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SEPTEMBER 17, 2022

Haskell

This was bizarre. He hadn’t restrained her. She thought about his parting words. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

Well. That certainly left her open to options. Ka-Bar would pretty much do anything. The man was fearless.

He abandoned his wife and child to the mercies of her family. He’s allowing those children to be used and abused, and now he’s abandoned you, too. Your little burglar boy is no help, either. What have I been telling you all these years? No man will ever find you worth saving. Just a tiny little tomboy. No man wants that.

“That’s. It. No more. Get out of my head,” Haskell whisper-yelled. “You know nothing, Da. It’s not like if you were alive today, you’d come rescue me. You couldn’t. But my brothers would. And Nemo would. He loves me. And Tribe would come out of respect for Nemo, at the very least .

Bollocks, girl. He’s never said he loves you, has he? And why would those mercenaries feel any loyalty to you?

“He doesn’t need to. I know it. He promised he was all in with me. That’s as good as.” She sat straighter in her chair. It was as if she’d suddenly found the will to beat back her inadequacies. She remembered what Nemo said. The look in his eyes when he said it. “He promised,” she whispered. “And I’m going to listen to his voice, not you. Get out of my head, and don’t come back.”

Silence.

No echoing cackles, no sharp rebukes, no snarky comebacks. Could her da really be gone out of her head for good that easily?

Gem stood up from the chair and took stock of her surroundings. Ka-Bar had told her there was no one listening in. All the equipment in the room appeared out of working order, so she believed him. She scanned the room for cameras. Nothing. No red lights on equipment she could see or oddities in the ceilings or corners.

The rock she’d cut from the wall was still in the room. She grabbed it and slipped it back into her pouch.

When Ka-Bar had searched her pockets and pouches in the tunnel, he’d found her screwdriver tool, but he hadn’t taken it. Why?

Vents! He knew her traffic patterns as well as anyone else who knew her. He’d locked the door on his way out, but it hadn’t been to hold her in. It had been to keep her from going out the traditional route, cluing her in that it was being watched. He’d shuttered the window to keep her from breaking the glass and somehow going out the window.

She looked around the room again, but there were no vents at the top of the walls. Stymied, she put her hands on her hips, looking at the ceiling. It was pure rock above her. What the fuck was she supposed to do?

After a few moments of panic, she smacked herself on the forehead. “You idiot!” Immediately, she dropped to her knees and looked at the back wall. In the corner, there was a silver metal airflow unit. “Gotcha!”

In under a minute, she was in the vent. It had been touch and go getting even her tiny frame inside the vent, but she made it. After fifty feet or so, which she assumed was where the metal met the stone wall, there was a sharp bend. Sure enough, the metal opened up into a vertical maintenance shaft with metal rungs going straight up. It was going to be one hell of a climb, and it was going to take a while. Then the challenge would be to get out of the camp and make her way to Beitbridge and the rendezvous point, but she’d get there. Then she’d get to Nemo.