He closes off with a brusque nod, then turns and knocks for the guard to let him out before he can change his mind.

Stare at the door. Stare at the door. Stare at the door.

Stare at the door and don't turn around.

Stare at the door until it opens and walk out again, shaking hands buried in pockets to muffle the anxiety, and Daniel can't stop wetting his lips nervously as the door clangs shut behind him, terrified that someone will call attention to him, convinced that someone's suspected something.

But everything remains dismal and gray and silent, and no one accuses him.

Daniel hopes Seth can arrange a way to respond and that he can get back to him quicker than before and that the thousands of things that could go wrong don't, and he should not have redirected his worry to Murphy's Law because now it's in full effect, it's been invoked, he's certain of it.

Breathe. Everything's been going fine - as fine as things can go anyway, their circumstances considered. Seth will respond. The message is simple, a patchwork of underlined letters that spell out quite clearly:

"escape attempt

what went wrong?

I'll fix it"