Page 43 of Everything Under the Sun

“No,” was all he said without looking up, and he continued to scan the text of another notebook.

“But—”

“No.” His head snapped around; he set the notebook down. “My job is to keep you safe until my superior returns. That means safe from all things, primarily rape, consensual sex with soldiers like your ex-roommate, and, of course, murder. So, you’re going to stay in this room, with me, whether you like it or not. What did she say to you when she was here?”

The question caught me off-guard.

“She didn’t say anything.”

I was unconfident now in my lies, too, and I got the feeling that Atticus knew it. My demeanor probably didn’t help, either: the way I couldn’t look him in the eyes for more than a second, the way my fingers fidgeted nervously in front of me—I wasn’t this uncomfortable last night when I watched a man get stabbed to death. Sure, I had been frightened and shaken up, but this was a different kind of fear—I was hiding something, and I was afraid that he knew it.

Atticus turned back to his desk.

“Well, what’s going to stop me from leaving this room on my own?” I said boldly, and yet, timidly. I rounded my chin with as much defiance as I could muster.

“Looks like you can’t lock the door from the outside,” I pointed out, “or you would’ve locked me inside here when you left.”

“You won’t go anywhere.” He didn’t look up from the paper, and his voice was uninterested.

“I won’t?” My chin reared back.

“No. You won’t.”

“What on earth would make you think that?” I found his apathetic attitude toward something I thought quite a serious matter, maddening—Did he think me weak and stupid?

“I can slip out of here anytime I want.” I didn’t really believe that.

“You could,” he said, looking at me again, “but you won’t”—he held up an index finger—“you won’t because you know you’re safer in this room than anywhere else, and you won’t risk running without your sister. And since you have no idea where to look for her, you’re going to bide your time in this room while you try to figure out a way to find her, rescue her, and then leave the city without getting caught.” He dropped his hand on top of the desk and shook his head. “But let me save you the trouble of going through all that shit just to end up back here”—he tapped the tip of his index finger against the wood—“right where you started, except with ropes around your wrists and ankles to make another attempt more difficult.”

He turned back to his notebook and slid a hand in-between the pages.

“Besides, if I really wanted to lock you in here, and I thought you were stupid enough to try running, I could easily do so by moving the thousand-pound safe in the room next door, over in front of the door—it does open into the hall, you know.”

I bit down on the inside of my mouth and frowned. What an infuriating smartass!

“Then tell me that my sister is okay.” I stepped up closer to him. “Look, I won’t run, I won’t do anything stupid, but I need to hear someone say that Sosie is all right. I’m begging you—”

“I don’t know anything about your sister,” he said, looking me dead in the eyes. “I don’t know, and I don’t care, and neither should you.”

I threw my hands up beside me. “How can you say that?! What if that was your sister—sir?!” I spit out the formality as if it was something revolting in my mouth. “Or don’t you care? If that was your sister or your mother, you’d just send them packing to the closest whorehouse and—”

The desk jolted, and Atticus’ chair skidded across the floor as he shot into a frightening, towering stand. His eyes churned with what seemed like anger and punishment and…pain?

I shrank backward and away from him.

“Forget about your sister, Thais,” he said, and the sound of my name on his lips quietly stunned me. “Both of you can live long lives and be free like everyone else in this city if you just accept the way things are…”—he calmed, and slid slowly back into the chair—“…the way things have to be.”

I said nothing.

“You’ll be fine when the Overseer returns,” he added, going back to the previous discussion. “No one will dare touch you when he’s made you his.”

“But I don’t want to be his!” I cried into my hands. “Why are you forcing me into this?”

“It’s the way things have to be.”

“But why!”

“BECAUSE THE WORLD IS CHANGED!” he roared, sucking the oxygen out of the room; I jumped at his booming voice.

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