Page 35 - SAMPLE Running Out of Time

“False.”
“I don’t like carrots.”
“Not true,” I say. “How else do you see so well in the
dark?”
He grunts. “My favourite film is Inception.”
“True,” I say. “But I’m sure you’d like Moana if you
only gave it a chance.”
He looks up sharply and for a moment I wonder if I
have gone too far. But then he smiles and keeps going. Statement after statement, like a game where he’s desperate for me to fail, but I never get one wrong. Eventually he runs out of things to say and halts. I start to speak but he holds up a hand to stop me.
“I once shot a man,” he says.
The question shocks me but I try not to show it. I concentrate again, sitting completely still, not knowing if I want to know the answer. I am locked in place.
“True.”
He nods slowly, then sighs and leans back in the chair.
“Here or at home?” I ask.
“Why does that matter?” he asks, but then he relents. “It wasn’t here,” he says. “And now I can never
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