Page 16 of The Company We Keep

Tying up his affairs had been easy. He'd been waiting on this gig for so long that the closure felt good. Telling the liesto his parents back in Georgia about where he was going and what he'd be doing there felt good.

Preparing for the move into the Las Abras apartment Abe had rented him under the name Dustin Wrenshall, switching over to the ID with the same name — these things felt natural.

Dustin buried Charlie Judge — the soft-spoken kid with good grades and a high drive to succeed from the South — the same week that Nick Short's family buried their son. But Charlie got no ceremony, no tears. His parents said goodbye to him on the phone and did not get compensated for the fact that their son was about to disappear.

And then it was haircuts and paperwork and new wardrobes and travel plans.

By the end of that week, Dust barely recognized himself.

"So, here's your new shit. You won't need any of it for long if you impress Carrow."

Neil Emerson was so nonchalant about the entire thing. The undercover Abe agent had been in the field for years — was hisinwith the Las Abras underworld — and there no longer seemed to be an agent underneath his layers.He’s a criminal now who just happens to help Abe,Dust thought.

He talked Dust through his next few days while he rifled through his new kitchen, looking at what Abe had put in his pantry.

"Think of it as your severance package," he said, deciding on a box of cereal and then moving on to look for a bowl. "Since the agency won't be helping you out from here on in."

"No shit," Dust said.

He'd been doing his best not to get irritated with Emerson, but he'd already begun thinking of this apartment ashisbefore he even arrived — and he hadn't invited the man to rifle through his things.

(Charliewould've been on his feet, being a good host, offering Emerson a glass of orange juice to go with his cereal.Dust, however, was just irritated.)

He found a bowl, milk, a spoon, and sat heavily down across the small kitchen table from Dust.

"I guess you'll have a new boss to buy your groceries soon enough," he said.

"I'm not joining The Company for the free fucking Cheerios. When's my meeting?"

"Vashvi Dhillon and Herron Dent are my only in right now, and Vi's still skittish from losing Short."

"Then put me in touch with Dent."

He shook his head, mouth full.

"Vi and Herron are a package deal. They won't go for it until she's chill."

"They being the two of them or the whole crew?"

Emerson cut his eyes at him.

"Theybeing Herron Dent. God help you if you fuck upanyof their pronouns. I saw what they did to the last guy who slipped a 'she' into a conversation with Carrow about Wayles. Abe needs you intact, right kid?"

"Got it."

"Wait for my word. I'll keep feeling them out and when the time is right, I'll reach out."

Hurry up and wait, as usual.

It was the last news Dust wanted to get after spending so long just getting there.

He let Emerson finish his cereal as he talked through more details that Dust already knew — when Abe would be contacting him and why, the fact that he was on his own now. He could tell Emerson was resentful of the way he lived life on the other side, without a paycheck, without protection foryears. He wondered why Emerson didn't have Abe pull him out, then. He could get out of the field, maybe. Go back to having a normal, real life.

Something was keeping him in. It made Dust edgy.

He went silent halfway through the bowl of cereal and Dust didn’t push him to make more conversation. All he had done was give Dust bad news and tell him things he already knew. He was relieved when Emerson got up to go.

"You're welcome for the breakfast," he said down the hall, watching him hip out the front door and stalk away from his dingy apartment.

---