Gone (Gone 1)

“Give us female.”

“No,” Drake said, recovering quickly from the shock. “She’s mine. I need her to heal my arm. She has the power and I want my arm back.”

“You are nothing,” the coyote snarled.

“I’m the kid with the gun,” Drake said.

The two of them, two of a kind, it seemed to Howard, stared holes in each other.

“What do you want with her?” Drake demanded.

“Darkness say: bring female.”

“Darkness? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Give us female,” Pack Leader said, returning to his single-minded point. “Or we kill all.”

“I’ll kill plenty of you.”

“You die,” Pack Leader said stubbornly.

Howard felt it was time to speak up. “Guys. Guys. We have a standoff here. So why don’t we see if we can figure out an arrangement?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Okay, look, Drake, you said something about the female healing your arm?”

“She has the power. I want my arm back.”

“And Mr., um…coyote…you’re supposed to take her to some other dog called Darkness?”

Pack Leader eyed Howard in a way that suggested he was considering how to butcher and eat him.

“Okay,” Howard said shakily. “I think we can work a deal.”

THIRTY-EIGHT

74 HOURS, 10 MINUTES

“ASTRID,” EDILIO SAID. “I’m so sorry about your house.”

Astrid squeezed Edilio’s hand. “Yeah. I have to admit, it was hard for me to see.”

“You could stay over at the firehouse with me and Sam and Quinn,” Edilio offered.

“It’s okay. Petey and I are going to room with Mother Mary and Brother John for a while. They’re hardly ever home. And when they are, well, you know, it’s good to have people around.”

The three of them, Edilio, Astrid, and Little Pete, were in the office that had once belonged to the mayor of Perdido Beach and most recently had been occupied by Caine Soren. Sam had resisted the idea of taking the office, feeling it made him seem self-important. But Astrid had argued that symbols were important and kids wanted to think that someone was in charge.

She settled Little Pete into a chair and handed him a Baggie full of Rice Chex. Little Pete liked to eat them plain, no milk.

“Where’s Sam?” Astrid asked. “And why are we here?”

Edilio looked uncomfortable. “We have something to show you.”

Sam opened the door. He did not smile at Astrid. He looked warily at Little Pete. He said hello, then, “Astrid, there’s something you need to see. And I’m thinking Little Pete shouldn’t see.”

“I don’t understand.”