“So,” he said.
“Now what?”
“Now I am in a very great rush. But I will let you know.”
“I thought … I’m not going back to your house now?”
“Soon. Another time. Busy day and all.”
“But—I’m ready now.”
“Yes. I thought you would grow a bit more eager. Camp life doesn’t agree with you? No, I didn’t think so.” He took up the handle of his case. “I’ll soon call for you.”
Nora understood: he was making her wait on purpose. Prolonging her agony as payback for not immediately falling into bed with him that day at his house. A dirty old man on a power trip.
“And please note for future reference that I am not a man to be kept waiting. I trust that is clear to you now. Carly?”
The assistant appeared in the open doorway. “Yes, Dr. Barnes?”
“Carly, I can’t find the ledger. Maybe you can search around and bring it by the house later.”
“Yes, Dr. Barnes.”
“Say, around nine thirty?”
Nora saw in assistant Carly’s face not the satisfied swagger she was anticipating but instead a hint of distaste.
They stepped out into the anteroom, whispering. Ridiculous, as if Nora were Barnes’s wife.
Nora took the opportunity to rush to Barnes’s desk, searching it for anything that might help her cause, any bit of information she was not supposed to see. But he had taken most everything with him. Sliding out the center drawer, she saw a computer-generated map of the camp with each zone color-coded. Beyond the birthing area she had already visited, and in the same general direction as where she understood the “retirement” section of camp was established, was a zone named “Letting.” This zone contained a shaded area labeled “Sunshine.” Nora tried to rip up the map in order to take it with her, but it was glued to the bottom of the drawer. She scanned it again, quickly memorizing it, then shut the drawer just as Barnes returned.
Nora worked hard to mask the fury in her face, to regard him with a smile. “What about my mother? You promised me—”
“And if indeed you hold up your end of the bargain, I shall of course hold up mine. Scout’s honor.”
It was clear he wanted her to beg, which was something she simply could not bring herself to do.
“I want to know that she is safe.”
Barnes nodded, grinning a little. “You want to make demands, is what you want. I alone dictate the timing of this and everything else that occurs inside the walls of this camp.”
Nora nodded, but her mind was elsewhere now, her wrist already wriggling behind her back, pushing the shank forward.
“If your mother is to be processed, she will be. You have no say in the matter. They probably picked her up already and she is on her way to be cleaned up. Your life, however, is still a bargaining chip. Hope you cash it in.”
Now she had the shank in her hand. She gripped it.
“Is that understood?” he said.
“Understood,” she said through gritted teeth.
“You will need to come with a much more agreeable attitude when I do call for you, so please be ready. And smile.”
She wanted to fucking kill him where he stood.
From the outer office, his assistant’s panicked voice broke the mood. “Sir?”
Barnes stepped away before Nora could act, returning to the anteroom alone.