With that, he slings his bag over his shoulder and bends low. Hypatia climbs onto his back, clinging to his neck. As if she weighs no more than a pillow, he springs upward, jumping way higher than an average human can, and catches the ledge of the window with his fingertips. He pulls himself up, and then, supporting his entire body—and Hypatia’s—with just one arm, he uses his leather-jacket-clad elbow to smash through the window. Sheesh, I guess he wasn’t exaggerating about the effects of blood doping. Within seconds, he’s scrambled through the window, and they’re gone.

Moments later, four security guards approach, blocking my exit from the cell. They’re followed by Alfie. His tie of the day is a mustard and purple striped monstrosity.

Alfie assesses the broken window and missing prisoner. “Find them, and get the girl back,” he says to the guards. “I can take care of this one.” The guards hurry off the way they came.

I try to push past Alfie. “Take me to Kor or whoever else from the Inner Chamber is here,” I demand.

“Not a chance.”

“What’s your problem?” I shove him, but I don’t have much leverage while trying to avoid touching the antimatter bars.

“Why would I help you?” Alfie sneers. “You’ve turned out to be the traitor I expected all along. The only place you’re going is into one of these cells and staying there until my father gets here.”

Oh, hell no. I guess I’ll have to find someone reasonable on my own. I turn to check if there’s anything in the cell that I can use to my advantage. Nope. When I swivel back around, Alfie’s eyes blink upward too quickly, and I’m pretty sure he was checking out my butt. It does look good in these jeans.

“My eyes are up here, perv,” I say as I step forward so that we’re nose to nose. There’s probably some way to effectively use my Ha’i to get past Alfie, but I stick to what I know best and knee him straight in the balls. As he grabs himself with a satisfying shriek, I push past him and run.

He doesn’t catch up with me until I’m already up the stairs and out of the building. As I stumble through the dark overgrown landscape, he comes barreling into me, tackling me to the ground. And then he unceremoniously sits on my back to keep me down.

“Get off me! What are you doing?”

“I’m apprehending you, traitor.”

He has a rope and seems to be contemplating whether he should use it on my hands or feet.

“I’m not a traitor, idiot. Just call Kor or my mother. I can explain everything.”

“If you want a positive result, perhaps you should speak more respectfully.”