Page 114 of The Rat

“Yeah. With my…” Rorytrailed off, then shook his head. He couldn’t go there, it hurt toomuch. “I’ve been there before.”

“What happenedto having atrampoline in the back yard? And all this 3D rubbish on the movieposters.”

“There was 3d movies beforeyou went inside, surely?”

“With the cardboardglasses, one side red, one side blue.”

A laugh bubbled up from Rory’schest. “No, not like that.”

“Then what, doessomeone jumpout the screen and punch you in the face?”

Rory laughed. “No, it looks slightlybetter, like stands out a bit. Virtual reality headsets will blowyour mind.”

“What are they?”

“Games—”

“I’m too old for your consolegames. Cards,that’s what I’m good at.”

“Because youcheat.”

“You still bitter about mewinning all your phone cards?”

“You didn’t win, youcheated.”

“Still won.”

“It didn’tcount.”

“What about you pretendingyou weren’t a chess genius?”

“That’s not cheating,that’swithholding the truth.”

Sebastian laughed, and shook hishead.

He sighed at the window.“I can walk downthis street. I can go in these shops. Sixteen years I’ve been inthat prison, and now I’m out.”

“It must be a goodfeeling.”

“Yes, and at the sametime a massiveno.”

“Why no?”

“I’ll have to cook my ownmeals for a start.”

Rory’s lips tingled with anothersmile. “The food in there was awful.”

“It got better over the years,trust me.When I first went inside, food poisoning was a monthlyoccurrence.”

“The foodimproved, but the rat problem gotworse?”

Sebastian tipped his head back andlaughed. “The rat problem will continue.”

“You passed that scam ontosomeone else?”

“Teddy. You never know, he mighteven smuggle maggots into the prison, inside a fakedead rat…” Sebastianchuckled, “I still can’t believe you were gonna open up a deadrat.”

“It was forOllie.”

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