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“Then drive to headquarters.”

“And leave you here alone. Again.”

“Or take me with you.”

“On a road somebody’s been watching with a rifle.”

We look at each other. I can see him hating the answer. I can also see that he’s going to give it anyway.

“Tomorrow,” he says. “When I can see the road.”

“You said something like that yesterday.”

He doesn’t lie. “Yes.”

“You could have called him from the repeater. Through somebody. Anybody.”

“Yes.”

He doesn’t say anything else. He doesn’t make an excuse. He just stands there with the cow between us and lets the word sit. He knows what he’s doing. He’s doing it anyway. He isn’t going to pretend otherwise to my face.

It’s the most honest thing anyone has ever done to me. I hate that it matters.

He walks me back to the room. At the door, before he can close it, I put my hand flat on the frame.

“I’m not eating another tray on the floor of this room,” I say. “If I’m a prisoner, I want a better cell. Dinner in the kitchen. Tonight. You can lock every outside door in the building, since that’s apparently what you can’t live without.”

He looks at my hand on the frame.

“Yes,” he says.

“And you still owe me a question.”

“You asked about the repeater.”

“That was information. This one’s mine.” I take my hand off the frame. “I’ll ask it at dinner.”

He knocks on the open door. He says my name. He tells me it’s three-oh-six, and that he’s locking it because the order hasn’t changed.

I sit on the bed in his shirt and listen to the key turn, and decide exactly what I’m going to ask him.

Chapter 6

Cole

Ilock the front door, the back door, and the radio room before I unlock hers.

Seven-thirty. The sun is down behind the brush and the kitchen window has gone the color of weak tea. I’ve set two plates on the table, two forks, a pan of eggs and chorizo from the camp freezer, tortillas warmed in foil on the burner. Nothing fancy. Nothing that could be mistaken for anything but food.

I knock. I say her name. I tell her it’s seven thirty-one.

“And why?” she says through the door.

“Because you asked for a better cell.”

A pause. I think she might laugh. She doesn’t. The lock turns under my hand and I step back into the hall.

She comes out still wearing my shirt.