“They wanted to know where you were and where was your dog—they shot me again when I said I didn’t know. Where was August Veriden, where was Emerald Ferring? If I’d known, I would have said. I told them you would be here if you weren’t at the B and B—don’t hate me, but they hurt me too much.”

She started to weep, wrenching sobs like those that had racked her grandmother earlier in the day. I slapped her roughly.

“Listen, Cady, it’s not like the action-hero movies. In real life, no one stands up to torture. You’ve done nothing that could possibly make me hate you. You’ve done nothing for which you need to feel ashamed. You’re resourceful, you’re a problem solver. And we have a major problem to solve. We need every skill set we possess to get out of this hellhole.”

She stopped crying but looked at me apathetically. She needed more than a pep talk from me to summon the energy to save herself. I felt panic rising in me and swallowed it down, bile leaving a raw, bitter place in my throat.

Think for two, think for two, how do you do, I’m feeling blue, because now I must think for two. I needed someone to slap me.

“I’m going to go up the ladder,” I said loudly. “You have to hold my flashlight so I can see what I’m doing.”

She didn’t respond. My own arms and legs were still quivering, but they were going to have to go to work. I hoisted Cady to her feet. Draped her right arm around my neck, put my own hand on her waist, and pushed her across the room. There was a sink by the door; I took a chance on the water and washed my face and rinsed my mouth, wet a paper towel and wiped Cady’s face.

When I put my arm around her again, she was steadier. She gave a last gulping sob but stayed with me to the ladder, which was actually just steel rungs bolted into the wall. I thrust my flashlight into Cady’s hands and ordered her to keep shining it on the ladder. I wrapped my clammy, twitching hands in my jacket sleeves and grabbed the rung above my head, pulled myself up, feet on the bottom rung.

Cady’s arms were wobbly, and the light jiggled around, but she didn’t drop the flash, and I could make out the rungs as I slowly climbed up. A hatch was almost directly overhead.

“Get me light right on the top here. I need to see this thing.”

Cady tried, but she couldn’t manage it. When she started to cry in frustration, I leaned against the wall, took my phone out, used the flashlight to inspect the hatch cover.