"Be good, Eddie. I expect to find you exactly as I leave you."

Kessler stood by the door of the basement room, adjusting the silver cufflinks on his crisp white shirt. He looked like a man prepared for a board meeting or a weekend at a country club, not a jailer leaving his prisoner.

For the last two days, he had been relentless in his "experiments." He had treated Edward like a piece of equipment that needed tuning, spraying that awful powder into his face and watching with a scientist’s ...