He was serious.
“Do you not trust us to get the job done without your reminder?”
“It isn’t a matter of trust. All my Escorts do their job because the alternative is far worse.”
Once again, I wondered why going to hell was that terrible.
Mr. Burns continued. “I’ve found that programming the bodies this way makes it easier for the Escorts. At least for their first few kills, and then they pretty much ignore the internal signals and complete the job on their own.”
“Why would feeling like I want to barf make my job easier?”
“Because instead of focusing on what you must do, you focus on feeling sick and making that feeling go away.”
He used it as a distraction. Almost as a trick.
“Have you always programmed the bodies?” I asked, already guessing the answer was no.
“When I first started out in the Escort business I did not. But there were too many Escorts failing and my losses were great. So I started this and now not nearly as many fail.”
“But some still do.”
“Yes.” He looked at me levelly. “Some fight their own bodies. Some end up warring against themselves. It’s such a shame because they will never ever win.” His voice held a note of warning and I knew it was for me.
Did he know I’d already failed to kill Piper twice?
“Well, now that I know that there isn’t anything wrong with my body, I can focus on my work.”
Mr. Burns smiled. “Wonderful! Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“No,” I said, turning back to pull open the front door. Snowflakes swirled inside and landed on my shoe.
“I’ll walk you out,” he said, motioning for me to wait. I watched as he grabbed a long black coat and put it on. Then he reached toward a bowl on a slim table against the wall. The bowl was filled with light-colored stones, just like the ones in his office.
“What are those?” I asked as he chose two and slid them into his pocket.
“Just a little token I like to give people I visit,” he replied and ushered me out the door.
We stepped out into the snow. The big white flakes fell steadily from the dark sky. Snow had a way of blanketing everything, making everything quiet. But tonight, even the heavy white flurry couldn’t silence everything.
“And Dex?” Mr. Burns said as we stepped onto the driveway and headed to our separate cars. I glanced over my shoulder. “Time’s a wasting.”
As I walked to my car, I could’ve sworn I heard the ticking of a clock.
Chapter Eighteen
“Found - come upon unexpectedly or after searching.”
Piper
Alarm clocks are evil and vile. They make constant noise, disrupting sleep and making it hard to stay buried under the covers away from the world.
I don’t know how many times I hit the snooze button, but I do know I didn’t become fully conscious until the shrill ringing of my phone finally had me throwing back my covers and searching for my bag. I didn’t really care who it was, but I wanted the ringing to stop.
“Hello?” I said in relief when I finally silenced the ring. I carried the phone back to my room and climbed back into bed, pulling the covers up over me.
“May I please speak with Piper McCall?” asked the woman on the other end.
“This is her,” I replied, trying to think up something evil to do to the telemarketer that would dare call this early.
