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Jack was steady, calm. His gaze never left hers as he waited and he even nodded to reassure her. With or without the mask, his face would betray nothing…
Where was Booker? What had Jack sent him to get?
Elizabeth refined an inscrutable expression in her work with Suchong. That was the difference between doctor and subject in the lab. But she felt her shoulders tense and eyes widen, if only somewhat, as she wrapped her arm around his. “Where did he go? If he’s in danger, I have to know.”
“I can’t lie to you.” Jack looked straight ahead, watching the crowd. Perhaps for someone or to avoid looking at her. “He is.”
She tightened her jaw and her grip on his arm. Slowly, gently, he rested his hand on hers and squeezed. The guitar practice formed calluses on his fingertips… Elizabeth opened her eyes without realizing she’d closed them for a few seconds too long.
Of course Booker went wherever Jack asked. How many hours had they spent together over the past few months?
“Take me to him,” she meant to command when it came out imploring.
“I will. You are the only one actually allowed there, after all.” He stopped between an empty table and the dance floor. “I suppose I would be too.”
A flash of a wince, and he looked away to lead her out of the restaurant.
“What? Where are we–”
“You know where,” he reminded her. Not one person moved to stop them, perhaps thinking they were young lovers overcome with alcohol.
A thought like that, now of all times?
Elizabeth scoffed at herself, keeping pace with Jack. The crowd and music faded behind them in the halls of the Welcome Center… Until the music mixed with screaming and gunfire, and he stopped.
“Fontaine.” His voice was somewhere near a breath and a hiss, and his calm air disappeared. Jack took in a sharp breath, looked to Elizabeth, away, and back again. “The labs. Go find him.”
And Jack ran back towards the Kashmir, stopping only to get a gun from one of Sullivan’s men… He was already dead, blood soaking a dark pool on his suit and the plush carpet.
The crossbow was just as she concealed it beside the restaurant entrance, waiting.
What do you want to do, Elizabeth?
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