The Meeting Point by Tabitha Rayne

can just disguise you and walk out the front door.” When Deborah remembered her easy passage through the farm she was suddenly furious at Marcus. “In fact, why the hell haven’t you tried before now?” She spat the words at him ferociously.
    He matched her fury and held up his own wrist. “You think I haven’t tried?” He grabbed her hair and forced her to look at his arm. “Look at this.” He shook her head. “Look at it!”
    She looked. Two red lines made a path all the way down to the inside of his forearm, just above his wrist and stopped at a small, angry-looking scar. Deborah felt nauseous and ashamed that she hadn’t even noticed it. It looked painful, as if it hadn’t healed properly, and as she studied it more closely she could see two fine copper wires poking out at the edges.
    â€œWhat is it?” she asked quietly.
    Marcus released her hair and slumped back into his pillows. “They’re electrodes. They go all the way into my heart.”
    Deborah thought she was going to be sick. “When did they put them there?”
    â€œAfter my first escape.”
    â€œYou escaped?”
    â€œOnly over the wall. They found me pretty quickly and gave me a little gift to stop me from doing it again.”
    Deborah ran her fingertips over the wires and he winced. “Is it painful?”
    â€œOnly when I try and pick them out.” His fingers joined hers stroking the strange restraints.
    â€œWhat would happen if you succeeded?” She pinched the end of one of the wires and tried to tease it gently out.
    â€œIt would rupture an artery in my heart. I would bleed to death in seconds.”
    Deborah released her grip and jumped back from Marcus, horrified. Her body shook as she absorbed the terror of what she had nearly done.
    â€œBut how does that keep you in here?” She was sobbing now, trying to understand, trying to imagine his life.
    â€œThere’s a perimeter set up outside. If I cross it, the circuit completes, and boom .” He pulled his hands apart, spreading his fingers to mimic an explosion.
    Deborah fell forward into his lap and lay there sobbing. “How long ago did you try?”
    â€œIt wasn’t long after I was brought here. Well, a couple of months or so.”
    Deborah thought back to the early days in the prison when she had been given her own lab to study the toxins rampaging through the earth. She’d all but forgotten her days of being a scientist. She’d been a good one too. Until she’d realized her work had been a futile waste of time and effort. The government had only been interested in accelerating the destruction. Her work would have been used to aid the end of the world as they knew it. That was when she’d turned. That was when she’d been brought her first offender to rehabilitate.
    â€œWait, did anyone help you that first time?”
    Marcus suddenly looked very sad. “Yes, yes there was someone who helped me.” He sighed and his shoulders sagged. “Apart from not making it to freedom, that is my one regret. My assistant at the time risked everything to help me. I haven’t seen her since.”
    Deborah’s chest bubbled with nerves and excitement. “Was her name Katja?”
    Marcus leaned up and onto his knees. “Yes, how did you know?”
    â€œShe was at my prison.” Deborah didn’t want to get in too deep at the moment, so she kept it brief, quite sure he would be grateful, especially since she didn’t care to hear about everything he’d done over the past eight years.
    â€œDo you know what became of her?”
    â€œShe’s fine, Marcus.” Deborah watched as her words eased his burden of guilt. “She’s still here, I met her. She’s the one who gave me this pass.” She held up the bracelet once more.
    A shuffle at the door made the hairs rise on Deborah’s neck. Quick as she could, she threw