "What do you think will happen if someone comes down here and finds the windows open when they were supposed to be closed?"

Some of the kids huffed in annoyance or pouted, but that was the end of any argument. Max and Alex's cells were the last to have their slats closed.

"Max, release," Alex said, and with a distressed whimper Max obeyed.

"How long until your birthday, anyway?" I asked.

"Eighty-seven days," Alex said without even pausing to think.

"Oh. That's good, it gives us longer than I thought we had. McCartnnon made it sound a lot sooner."

"If we can get you out at all, it'll be by then," Wiley told him, closing the slat on Max's cell door. "Come on, Jude, Delphi says we should go now."

I said a quick goodbye to Alex before closing his slat and following Wiley. As we passed, the children waved to us. I waved back.

Once we were back in the elevator I turned to Wiley. "So you believe me now, right? About what McCartnnon can do?"

Wiley pressed the button for floor six. We were going back to his apartment. "Yes, you were right. Which is really fucking embarrassing, actually. This shit has been going on for years, and an eighteen year old kid comes along and figures it out in a few days?"

"I think I had a bit of an advantage."

"Yeah, you did, which is one of the things we're going to talk about in a bit." We stepped out of the elevator and Wiley pulled out his mobile phone. He pressed a couple of buttons and then held it to his ear. "Hey Sal. Meet me at my place as soon as you can. Bring Evan."