Page 89 of Irreversible

I whisper through chattering teeth, “Back pocket.”

A final crunching sound rings out, and then everything goes quiet.

I wait for footsteps. Alarms. The Timekeeper’s voice telling us our time is up.

But there’s nothing.

My eyes flutter closed as nightmares swoop in to carry me away. But before I pass out, I hear Isaac’s voice on the other side of the wall.

“Stay with me.”

20

Idon’t have time to think about her. To stress over how sick she might be or wonder if she’s lying over there unconscious…dying. “Stay with me. We’re almost there.”

With my cuffed ankle draped across the opposite knee, I maneuver the wire through the lock, twisting to get just the right angle. Unfortunately for me, my captors aren’t complete idiots; they’ve used a cuff with a double-locking system—the kind police issue.

Unfortunately forthem,I know my way around those.

If I can get this damn wire to cooperate.

Come on…come on…

I feel it when the wire catches on the right spot, and with a little tension and a steady hand, the first lock moves out of the way.

One down.

Exhaling, I go to work on the other one.

My eyes keep darting to the camera, like I’ll be able to see if someone’s about to come busting through the door. Several yards away, Roger’s chest rises and falls. I dropped him in one of the camera’s blind spots, hoping no one saw the scuffle. IfI’m lucky, Roger was the guy watching the monitors, but I can't count on that.

“I’d feel a whole lot better if you’d answer me, Everly.”

I had no way of knowing if she’d managed to get the bracelet on him at the time, but I heard the two of them over there—knew she was weak, and he was touching her, and I took a gamble.

The way he came barreling in here, all pissed off, like I’d interrupted something—it set the violence in me off like a nuclear bomb. My taunting made him careless, and the second he crossed that invisible line, I rushed him.

Big as he is, once his air was cut off, he hit the ground like anyone else.

It was a relief when I found the bracelet—I could have ruined everything if I’d interrupted before she had the chance. But she was fucking brilliant, and there it was, in his back pocket, woven around a nice thick wire, just like she said.

While I was at it, I snagged his keycard, because God only knows what I’m going to find outside this room. I also pulled his shoes off and shoved them on my feet. They don’t quite fit, but I’m not running out of here barefoot like a dumbass.

Assuming I ever get this?—

“Fuck yes!” With a hook and a twist, the second lock lifts and I rip the damn thing off me, letting itclankto the floor. I’m free, but there’s no time to celebrate.

I’ve got to go.

“Hang on for me. I’m getting us out of here.” But I hesitate a second longer than I should, laying my hand on the wall one last time. “See you soon.”

Maybe there’s a part of her that can hear me.

Turning away, I push off that damn barrier and dart for the door, practically leaping over the ogre’s limp body on the way out.

The hallway is quiet, and Everly’s door isright there,but I know death lurks around every corner. Stopping now would be a fool’s mission, and I haven’t come this far to screw it all up.

It’s disorienting, seeing the outside of the room for the first time. The plain, sterile-looking hallway appears to be an extension of the room I’ve been locked in, with the same tile floors and white walls. An industrial-type building, then. Glancing right, then left, I turn away from Everly’s door and toward the stairwell sign at the opposite end.

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