第61章

  only i'm not supposed to talk right now. i can't even thank boggs when he comes to check on me. to look me over and tell me he's seen a lot worse injuries among the soldiers when they teach choke holds in training.
  it was boggs who knocked out peeta with one blow before any permanent damage could be done. i know haymitch would have come to my defense if he hadn't been utterly unprepared. to catch both haymitch and myself off guard is a rare thing. but we have been so consumed with saving peeta, so tortured by having him in the capitol's hands, that the elation at having him back blinded us. if i'd had a private reunion with peeta, he would have killed me. now that he's deranged.
  no, not deranged, i remind myself. hijacked. that's the word i heard pass between plutarch and haymitch as i was wheeled past them in the hallway. hijacked. i don't know what it means.
  prim, who appeared moments after the attack and has stayed as close to me as possible ever since, spreads another blanket over me. "i think they'll take the collar off soon, katniss. you won't be so cold then." my mother, who's been assisting in a complicated surgery, has still not been informed of peeta's assault. prim takes one of my hands, which is clutched in a fist, and massages it until it opens and blood begins to flow through my fingers again. she's starting on the second fist when the doctors show up, remove the collar, and give me a shot of something for pain and swelling. i lie, as instructed, with my head still, not aggravating the injuries to my neck.
  plutarch, haymitch, and beetee have been waiting in the hall for the doctors to give them clearance to see me. i don't know if they've told gale, but since he's not here, i assume they haven't. plutarch ushers the doctors out and tries to order prim to go as well, but she says, "no. if you force me to leave, i'll go directly to surgery and tell my mother everything that's happened. and i warn you, she doesn't think much of a gamemaker calling the shots on katniss's life. especially when you've taken such poor care of her."
  plutarch looks offended, but haymitch chuckles. "i'd let it go, plutarch," he says. prim stays.
  "so, katniss, peeta's condition has come as a shock to all of us," says plutarch. "we couldn't help but notice his deterioration in the last two interviews. obviously, he'd been abused, and we put his psychological state down to that. now we believe something more was going on. that the capitol has been subjecting him to a rather uncommon technique known as hijacking. beetee?"
  "i'm sorry," beetee says, "but i can't tell you all the specifics of it, katniss. the capitol's very secretive about this form of torture, and i believe the results are inconsistent. this we do know. it's a type of fear conditioning. the term hijack comes from an old english word that means 'to capture,' or even better, 'seize.' we believe it was chosen because the technique involves the use of tracker jacker venom, and the jack suggested hijack. you were stung in your first hunger games, so unlike most of us, you have firsthand knowledge of the effects of the venom."
  terror. hallucinations. nightmarish visions of losing those i love. because the venom targets the part of the brain that houses fear.
  "i'm sure you remember how frightening it was. did you also suffer mental confusion in the aftermath?" asks beetee. "a sense of being unable to judge what was true and what was false?