“Where—”

“Hold her down; this is going to hurt,” Doc interrupted.

Maisie started to sit up, and Lennon hesitated. Doc pushed her back down.

“Either hold her down now or this thing will start destroying her lungs.”

Lennon jumped forward, using both hands to press Maisie’s shoulders into the table. She grabbed both his arms. The look on her face suggested he was about to get punched.

Doc ripped Maisie’s left hand away from him and Maisie yelped in protest. She tried to push him away.

“What are—”

“Just trust me for a minute, okay?” Lennon said, his words coming out in a rush as he held tighter to her. “Remember how when we met you kept saying you were trying to help me and I didn’t believe you? Don’t be a dumbass like me.”

He hadn’t actually expected that to work, but she stilled. Her fingers dug into his arm, her eyes wide as she stared at him.

Doc jabbed the device into her arm. Blood seeped out around it as the sharp pieces burrowed into her skin. Maisie gasped, her body jerking.

“Dammit, didn’t get it.” Doc threw him a furious look. “Hold her tighter. I’ll knock her out in a second, but I have to get this one first.”

He leaned his body into hers, pressing his hands firmly to her shoulders. She screamed, burying her head in his chest.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered into her hair.

“Almost…” Doc jammed the device into Maisie’s arm. She shook against him. “Got it!”

Maisie slumped against the table, her eyes half closed.

Doc blew out a breath. “Okay. Two more.”

—

Lennon woke with a start.

“Sorry,” a voice behind him said.

He blinked, rubbing the back of his neck. He’d fallen asleep in the chair beside Maisie’s cot. He couldn’t have been out long, but he was sore.

He glanced back at Doc, who had spoken, and then at Maisie. She was still on the table, unconscious. Her chest rose and fell peacefully. Doc had knocked her out after the first extraction, and she hadn’t woken up yet.

“I was trying to be quiet,” Doc said. She grabbed the bloody instruments from the table and put them in her bucket. “She should be up soon. She’ll be groggy, but should be good to go within an hour of waking.”

He glanced down at Maisie’s watch. Nearly seven a.m. Twenty-four hours to make it to the gate. And find the shipment.

He took a breath and tried not to think too hard about it.

“I saw you on the news,” Doc said.

He stood, walking to her. “You guys have American news in the north?”

“Not officially, but a lot of us watch it anyway. More than the south, I think?” She looked at him for confirmation.

“I don’t really know, I was barely there,” he said, even though he thought she was right. He didn’t want to spill information about the south if he wasn’t supposed to. If there was one thing he’d learned being a politician’s kid, it was to always say as little as possible, as nicely as possible.