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“Don’t worry.” A feral grin stretched across Kerry’s face. “He’ll tell me everything.”

“Hot coals,” muttered John from under his forearm.

“Nah, I got something that’ll work even better. I know what he wants, and I’m gonna offer it to him.”

“You think he’s so ingenuous, he’ll believe you?” Gigi raised an eyebrow at him.

“I don’t know what ingenuous is, but Idoknow he wants this so bad, he’ll cooperate if there’s the smallest chance he’ll get it.”

“Get what?” Travis asked with a frown.

“Yeah,” Gigi threw in. “What does Reilly want so badly?”

I didn’t know Reilly Argaud, but I had a good guess based on what these kids had shared about him. Kerry’s next words confirmed it.

“His family’s freedom.”

31. Loose Cannon

Mira

Laying on a big piece of cardboard, I shone the flashlight up at my car’s exhaust pipes and muffler. A little rusty, but no holes. That was good. I dissolved the rust and smoothed out a rough spot with a little piece of steel I’d raided from the motel’s dumpster.

If we were gonna take a long trip tomorrow, I wanted to make sure the old girl was ready for it.

“Hey, Mira, can I ask a favor?”

Hearing Kerry’s voice, I scooted out from under the car. He stood by the wheel well with his hands in his hoodie pockets and, despite the fading light, I saw he wore a frown.

Does he hate asking for favors as much as I do?

“You don’t even have to ask.” I got to my feet and brushed my hands off. “I’ll always owe you one.”

“No, you don’t, but I need you to help me make something. A bird.”

“A bird?”

“Yeah, a metal bird.” He looked down and shuffled his feet. “Travis came up with an idea. If you built a bird outta metal, I could power it up and Gigi could put a sending on it. If it’s made outta metal, it could hold a lotta power and last a long time. At the least, it would head in the right direction. That’s Travis’ theory, anyway, and I’m good to try anything at this point.”

“Hmm. How big were you thinking?”

“I don’t know nothing about real birds, but something like these metal ones I seen at the Sanctuary. They were maybe this big,” he held his index fingers six inches apart, “and had bright colors with gold lines. They were called cloy-something. You could look it up on my phone.”

“Cloisonne, maybe?”

“Sounds right.” He shrugged. “But if it foundher, she’d know it was from me. At least, pretty sure she would.”

“Clockwork gears, maybe. Like an old-timey pocket watch. Yeah. That could work.” I nodded. “I’ll need to go on a metal run. I already cleaned out the motel’s dumpster of anything good. Think there’s a junkyard around here?”

“I dunno. We could ask at the front desk.”

“Then let’s go.”

“Rightnow?” He blinked.

“Well, yeah. We’re leaving tomorrow, remember? Oh, boy! Maybe I could scrounge enough to make you and Rome some armor, too. Breastplates, at least.”

“I don’t think a junkyard is gonna be open after dark.”

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