“Okay,” Trish said. “So then these people show up with a dozen Bergs and those weird-ass monster things with spiked leg-wheels and claws and snapped us up.”

Sadina rubbed her face and let out a small groan. “Don’t forget the whole line of Cranks—yes, Cranks, something I never thought I’d see—tossed out of a Berg like garbage. Chained together, moving around as if they were some kind of sophisticated toy. Then they were a human fence, pressing in, making sure we had nowhere to go.”

“Snatched up and here we are,” Isaac said. “Why are we here? Why did they need not only giant flying ships and those Grief Walkers or whatever . . . I mean, that wasn’t enough, they needed an army-chain of Cranks, too? To capture a dozen people with no fighting skills, no weapons, no sense of direction, no plan whatsoever. The whole thing is bonkers and yes, that’s the best word I can think of in the heat of the moment. It’s bonkers.”

“Don’t worry, it’s a solid choice,” Sadina proclaimed.

Trish thirded the motion.

Isaac leaped to the next logical questions.

“So. Okay. First, what does that all mean? Second, what do we do now?”

A moment passed, each of them avoiding eye contact, looking down as they put some thought into it. Isaac tried hard, letting the succinct pile of details they’d just gone through swim around in a small space within his mind. Back and forth and up and down, one by one, passing his internal reference of vision as he tried to put the pieces together.

“Here’s all I know,” Sadina said. “We’ve been flying through the air for at least a few hours, now. I can’t quite tell which direction we’re going or how fast, but it’s not a short trip. That much is obvious. Wherever they’re taking us, I don’t think it can be good. Simple as that.”

“Simple as that,” Trish agreed.

“Simple . . . enough, I guess,” Isaac whispered, not sure it was simple at all. “So . . . what’s your point?”

Trish and Sadina looked at each other, then both turned their gaze to Isaac.

Sadina spoke. “We’ve gotta get off this fancy ship, Isaac, before someone on this fancy ship kills us or worse.”

Simple as that.

With a heavy heart, Isaac realized that after all that talking, they’d gotten absolutely nowhere.

Hours in that little cell, crammed in with those bodies, breathing each other’s breath, smelling their odor and sweat and feet and all manner of unpleasant things, listening to their whimpers and cries and silent prayers—it had all added up for Jackie. Hours. Barely able to find air to suck into her lungs.