No, I wanted to tell him, I got you. I am here to get you.

“I have to go.” The more I thought about it, the more resolved I became. “Now. I have to go get her before it’s too late. If it’s not already too late…”

I tried to stand, but the hand on my back held me firm. “My boy, it’s too late for you to set out from here. Where would you even go?”

I started to protest, but the truth was that I had no idea where she was or if she was even anywhere anymore. “I can’t just do nothing,” I finally said.

“French, trust that she knows what she’s doing. This is Rose we’re talking about. The girl who survived for years without us. The girl who fought alongside us. The girl who puts us to shame with her resourcefulness, her outsize bravery. Just have faith.”

He wasn’t wrong. Rose was the best of us. If anyone had a shot at surviving, it was her. In and out. My breath came back. I saw her in my mind now, hiding in a tree, blended in perfect.

“And besides, Derrick took a gun with them, so they’ll be eating good,” Miig continued.

Derrick. That was it. I on my feet, running.

Miig shouted, but I didn’t turn back to answer. “French! Wait! We need to talk. I need to know—”

I found Mitch setting up a borrowed tent by a small circle of rocks set for an evening fire.

“We did it!” he loud-whispered. “We actually did it! And did you see that woman? She’s a nurse. We’re gonna bring down this whole friggin’ network!”

“I’m leaving.” I shouldered my pack and pulled my hood over my head.

“What? Wait, what do you mean, you’re leaving? You can’t leave!”

“I can. I am. Right now.” I retied my laces with double knots and started folding up the tarp to slide under the flap of my bag.

“No, French. You can’t.” Something in his tone made me pause. He stood very still, all the anxiety and excitement gone from his face. He looked like a stranger. “If you leave, the mission will be called in. It’ll mean we’ve failed. It’ll mean I’ve failed, and I cannot fail, not when I’m so close to getting exactly what I deserve. I won’t let you slow me down, not again.”

That hurt like a punch to the gut. I was the reason he’d gotten caught in the first place, me and my little legs, me and my young hysteria. I had made running hard when we were kids, and he’d paid the price for it. But now I knew that he knew it, that he blamed me after all.

“Mitch…”

“No, French. There’s nothing to say. If you leave, I will call in the recruitment team right now. At least that way, they’ll know I wasn’t in on this.” He pulled a small device from the inside of his waistband. So Mellin didn’t trust me after all. She had made sure Mitch could get in touch.