Ari
When Sam is sent in again to check on Ari, he is less alert than he was the previous day, his mind blurred this time not by pain, but by exhaustion. The world around him seems like an illusion. His nights here were spent in a fitful state of sleep, his head lolling at intervals, his mind drifting into unconsciousness only to be met with horrifying nightmares—black-and-white photographs of his family, his sister dead and his mother tortured, his father’s blood in the streets, the gates of his family’s home smashed in. He dreamt of the moonlit beach, saw Sam there, walking into the surf. No matter how he called out to her, she didn’t turn around, didn’t react until she disappeared under the surf. He shuddered awake gasping her name, tears still wet on his cheeks.
Sam. You are my heart. If you die, I die.
At first, when she steps in, he isn’t sure it’s her at all. There’s something different about her expression, calm and resolute, and it rouses his curiosity, but he is too tired to process it. He just watches her warily as she approaches him with a glass of water. As she goes, she notes the security camera in the room.
“Will tells me that you still haven’t said a word,” she tells him.
She gently tugs down his gag, and the sudden relief in his jaw makes him sigh. He shifts in his chair, wincing, looking away from her. Her voice is flat and professional today, all business. But underneath it, he senses an undercurrent of something else, he doesn’t know what, a mystery that puts him on edge. Did she keep their last conversation to herself, when he bared his heart to her? Or did she tell Will everything? He isn’t sure what to think, or whether he cares. Everything in him yearns for her, and yet he still finds himself pulling warily away, his exhausted body and mind adding to his confusion.
“Is that why you’re here?” he murmurs. “To get me to talk?”
She holds out the glass of water. “First,” she replies, “you need to drink something.”
He refuses at first, suspicious of the liquid, but when she doesn’t move away, his body gets the better of him, and he finds himself turning to the water and accepting it as she lifts the glass to his lips. His body takes the liquid eagerly, flooding his thirsty limbs. He drains the glass, wishing for more.
“Better?” she asks quietly.
Now she sounds concerned for him. And although he doesn’t answer, the haze that has hung over him since his fitful sleep now lifts a little, and his mind sharpens, quenched partially of its thirst.
“I suppose I can’t be that much worse,” he answers.
Her eyes flicker once again to the corner of the ceiling before returning to him. “Lumines is negotiating with us tomorrow for a prisoner exchange,” she says. “The exchange itself should happen in two days’ time.”
He doesn’t really understand why she’s telling him this. “They sent you here to tell me about their plans for me?” he mutters. “Seems generous.”
“No one sent me,” she says.
It takes him another moment to realize what she means, that this is why she’d glanced at the security cameras before approaching him. He frowns, more alert now, and his eyes dart to the nearest camera too. There, he sees that the light on it is red instead of green, and flickering rapidly. The camera is on, but dysfunctional.
When he meets her gaze this time, he sees that behind her resolute exterior is a current of fear and urgency.
“We aren’t being watched?” he whispers.
She puts one hand on each armrest and leans closer. Her nearness sends a shiver through him, and he finds himself wishing his arms weren’t bound.
Sam bends toward him and whispers in his ear.
“You told me once that you wanted to be free.”
He looks quickly at her. At first, he doesn’t think he heard her correctly. “What’s going on?” he murmurs.
She leans so close now that her lips touch his ear. “Ari, listen carefully.” There’s a slight tremor in her voice. “Diamond has no plans to hand you back to Lumines. They’re going to kill you at the exchange. So tomorrow night, I need you to be ready to move. I’m going to come see you then, do my usual interrogation and check on your health. When I do, your guards will be changing shifts. I’m going to leave your hand ties loosened. Whenyou get the chance, get out of here. I’ll do everything I can to cover your trail. Find a way to get out of the country, as fast as you can. Doesn’t matter where.”
A shudder wracks his bones. She is orchestrating something big behind the scenes. “What happens to you when they find me missing?”
“They won’t think you’re missing. They’ll think you’re dead.”
Dead.He imagines her transmuting misleading evidence on the floor—smears of fake blood, a story that Lumines had killed him before he could tell Grand Central anything. A story that will hold, at least for a little while.
She is risking her life, doing this.
“What about you?” he insists again.
“I’ll find my own way. You have to trust me. But you need to move quickly. I haven’t bought us much time. If you get enough of a head start, Lumines will be too distracted by the fall of Grand Central to go after you, and all of them will want to lie low while authorities descend on them.”
The fall of Grand Central. She is moving against them. And in a flash, he understands.
