blue-white, as on some northern sled dogs, and looked nearly luminous in the half shadows.
He lifted his eyebrows as I came closer, then rose and bowed politely from the waist. I realized that he wasn’t seven feet tall. He was more like seven foot four or five.
“Good evening,” he said. His basso rumble was unmistakable. This was the person I had spoken to earlier.
I stopped in front of him and put a hand on my hip, eyeing him as if I wasn’t much impressed. “As long as you brought the money, it will be,” I drawled.
He reached into a cavernous pocket in his pants and drew out a brick wrapped in plastic. He tossed it to me. “Half.”
I caught it and tore open the plastic with my teeth. Then I started counting the money, all of it in nonsequential Ben Franklins.
A trace of impatience entered my contact’s voice. “It’s all there.”
“Talking to me is just going to make me lose count and start over,” I said. “What am I supposed to call you?”
“Nothing,” he said. “No one. I am nothing to you.”
“Nothing it is,” I replied. The bills were bound in groups of fifty. I counted one out and compared its thickness to that of the others, then flipped through just to be sure Nothing wasn’t trying to short me by throwing some twenties into the middle of the stack. Then I stuck the money in my jacket pocket and said, “We’re in business.”
Nothing inclined his head a bit. “The merchandise?”
“Come with me,” I said, injecting my voice with breezy confidence. I turned to stomp back toward the garage parking lot, and Nothing paced along beside me.
Already, this wasn’t going well. This guy was huge. I was good, but training and practice can get you only so far. The old saying is that a good big man will beat a good little man. Which is sexist as all get-out, but no less true. Levels of skill being equal, whoever has the size and weight advantage damn near always wins. Nothing probably outweighed all three of us together, and I already had a sense, from the way he held himself and moved, that he was a person accustomed to violence. He was good.
I could shoot him (probably), but I didn’t need a dead trafficker on my hands. I needed one who could talk—which meant I was going to have to let Will and Marcy be taken.
“How long you fellas setting up shop?” I asked him as we walked. “Might be able to come up with another one, if the price is right.”
Nothing looked at me for a moment before speaking. “If you cannot do it by dawn, do not bother.”
“Maybe. We’ll see how this plays out.”
Nothing shrugged and kept on walking. I caught sight of our reflection in a passing window—Biker Barbie and Bigfoot. I tried to keep out of his reach as we walked, but there was only so much sidewalk, and Nothing’s arms looked long enough to slap me from the middle of the street.
As we walked, I noticed the smell. The man just smelled wrong. I wasn’t sure what it was—something . . . musty, vaguely like the scent of stagnant water and rotting fish. It hung in the air around him.
“You aren’t really human, are you,” I noted as we walked into the parking garage—and away from any potential witnesses.
“Not anymore,” he replied.
As he spoke, the collar of the turtleneck . . . stirred. It rippled, as if something had moved beneath it.
“Well, I am,” I said. “Completely worthless for whatever you’re doing collecting specials. So don’t be thinking you can get three for the price of two.”
Nothing looked down at me with those unsettling eyes. “You are pathetic.”
I put a little extra swagger into my step. “Careful what you say there, big guy. You’ll turn me on.”
Nothing made a small, quiet sound of disgust and shook his head. It was hard not to smile as I watched him pigeonhole me into “scum, treacherous, decadent.”
“It’s right up here.”
“Before we approach the vehicle,” he said, “you should know that if you have associates waiting in ambuscade, I will break their necks—and yours.”
I lifted my hands. “Jesus. Show a little trust, will you? We’re all capitalists here.” I pointed the fob at the SUV and disarmed the alarm with a little electronic chirp. The lights flashed once. I tossed him the keys. “That one. I’ll stay back here if you like.”
“Acceptable,” he said, and strode to the SUV. Watching