“Do you want her out or not?”
“Yes … ” Cole says. “But why do you? For the reward?”
“No,” the voice says. “I do shit work all day, every day. It’d be nice to do something good for once.”
“Why should I believe you?” Cole asks.
“All Wilson does is lie. He’s not going to reward anyone for anything, and I’m not about to give the bastard what he wants.”
“Do it,” I say. “Get me out of here, please.”
“Hello, Lexi,” the person responds.
“Hi,” I say to the man. Cole peeks through the hole, and I whisper, “God, I hope he’s a man of his word.”
“That makes two of us,” Cole says.
A few minutes later, more feet enter the room, and Cole jumps up. From the sound of Zeus’s nails on the floor, he’s pacing and sniffing all around.
“Wow. You have a lot of friends,” Cole says.
“Not everyone is loyal to that imbecile,” the man says.
People begin moving chunks of cement and whatever else fell through the ceiling. Everyone talks in whispers as they shuffle around. I press my back to the wall as the dust rises again.
“Here goes nothing,” a voice says.
I hear a collective grunting and then feel a breeze hit me in the face. Twelve pairs of eyes peer back at me as I count six men holding up the gigantic piece of cement that was covering me. I climb out of the space as they drop it on the floor. Dust poofs upward.
“Thanks, guys,” I say hesitantly. Two of them smile, but the others frown. Their figures tower over me, and they’re better fed than most Sinners in the Hole judging from their healthy coloring. All of them have facial hair with beards of varying lengths, but even that doesn’t hide their brands. Three orange brands for gluttony, two black for sloth, one green for envy. The one branded green smiles shyly. It strikes me as interesting that the other smiling man has no brand at all.
“It was nothing,” the unbranded man says, stepping forward. I recognize his voice as the man who first discovered us here, in his house.
I take a good look at him and offer to shake his hand. Cole instinctively steps to my side. I notice the man hasn’t even removed his lab coat yet.
“It wasn’t nothing to us,” Cole says. “Thank you.”
“What’s your name?” I ask the man.
“Hank.”
“Nice to meet you, Hank.”
“And it’s nice to meet you.”
“Hey, by any chance have you heard anyone in the lab mention the name Sutton?”
“Yeah, actually I have. If I recall correctly, they have him working in the medical part of the lab. But I’ve never seen him.”
“He’s working? In the medical part?”
“I don’t have a clue what goes on behind those doors, none of us do.”
“Do you ever see any of them, coming or going?”
“They don’t ever leave; they sleep there.”
“But they have to let them out at some point, right?”
“No, they don’t. We hand them cylinders via a pass-through, but we never get to actually see them.”
“Oh, okay. What’s in the cylinders?” I ask.
“Lexi, we need to go,” Cole interrupts. “Thank you, Hank.” He whistles to Zeus and signals for me to follow him, even as my legs feel like they are about to give out.
“You’re welcome,” Hank says.
“Wait,” I say, limping along behind Cole. “If you see Sutton, tell him I’m here and that we’re working with Roméo.” Hank gives me a funny look. “He’ll know what it means.”
“I’ll do my best, but I can’t guarantee anything,” he says.
“Thank you so much, and take care of yourself,” I say.
“And you do the same. Whatever you do … don’t let Wilson catch you.”
Cole shakes Hank’s hand. He practically shoves me through the doorway and into the alley before anyone can say another word. I have to rub my eyes to believe what I’m seeing.
In the darkness, I see the silhouettes of bodies moving about on the street. I guess the guards don’t grab Sinners for the labs at night because I see more now than I ever did during the day. Cole rubs his chin and rocks on his feet at the crossway.
Do we go right or left? I’m unsure. I rub my arms as a chill shoots through me. The shadowy figures of Sinners moving about the street unnerves me in a way I can’t explain. It’s like watching skeletons wade past in a sea of death. The whites of their eyes gleam in the moonlight. I hear screaming and clasp my gun tight.
A woman streaks out of a doorway close to us, causing me to jump in my skin. She’s lucky I don’t shoot her. My hands shake, and my heart thumps in my ears. In her hands, I see a small piece of bread.