We climb down into the darkness and quickly catch up with the group.

I begin to hang back, slowing down and building the distance between me and the group. I watch as Kina’s form begins to disappear into the dim light and I know that now is the time, before they realize I’m gone, before they run back and try to find me. Here, where the tunnel is narrow.

I take the grenades out of my pocket, and hesitate.

Just run, just go with them, I think.

But I can’t. Happy would have us traced and trapped in minutes. If they can make it to the arcade, if they can mobilize the Missing, then maybe … maybe we can win.

They see leadership in me, even if I have never seen it myself—it’s time to trust them; it’s time to be a leader.

I grab all three bombs, hold them against my chest with one arm, and remind myself that I have four seconds. I pull the pins, throw all three grenades a few yards, and run back to the bathroom.

The explosions erupt behind me; I hear bricks tumbling, cries of surprise echoing. I don’t know if the grenades have blocked the tunnel, but they have definitely bought me enough time to disappear into the city with Tyco.

I reach the ladder, tears in my eyes as I run away from Kina, from my friends.

I climb, reentering the flooded library. Abril’s bed has come apart in the rain and books float by me. Shelves have tumbled in the current, and shards of glass from the shattered window glint as they flow by.

Abril’s personal belongings are floating in the water as I fight through toward the doorway. A small identification card floats up to the surface, and I pick it up; it’s a medical practice card. I look at the picture. It’s Dr. Ortega, but the name is wrong; it says Dr. C. Soto.

Dr. Ortega is a fake name … but why?

I turn the card over in my hands and see the words FACILITY LEVEL 5 CLEARANCE, and feel as though the world is wavering beneath my feet. Suddenly, the look of recognition in Dr. Price’s eyes, the moment he caught sight of Dr. Ortega before he died, flashes through my mind—I remember too the quickly smothered fear on her face.

They had both worked in the Facility. They had known each other. More than that …

And suddenly, the pieces slot together. She was Dr. Price’s assistant. She leaked his Safe-Death research. And afterward … she came up with the healing tech.

That’s how she knew about the equipment in the Arc, how she knew what I had to destroy. It was her design.

All this information spins in my mind. No time, I think, dropping the ID card back into the flowing water. No time to worry about that now.