I pointed up at the sky. "Do you want another ride?"

"Uh, what did you ask?"

"Where is the backup drive for your laptop?"

"My bedroom desk."

"Which is your bedroom?"

"The one at the back of the house. On the ground floor."

I shot up into the air and, from on high, jumped back to New Prospect. I knew where her house was from the school records, but I had to walk three blocks to reach it. Her drapes were open enough to determine the room was empty. I took the backup drive and two thumb drives from the desk drawer, putting them with the computer at the cabin.

This time when I got back, she hadn't moved.

"Give me your phone."

"There's no signal," she said.

I jumped the interval between us and she fell back onto the gravel. I held out my hand.

She couldn't give it to me fast enough. The videos were not on it, not that I could find, but I did a full factory data reset, wiping everything off the phone.

"Why are you doing this?" She sounded like she was going to cry.

I flipped the phone back to her once the wipe was done.

"Feel a little nervous?" I asked.

"What did I do to you?"

"What did Tony do to you?"

She winced, but then said bitterly, "He did everything he wanted."

I shook my head. "And then he did everything you wanted. And you recorded it. That part I'm pretty sure he didn't want. Did Dakota and Grant?"

She sneered. "That was nothing! You wanted them jumped in, instead?"

I blinked. Jumped? "Jumped in?"

"Beat in. Initiated. Beat to a pulp to prove themselves."

Ah. "Are you saying they wanted into your gang?"

She looked away. "They wanted me. Same thing. And it was nothing like I had to put up with."

"Were you beat in?"

She spit on the ground. "They don't do that to girls. At least the little boys only had to do it with me. Not eight guys."

I felt like throwing up. I didn't want to feel any sympathy for her.

Eight guys?

She'd seduced Tony, Grant, and Dakota individually, an attractive older girl, taking them back to the clubhouse and giving them the run of her body. Sure, embarrassing if recorded, even a bit humiliating. Boys were supposed to be like that, right? She'd let them, even encouraged them, to do everything to her, and secretly recorded it.

Including the part at the end when she strapped on the dildo and did them in turn.

Don't get me wrong. It was consensual. Grant had been clear on that. She'd talked them into it. Experimentation with a sexy older woman. Yes, alcohol was involved. There was even a degree of enjoyment.

But she'd recorded it.

Boys think boys are supposed to do girls, not be done by them.

The blackmail videos had all been edited down to this last act, with Caffeine's face digitally obscured.

Tony's family was well to the right of religiously conservative. This was too much like gay sex. The threat of his family seeing it had been too much for Tony.

Eight guys?

I shuddered.

Caffeine licked her lips. "Are you going to kill me, too?"

For a second I'd forgotten about the blood. How hard I'd labored to make the earlier snatches resemble scenes from a slasher movie. Then I realized she thought I'd killed the rest.

"Why shouldn't I?"

She pulled the neck of her shirt down and lowered her eyes toward my crotch. "I'll do anything. I've done anything."

Eight guys.

I lifted my hand, jumped the gap between us, and slapped her.

She burst into sobs and I jumped all the way back to my room in the Yukon.

I looked down at my hand, then stumbled into the bathroom, clawing at the balaclava covering my mouth. I barely got it down before I vomited into the toilet.

THIRTY-ONE.

Millie: Seen Cent?

"Have you seen Cent?"

They were both sweating and underdressed for the cabin in winter. Millie had been in Haiti talking with NGOs and Davy had been watching the Stroller and Associates compound in Costa Rica.

Davy shook his head. "I stuck my head in her room this morning before I left and she was still asleep, but when I came back for a snack midmorning she wasn't here or at the house. Did you check the house?"

"Just came from there. No messages on my phone, either." She paused and licked her lips. "I tried to call her. It went straight to voice mail."

"So she's out of range."

"Or her phone is off. Is she with Joe?"

"No idea. Could you jump your phone back to the house and check your voice mail?"

He vanished and returned after a few moments.

"No messages." He said, his voice too neutral. "Should I leave a message on her voice mail asking her to check in?"

"Angry?" Millie asked.

He exhaled hard. "I just think she might let us know where she went or when she would be back."

Millie nodded. "It's okay, Davy. Those are reasonable expectations. You can be irritated."

"Ah." He smiled briefly. "Good."

"Let me talk to her about it, all right?"

He glared. "Afraid I'll lose my temper?"

She laughed at him. "Not impossible."

He mimed choking someone and she laughed some more.

"No word on Rama," he said, which wiped the smile off of Millie's face.

"Ah. Well, she promised not to go back there so you don't have to worry about that. It's not like she's facing those kinds of threats here."

Davy nodded. "I'm kind of getting desperate. Was thinking of hanging around the docks in Bhangura and letting them come after me."

"No! They tried to control you once and it was a disaster for them and they know you've been poking around again. Too much chance they'll just shoot you."

He protested. "I'm careful."

"They could put a sniper a half mile away. The sound of the shot would arrive seconds after the bullet."

"I told you that."

"Yes. You told me that so I would be careful! Tell you what, why don't you have Cent go hang out on the docks until they make a try for her?"

He looked away. "You're saying, I guess, that I shouldn't take risks that I wouldn't want you or her to take."

She touched her own nose with her forefinger.

He sighed. "So where is she?"

THIRTY-TWO.

"Spitting Image"

I hate vomiting. The taste is the worst thing, but after that, it's the burning irritation that persists in the throat long after you've managed to rinse the taste away.

I can't imagine how awful it was for Dad during his months of captivity, when they'd triggered his implant and he'd vomited out his guts over and over again.

Gargling helps but I could only do it for so long.

Caffeine was still where I'd left her, but now she'd put her coat back on. Her mascara made dark streaks down her cheeks. It was nowhere near as cold as New Prospect, but the temperature was dropping with the sun.

I didn't appear in front of her. I crunched across the gravel and she snapped her head around, eyes wide. I didn't really want to talk to her anymore, but I had one more thing to say.

"I can just leave you here. You might make it out alive."

She clenched her teeth. I could see her jaw muscles bulge.

"Or we could just end it, now."

Her eyes widened even further, whites showing.

I walked closer, increasing my pace as she scrambled back, trying to get up, to get away. I grabbed her coat near her throat and jumped back to the garage clubhouse. She screamed at the transition, and I let her go. She fell back onto the carpet in front of the couches.

"Stop with the drugs at the high school. No more blackmail. You run across any more copies of those videos, you delete them." I took an abrupt step closer to her. "Do that and you won't see me again. Be good-"

I jumped behind her and whispered in her ear, "-or else."

She screamed and recoiled, but this time I was really gone.

I returned Marius, Hector, and Calvin to the clubhouse an hour later. Grab and release. Hector and Calvin I left staggering away across the carpet, inside. Marius I dropped off the edge of the roof into a small drift of snow on the alley side of the garage.