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  “You couldn’t hear him?” I gave her a sideways look. “He’s pretty loud.”

  Sing shook her head. “The buzz from that light’s too noisy.”

  “His name’s Crandyke. I don’t get many souls as talkative as he is. Most are too scared.” I refocused on my cloak. “Got any more information on this Owl?”

  “Not really, but I’m sure she’ll tighten the screws, if you know what I mean.”

  “You mean punish Molly’s family.” I crept to the front of Colm’s house, Sing following, and leaned over the edge of the roof. At the entry steps, the door opened, and Alex’s voice rose from below.

  “Pack one small suitcase for each member of your family. The bus will come for you soon, so get ready quickly. And don’t try to escape. I already have someone watching your house.”

  “Bus?” Sing whispered.

  “A camp bus. She’s sending them to corrections.” I heaved a sigh. “I guess I don’t have any choice. I shouldn’t have left them alone with her in the first place.” I snapped the spool from my belt and handed Sing the weighted end of the line. “If you’ll anchor this to your belt, I’ll drop down and—”

  “No.” Sing grabbed my arm. “You can’t.”

  I looked again at the steps below. Alex appeared, slowly descending.

  “Colm and Fiona are too old for the camp,” I hissed. “They’d never survive.”

  “I know.” Her whisper took on an imploring tone. “You can’t give in to threats. They’ll just keep threatening you every time they want you to do something. You’ll end up like a robot who’ll do whatever the Gatekeeper asks. As long as you stay a district hound, you’ll have freedom.”

  “Freedom?” I looked at the dark sky. “The only freedom is beyond the Gateway.”

  “Those are the Gatekeeper’s words. You already sound like a robot. Hypnotized to the max.”

  I arched my brow. “And you sound like one of those Gateway deniers. Conspiracy nuts.”

  “I’m not one of them. I’m a Reaper, for crying out loud.” She tightened her grip on my arm. “Listen. The family is her leverage against you. She’s not going to hurt them, at least not for a while. Don’t make a rash decision. You have some time to figure out what to do.”

  As Alex walked toward a motorcycle parked at the curb, I caught a glimpse of the gold key in her hand. Sing was right. I couldn’t let them control me with bribes and blackmail. “Every option kind of stinks, doesn’t it?”

  Sing nodded. “Like rotten eggs.”

  “Or maybe…” I snatched the gun from Sing’s belt. She lurched for it, but I jerked it out of reach. “This might work.”

  “What are you going to do?” Her face blazed with alarm. “You can’t kill her. You know what happens to a Reaper if—”

  “Don’t lecture me on Reaper laws.” I gestured toward the center of the roof. “You’d better get out of sight.”

  Sing backpedaled slowly, worry lines in her brow. Apparently she had never seen a sonic gun before, not having attended the executions. She didn’t know I couldn’t do any harm from this distance.

  When Sing moved safely away, I slid to the roof’s edge. Alex straddled the motorcycle and shook her hair back, getting ready to put her helmet on. I held the gun high and shouted, “Alex! I found it!”

  When she looked up, I tossed the gun to the sidewalk. With a loud clatter, it settled close to her boots. “I think I’ll stay up here awhile, you know, go for a relaxing stroll across the rooftops.”

  Alex stared at me long and hard. “And what of my proposition?”

  “I told you I need more time. Three seconds isn’t enough. Give me twenty-four hours.”

  She put the helmet on. Blonde locks flowed around the edges. “Molly’s family members were charged with medicine trafficking, and they are going to the corrections camp. They will be safe there for twenty-four hours. After that, there are no guarantees.”

  “If I decide to accept your offer, how will I find you?”

  “No need. I will find you before your time runs out.”

  I pushed back my cloak and set my hands on my weapons belt. “Just remember, I could have stopped you from reporting this family.”

  “You have more confidence in your abilities than you should.” Alex picked up the gun and slid it into her holster. “Still, I will keep your restraint in mind. Just stay away from the family for now, and when we meet again, we can discuss their future.” She steered the motorcycle into the street and zoomed away with barely a sound.

