“They killed her,” Sadina said. “Slit her throat judging by the gurgle sound I heard right next to me.”

“Kletter is a very bad person.” This came from Timon’s rolling thunder of a voice, now sitting with his back against the wall near Sadina. “She’s dedicated her life to bringing down the Godhead, and she’d use you up like a roll of toilet paper to get her way. The woman is vicious and doesn’t know the meaning of the word compromise.”

“Don’t you mean was?” Isaac asked. “She was a very bad person?”

Timon didn’t appear ashamed. “Yes, that’s exactly what I meant. We weren’t going to kill her, until she came barreling into that house. Listen . . .” The man leaned forward, focusing his intense gaze on Isaac. “We had to save you from her. We had to stop her. This wasn’t a situation where we could do our best and see what happens. There was only one acceptable path, and she got in the way at the wrong time. I’m sorry she manipulated you, I’m sorry she killed those people on the boat, but I’m not sorry she’s dead.”

Sadina stood up, then sat back down, too frustrated to sit still but with nowhere to go. This eased Isaac a bit—they weren’t restrained, and neither of their captors moved a muscle when Sadina got up from the chair. Maybe they had a chance to escape, or would have that chance soon.

“You really think you’re doing the right thing, don’t you?” Isaac said. “You think you’re so right that Sadina and I are going to go along without being forced.”

“That’s exactly spot on,” Letti said. “But don’t you want to hear what the thing is?”

Isaac took a second to look at each person in the room. “Not really. At least one of you is a murderer and both of you are kidnappers. Can we go, now?”

Timon stood up. It seemed like he kept standing up and standing up for a full five minutes because he was so tall and bulky. He groaned a time or two like a grandpa getting out of bed. He walked over to where Isaac still sat on the ground, standing in front of the oil lamp like a solar eclipse, his face masked in shadow.

“Do we really have to get tough?” the man asked. “Do we really need to be the bad guys, here, and tie you up and keep drugging you and drag you all the way to Alaska? Is that what you want? Because we don’t wanna, but we will. You understand me? We will.” He folded his giant arms to emphasize the point.

“Alaska?” Sadina said. “You didn’t say anything about Alaska. Isn’t that kinda far from here?”

Letti answered with one word. “Very.”