Dead Six

quickly. There will be no second chance.”

I was so shocked that I almost said thank-you.

“And as your immediate supervisor, I need to warn you. Big Eddie is concerned that you are not showing proper motivation. Motivation is very important, Mr. Lorenzo.” His voice was urgent. “Fear and pain, these are good motivators, but loss . . . loss is the finest of them all. Please don’t make me have to motivate you further. If I do not get a favorable report from you on the eleventh, I will be forced to use extreme motivation. Do you understand me, Mr. Lorenzo?”

“I hear you.” Psycho. “Just get me the location and I’ll handle the rest.”

“I like pancakes.” Then he hung up.

What the hell? Carl was looking at me strangely. My face must have betrayed my confusion. “The Fat Man’s going to give us Dead Six next week.”

My burly companion was actually shocked. “That’s like a miracle.”

“And he said he likes pancakes.”

“Huh?”

My phone buzzed again a moment later. I had received a video message. There was no sound. It was the Fat Man, the bloated monstrosity, wearing a giant white suit, almost filling my phone’s screen. His bulk was squeezed impossibly into a restaurant booth, plate after empty plate stacked before him. He was shoveling pancakes into his mouth like some sort of industrial harvesting machine, barely pausing to breathe. He made a show of seeing the camera, stopped mid-mouthful, and made a big fake smile. His dark, empty eyes didn’t smile with his mouth. His face was stained with whipped cream and syrup. The lettering on the window behind him was backward, but read IHOP.

The camera angle changed, moving over his shoulder, and sitting at the table directly behind him were my mother and my younger sister, Jenny, still in her uniform, probably taking a break from work, having an animated conversation, oblivious to the sociopath stuffing himself a few feet away. The camera panned back to the Fat Man, and he waved at me.

The son of a bitch was in Texas, personally keeping tabs on my mom.

Is it still considered a miracle if it comes from the devil?

VALENTINE

Fort Saradia National Historical Site

May 4

1205

Sarah was anxiously waiting for me in her room when I returned. My trip outside the compound had taken longer than I’d expected. The real trick had been convincing the guys at the motor pool to not log that Tailor and I took one of the vehicles for two hours. That hadn’t been a problem, either. Things were getting bad enough that few of us that were still alive gave a crap about the rules anymore.

Sarah opened the door quickly when I knocked, and kissed me as I stepped inside. “I was worried,” she said. The situation in the Zoob had been steadily deteriorating, and our shootout with that Lorenzo guy at the Hasa Market hadn’t helped. It was getting difficult for us to move around the city quickly, as we had to spend a lot of time going around checkpoints.

“Sorry it took so long,” I said. “Traffic. We had to go way the hell out of our way to avoid being stopped.”

“I know,” Sarah replied. “I’m just glad you’re back. How did it go?”

“We’re on,” I said. I retrieved a piece of paper from my pocket. “She’ll be here soon. She wants us to meet her in person. If she’s satisfied that we’re legit, she’ll arrange to pick us up shortly after that.”

“Wow,” Sarah said. “Wait, she wants to meet all four of us? In person?”

“I’m afraid so. We’re going to have to find a way to get you, me, Hudson, and Tailor out in town, together, without raising any suspicions.”

“Shit,” Sarah said. “I could talk to the other controllers. They could cover for us.”

“Can you trust them?”

Sarah’s expression sank. “I don’t know. I can’t believe we’re just going to leave them. I mean, Anita is my friend.”

I put my arms on Sarah’s shoulders and looked down into her eyes. “Listen to me. I know this is hard. I don’t like the idea of leaving Byrne, Frank, Cromwell, or Holbrook behind, either. I’ve been through a lot of shit with those guys. But it took a lot of doing just to get the four of us out. The more people I try to bring in, the greater the risk of compromise.”

“I know, I know,” Sarah said, sounding exasperated. “I get it. We need to be secretive about this, otherwise your friends will get pissed and leave us.”

“I’m not worried about that,” I said. “Sarah, if Ling thinks I’m screwing with her she’ll have us all killed. These are dangerous people.”

“I don’t like it.”

“I don’t like it, either,” I said honestly. “But it’s the best I could do. Look . . . if you’re having second thoughts, we don’t have to go. Tailor and Hudson can go by themselves.”

“Mike, you don’t have—”

I interrupted her. “Yes I do, damn it. If you stay I’m staying. I’m not leaving without you.”

Sarah’s eyes widened slightly as what I’d just said sunk in. She shook her head slightly and gently put a hand on my cheek. “You’re so stupid,” she said. She then leaned in and kissed me, deeply and for a long time.

“What do you mean, ‘stupid’?” I asked. We leaned in close together, so that my forehead was touching hers. I looked down into her eyes.

Sarah smiled. “I mean you say ridiculously sweet things like that and you’re not being ironic. You’re completely sincere, and you have no clue how rare that is. You’re like a character in a bad romance novel.”

“Well, it’s your own fault, you know. You jumped me, remember?”

“I know,” Sarah said. “Crazytown, remember? I warned you.”

“You did. But listen,” I said, seriousness edging back into my voice, “I’m asking you. Please, leave with me. This whole thing is going to hell in a ham sandwich. We have to get out while the getting’s good. So let’s go! Run away together.”

“Go where?” Sarah asked. “I mean, really, Mike, where can we go?”

“Anywhere we want,” I said, trying to sound more confident than I really was. “We can travel the world for a while until this whole thing blows over. I don’t think Project Heartbreaker is going to be around much longer. This country is falling apart. After things calm down, we can go home.”

“Can I at least leave a note for my friends, warning them to get out?”

“Why not? They’ll assume we bugged out on them anyway. It’s not like I was planning to fake our deaths or anything. Tailor will be pissed, though.”

“Fuck him,” Sarah said dismissively. “He’s the one that got you into this mess, isn’t he? If he gives you any shit, I’ll break his stupid face.” She smiled again, and a surge of triumphant relief washed over me. I knew she was hesitant to just disappear and leave the others behind. I’d been terrified that she’d want to stay behind.

“I have something for you,” Sarah said. She handed me a brown envelope. It contained all of my personal identification documents, including my passport, that had been taken from me before we left the States.

“How did you get these?” I asked.

“I have access to the safe,” she said, eyes twinkling mischievously. “It’s not like anyone goes in and checks to make sure your papers are still there.”

I shook my head slightly. “You’re amazing, you know that?”

“So tell me,” Sarah said after a moment. “Who is this Ling woman? You haven’t exactly been forthcoming about your history with her. Is she like an ex-girlfriend or something? You need to tell me the whole story.”

Sarah was right. I owed her that much. I had avoided talking about Mexico the entire time I’d been in Zubara.