"I don't think so," said Danny.

"Why not?"

"Because I don't trust you enough to put my survival in your hands. How do I know that I won't be walking into a trap? Death, or a prison, or straight to one of the Families so they can use me as a pretext to restart the war with my my Family?" Family?"

Stone sighed. "Your caution is admirable. Where was it when you were joining up with Eric? Here I tell you more than anyone else ever has about you and your power, but you can't bring yourself to trust the guy who tells you the truth, you'd rather trust that petty con man who wants to use you as a burglar."

"I owe him," said Danny.

"You already paid him everything you owed," said Stone. "You're square with him."

"I owe him," Danny repeated.

Stone said nothing, just looked at him.

Danny sat there under his gaze a few moments longer. He wanted to explain to Stone about how Eric had mostly been patient with him, had taught him. Yes, Eric was a bossy jerk. But what was between them wasn't just a debt. It was an obligation of the heart. It could not just disappear because he realized now that he didn't like what Eric wanted him to do. But the feeling wasn't logical. He couldn't defend it. He had nothing to say.

Stone sighed. "You can leave my room now."

"Are you mad at me?" asked Danny.

"I think you're a fool, but I'm also glad that at least you're learning some caution."

"I've got to do one job with Eric so he has some money ahead when I leave."

"Leave?" asked Stone. "Where are you going?"

"Like you said. To my new teacher."

Stone sighed again, but now with relief instead of sorrow. "I'll find out who's in a position to take you," he said.

"And I'll try not to burglarize a house with dead or dying people in it."

"Remember what I told you-none of your swag comes here."

"I made the deal, I'll stick to it."

Stone nodded.

"And thanks," said Danny. "For calling me here. For offering me a teacher."

"It's nice to know you're not alone in the world, isn't it?" asked Stone.

But I am am alone in the world, thought Danny. No other gatemage. n.o.body I've known longer than a few days. The name of Stone's group was well chosen. Orphans. alone in the world, thought Danny. No other gatemage. n.o.body I've known longer than a few days. The name of Stone's group was well chosen. Orphans.

That's what I am, thought Danny. Nice to have a name for it.

10.

INSIDE M MAN.

There was a greater-than-usual police presence in Georgetown, so Eric ruled it out for their "first" real burglary. "We didn't actually take anything," Eric explained, "so the Wheelwright house doesn't count. That was a rescue, anyway, not a burglary." Eric was talking now as if the whole rescue thing had been his idea.

"Calling any any burglary our 'first' implies that there'll be a second one," said Danny. burglary our 'first' implies that there'll be a second one," said Danny.

Eric gazed at him with icy calm. "You won't be able to stop."

"Who's going to make me?" said Danny. This was sounding more and more like an ordinary argument with one of the cousins.

"Not me," said Eric. "I know I can't make you do anything."

"Then I'll stop," said Danny, "when I say I'll stop."

"Say what you want to," said Eric, "you're going to do it again because you actually like it."

"You don't know anything about me."

"To be inside a stranger's home, while they're there asleep, knowing you didn't trip any alarms because you didn't open any doors, knowing the motion detectors are off in case somebody in the family gets up to go to the john during the night, so you can go wherever you want, take whatever you want. You're like an angel, you're so powerful."

"So you've done this before," said Danny.

"A couple of times," said Eric. "When I was about your age. n.o.body had alarms or motion detectors, not in Buena Vista, not in the kind of neighborhood my family lived in. A lot of people slept with their windows wide open. Yeah, I walked around a little. Took a couple of things. Looked at a couple of girls who slept naked on a hot night. Who wouldn't?"

"Me," said Danny.

"What are you going to be when you grow up, a minister?"

"Not a burglar," said Danny.

"Gay, that's what you'll be, if you won't look at a naked girl in her sleep."

"Keep it up," said Danny, "and I'll decide the Wheelwright house was the last."

"Lighten up, Danny," said Eric. "I'm sorry if you think I'm irritating, but I promise you, I'm the normal one."

"It's depressing, but I believe you," said Danny.

They both pretended they were joking.

Eric led Danny to a neighborhood called Spring Valley, out Ma.s.s Ave, almost to the Dalecarlia Reservoir. There was a sidewalk running along one side of Sedgwick Street, and they strolled along like any ordinary teenagers, scouting the houses.

"Three dormer windows. Big house," said Eric.

"Kids," said Danny. "Lots of them-bikes and a tricycle. They won't have any money."

"Or they have so much money they can afford afford kids." kids."

