“Are you okay?” Daniel asks, touching her back when she leans forward.

She nods. “This alley comes out on another street,” she says, gesturing forward. “We’re at the end of the neighborhood.” She stands up and looks at Daniel, her eyes wide. “There’s nowhere else to go.”

“We can . . .”

“No, Danny. There’s nowhere else. We’re stuck. What are we going to do? Hide forever? Never stop running? They’re not going to stop.”

“Lynell, take a breath. We’ll figure something out.”

“How?”

Daniel looks around and wipes sweat off his forehead. “We’ll try to get in touch with Zach. He helped me save you once. Maybe he’ll do it again.”

Lynell frowns. She wants to argue, remembering the Registration, kidnapping, and waterboarding. But then she thinks of Zach’s despair at her situation. Zach kidnapped her but kept her safe from the other brutes. He tortured her, but far more gently than Reggie. He took her to Eric Elysian’s house, but he also helped her get out. And then it dawns on her.

“Danny . . .” she whispers. “He could be dead.” The words punch her with an overwhelming sense of loss. “Even if he survived the shoot-out, his father may have killed him because he helped me.”

“Maybe.” Daniel glances back and Lynell can tell he’s only doing it so he doesn’t have to look her in the eyes. “Maybe not. And if he’s alive, he may be our only chance.”

“How are we supposed to get in touch with him?”

“Same way I did the first time.” He holds up his wrist to show her a thin black watch she hadn’t paid much attention to. But as she looks at it, she notices it’s the same watch Zach wore and checked every few minutes when he first took her. The one that constantly flashed different colors. Daniel smirks as he tilts the watch so it’s facing him.

“What? Your watch?” Lynell asks.

He nods, his tongue peeking out between his teeth as he taps on the watch until the face shines. “Zach has the brother watch. He got them for us a year ago before we, uh . . .” Daniel chuckles and the sound makes Lynell roll her eyes. “We were messing with some friends. The watches will flash certain colors based on a code we came up with. I tap here.” He turns so Lynell can see his finger clicking the screen above the number seven. “And his watch face will flash red. Basically, it means ‘emergency, abort.’ But, coupled with a tap above the twelve, which will make his watch turn off completely, it means ‘emergency, meet me now.’ Or, ‘call me.’” He taps the two numbers while explaining it.

“We don’t have our phones.”

“It’s okay. If he can, he’ll get me another message through the watch,” Daniel says, staring at it as he speaks.

A horn honks in the distance, and they both jump. Lynell rushes up the concrete alley and pushes herself against the closest fence.