The hush of the cell had ceased to be a shroud of despair but an underwater cable, humming with the pulse of two silent clocks: one running down to a Riverside epidemic, the other to the collapse of all that Reuben had built. He had spent the hours in between in a hyper-concentrated stillness, conserving his energy, his mind shuddering through and discarding a hundred futile plans. The guard who presented him to his repulsive dinner had stared straight through him, a wall in uniform.
The system, it seemed, was sealed off.
As the wan yellow of the single bulb began to feel like a torture instrument, another sound was heard along the corridor, not the heavy, rhythmic tread of the regular guards, but a quicker, lighter, and slightly nervous step. His door creaked open with a clank on the lo
