All of the sudden it struck Hamilton Holt. Why hadn't he thought of this earlier? He remembered how he had bent the bars in order to free Sinead's wrist. If he could get Reagan and Madison to help him, they could escape by slipping through the bars of the cell window. He had to find a way to tell the Cahills without letting the Vespers in on his plan. He couldn't just walk up to the others and say "Hey guys! Guess what, I have a plan to get us out of here!" He had to think of a way, and soon. He looked at the way Sinead walked and could tell that she was in more pain then she was letting them in on. Her cheek cuts had sealed but her side wounds still bled. He didn't want to notice but her face was turning paler each day.
"Hamilton? Earth to Hamilton!" Madison's shouts struck him back to reality.
"What?"
"I shouted your name about three times before you answered. Do you have any idea what we can do to pass the time?"
"No clue."
"Real helpful."
"I know, right?" He flashed her a smile.
They sat there for about ten minutes before he thought of a way to tell the others about his plan.
"Remember that game where we pass the message along and see how it sounds in the end?"
The Cahill's nodded yes.
"You want to play that to help the time go by?"
"Sure."
"Why not."
"Fine," Was Natalie's response.
Hamilton leaned over and whispered in Madison's ear, "At twelve o'clock tonight, us Holts will bend those window bars and we'll escape. Pass the message, and say the cow says moo." As the message went around the circle, Hamilton noticed the shock on everyone's faces as they received the message. Once the message came to Reagan she said just what she was supposed to say:
"Row mays who?"
They all cracked up. After the laughter died down, the Cahill's just sat there and made small talk. The Kabra's talked about poisons, Madison and Reagan wrestled over who was the better athlete, the Starlings talked about ways to conceal weapons, Amy and Dan argued over what was cooler, Books or Ninjas , and Jonah just starred at the ceiling. After it got dark the other Cahill's went to sleep while Hamilton stayed up. At eleven thirty Hamilton woke the rest of the Cahill's up but told them to stay in bed and watch for the signal, all he would do for the signal was lift his hand above his head and pretend to be examining it. After thirty minutes, Hamilton waved his hand and they all bolted for the main room. After they got there, Hamilton, Madison, and Reagan started to bend the bars out toward the sides. They were surprised at how easily they bent. After about thirty seconds there was a hole big enough for them to squeeze through. Amy went first.
"It's not very high up, only about eight feet." She called up.
Next went Dan, Ian, Natalie, Reagan, Ted, Ned, Sinead, Jonah, Madison, and then he jumped through. He landed with a thud next to Amy. And then the realization set in. They were in the middle of the desert, without any supplies. Now he knew why the Vespers hadn't made the bars thicker, they knew that if the Cahill's had escaped they wouldn't make it out of the desert. And they had fallen for the trick.