Finding Home - 3

She sat crosslegged on the edge of the concrete slope that went to the river. Moments passed in silence as her mind raced with thoughts. Suddenly she jumped as he knelt at her side.

"I know you're processing a lot right now but I have to go," Sadier said.

"Where?" she replied surprised.

"I'm beyond sorry," he apologized. "I can put you in a safe place until I get back. Hopefully, I will be back soon."

"Where are you going?" she asked again.

"To help someone," he replied.

"I don’t understand,” Priscilla questioned. “I'm in shock right now trying to make sense of all this and you’re going to run off?"

"It's my sister!" Sadier retorted.

"Saymi?" Priscilla responded after a pause.

"It's been 9 months and I still haven't seen her," Sadier replied rising. "She's been in a secure laboratory camp that they call the inferno. It has been very hard for us to penetrate."

"All this time you haven't even seen her?" Priscilla reiterated.

"I will tonight," Sadier replied poking at his wrist radio automatically. "A few days ago she was taken temporarily to a less secure camp. This is the chance we've been waiting for, but in the next few hours as she is being bussed back to the inferno, our window of opportunity will expire. So it's time to move fast," he said opening the passenger door to a low riding supercar.

"Where did that come from?"

"You can fabricate lots of things with these radios," Saider explained casually. "Hop in. I'll drop you off at a safe place on my way to the camp."

Priscilla felt Sadier's urgency as he floored the accelerator and began cutting from road to road.

"It's my fault you're not getting to her sooner," Priscilla realized out loud.

"I was never going to leave you until you put things together," Saider replied. "Even if that meant missing this opportunity."

"So when I met you in the prison, you hadn't really been there for months, right?" she asked.

"No I had," he confirmed.

"So you somehow anticipated that I would end up there?" she asked.

"Yeah, there's a lot you can predict if you study closely," he replied. "When I realized that you would wind up in that camp I allowed myself to be captured by their traveling guards so they would take me inside. I started studying the prison so I could get you out as painlessly as possible when you arrived. I didn’t anticipate the reaction that kept you from recognizing me but I guess we figured out how to work with it."

She smiled feeling touched. "You definitely asked me some questions you already knew the answer to.”

"Yeah, I guess I wanted to know how well you were moving on from my death," he replied.

She was silent.

"Was that unfair?" he replied.

"Maybe a little," she admitted.

"I'm sorry," he said. "It was difficult for me when you didn't recognize me."

"I guess it probably was," she conceded. "I had been thinking my sleep was awfully strange the last couple of days," she said letting the previous topic go. "None of this has sunken in yet. It’s all so surreal. I'm going along with it because what else is there to do, but I feel like I'm going to wake up from a dream any second and be back at the academy missing you."

"Even after 9 months, it's still surreal for me," he said. "But you will learn to love this place like you can't even imagine. It pains me deeply to leave you right now, but I'm going to drop you off with a good friend who lives in an underground house right up ahead. You'll be safe with her until I return, which to be upfront with you could either be tonight or it could be days or weeks from now if things go poorly. And when I return, I may or may not be with Saymi. But I'll keep in touch with you over the radio. If I go silent you'll know things have gone poorly. Whatever happens, Ali will take good care of you," Sadier said, beginning to slow the car.

"I want to go with you," Priscilla said abruptly.

"Priscilla, the place I'm going tonight is far more intense than anything you’ve seen," Sadier said bringing the car to a stop.

"Will I slow you down?" she asked.

"Probably," Sadier said. "I've had months to learn the game that is played here."

"Alright, I don't want to be a hindrance," Priscilla said opening the door.

"Wait!" Sadier interjected. "What the heck. I want you with me. I just didn't want to give you more than you can handle, but if you're absolutely positive you want to come..."

In response, Priscilla shut the passenger door and turned to him with a look that said “why aren’t you flooring the car?”