They went on like that around the corner onto Tilden. Suddenly the money kicked up a notch-a house with a pool, another with a three-car garage, then one with a boat parked in the driveway.

"Okay, we're home," said Eric.

"All right," said Danny. "Where do you want to be when I hand you the stuff?"

Eric started looking around for a likely place. "Long way from the bus stop," he said.

"So what?" said Danny. "I wasn't talking about you waiting around here-what's the point? Then we have to carry everything a long way, plenty of time to get picked up by suspicious cops, right? So you pick a place near the store where our reluctant fence has his office, and I'll hand it to you there."

Eric looked at Danny with consternation. "You can do that?"

"It's like punching a hole in the air," said Danny. "I'm in the house, I punch a little hole, I reach through it and hand the stuff to you wherever you are."

Eric shook his head. "Sounds too convenient to be true."

"Yeah, well, it has its inconveniences, too," said Danny. "My question is, how much do we want to get?"

"How much what?"

"How much money?" asked Danny. "How many of these houses should I hit? How many laptops, how many Xboxes, how many iPads? How much jewelry?"

"I don't know," said Eric. "A lot. He's going to discount it all like crazy-lucky if we get ten cents on the dollar."

"Lucky if we get anything at all," said Danny. "I still think he'll just take the stuff and give us nothing."

"He wouldn't stay in business very long if word of that gets around."

"And the word would get around how? Are you all that connected to the criminal underbelly of the nation's capital?"

"You talk like the news," said Eric.

"I just think that no matter how much I steal, you're going to need another fence."

"He's the one we know about," said Eric.

"All right, then." And with that, Danny made a gate directly to a small townhouse garden he had taken note of on their visit to the fence. It was only two doors down from the store, and Eric could make a pile of stuff there, hidden by the bushes from anybody walking along the street.

Standing there on the street, it occurred to him that it was kind of rude to leave Eric to make the long trek back alone, so he popped back through the gate to Tilden Street, where Eric was standing right where Danny had left him.

"What did you do?" asked Eric.

"What I told you I would," said Danny. "There's a gate now from here to there. I wish I could bring you through it. Save us the bus ride back."

"When you disappear like that-what if somebody was watching?"

"What would they say they saw? 'A boy just disappeared for a couple of seconds and then he came right back.' The cops'll believe them right away, and they'll stake out the spot all night waiting for me to come back."

"You don't have to get snotty," said Eric. "I just thought you didn't want to be noticed."

"If you'll notice where we are," said Danny, "n.o.body can see us except from that that house, and n.o.body's there right now." house, and n.o.body's there right now."

"Tonight they might be."

"And tonight it'll be dark. See any streetlights?"

Eric shrugged. "Your magic trick, you get to decide."

"What about it?" asked Danny. "You want to come through the gate with me and save the trip home?"

"No," said Eric. He shuddered. "I told you, I'm never doing that."

"Mind if I go home that way?" asked Danny.

"Do what you want," said Eric, sounding irritated.

"No, that's fine, I'll take the bus with you."

"Oh, you sweet boy," said Eric sarcastically. "Would you go to all that trouble for little old me?"

Danny would have kept him company, but not if he was going to be a complete jerk. He stepped back through the gate, then walked to the fence's store to get something to eat and drink. A bottle of orange juice and a Payday bar later, he was back on the street, walking home to Stone's house. He was sorely tempted to make a gate into the fence's office and see what he was doing, but decided against it. What if the guy saw him?

Then again, what if Danny didn't bring his whole body through? If he could push his hand through a small gate, why not his face?

He dodged into the garden where Eric would receive the stolen goods tonight. Then he made a small gate that debouched high up on the wall inside the fence's back office. He pressed his face into it, just enough that his eyes were inside the office and he could see.

The fence was at his desk, doing paperwork. Danny scanned the room. No obvious stolen goods here-everything looked like cartons of stuff for the store to sell. Maybe the fence didn't take deliveries here. Or maybe he just stashed stuff into one the cartons to have it hauled out later.

The door from the store opened and the clerk came in. "Thought you'd want to know-one of those kids came in just now and bought a candy bar and a c.o.ke."

Orange juice, you moron, thought Danny. Not a soft drink.

The fence reached behind him and picked up an aluminum baseball bat. "I kind of hope they do do come back," he said. "I haven't smashed anybody up in a good while." come back," he said. "I haven't smashed anybody up in a good while."

"So you want me to let them in?"

"Buzz me first so I can be ready."

"Why not just buy what they have to sell?" asked the clerk.

"They're cops," said the fence.

"The little one looks twelve."

Thirteen, said Danny silently. Can't you get anything right?