  I followed her progress until she disappeared around a corner. An electric motorcycle. That explained her quiet arrival.

  As I backed toward Sing, I mentally repeated Alex’s words. She would keep my restraint in mind, and it seemed like Colm and family would be safe for now. “At least maybe we bought some time.”

  “I wouldn’t trust a word she says.” Sing shuddered. “She’s as morbid as death.”

  “I know what you mean.” I studied Sing’s disgusted expression. She had saved Molly’s family and had given me an excuse to vanish, but she had a lot of questions to answer. “So what brought you to Colm’s window?”

  “While I was out hunting down a death alarm, a DEO stopped me and told me he found a body, some guy named Brennan.”

  I winced. Molly’s death messenger. “Bandits?”

  “Looks like it. They stripped everything but his shorts and his photo stick.” She shrugged. “I guess even bandits aren’t cruel enough to take his passage key.”

  “Did you reap his soul?”

  Sing nodded. “An easy one. His age, I suppose. He’s the oldest I’ve ever reaped.”

  “Where was he? I didn’t feel two alarms.”

  “A little ways inside my district. That’s probably why I got the alarm instead of you.” She lifted the hem of her shimmering cloak. “Anyway, his soul put me close to quota, so I was hoping to go to the executions and then to the Gateway with you. I knew you were at Molly’s house. I didn’t want to interrupt your reaping, so I waited outside.”

  “The DEO who stopped you. Was it Alex?”

  Sing shook her head. “It was Judas. Why?”

  “I was wondering how Alex knew to come to Molly’s house.” I looked toward the street again. “Maybe Judas followed you here and contacted Alex.”

  “Impossible. He recorded Brennan’s death and left to get a corpse unit. Then he was going off duty. If he had followed me, we would’ve heard his bike.”

  “That’s true.” I looked down at the roof, imagining the family weeping as they packed their suitcases. They lost Molly, and now they faced extermination, all because of a coughed-up pill I neglected to recover. If only Alex had caught me with the bottle instead of Colm.

  I kept my stare locked downward. What had Sing witnessed? Did she see me with the bottle before Colm took it? If she knew I was a medicine dealer, what would she do with that information? “I suppose you saw what got Molly’s family in trouble, didn’t you?”

  “The pill bottle?” She nodded. “Sure. I saw it.”

  I looked her in the eye. “Do you know the penalty if a Reaper uses medicine to keep someone from dying?”

  “Death, of course.” She tilted her head. “Why do you ask?”

  “To make sure you understand how important this family is to me.”

  “Don’t worry. I get it. I saw you try to take the blame. You risked a lot.”

  I hid a sigh of relief. She must have shown up at the window too late to see me with the meds. “I guess I’d better get these souls to the Gateway. That’ll give me time to think.”

  “How long is the train ride?”

  “A couple of hours if I catch the high-speed. I can be back by noon.”

  Sing grasped my forearm. “Take me with you. We’ll brainstorm. And I can help you rescue Colm’s family. I know some people.”

  “What people?”

  “Just…” She averted her eyes. “Just some people who can help Colm.”

  “And you’ll
call for their help if I take you to the Gateway.” I nodded. “I get it. A little leverage of your own. I scratch your back, and you’ll scratch mine.”

  “If that’s what it takes.” She pressed her fingernails into my back and scratched through the layers until a delicious shiver ran up my spine. “Phoenix…” Her voice lowered to a sultry purr. “Have you been alone so long that you can’t… well… make a new friend? Haven’t I already proven that I want to help you?”

  The shiver transformed into heat prickles. I gazed into her sincere eyes. I couldn’t deny the truth in her words. “You’re right.” I stepped away from her massage. “But I can’t take you to the Gateway while you’re still short of quota. You’ll get demoted to roamer.”

  “Like I said, let’s go to the executions together. I need to learn.” She closed the gap and began scratching my back again. “Friends teach friends, right?”

  I twisted away from her touch. “Friends don’t seduce friends.”

  “Seduce? I was just—”

  “Never mind.” I pulled out my watch and flipped open the lid—quarter past eleven. We would have to hurry. Sing gave my watch a curious glance but stayed quiet.

