I scoop tuna from a foil packet with one of my last crackers. “What page would that be?”
“We need to face the reality of the situation.” He lowers his voice and makes very direct eye contact, as if he’s speaking in some code I should understand. I almost expect him to wink, or signal for me to steal third base. “They’ve alreadykilled everyone we left at the base camp. Unless there’s another gang of murderers roaming northern Colombia—and I admit that’s a possibility—these are probably the same guys who burned that couple in their car the other day. We have no reason to believe they’re going to let us go, even if your dad gives them what they want.”
He won’t. My dadcan’tjust let Silvana and her psychotic band of brothers kill hundreds—thousands?—of people.
But if he doesn’t ...
Holden’s right. They’ll probably kill us.
I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. I’m seventeen years old. I’m supposed to have the next eighty-five years or so to extend my youth with every designer cream and elective procedure money can buy. I’m supposed to change the world and look great doing it, then die in my sleep when I’m one hundred and four, surrounded by humanitarian plaques, design awards, and people who can’t bear to think of the world without me in it.
The world will hate me if I let terrorists bomb the United States.I’llhate me.
But I’m not ready to die.
“Wehaveto escape,” Holden whispers. “And we all have to work together to do it, or someone will be left behind.”
I crunch into my cracker and chew slowly. Letting him stew.
“I need you with me on this, Genesis. People listen to you.”
He’s right again. “That’s why we have to stay.” I leancloser to whisper, well aware of how intimate our conversation must look. “I can talk Sebastián out of whatever they’re planning.” Ihaveto. “He needs to make a statement, but I don’t think he really wants to hurt anyone. He’ll listen to me, once he knows he can trust me.”
Holden’s eyes narrow. “He’s aterrorist. We are everything he and his friends hate about the world, and they will kill every one of us just to make a point.”
“So you’re going to run away and let them kill hundreds of innocent people?” I whisper fiercely, careful to keep my expression as neutral as I can, in case our captors are watching.
“Those people arenot our responsibility. There’s nothing you can do for them without puttingourlives at risk.We’rethe people you should care about. We’ve had your back from the very beginning!”
“You’ve ... ?” I fight to stay calm as anger explodes deep inside me. “You and Penelope have my back? You’re the people I should care about?”
Holden rolls his eyes. “Fine. You’re right about me and Pen. But we were just messing around.”
“You were just messing around. With mybest friend.” It’s like he doesn’t even hear himself.
“It meant nothing. It never does. You know that.”
“Doesshe?” I glance pointedly at Penelope, who’s sitting cross-legged in a patch of moss, watching us with her hands clenched so tightly in her lap that she’s at risk of breaking her own fingers.
“I don’t know what she knows,” Holden snaps. “Are you really willing to let us die out here in the mud because of a few stupid drunken hookups?”
“Afew?”
“Gen, you’re missing the point.”
“No,you’remissing the point.” I lean in until I’m practically spitting in his ear, to disguise our argument. “Your life is worth no more than anyone else’s.” Saying that feelssogood. “Neither is Pen’s. Neither is mine. This isn’t like court-ordered community service. This isreal, Holden. Real life. Real death. Real responsibility. We have a chance to prevent somethingterrible.
“I amnotgoing to let Silvana use my dad’s company to slaughter innocent people. You need to man up and get on board withthatreality, because if your escape attempt gets someone killed, that blood is onyourhands. Not mine.”
34.5 HOURS EARLIER
MADDIE
“... but this would probably be a sandbox game, considering we can go wherever we want to out here. Or maybe not. Wedokind of have to stick to the trail, to find your cousin. But it sure would be nice if we could lower the difficulty level, so we wouldn’t have to eat to regain strength or energy. Or so we could gain XP faster—that’s experience points—and learn how to, like, catch and skin rabbits for food. Like inRed Dead Redemption. Or—”
“Luke!” I spin to face him on the trail. “Do you have to filleverymoment with the sound of your own voice?”
He stares at the ground, and I want to kick myself for hurting his feelings. I’ve put up with an hour and a half of endless chatter about which snakes are poisonous, which frogs are safe to eat, and which plant leaves should not be used as toilet paper, but I draw the line at debating the difficulty rating an “adventure” like this would have on some video game I’ve never heard of.
