I started to trace the wiring but it was too delicate to run my fingers along. I had to get out my laser pointer and use its thin green beam to follow the wires instead. Even then, I couldn’t make sense of it. There was nothing to guide me, no way in. It was like trying to figure out the plot of a book that’s written in a foreign language. After four hours, I slumped in my chair and put my head in my hands.

Danny came up behind me and laid his hands on my shoulders, gently massaging them. “You’ll get it,” he told me.

I shook my head, on the edge of tears. “What if I don’t? What if I can’t and—” I couldn’t say it.

His hands squeezed. “You will,” he said. His voice was rough granite. “Because you’re amazing.”

I looked up. He gazed down at me, upside down, his green eyes molten. “You’re amazing,” he said again, more quietly.

I swallowed. Nodded. And got back to work.

I could do this. I had to be able to because if I didn’t, my brother wasn’t coming home. I told myself it was just a puzzle, like the ones I’d done when I was a kid, and all puzzles can be solved. I put myself in the mind of the engineer who’d designed this. “What were you thinking, Boris?” I muttered.

For hours, I traced wires and made notes and, at last, I saw a pattern. “How many floors does the prison have?” I asked.

Danny studied the photos they’d found. “Five.”

I’d found a series of tiny switches that seemed to be for setting which cell the prisoner was assigned to. Twelve cells per block, three blocks per floor and five floors! I was right! And once I understood that, it was like finding the Rosetta Stone.

It took the entire afternoon and into the evening, first figuring out the bracelet and then building the key that would open it. Danny stayed with me the entire time, fetching me water and ordering pizza to keep me going. It was past ten in the evening when I finally put down my soldering iron.

Danny had fallen asleep, slumped sideways on the couch. I crept over to him. I knew I needed to wake him but he looked so peaceful, asleep, and it was the first time I’d been able to just drink him in, without him looking at me. God, he was gorgeous. I went closer, gazing at him from a foot away, and now I could smell that delicious vanilla and spice scent of him. I tilted my head sideways to match his: it felt like we were lying in bed together, and the idea felt so warm and comforting it made me ache.

Danny’s eyes opened. I jumped back and fell on my ass.