  “We’ll go to the executions,” I said, “but I have one stop to make first. I promised to help Mex reap a level two.”

  “Mex?” She blinked at me. “I don’t think I’ve met him.”

  “Best to stay away from him. He’s a roamer.”

  “I’m not scared of roamers.” Sing looked past me. “Where’s the level two?”

  I gestured with my head. “Back at our alley. You ran right past her when you left your apartment.”

  “Oh. Her.” Sing ran her shoe over a tar-covered pebble. “She looked way too entrenched for me to reap.”

  “I guessed that. With the umbrella and suitcase, she was probably so confused—”

  “We have a lot to do”—Sing pulled my sleeve—“we’d better hustle.”

  “Okay, okay.”

  She jerked me into a quick jog parallel to the street. We ran from house to house, leaping over the gaps between the low parapets dividing the dwellings. As the light behind us diminished, the obstacles became harder to see, forcing us to slow our pace. Yet, it was better traveling without help from the flashlight. No use signaling our presence with a beacon.

  As we continued, heat rose from the roof’s tacky surface, making the air even more stifling on this sultry night. Wearing a cloak with a long-sleeved tunic underneath added to the discomfort, but at least Crandyke wasn’t complaining.

  A half moon veiled by hazy vapor hovered over the skyline and provided a new frame of light around Sing—a flowing silhouette of cloak and curls running at my side. The daring rescue and her willingness to accept an unorthodox Reaper like me meant a lot. We would probably get along fine.

  Yet, not everything made sense. Showing up at exactly the right time seemed too coincidental. And that speech about freedom and being a robot? Rehearsed. Her acting skills nearly glossed it over but not enough to quell suspicion. It would be best to keep her in sight, at least until after she called for help from her people, whoever they were.

  Still, she could get in a lot of trouble hanging around me—a medical black-market trader who was trying to, as the Gatekeeper’s Council often put it, “Interrupt the natural order of death and reaping.” If she stuck around, she would eventually learn the truth and maybe get entangled in the danger.

  I focused straight ahead. I would probably learn soon enough. The road to the Gateway might very well prove Sing’s alliances.

  Chapter Four

  When Sing and I approached the alley leading to our apartments, the ghost came into view, still standing at the curb with an umbrella over her head. Paul, our regular night-duty DEO, leaned against a nearby brick building, his motorcycle parked on the sidewalk.

  With a computer tablet in hand, he scribbled notes with a stylus, his ample biceps flexing with the motion. His leather jacket lay across the motorcycle’s handlebars, a reasonable sight considering the warm weather, but Paul would use any excuse to show off his muscles and his shoulder holster. These officers were among the few who could afford the time to indulge in frequent exercise.

  I glanced around. No sign of Mex. Maybe he had already come and gone. We didn’t talk about how long he should wait.

  As we drew near, Paul looked up at me with an annoyed expression. “It’s about time one of you got here. I put the word out about this ghost half an hour ago. I knocked on your door but no answer.” He nodded at Sing. “Yours, too.”

  “We were busy.” I whipped my cloak around, displaying its shimmer. “I had another reaping. You know how some nights are.”

  “Better than you.” He glanced at his tablet. “Who took care of reporting it? There’s no record.”

  “Alex. I didn’t see a tablet, so she’s probably doing it manually.”

  “Alex?” His eyes took on a sudden, fearful aspect. “Okay. That’s cool.”

  “Do you know her?”

  “Never mind. We have work to do.” He pushed away from the wall and pointed at the ghost with his stylus. “Miriam Cruz, married to a Hispanic guy named Robert. They were killed in a traffic accident a couple of weeks ago. A roamer picked up Robert’s soul at the crash scene, but we couldn’t find Miriam… until now.”

  I walked in a slow orbit around Miriam and scanned her from head to toe. She seemed not to notice. The level twos were always unpredictable. “Two weeks is plenty of time to get entrenched.”

  “Definitely getting rooted,” Paul said. “She’s visible now, but she keeps fading in and out. I recorded her as a two point three. Since she’s on the border between the districts, I don’t care which one of you picks her up. Just get her off the street.”

