the concentration of an omnivore targeting its prey.
“They got you, too.”
For a moment Josh had no idea what Jeff was talking about, but then it came to him — the cane field!
The car parked at the mouth of the dirt road, which shot into the field as he’d come out.
And the other car — the one with flashing blue lights that he’d been sure was a police car, but which hadn’t turned around to chase him as he’d sped down into the valley, ignoring the speed limit in his race to escape the fire in the cane field.
The fire to which he’d abandoned Jeff Kina.
“I–I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I shouldn’t have—” He hesitated, then: “I shouldn’t have left you there.”
“You mean you shouldn’t have run away,” Jeff growled. Once again his body tensed, his thick muscles knotting under his skin, and Josh braced himself for the attack.
Jeff Kina was at least six inches taller than he was, and nearly twice as heavy, but until now Josh had never felt even slightly threatened by Jeff.
Now he could almost feel Jeff struggling to keep himself under control. “What did they do?” he whispered, making no effort to mask the terror he was feeling. “Where are we? What did they do to us?”
For another terrible moment Josh watched the conflict that was raging inside Jeff. Finally, slowly, Jeff’s big body relaxed again.
“We’re gonna die,” he said. “Just like Kioki, man. We’re just gonna die.”
“Why?” Josh demanded. “What happened?”
Jeff shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything, and there’s no one to ask.”
As Jeff watched, Josh began prowling along the sides of the Plexiglas enclosure, examining every inch of it, touching every surface he could reach, searching for a way out. Again and again. Around and around. Like a rat in a maze, Josh kept moving, circling the perimeter of their prison.
For maybe an hour.
Maybe two.
Maybe more.
For a long time Josh had felt Jeff’s eyes on him, watching his every move. At first he made sure he didn’t turn his back on the other boy. But as the minutes dragged by and Jeff remained motionless on the floor, Josh focused more of his attention on the Plexiglas prison and less on Jeff Kina.
Finally, Jeff crept back onto his cot and fell asleep.
Yet Josh could still feel eyes watching him, and he’d moved his focus from the confines of the enclosure to the room outside.
He’d seen the cameras then.
Four of them, all pointing toward the box, watching every move he made, from every angle.
There was nowhere to hide, nowhere to escape from the all-seeing lenses.
After a while Josh, too, had fallen asleep, but suddenly come wide-awake, coiling his body tight in an instant, then springing away from the cot and whirling around, crouched low to the ground.
Jeff Kina was poised over his cot. “It’s all right,” he said. “I wasn’t gonna hurt you, man.”
From then on they’d been like two caged animals, warily watching each other, sleeping only fitfully, slinking around the perimeter of their prison when they weren’t stretched on the floor or the cots, dozing.
Twice, a man clad in white entered the room, put food in the air lock of the seamless Plexiglas box, and left, without uttering a word.
Eventually, hunger overcame them, and they ate.
Then, a while ago — Josh had no way of knowing exactly how long it had been — someone tried to turn the knob on the door to the room beyond their Plexiglas prison.
This time, though, the door didn’t open and the white-clad man with food didn’t appear. Josh realized what the brief movement of the doorknob meant — someone who had no key was trying to get in.
“Help!” he shouted. “Help us!” But even as he yelled the plea, he had the feeling that whoever was outside the room couldn’t hear him, that the Plexiglas and the walls of the room beyond composed a soundproof barrier. If they didn’t want them to see outside, or to know where they were, or even what time it was, surely they wouldn’t allow them to be heard, either.
Still, he’d tried again.
“Please!” he called out. “Please let us out!”
The knob had wiggled one more time, but that had been it.
Whoever was out there had gone away.
Since then, Josh had been slumped on the floor, staring at the door, waiting.
Something, he sensed, was about to happen, although nothing in the room had changed; the light was as glaring and shadowless as ever, the walls as featureless, the haze inside the box the grimy brown that he’d become so accustomed to that he barely noticed it anymore. He knew that Jeff Kina could sense the tension, too.
Like him, Jeff was on the floor, his back against one of the walls, his legs drawn up so his knees were pressed against his chest.
His eyes, like Josh’s, were watching the door.
Time slowed; silence hung over the room.
Josh’s eyes never wavered from the door.
When the knob moved — barely a fraction of an inch at first — Josh noticed it immediately. Shifting into a crouch, he felt the muscles in his body tense and the heat of adrenaline stream through his body.
The doorknob turned, the latch clicked, and the door swung open.
Two men came in, neither of them the white-clad attendant who brought them their food.
One of the men was a haole, the other Japanese — the same two men who had appeared outside the cage a few hours ago.
Both were dressed in suits, and though Josh had never seen the Japanese before, there was an aura of power about him that told him who the man was, now that his mind was clear enough to think.
Takeo Yoshihara.
Josh’s eyes narrowed and his muscles tightened even more.
“Are they dangerous, Dr. Jameson?” he heard Yoshihara say. Even through the heavy panel of Plexiglas, he could hear no nervousness in the man’s voice, only casual interest.
“It doesn’t appear so,” Stephen Jameson replied. “They both seem nervous and wary, but except for this morning, neither of them has shown any true signs of aggression. It’s more as though some of their senses have been heightened.”
“Interesting,” Takeo Yoshihara mused. He circled the box, and Josh’s eyes followed him, his body turning as he tracked the man’s path. “Very interesting,” Yoshihara remarked when he’d completed his circle. “I saw a tiger in a cage in India a year ago. He watched me with the same intensity.” He smiled, but there was no warmth in it. “I suspect he wished to eat me.” His eyes fixed on Josh. “I wish we had more time to do psychological studies,” he went on. “But perhaps the researchers will be able to learn as much from the dissection. Instruct them to pay particularly close attention to the brain structures.”
As the words penetrated his mind, Josh felt a shiver jolt through him. His whole body began to shake.
No! He must have heard wrong!
But then he caught sight of Jeff Kina, and knew he’d heard perfectly. A look of fury contorted Jeff’s face, and his muscles had corded into tight knots. A howl of rage erupted out of Jeff Kina’s throat, and he hurled himself at the Plexiglas with enough force to make the entire structure shake. Collapsing to the floor, his nose bleeding from the impact against the plastic wall, Jeff lay still for only a second before gathering himself and hurling himself again against the transparent barrier.
“No!” Josh yelled as a gout of blood erupted from Jeff’s mouth. “Jeff, don’t!”
Jeff, too caught up in his rage even to hear Josh, crashed to the floor once more, only to attack the wall a third time. His fingers, stiffening into claws, raked across the surface of the Plexiglas, but barely left a mark. An eerie screech of frustration bubbling from his throat, he kicked at the wall with his bare feet, his howl ascending to a shriek of pain as the agony of his smashed toes crashed through his rage.
“Stop it!” Josh yelled, throwing himself on Jeff, trying to pin him to the floor.
