ming wi

stood in the middle of the flat with her arms folded and her chin up, and t

N

l me every lead. Th

lub. This is a loading y

inside a truck." She set the knife down.

clock, then at the three locks on the door, then at her. Last night she had thrown

efore you ask why. You don't touch a gun. If I sa

in

like you

" Sophie said, "and I d

of bolt cutters and a black jacket three sizes too big. "Wear this. You look like a

t turned the night to a yellow glare. Trucks parked in a row along the loading bays. A man with a rifle

e white container. That's where they'll keep them. I walk in through the front, tell the guards Victor sent me to check the cargo,

d t

cutters. "Eleven minutes. If I'm not at the gap in eleven minutes, you take whoever you'v

id that th

fourth." He alm

f the car and

ditch along the road. Two sheds, three guards, one dog she could hear but not see. It was the strangest thi

s the yard, Jackie's voice rose in a friendly, bored drawl that had no business sounding so natural. She heard the guard laugh. She crept past a stack of crates marked Aure

and a padlock. She set the cutters on the steel, braced her feet, and squeezed with all her s

She heaved the bolt back

ed up to chests, then faces turning toward the light. Six girls huddled on the steel floor in cheap dresses, wr

spered. "I'm getting you out

nother, her hands shaking so badly she nearly slipped. The last girl was sm

nder her breath. "A girl with braids. A

ered so hard she could barely speak. "Th

. Nine. Beto had said eleven. T

did i

The girl's eyes were huge as she whispered back.

ploded acro

s pounded on gravel. A man shouted, and then another, and Sop

un

x shapes stumbling across the gravel in the glare. A bullet cracked off the container behind her.

ress and swore in a voice that made Sophie want to laugh and cry at once. A guard came around the corner of t

red and fell, and the rifle went of

uckles and a torn sleeve. He hauled her to her feet with one arm and shoved

was

our idea o

ned fro

ge ditch to the road, where a battered white delivery van sat with its engine running and its b

am a delivery service, and I do no

ckie said, alm

lf why." Beto yanked the wheel around a pothole.

Sophie clung to a strap with a stranger's head on her shoulder as the depot's ligh

o sob, and another put an arm around her, and Sophie sat with her back a

s. They had not saved t

ide her, breathing

She looked up at him, her eyes burning wi

er, and that wa

t last moment before the road bent and swallowed it, Sophie saw a figure standing

e looked, he raised one hand in a slow, almost friendly

ackie went co

hat?" she

hat had stopped being steady. "Some