Chapter Thirty-Four

L IGHTS ALREADY SPINNING , the driver flicked the siren on, and stomped on the accelerator.

"Is she going to be okay?" Bo asked as the paramedic in the back cut off Dulce's jacket.

"Don't know yet," the paramedic snapped back, clearly not thrilled with the crowd riding with him.

The model and the stout man with huge forearms were wedged into the back of the ambulance with Bo, more passengers than were typically allowed aboard, to the point where Model was standing, hands up against the roof to brace himself against the rocking of the vehicle as the driver swerved around traffic.

"Is this, uh," Model started, talking to Bo, "you know, normal for you guys?"

"Got me," Bo replied. "First day."

The two blinked at Bo, then looked back to each other.

"First day with the BEA and you're dealing with this?" Stout asked.

"Yeah. This morning, I was a janitor."

"What do you mean?" Stout asked.

"I was, like, I mean," Bo started, then stopped, looking at the men staring at him, both remarkably uncomfortable being confused. "I'm not exactly sure how much I'm allowed to tell you about this, uh, I mean, about the BEA."

Model laughed. "I've got security clearances you don't even know exist, man. You can tell me."

"Yeah," Bo said slowly, thinking back on the talk he'd had with Joseph, about the issues of talking to people about the business of the BEA, and how it often led to prison sentences. "Dude, I'm super sorry, but no way I can talk to you about any of that until you get cleared by Joseph."

"Joseph?"

"BEA head dude."

"Who are you?"

"Bo."

"Bo," the model said, shooting his hand out, "Travis."

They shook.

"The surly one is Willem."

The stout guy stuck out his massive paw, completely outsized for his body, and Bo had his hand crushed by the man.

"Who shot her?" Travis asked.

Bo shrugged. "Not sure. I have my theories, you know, because, I mean, there was this other, uh, the guys who shot Joseph — except Joseph shot those guys, so you know, someone."

"Janitor, huh?" Willem asked.

"Look, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I know what the hell is going on. As far as I can tell, this job is beyond insane, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to be dying far too early."

"Guess that's why we're here," Travis said with a smile, tossing in a patronizing pat on Bo's shoulder for good measure.

Bo wasn't sure how to respond. The whole situation was quickly moving from the realm of unbelievable over to nightmare, so quickly that Bo couldn't figure out what the next step might be.