“Can I ask,” Karim inquired of Archie, “have you ever been shot before?”

Susan watched Archie, riveted. His hand was now clawed around the doorjamb, supporting his weight. He blinked slowly at Karim. “Interestingly enough, no,” Archie said.

“You’ve lost half your blood, mate,” Karim said. “You’re in shock. You can barely walk. Your brain’s not getting oxygen. Your organs are going to start shutting down. You think you can shoot straight? If you’d stayed immobile and received treatment you’d probably have made it. But now?” Karim made a show of checking his watch. “Your golden hour is almost up.”

Susan swallowed a sob, and the blade stung at her neck. “Archie,” she said. She tried to smile through her tears. “It’s okay.” She didn’t want him to die, not because of her. “You can go,” she said. Her voice cracked as she said it. “Go back and get help.”

Archie gave her a small, sad smile, like he knew something she didn’t. Then his eyes lifted back to Karim.

Karim tightened his grip on Susan’s wrist, pulling painfully at her dislocated shoulder. Her eyes burned with tears but she didn’t cry out, she didn’t make a sound. She swallowed all of it.

“I have something that you want,” Archie said to Karim. He took his hand off the doorjamb, put his full weight against his shoulder, and dug his hand into his pants pocket. He wavered slightly on his feet, like someone who is drunk but doesn’t want anyone to catch on. Susan willed him to stay upright because if he fell she had the feeling he wasn’t going to be able to get up.

Archie extended his hand and jingled a large set of keys.

Susan felt Karim lean forward.

“Jack’s keys,” Archie said. He indicated the damage-strewn room. “That’s what you’ve been looking for, I assume? The key to the exit?”

Karim was breathing loudly through his nose. The keys glittered. Archie jangled them again like someone teasing a cat.

“Toss them to me,” Karim said.

Archie opened his hand and let the keys fall. They landed a few feet from his toes. His eyes stayed on Karim. “Oops,” Archie said.

Karim let go of Susan’s wrist and she felt him reach behind her back and pull the gun from his waistband. The gunmetal scraped along her spine as he drew the weapon and pointed it at Archie. He kept it trained on Archie as he switched hands, exchanging the hilt of the knife to his off hand and the gun in his right. The blade itched at Susan’s neck, and she tried not to swallow, her bad arm now hanging limply at her side.