Sanctuary

35

THE EMOTIONS THAT raged through Danny as he lay on the table in deep meditation brought not a shred of reason with them. If not for years of training in the bloodied fields of battle he would have reacted to the warden’s words as any man might. He would have thrown himself against the restraints on his arms and screamed in a futile attempt to free himself.

But when he learned that the warden had been manipulating Renee all along and had led her to Basal to break him by abusing her, he reacted as only a man with so much training might.

He did nothing.

Rash movement would get them both killed. Nothing prudent could be done without thought. The only problem was, his mind wasn’t immediately capable of clear thought. It was fractured by a week of horror and two days of torture, and now it was frozen by a kind of rage and bitterness he didn’t know existed.

He didn’t thrash pointlessly against his restraints. He lay shaking with rage, trying to grasp at some kind of meaning.

Like demonic drones, the warden’s words whispered through his mind. She’s been put through the ringer, they said, and Danny tried to think of what Pape meant when he said ringer. And then he tried not to because the thoughts were too ugly.

She was led here, the words said, and Danny tried to think of how that could be. Led how? Under what threat? What terror had drawn her?

Maybe she can fill Peter’s shoes, he’d said.

The rage that came with those words shut his mind down again.

He tried to move, he really did, but he wasn’t thinking right.

Maybe she can fill Peter’s shoes, the warden had said.

For the first time in two days, Danny’s mind was merciful to him and shut down completely. His world faded to black and his shaking stopped.