Percy led Donny into the ruins of the courthouse, down a long hallway to a big room in the back, where they sat at a wooden table on which a few file boxes had been stacked. You could see Percy had been working on the files, with three of them open by her notepad. This room had been the library for the judges and the clerks. But the books and even the shelves were all gone now. Probably burned for fuel.

“Sit down right here,” said Percy, pointing at one of the chairs. It was wobbly. She pulled up another one, and sat across from him, close enough to hit him again. Then she started looking through his briefcase, which the guards had given her.

“Any chance I can see my phone?” said Donny.

She looked at him. “Sure,” she said, and pulled it from the briefcase.

It really was his grandma who called. But no other messages, and no more signal. Only the clock worked now, reminding him how much of his window he had already blown.

“Don’t suppose you have a phone I could borrow,” said Donny.

She ignored his question. And you could tell she had seen enough of the work papers he carried.

“What the hell, Donny?”

“I don’t even want to be here, Percy. Not under these circumstances. But I have to be. You can’t kidnap people like this and not expect there to be consequences.”

“We didn’t kidnap anybody, Donny.”

“You kidnapped me.”

“We detained you. A lawful arrest under our law, for violating our expulsion order.”

“Heather?”

“We arrested her for contempt. But she would have surrendered if her family hadn’t locked her up. And now she is cooperating with us.”

“What about the others? That guy I saw them wheel away. The people I saw on the news, sent off to die in the swamp. This is crazy, Percy. You’ve become as bad as they were.”

Percy looked away, at the cracked windows of the big room.

“You might as well roll out the guillotines,” added Donny.

“We know you don’t like killing tyrants,” she said, looking back at him.

“I don’t like killing anyone.”

“And we don’t like killing anything. But they killed most of the wildlife on this planet, Donny. And we need to restore some balance. It’s not exactly how I would do it if it were my decision. But the people want justice. So does the Earth. We’ve run out of time for screwing around. We need to change the program before it kills what’s left. And until others wake up and start following the same rules, these arrests are the fastest way to get people to pay attention.”

“It’s hostage-taking, Percy, and you know it.”