UnBound - Neal Shusterman Page 0,75

flames.

12 • Kunal

The moment Colton slips into the hole, Kunal is grabbed from behind, pulled away from the tree, and thrown to the ground, pinned there by none other than the doctor himself.

“You evil, ungrateful little bastard! What have you done?”

There’s a gun in Kunal’s hand, but the doctor slams his hand against the ground until the gun falls free. He grapples, but the doctor pins both his hands to the hard earth. “I’ll have Sonthi unwind you alive bit by bit until there’s nothing left of you.”

“You forget something, doctor,” Kunal says. Then he smiles. And with a hand that used to be a foot, he plunges a knife deep into the doctor’s neck. Rodín barely has time to register his surprise before he dies.

With no time to lose now, Kunal pushes the doctor’s body off him and looks toward the tree. Sonthi has seen the hole and is running toward it—but he hasn’t seen Kunal. The man’s gun is raised, aiming at the hole. Kunal grabs his own gun and raises it too—but instead of aiming at Sonthi, he aims at the base of the tree.

Kunal fires the flare gun. It hits a large root, and the tree, which he drenched in gasoline an hour earlier, bursts into flames.

13 • Colton

He falls back down into the tunnel, his hair and eyebrows singed.

“What the hell?”

Kemo has just finished tying off the wound on Karissa’s leg. The light from the flaming hole flickers around them, illuminating a tunnel that heads into absolute darkness.

“Do we know where it goes?” Kemo ponders.

“Away from here,” Marisol says, wrapping all four of her arms around herself.

“I couldn’t save them,” Colton says, looking at the flaming hole in the tunnel roof. “Not Jenson, not Gamon, not Kunal.”

“No,” agrees Kemo. “But you saved us.”

Colton nods, knowing that it will have to be enough. He turns from the flames that have now begun to spill down the walls like lava and leads them through the tunnel into a darkness full of hope.

14 • Sonthi

The floodlights come on two minutes too late. They’re not needed anymore, because the tree blazes, lighting up the entire courtyard.

“In the morning I want proof that they burned down there!” Sonthi yells with a fury that could shake mountains. “I want to see their charred bodies!” The tree ignited quickly, and he suspects an accelerant. Perhaps it was some sort of plan the AWOLs had that went awry. If so they’ll be consumed in their own flames. He orders men to get fire hoses to douse the flaming tree. The AWOLs no longer matter. The top priority is putting out this goddam fire before the whole place goes up in flames.

That’s when that talking monkey Kunal comes up to him, tugging at his arm.

“Mr. Sonthi! Mr. Sonthi! They kill the doctor! They steal keys and kill the doctor!”

Sonthi grunts and looks over to where Kunal is pointing. There, on the ground, a dozen yards away, lies the doctor, with a knife protruding from his neck. What a mess this whole thing is. What a stinking mess. How could this have happened?

Then he studies Kunal, whose eyes are wild and panicked.

“What should I do? What should I do?”

And Sonthi laughs. In the midst of this miserable night, he laughs. “Take acting lessons,” he tells Kunal.

Kunal just looks at him, confused. That’s all right; let him wonder. Sonthi is no idiot. He knows the AWOLs didn’t kill the doctor. They had no reason to—their only goal was to escape. He wouldn’t be surprised if Kunal helped them, and then used their escape as the perfect cover for killing Rodín. He could blame the AWOLs, and no one would ever know the truth. Yes, the more he thinks about it, the more he realizes that’s the real play here. That’s exactly how it went down.

Sonthi supposes he could turn Kunal in. Punish him for it. But why? After all, he’s done Sonthi a favor. He’s managed to get rid of the doctor, leaving Sonthi in charge of the camp. If anything, he should be rewarded.

“What should I do, Mr. Sonthi?” Kunal asks again.

“Draw me a bath,” Sonthi says. “Draw me a bath in the doctor’s private suite.” Then he thinks for a moment and adds, “But first draw one for yourself.”

Kunal gives him that same confused look.

“Didn’t you hear me? You stink! Go take a bath in the doctor’s quarters. As long as you like. That’s an order.”

“Yes, Mr. Sonthi.”

Kunal hobbles off in that weird way