Page 132 of Coerced

“I’m solid.”

“Good,” he called over his shoulder. “Let’s eat.”

Asking myself for the tenth time how I’d ended up here and in this condition, I shook my head and followed him.

34. The Box

Kerry

I stared at the gray cube sticking outta the snow.

“Now I know why everyone calls it the Box,” I muttered.

The wind from the sea was sharp and stiff, and the others hung onto each other so they didn’t blow away. I was glad to be walking despite the weather. After nine hours on the cramped icebreaker, I needed the space and movement.

We made it to the entrance pretty quick and I stood aside as Clem’s contact stepped forward and snapped a flash of power into the door itself. A dull clang echoed, metal screamed, and the door opened. I stepped in, my vision instantly adjusting to the overhead fluorescents. The others followed and the door closed behind us.

It was warmer inside, but not by much. Ahead was a big metal door with a sign posted above it and that was about it.

“What’s that say?” I asked.

Ms. Chapman lowered her parka’s hood and glanced up.

“It’s a list of items prohibited in the gulag and general rules for visitors,” she said.

I was glad Clem had sent her. Not only was Ms. Chapman a good teacher and an elder on the Council of Wardens, she treated me like I was any other student. She was also one of few adults I respected. While I didn’t trust easily or often, I knew beyond a doubt she was not our traitor. She wasn’t the kind to get you in the back or use slow poison or create some tangled web of lies and spies.

If Helene Chapman wanted you dead, you’d be looking in her eyes as you breathed your last.

While Travis read out the list, Ms. Chapman and Gigi stomped their feet and began brushing the snow and ice off each other, me, and Travis.

“Seems like normal prison rules and directions on how to enter the gulag proper,” he said. “Looks pretty straightforward to me.”

“Good. I like straightforward. Ms. Chapman, any protocol here we should know about?”

“We go through the door and down a tunnel to the main desk, where we show our credentials to the Guardian and give the name of the prisoner we want to see.” She looked up at me. “We will be logged in and given an escort to an interrogation room, and Mr. Argaud will be brought out to us.”

I pulled open the door and motioned for the others to go first, then followed. We stood for a full minute and looked down the tunnel. It was concrete and probably at least a yard thick. It narrowed to a pinpoint in the distance and the slope of it told me we were going deep underground.

I wanted to get this done ASAP and head back to the States. I’d had to leaveherbackpack with Rome and that made me antsy. He’d sworn on his life he would keep it safe, and I appreciated that, but I didn’t sleep well without it.

“Well, let’s get going,” I said. “The sooner we talk to him, the sooner we can get out of this coffin.”

“Not an encouraging image, Kerry,” Gigi murmured.

#

The Guardian went over the rules very clearly. Just like Ms. Chapman said, we had to wait in the interrogation room and the prisoner would be brought to us. After we were finished, we were to signal the guard, who would escort us back to the lobby. We were not allowed to use our powers because they would disrupt the wards inside the room.

Ms. Chapman had spent most of the boat ride explaining how the gulag worked. Travis and Gigi had a thousand questions, and she’d answered them all, but I only paid attention when she talked about the wards that were built into the interrogation rooms.

“So it’s impossible to lie, or just really hard to?” I’d tilted my head and looked at her.

“As with anything, one could fight the compulsion, and one’s degree of success would vary in accordance to one’s strength.” She’d raised an eyebrow. “Ms. Carnahan and Mr. Peale, for example, would not be able to lie at all, whereas you might be able to sweat through one or two tiny white lies, but no more. However, I assure you that Reilly Argaud is not a level ten.”

It drives me crazy, the way she talks,I’d thought, but I had understood enough.

Now, I focused on the business at hand as we showed our passports, signed the guest log, and took visitor badges. The Guardian buzzed us through a heavy steel door and we met our escort, who led us down a gray hallway.

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