I closed my eyes and once again forced shaking fingers toward my pocket. The knife was still there. Relief surged.
"Answer the questions," Forman said, in that same dispassionate voice, "and the electrocution will stop."
I groaned in response and curled into a tight ball, my knees drawn up close to my chest. With my hands once again hidden, I slowly wrapped my fingers around the knife and drew it from the sheath.
"Risa," he said, an edge of sympathy in his voice. "I really have no desire to cause you such pain. All you have to do is answer my questions."
I slipped the knife from my pocket then flipped it back along my forearm so that it was hidden from view as I moved my arm down toward my curled-up legs.
"The book," I said, forcing my eyes open to watch for any indication that he realized what I was up to. Though what I would do if he did realize, I had no idea. I wasn’t exactly in an ideal position right now. "It’s on the gray fields."
He tsked. "That is most unfortunate, as neither I nor my employer has access to those fields."
His employer. Not Harlen, then; otherwise he would have simply said it. That was a name I already knew. Although maybe he simply thought I was fishing and was just being careful.
I flicked the knife around and caught the wire in the notch at the top of the blade. Slowly, carefully, I began to bend it back and forth.
"That," I said, my whole arm shaking with the effort to break the wire, "is not my problem."
"But I’m afraid it is," he said, "because it means you’ll just have to fetch it for us."
Not on your fucking life. The wire snapped, and I quickly squeezed my calves together, stopping it from snaking away. If he flicked that switch now, I was still a goner, but that was a risk I had to take.
I sheathed the knife then reached down and caught the end of the wire, holding it gingerly.
Now what?
I glanced over to the silhouetted figure. I had to get up and over there fast. Really fast—because God knew what other traps he had waiting for me.