TONY NICHOLSON LEANED forward from the backseat, as far as the cuffs would allow. He could see that the lights on the second floor were on.
“We don’t need to be here,” he said. “She doesn’t know anything. I promise you.”
The one who had ruined Nicholson’s leg opened the passenger door. “Who knows?” he said. “Maybe you talk in your sleep.”
He got out and went to the front door. Then he used one of Nicholson’s keys to let himself in.
Nicholson was thinking that he still might be able to save himself, and maybe Mara. He had a surreal image of her beautiful face trapped inside a plastic bag.
The driver was tall and blond—like him—with pale eyes and a square forehead. He looked more intelligent than the spic. Maybe he was more reasonable too.
“Listen,” Nicholson said in a whisper. “I do know what you’re looking for. I can help you get it, but not without some kind of exit strategy for me.”
The man sat straight and still, staring out the windshield as if Nicholson hadn’t spoken.
“I’m willing to make a deal, is what I’m saying.”
Still nothing from the front seat.
“For the disk. Of Zeus. Do you hear me? I’ll tell you where it is.”
“Yeah,” the blond guy finally said. “You will.”
“So… why won’t you make a deal? Now? Here? Why the hell not?”
The driver’s fingers drummed lightly on the wheel. “Because we’re going to kill you anyway. You and the girlfriend.”
Nicholson felt a hollow beating in his chest, and he was finally feeling as if nothing mattered anymore. He laughed, a little desperately.
“Jesus, friend, I don’t mean to tell you your job, but then why the hell would I—”
All at once, the driver turned, reached down, and squeezed the soft parts of Nicholson’s mangled knee.
The pain was instant and stunning. His jaw dropped open even as his throat closed up. Nicholson couldn’t breathe, much less scream, and in the strange silence, his tormentor’s low voice was easy to hear.
“Because at some point, friend, you’re going to stop wanting to live and start wanting to die. Understand? And if you haven’t told us what we want to know by then—believe me, you will.”