“Well . . . I gotta go back now. I jes’ wanted t’ see ya and letcha know Dino’s dead. If they ever letcha get back t’ Gramercy . . . an’ . . . well, I’m sorry about everything. If it wasn’t fer me, you’d be Outside now, back home . . . I’m sorry, Ron.”

“It wasn’t your fault. It’s all right.”

“Oh . . . here.” She fumbled in the pocket of her shorts. “Here’s some stuff Dino took off ya, that first time.”

Ron took the things from her hand. A house key. A credit card. His ID card.

My ID card! He glanced up sharply at Sylvia. She knew! She knew she had just handed him the key to freedom. Ron looked over at the two warriors. They were loafing against the wall, talking to each other.

“Good luck, Ron,” Sylvia said. “And thanks.”

“No, wait!” he whispered fiercely. “Hold on. We can both get out. When the gates open . . .”

She shook her head, smiling sadly. “Ron . . . no way. We’d never make it t’gether. You’re what you are an’ I’m what I am. There’s no way fer us t’ make it t’gether.”

“But . . .”

She kissed him lightly on the lips, then turned and started to walk away, down the hall. The two black warriors followed after her. Ron stood rooted to the spot, holding the key and cards in his outstretched hand.

“Sylvia!” he called. But she didn’t turn around. She just kept walking.

For more than a week, Ron’s mind was in a turmoil. How can I get away, with them watching me all the time? And how can I leave Sylvia here? That was the real question. No matter how hard he thought about it, he knew that she was right. There was no way to bring her Outside.

Could he get himself Outside?

The springtime passed slowly. The weather warmed. The summer began and the gates opened to let the visitors in for the vacation season.

“The tourists never come up here,” Timmy Jim said, “The hardtops make sure of that.”

And Timmy Jim made sure that Ron didn’t get out of Muslim territory. He always felt the eyes of warriors on him. Even at night.

But finally Ron made a break for freedom. He waited until very late one night, several weeks after the summer season had started. His sleeping quarters had been moved to an old hotel building, where there were warriors sleeping in all the rooms around him. More guards were on duty all night down in the hotel lobby.

Ron had studied the building very carefully. He didn’t go down the stairs to the lobby. He forced open the doors to one of the old elevator shafts.