  With hands on hips, Sing stood directly in front of the woman. “Why isn’t she reacting to us?”

  “Because she’s loony!” Paul laughed and leaned against the wall again. “Phoenix, you gonna let the little darkie mutt earn her rookie wings?”

  “Darkie mutt?” I shot him a warning glare. “Listen, jerk. You do your job, and we’ll do ours.”

  Paul stalked toward me, his fists tight. “Okay, tough guy, that’ll cost you.”

  I stood my ground. “It’s two against one. Between Sing and me, we could put you six feet under.”

  “I’m not talking about fighting, you idiot.” He reached for my cloak. “You’re just paying a penalty so I don’t put a mark on your perfect record.”

  I dodged his hand. “I don’t have anything.”

  “If Alex was with you, the family must have been important enough to pay you pretty well.”

  “Shows how little you know.”

  He lunged and grabbed my cloak. Before I could twist away, he dug a hand into a pocket and jerked out the police scanner. As he backed away, he looked it over, smiling. “Pretty nice!”

  I exhaled. At least he didn’t find the syringe. I straightened my cloak with a hard tug. “Satisfied?”

  “Not until you learn a little respect.” He pushed me to the wall and wrapped his fingers around my throat. As he pressed me against the bricks, he squeezed, not enough to cut off my air supply but enough to let me know he could. “You’re the collector. I’m the enforcer. You report to me. And I can call your mongrel friend anything I want. Understand?”

  I glanced at Sing. She crept toward us with both fists clenched. I gestured with a hand for her to stand down. Although together we could handle Paul in a fight, we would lose in the long run.

  Sing backed away. She likely understood that Paul’s show of force was more for her benefit than for mine—the dominant ape letting the newcomer know who was boss. I squeaked out, “I understand.”

  “Good.” Paul released his grip and nodded at the ghost. “Get to work.”

  I walked slowly toward Miriam. Could the night get any worse? No use trying to guide Sing through reaping this ghost now. I just wanted to do the job and get far away from this maniacal DEO.
I could always transfer a soul to her after we got out of his sight. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to give Sing verbal coaching while I worked.

  “Okay,” I said to Sing, “first I’ll address this ghost directly. Then I’ll use my acting skills to gain her confidence.” I turned toward Miriam and spoke with a loud voice. “A fair evening, isn’t it?”

  She jumped back, startled. “Oh! I’m sorry. I was lost in thought.” She looked up at her umbrella. “Actually, the weather is terrible. You must be getting soaked in this dreadful downpour.”

  “Indeed.” I ducked my head, pretending to blink at the rain. “Is there room for me under there? My cloak isn’t faring well. I think the rain’s fallout content is pretty high today.”

  She glanced around, her glowing eyes brimming with fright. “I suppose we can share.” She raised the umbrella higher. “But rest assured that my husband will be along at any moment. I expect you to continue acting like a gentleman.”

  “Have no fear about that.” I edged underneath the umbrella and spread my cloak over her shoulder. “In fact, I will protect you until he arrives.”

  “Well, how kind of you.” Smiling, she nestled close against my side. “You are very much like my husband.”

  I turned to Sing. Her mouth hung partially open. “This ghost is really just barely a level two,” I said, “maybe two point one at the most. Higher levels are far more aware of reality, and they pay more attention to conversations that aren’t directed toward them. She’s probably oblivious to what I’m saying to you now, but ghosts like her are emotionally needy, and that allowed me to gain her trust.”

  “I can see that.” Sing leaned to the side as if studying from a different angle. “What next?”

  “We’ll need photos for her Gateway passage.” I nodded at Sing’s belt. “I see you brought your camera.”

  When Sing reached for her belt, Paul called out, “The police got her photo stick at the crash scene, and they already sent it to the Gateway. But just in case it didn’t get there, I took some pictures of her and saved them to a stick. Got some good shots. The Gateway guardians will be satisfied.”

  “That’ll work.” I looked at Sing again. “Now the hard part. You already know how much energy it takes to transform your hand. I have to transform as much of my body as possible and blend into her realm.”