There had been a lot of movement after being captured. Enough to make her stomach jump into her throat, especially one particular shudder and jolt that made her think the machines had been pulled back into the Bergs, and the Bergs had once again taken flight. Flight. Flying. It was beyond her capacity to envision and yet she was doing it. Flying above the earth.

She’d finally detached herself. Closed her eyes, thought of better places, refused to respond to any physical stimuli or noise or voice. She pretended, absolutely, that she simply wasn’t present and accounted for. Hours.

A door opened.

Cool, swirling air whooshed into the room, so clean and full of oxygen that Jackie teared up as she sucked in breath after breath, pulling them deep, deep into her chest, holding it there, sighing it out in a gush, ready to start over again. She instantly felt better. But the insurmountable, crushing weight of her worries remained, all the same.

A man dressed in a robe of coarse material darkened the small space revealed by the door, silently watching for far too long to seem normal. Bright light shone behind him, and the whirs and beeps and hums of heavily running machinery grew much louder. The robed man had an odd mask on his face—an oval of hard plastic or metal, slits for eyes to see and a mouth to speak and breathe. Creepy as hell, this guy.

“Who speaks for this group?” the man asked. “I need a representative.”

What an unfeeling thing to say, Jackie thought. Knowing the uncertainty and terror they must all feel, but not a word of compassion or empathy. It was something to grasp, something to hold on to. She could hate this man, and yank herself from the swamp in which she’d sunk. Everyone but Miyoko was asleep, knocked out from exhaustion and fear.

“I’ll do it,” she said, weakly, but raising her hand to make it clear she’d volunteered.

Miyoko gaped at her, maybe the only person more surprised than she was, herself.

“What’re you doing?” she asked, probably wondering what had come over this deflated person she’d been comforting for hours. “Ms. Cowan or one of the council members should do it. Or make Dominic go. He’s the biggest.”

This bugged Jackie but solidified her decision. “I don’t think we need older or bigger right now. I think we need smarter.”

Miyoko smiled at that, then reacted in the best way possible. She nodded, firmly.

“Come on, then,” the masked creep said. “I’m not asking for a human sacrifice for Flare’s sake. Just someone to talk for the rest of you. Come on. Please.”

Jackie couldn’t read the man. Maybe he was just an errand boy. Regardless, she stood up, shook away the fear that had tried so hard to drown her in the last few hours, and followed him out of the cell.