The far door clicked open as she approached it. We exited into another concrete tunnel. Took a right and passed several unmarked doors before Malia stopped beside one on the left. She opened it and we entered a spacious hospital room with a couple of sitting chairs, a wall of cabinets, a monitoring station on wheels with an IV stand, and a reclining bed where Cassie was currently sleeping, bathed in soft light from a bedside lamp.

Her head was wrapped in a dressing that ended just above her bruised eyes. Right forearm enclosed in a soft cast. Her dress had been removed and she was now wearing a paisley gown. Spots of rust-colored blood dotted the fabric under her left ear.

I stopped by the bed and listened to her breathing. Slow and shallow. Likely sedated. I turned to Malia. “What the hell happened?”

“She.…” Malia was still dazed. She struggled to recall some elusive word. “Resisted.”

“Resisted? It looks like she got her ass kicked.”

Malia touched the tender swelling on her own face with her fingertips. “She tried breaking through the glass barrier. That’s how she fractured her arm. The injury to her head occurred when we were trying to subdue her. For her own protection, as much as our own. It took several men to restrain her. She bit two of them, gouged out an eye, and ripped off half an ear. Your wife got the better of the exchange, I can assure you.”

I looked at her sleeping peacefully. Wondered what nightmares were running through her mind. Looks like we’d had our fight after all. And this is where it got us.

“She’ll never leave without Rox,” I said.

“No,” Malia said. “She won’t.”

“So where does that leave us? What the fuck do you all want?”

The beep of the monitoring machine was like a metronome. A bag of saline, sedative, or poison dripped from a clear bag into a vein in Cassie’s arm.

“Sacrifice,” Malia said.

I felt like crying. I was physically and emotionally spent. What more could they want from me? My life? Fine, take it. I may still be drawing breath, but I quit living years ago. Eternal sleep sounded like a vacation.

“Just say it, and I’ll do it. Whatever it is. Just tell me what I need to do to get them out of here.”

“You go this route, there’s no going back,” Malia said.

I turned. “What option do I have? What the hell do I have to bargain with? I’m fighting shadows. I’ve fallen behind every move. I just want it to end, okay? I just want it to be over.”

Malia approached me, leaned, and whispered into my ear. “Please don’t give up,” she said. “Never quit fighting.”