Page 43 of The Flame

“Not on the interviews or assessments. Janice asked me to cross-reference some facts and make sure their admission forms are complete,” I said, name-dropping our boss. “You can check with her, if it’s a problem.”

If he took me up on that offer, I’d have to admit to Janice that I’d just wanted to see how Daniel was doing. It wouldn’t look great for me, but it wasn’t a disaster.

Marlowe finally shifted to the side. “They shouldn’t give you any trouble, but shout if there’s a problem. Kyle should be almost done, so they’ll be sedated.”

“Sedated?” Irritation stabbed at me. “How am I supposed to do my job if they’re fast asleep?”

Marlowe snorted and went back behind the desk, elbows on the counter. “The dosage just keeps them calm, it doesn’t knock them out.”

Thank goodness for that. I pushed through the door and immediately spotted Kyle pushing his cart out of one of the rooms. He did a double-take when he saw me. I waved my yellow binders at him, letting him know I was here in an official capacity.

He turned a shoulder on me to open the next door, leaving me alone in the short passage with rooms on either side. Twelve cubicles, two bathrooms that only allowed one patient at a time and, at the end, the emergency exit.

I peered inside the viewing window on the door to my left. Empty. The opposite room was also empty.

At the next door down, the cubicle was occupied. The man lay on top of the narrow hospital cot, dressed in dark gray pantsand a shirt, socks but no shoes. His head was flat on the pillow, his eyes open, staring up at the ceiling. I recognized him from Daniel’s cell at the Guard Station. He was one of the older men who’d teamed up with Otter.

He didn’t move, just lay there, staring, and my blood ran cold…until I remembered what Marlowe had said. He was sedated, not erased. That’s when I saw the cuffs, a pair around each wrist, locking him to the metal rails on the side of his cot.

That could be a problem.

Moving on quickly, I found Daniel and swiped my card to enter. He was in the same position, cuffed to the cot, although he rolled his head toward the sound of the door opening. His gaze pinned me. “What are you doing here?”

His words were sluggish, but not slurred. As I drew closer, I saw the life in his blue, blue eyes. Tired, clouded, but also filling with relief as he looked at me.

I put a finger to my mouth and whispered, “I shouldn’t really be here. How are you?”

He made a noise deep in his throat, but I could see my answer. He was okay. His blond hair was greasy and plastered to his forehead. He smelled of sweat and damp. But he was still my Daniel.

“Listen, I don’t have long.” Every minute was another minute for Marlowe or Kyle to second-guess whether I should be here or not. “How many of you are here? Geneva said she released some of the heirs.”

“She released the four younger boys,” he said. “And Carl, too, a day later. When they came for us last night, I thought we were being released. What is going on? They haven’t said a word to us. We’ve been in that cell for days.”

I covered his hand with mine, my thumb resting on the cold iron band circling his wrist. “Why have they cuffed you?”

“Why do they do anything they’ve done?” he returned wearily.

“They’re afraid,” I told him. “Geneva believes the heirs are a threat, that you’ll go underground and cause an uprising against the Sisterhood.”

His mouth twisted into a cynical smirk. “She’s worried we’ll lower ourselves to her standards.”

Some protective instinct surged within me. “It’s not like we had many options, Daniel. If we’d taken to the streets, we would have been hunted, plucked from our homes and removed, or just erased. It’s happened before. We call itThe Scraping.”

Daniel’s face registered no shock. He must have heard about the original protests on the streets back then.

“Maybe times have moved on,” was all he said. “Maybe there was another way.”

I wasn’t going to stand here and argue politics. It was all moot, anyway. “What’s the story with the cuffs? I mean, if you need to sit up to eat or drink, or use the bathroom.”

“The nurses have the keys.”

That’s all I needed to know.

“Roman and I have a plan. We’re getting you out. I promise.” I gripped the side railing on his cot and leaned in closer. “You can’t stay in Capra. We’re taking you to The Smoke.”

His gaze shadowed as he processed that, accepted it. “What about my father? Is he here? They haven’t let me see him.”

I didn’t want to get into this with him now. He was in no condition to hear it. But I couldn’t hide the truth, either. “Hewashere, but he was released this morning.”

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