Mercury, Trapper, Linn and I sat in the cobwebbed office while a man crouched over my ankle working on the bracelet.
The air still carried the damp, still quality of a room that had been empty for a long time before tonight.
It started beeping.
The sound was small, insistent, and completely without mercy—a short electronic pulse that sat against the bone and announced itself to the room. He moved on to Trapper. The tools scraped softly against metal. Trapper's breathing continued under the work. The four of us sat in a loose line of chairs that had never been meant for this.
Bagins stood in the middle of the small room with three of his men and none of them said anything, so the only sounds in there were the beeping and the scrape of the man's tools.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Trapper's joined mine, half a second out of time with it, and the two of them started fighting each other for rhythm.
