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“The fish,” Orsay whispered urgently. “Do you have it with you?”
Bug drew a Ziploc bag out of the pocket of his hoodie. Inside was white, crumbly, smashed-up fish. Orsay lunged for it, tore the packet open with trembling fingers, and ate it like an animal, sticking her mouth into the bag.
She didn’t stop until she had turned the bag inside out and licked the plastic clean. “Do you have any more?” she begged.
“First, you do your thing. Then we go back to town and talk.”
“We’re doing this for the Perdido Beach kids?” Orsay asked.
Bug snorted. “We’re doing this for whoever gives us the best offer. Right now, Sam’s guys have some fish. So we’re with them. But if Drake gets hold of us, somehow, we’ve been on his side all along. Right?”
“I’m too weak to walk a long way,” Orsay said.
“We only have to get as far as the highway. A guy will be there with a car.”
THIRTY-FOUR
06 HOURS, 3 MINUTES
EDILIO DROVE THE creepy little mutant, Bug, and the girl he’d brought along with him. He wasn’t happy about having to do this. Mostly he wanted to stay in town. Nightfall could bring trouble. And Sam…well, Sam wasn’t acting like Sam.
Sam had looked like a zombie listening to Quinn and Albert’s confession last night.
And then, this morning, Bug told his story. It was every kind of bad news rolled into one shamefaced confession after another, and Sam had just stared. Fortunately Astrid had stepped up.
Sam, Edilio, Brianna, Taylor, Quinn, Albert, Astrid—the seven of them in Astrid’s living room, listening as Bug alternately groveled and whined.
Then, Astrid read Lana’s letter.
Sam:
I’m going to try to kill the Darkness. I’d explain what that means, but I don’t even know. I only know that it’s the scariest thing you can imagine. I guess that’s not too helpful.
I had no choice. It had its hooks in me, Sam. It was in my head. It’s been calling to me for days. It needs me for something, I don’t know what. But whatever it is, I can’t let it happen.
Hopefully I’ll be fine. If not, take care of Patrick. Cookie, too.
—Lana
“I knew she was having some problems,” Quinn said, sounding guilty. “I didn’t know about this, though. I mean…it’s like Lana used me and Albert so she could get back out to the desert.”
“That would be putting a convenient spin on your own sneakiness, Quinn,” Astrid had snapped.
“She brought up the gold to me,” Albert said thoughtfully, not at all intimidated by Astrid’s anger. “It was a good suggestion. So I jumped at it. But it came from her, originally. Maybe what we need to think about is whether Lana is working with this creature.”
“No,” Quinn said.
Everyone waited for him to explain. He shrugged and repeated, “No.” And then he added, “I don’t think so.”
“We need Lana,” Sam said, finally breaking his gloomy silence. “It almost doesn’t matter if she’s helping this thing. Friend or enemy, we need Lana.”
“Agreed,” Albert said, as though the conversation were one between him and Sam, like it was just the two of them debating what to do. For a guy who had been caught breaking various rules, Albert didn’t seem too worried.
But then he wouldn’t, would he? Edilio reflected. He had food. Food was power now. Even Astrid wasn’t really going after Albert, although she obviously didn’t like him much.
“We need to know what this creature is,” Albert said.
Sam looked at Bug, who had been ordered to remain visible. “What’s this Orsay girl’s thing?”
