Inside I find a small messenger bag; a pair of sturdy tennis shoes; socks; a small bag of mixed nuts; a bottle of water; and a bar of chocolate. The chocolate bar surprises me.
I haven’t had chocolate since I was a child.
I decide right then to save it for Clara. When I make it home I will have proven my worth and my loyalty to The Reestablishment, and Clara will have chocolate for the first time. Klaus promised us freedom in exchange for my efforts—and Klaus is not human enough to lie.
Neutralizing my expression, I take an even breath. A plan is forming in my mind, a surge of hope giving me focus.
I gather up the sundry items and place them inside the messenger bag. I sit down on a small bench to put on the socks and shoes, but I struggle a little with the left shoe. The sizing is fine, but there’s something like a pebble caught inside the sneaker, just under the insole. I reach inside, pull up the removable sole, and my finger nicks a small, flat disc. It’s about the size and weight of a coin.
I stiffen at once.
I sneak a look at the nurse, who’s still watching me. An uncanny feeling courses down my spine.
“Hurry up,” she says. “I have to escort you out.”
I turn back to the shoes, my hands mercifully steady. I peel the metal disc away from the sole. It’s smooth and unmarked, polished silver. The nurse is still watching me.
All that time in the shower I thought I was far from the watchful eye of The Reestablishment.
Mistake.
“I wonder what time it is,” I say, repeating the words I was instructed to speak.
She shifts, considering me, then holds out her hand, where a flare of blue light pulses just inside her forearm.“It’s late,” she says. “You nearly missed the window.”
This fills me with alarm.
I quickly pinch the bit between my thumb and forefinger and it offers immediate haptic feedback, responding to my fingerprints.
With a final buzz, it unlocks.
The disc spirals open, producing a hologram. It’s a perfectly rendered image of a glass vial. The object is about the size of my hand, the liquid inside of it pitch-black. I commit the image to memory just before it disintegrates, the coin vaporizing without warning—so hot it scalds my skin.
Finally, I look up at the agent.
She’s studying her arm. The blue light is flashing faster now, counting down. It occurs to me that she was just as anxious as I was to complete this task. If she hadn’t delivered the holo-coin within forty-eight hours of my arrival, she’d likely be punished, too.
When the light finally crescendos and dies, she visibly exhales. “Phase two,” she says, “is now complete.”
I sit with this reveal for a moment, and then, slowly, I begin lacing my sneakers, mentally filing and sorting new information. If phase one was to escape the island with James, and phase two involved receiving the holo-coin, I’ve just been launched into phase three: acquire the vial.
When she meets my eyes, I shake my head.
“Where do I find it?” I ask.
“I don’t answer questions,” she says. “The next one will.You have two weeks.”
“Two weeks?” I say, stunned. “I don’t even know where to begin.”
“Pay attention. If you’re smart enough, you’ll see it coming.”
“But—”
“I don’t answer questions,” she says again, eyes flashing. “The next one will.”
She holds the door open for me, and I get to my feet with a cold twist in my gut. This is going to be much harder than I thought, and I never thought it would be easy.
Pay attention, she’d said.
