But once she answered, there would be no going back. Her escape would be a one-way journey. Who was she kidding? She’d gone to a place from which there was no return. She might as well finish it.

Nausea rose. She bent forward, her body folding at the waist. She rested her forehead against the cold, hard floor. She was done.

Her neck muscles ached as she lifted her head. Her voice sounded raspy, foreign as she said, “Yes.”

“I didn’t hear you. Have you decided?” the voice asked.

“Yes!” she shouted, weeping.

“All right.” The sadness, the sheer disappointment that emanated from the speaker, surprised her.

“I thought this was what you wanted,” she said.

“It’s not about what I want,” he answered. “You need to be sure. No mulligans.”

Anger and hopelessness swamped her fear. After all he’d done to her . . .

“What do you want from me?” she screamed. Then her voice dropped to a frightened whimper. “I can’t take any more. I’ll do whatever you want. I just want it to be over.”

Nothing mattered except that it be over.

Watching her in the monitor, her eyes and face tinted alien-green in the low-light surveillance camera feed, he ignored her display of temper.

Her voice weakened like the dying embers of a fire. “Please.”

He’d known this was going to happen today. Her predictability was underwhelming. Maybe if she’d resisted longer, he would have been interested. But she’d failed him in so many ways.

She hadn’t lasted two full days. Her breakdown had been mental rather than physical.

He liked the dark, but it terrified her. He’d discovered that immediately. Left with only her imagination to entertain her, and encouraged by the welcome reception in the room down the hall, she was drowning in her own fear. Endless hours of complete darkness, a ration of pain, and isolation had brought her will to live to its knees.

Even though he’d expected it, Missy’s failure weighed on him. The disappointment was crushing. How would he continue?

How could he not?

He had a mission. She’d had her chance to prove herself, but she hadn’t been able to stay the course. Somewhere out there was The One who could pass the test, handle the punishment earned. But it wasn’t Missy.

She deserved her end as much as the pain he’d inflicted as her penance. She occupied the bottom of the humanity barrel. He was doing the world a great service by ridding it of her and others of her kind.

“You can’t leave me in here any longer.” She lurched to her feet, lunged across the room, and slapped the door. “You promised. You said that if I cooperated, if I did what you wanted, that it would be over.”