CHAPTER 22 — DEADLOCK
Morris and Michael joined Jane and Ciara after the girls’ conversation, and they all sat together in one of the recreation rooms. It was late at night and soon security guards would be asking them to return to their respective rooms. Morris had dimmed the lights to their lowest setting, and Jane was grateful for this. He sat next to her and, for the first few moments of their encounter, had gently rubbed his index finger over the wound on her cheek. Now she was leaning into his chest; he had his arm around her shoulder.
Jane knew they all felt the effect of the field more now, but they worked hard to keep up each other’s spirits. The four of them had discussed escaping, as she and Ciara had planned, but they felt too defeated. There was a terrible fear that seemed to bounce among them. This made it difficult for them to move from the sofas, let alone plan anything.
Jane felt comfortable next to Morris and relished the warmth that flowed from his body into hers. But she was frightened, too. As Ciara changed channels on the television, Jane saw something that would fundamentally alter the way they responded to their situation.
“Ciara, wait,” she said as a news channel flicked on. She saw an image of a burning building. The caption “Hong Kong attack” was passing below the image of the woman whose voice now permeated the room.
“This building—the site of a devastating terrorist attack—is believed to be one of the locations previously mentioned by the radical group Ethereal End and used to detain ethereals who are found to be a danger to society.” The image now filled the screen. There was a burning building surrounded by police cars and other emergency personnel.
“It is not known at this time what has happened to the facility’s occupants.” Then the anchorwoman began to report about something else as the screen cut away to a helicopter view of the high, drifting flames. Ciara muted the volume. The four of them exchanged terrified glances.
“Okay,” Morris said after a while. “Enough of this. We’re getting out of here.” Jane looked at him. She had one hand grasped to the hand he had draped over her shoulder. She held his hand tighter.