truth now. It has been decided. I never had a partner and he's not somewhere out on this island hurt. Or dead. Or locked up in Ward C or the lighthouse. I never had a partner. You want to repeat that after me, just so we're clear? I never had a partner. Come on. Try it."
Trey looked up. "You never had a partner."
Teddy said, "And you don't work for the warden."
Trey clasped his hands on his knees. He looked at Teddy and Teddy could see that this was eating him. His eyes grew moist and the flesh along his chin trembled.
"You need to get out of here," he whispered.
"I'm aware of that."
"No." Trey shook his head several times. "You don't have any idea what's really going on here. Forget what you heard. Forget what you think you know. They going to get to you. And there ain't no coming back from what they going to do to you. No coming back no how." "Tell me," Teddy said, but Trey was shaking his head again. "Tell me what's going on here."
"I can't do that. I can't. Look at me." Trey's eyebrows rose and his eyes widened. "I. Cannot. Do. That. You on your own. And I wouldn't be waiting on no ferry."
Teddy chuckled. "I can't even get out of this compound, never mind off this island. And even if I could, my partner is - " "Forget your partner," Trey hissed. "He gone. You got it? He ain't coming back, man. You gotta git. You gotta watch out for yourself and only yourself."
"Trey," Teddy said, "I'm locked in."
Trey stood and went to the window, looked out into the dark or at his own reflection, Teddy couldn't tell which.
"You can't ever come back. You can't ever tell no one I told you anything."
Teddy waited.
Trey looked back over his shoulder at him. "We agreed?"
"Agreed," Teddy said.
"Ferry be here tomorrow at ten. Leave for Boston at eleven sharp. A man was to stow away on that boat, he might just make it across the harbor. Otherwise, a man would have to wait two or three more days and a fishing trawler, name of Betsy Ross, she pull up real close to the southern coast, drop a few things off the side." He looked back at Teddy. "Kinda things men ain't supposed to have on this island. Now she don't come all the way in. No, sir. So a man'd have to swim his way out to her." ;
"I can't do three fucking days on this island," Teddy said. "I don't know the terrain. The warden and his men damn sure do, though. They'll find me."
Trey didn't say anything for a while.
"Then it's the ferry," he said eventually.
"It's the ferry. But how do I get out of the compound?"
"Shit," Trey said. "You might not buy this, but it is your lucky day. Storm fucked up everything, particularly the electrical systems. Now we repaired most of the wires on the wail. Most of them." Teddy said, "Which sections didn't you get to?"
"The southwest corner. Those two are dead, right where the wall meets in. a ninety-degree angle. The rest of them will fry you like chicken, so don't slip and reach out and grab one. Hear?" "I hear."
Trey nodded to his reflection. "I'd suggest you git. Time's wasting."
Teddy stood. "Chuck," he said.
Trey scowled. "There is no Chuck. All right? Never was. You get back to the world, you talk about Chuck all you like. But here? The man never happened."
IT OCCURRED TO Teddy as he faced the southwest corner of the wall that Trey could be lying. If Teddy put a hand to those wires, got a good grip, and they were live, they'd find his body in the morning at the foot of the wail, as black as last month's steak. Problem solved. Trey gets employee of the year, maybe a nice gold watch. He searched around until he found a long twig, and then he turned to a section of wire to the right of the corner. He took a running jump at the wall, got his foot on it, and leapt up. He slapped the twig down on the wire and the wire spit out a burst of flame and the twig caught fire. Teddy came back to earth and looked at the wood in his hand. The flame went out, but the'wood smoldered.
He tried it again, this time on the wire over the right side of the corner.