I wasn’t sure how to answer his question. I didn’t know the answer. “Jared, I need your help.”

Jared was on his feet as soon as I was done speaking. Jamie leaned back to look at my face. I didn’t meet Jamie’s gaze. I wasn’t sure how much I could bear right now.

“What do you need me to do?” Jared asked.

“I’m making a raid. I could use some… extra muscle.”

“What are we after?” He was intense, already shifting into his mission mode.

“I’ll explain on the way. We don’t have a lot of time.”

“Can I come?” Jamie said.

“No!” Jared and I said together.

Jamie frowned and let me go, sinking down onto the mattress and crossing his legs. He put his face in his hands and sulked. I couldn’t look directly at him before I ducked out of the room. I was already yearning to sit beside him, to hold him tight and forget this whole mess.

Jared followed as I retraced my path through the south tunnel.

“Why this way?” he asked.

“I…” He would know if I tried to lie or evade. “I don’t want to run into anyone. Jeb, Aaron, or Brandt, particularly.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want to have to explain myself to them. Not yet.”

He was quiet, trying to make sense of my answer.

I changed the subject. “Do you know where Lily is? I don’t think she should be alone. She seems…”

“Ian’s with her.”

“That’s good. He’s the kindest.”

Ian would help Lily—he was exactly what she needed now. Who would help Ian when… ? I shook my head, shaking the thought away.

“What are we in such a hurry to get?” Jared asked me.

I took a deep breath before I answered him. “Cryotanks.”

The south tunnel was black. I could not see his face. His footsteps did not falter beside me, and he didn’t say anything for several minutes. When he spoke again, I could hear that he was focusing on the raid—single-minded, setting aside whatever curiosity he felt until after the mission was planned to his satisfaction.

“Where do we get them?”

“Empty cryotanks are stored outside Healing facilities until they’re needed. With more souls coming in than leaving, there will be a surplus. No one will guard them; no one will notice if some go missing.”

“Are you sure? Where did you get this information?”

“I saw them in Chicago, piles and piles of them. Even the little facility we went to in Tucson had a small store of them, crated outside the delivery bay.”

“If they were crated, then how can you be sure —”

“Haven’t you noticed our fondness for labels?”

“I’m not doubting you,” he said. “I just want to make sure that you’ve thought this through.”

I heard the double meaning in his words.

“I have.”