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  67. 3:46 a.m.

“You have no idea what it takes to protect this country,” LeHigh scoffs. “You have no idea what we’re up against. You sit there in your little office signing orders that will end up killing innocent Americans. You might as well put the bullets in their heads yourself. ”

The Director continues his rambling, but all I can do is stare at Ingrid.

I thought I could never feel what I felt the day I realized my mom was never coming back.

That betrayal.

“You have to lie down, Henry.”

I can’t hear her words.

I would rather be waterboarded again than feel what I feel this second.

A tear falls from each of my eyes just before they close.

:13

The phone buzzes.

“It’s her again,” I tell Lassie.

Meow.

“No, I’m not going to answer it.”

Meow.

“I don’t care if you miss her.”

Meow.

“Okay, I don’t care if I miss her. Dude, she lied to me. And she got me chained up.”

Meow.

“Dude, have you not seen my wrists?” I turn my wrists toward him. They are still a ghastly purple and black. “And she let me get waterboarded.”

Meow.

“Big deal? Yeah, it is a big deal. Come here, I’m gonna show you what it feels like.”

I grab him before he can get away and carry him over to the sink. I turn on the faucet and flip him over. I put his head under the water for five seconds then pull him out.

He is smiling.

Meow.

“Fun?”

Meow.

He wants me to do it again.

I put his head back under.

He makes me do it three more times.

I dry him off and give him a kiss on the head. “You are so weird.”

The phone buzzes again.

And again.

It’s been almost a week since I was, well, tortured. Both Ingrid and the President had called me nonstop. Ingrid had tried to come by twice, but I changed the locks.

The doorbell rings.

I limp toward the door, my right knee screaming each step, and say, “Go away.”

The doorbell rings again.

“Go away.”

I hear rustling in the lock. She is trying her key.

“Not gonna work.”

Two seconds later, the door opens.

“What the—”

It’s Red and the President. Red puts his key pick back in his pocket and says, “Sorry.”

“You aren’t returning my calls,” barks Sullivan, once again clad in jeans and a Redskins hoodie.

“I don’t really want to hear what you have to say.”

“Well, I have to tell you some things. They don’t make what I did okay, but they might help you understand why they had to be done.”

Lassie runs up to the President and rubs against his leg.

“Don’t,” I say running up and grabbing him.

Meow.

“Because he’s the one who got me waterboarded.”

Meow.