"Tickles," said Danny.

"Yeah, well, you're clean enough. You, George, drop trou or I'll feel you up and maybe I'll accidentally hurt your nads for calling me a perv."

Eric dropped his pants and showed that he didn't have a wire concealed either. "First time anybody ever asked asked me to moon them," he said. me to moon them," he said.

"Pull 'em up, smarta.s.s," said Rico. "All right, come on into the office."

Danny went through the door first and headed for the desk. Eric was right behind him, but then he heard a cry of pain and a thud and he whirled around to see Eric sprawled on the floor, writhing in agony, and Rico just unwinding from a ma.s.sive swing of the bat.

"You little a.s.sholes, didn't I tell you what would happen if you came back here?" said Rico, softly but harshly. "Didn't I give you fair warning?"

Jose was in the doorway now, holding Eric's shirt with the jewelry inside. "Ay Dios," he said. "Santa Trinidad."

Danny now had Rico's desk between him and the baseball bat.

"Hold still and take your medicine," said Rico. "Or I'll just keep smacking your buddy's head till it pops like a melon."

"You don't want no bloodstains on the floor," said Jose.

"Don't start thinking you know what I want and don't want," said Rico menacingly. Then he lunged forward, swinging the bat as he came. It would have caught Danny at chest level, except that he gated his way back outside.

Man, it was cold out there. He only stayed a couple of seconds before he gated back into the office, but this time right next to Eric. His plan was to get him up and make a run for it, but Eric cried out in pain when Danny tried to pull him.

Rico was off-balance, recovering from his wild swing. He whirled around, looking baffled for a moment as he staggered and leaned on the desk. Jose, for his part, had a sick look on his face. He, at least, seemed to know what he had just seen-Danny disappearing in one place and reappearing a moment later in another.

"Quick little b.a.s.t.a.r.d, aren't you?" said Rico. "Run all you want, I'll just take it out on your friend. He ain't getting up, not without a stretcher. I cracked half his ribs, if I didn't break his back." And now the bat was high over Rico's shoulder as he readied the bat to come down on Danny's head.

What choice did Danny have? He got a firm grip on Eric's wrist and then pulled with all his might to drag him through the gate he had just created. He knew as he did it that it couldn't work-even though Danny was through the gate himself almost instantly, it would take time to drag Eric's body through, and who knew what Rico might do-beat him more, or just grab onto his leg and pull back, stronger.

So Danny reflexively did something he didn't know he could do. He moved the gate. Slid the mouth of it right over Eric's limp body.

It worked. Eric was lying in the garden, still unable to get up-but out of Rico's office.

Only Rico was holding onto Eric's leg. Just the man's heavy arms coming through the gate. Maybe Rico could have come through all the rest of the way, if Danny hadn't let go of Eric. Without that connection with Danny, Rico seemed to be unable to pull his arms back or push them farther through. He was stuck.

Danny didn't dare grab Rico's arms or do anything to him at all-if he touched him, Rico might come the rest of the way through or drag Danny back.

So instead, Danny created a new gate into the office.

There was Rico, looking terrified, with his arms reaching down toward the floor but disappearing just below the elbows. "Let go of me, you little s.h.i.t!" he shouted when he saw Danny.

"I'm not holding you," said Danny.

Jose was sitting in the doorway, his back against the frame, looking at Danny wide-eyed. "I did see you on the wall," he said. "I'm not crazy, I saw you."

"You sure did," said Danny. "Where does this a.s.shole keep his money?"

"The store safe is right behind the counter out front."

"No," said Danny. "The real real money." money."

"He'll kill me," said Jose.

"With no arms?" asked Danny.

Rico groaned and wailed. "Let go of me!"

Danny went behind the desk and opened drawers. Nothing. Then he looked carefully at the jumble of cabinets, shelves, papers, and salable goods against the wall. He started gating his hands into every cabinet and feeling around. Finally he brought his hands out clutching several stacks of bills. Some were stacks of hundreds, some of twenties.

He reached back into the same cabinet and came out with a pistol and a box of bullets. He slapped those down on the desk and said, "Time for you to shut up, Rico."

Rico shut up.

Danny counted out ten hundreds. "Here's what I expected to get for the stuff I brought. A thousand." He counted out twenty more hundreds. "I'm betting this will cover George's medical bills." Then Danny picked up the rest of the money and carried it to Jose.

"No, man, I don't want none of that."

"Think again," said Danny. "You just saw this a.s.shole get humiliated. You think he's not going to kill you first chance he gets? Take this money, get yourself out of DC, out of this part of the country, out of the United States. You get it? This is unemployment here. Severance pay."

"I got to stay here, I got family to support."

"This isn't enough to take care of them for a while?"

"Eight kids," said Jose. "It takes that much to get me back into the States. I can't go."

"Tell you what," said Danny. "There's the gun. There's a box of ammo. You want to be safe from him, you get some of those rubber gloves from the janitorial closet, you do what you got to do. I'm not going to kill him, but I don't care if you do."

"No, man, no," said Rico. "Come on, Jose, I've got your back, man, I'm not going to hurt you, just put the money back, take that gun, shoot this kid. You save my life, see? I know how to treat my friends."

"We brought him a bunch of jewelry and electronics to sell," said Danny, "and you saw how he treated us."

"We're friends, Jose!" insisted Rico. "Pull me back into the room, kid. I mean it, you can have all that money, you can take back the stuff, just get me my arms back."

Then Rico's eyes grew wide. "Who's got my hands!" he demanded. "Something's grabbing my hands!" Then he screamed.

Danny had no idea what was happening to Rico's hands. Was Eric doing something? Or was there a dog out there? Or a racc.o.o.n? Or was Rico just faking it? Danny needed to get back to Eric in case there was something hurting him outside.

"I'm going now," said Danny. "I'm taking only the fair price for the goods and George's medical bills. I'm leaving the goods. I didn't cheat Rico, I didn't steal from him. When I get out there I'm going to count to ten, then I'll push his arms back into this room. You can take the money here and get out. Or you can shoot his a.s.s. Or both. I recommend both."

Jose stood up and walked out of the room.

"I guess he doesn't want the money or or you dead, you lucky b.a.s.t.a.r.d," said Danny to Rico. you dead, you lucky b.a.s.t.a.r.d," said Danny to Rico.

Then Jose came back into the room, pulling on a rubber glove.

"No! Oh, no, no, man!" cried Rico.

Danny gated back out to the garden.

Eric had twisted himself into position to gnaw on Rico's right thumb. It was spouting blood, which was pouring out of Eric's mouth. He had a feral look in his eyes, like one of Zog's hawks, hyper-alert but utterly soulless.

"You got to stop that," said Danny. "If I touch you while you're touching him, he gets free. Let go of him. Stop it."

But it was like Eric didn't hear him. He was growling like a dog, like a bear. Then he fell backward and spat out the thumb. And spat again and again, trying to get the blood out of his mouth.

"That was ugly," said Danny. "But fair."

Then he heard a gunshot. It was m.u.f.fled and faraway, on account of having taken place inside the store a couple of doors down.

Danny didn't touch Rico's arms. Instead, using his newfound skill, he pulled the gate away, drawing it over the arms until no part of them remained visible.

"I made it through the gate," said Eric with a grin.

"Yeah, so I see," said Danny.

"And I feel a lot better."

"You shouldn't have moved. He probably broke your ribs, he might've broken your back."

"I don't think so," said Eric. "I mean, that's how it felt right after he did it, but now I feel kind of better." Eric got to his feet. "In fact, I feel great. Except maybe I hurt my jaw taking off his thumb."

"I can't believe you did that."

"I don't want that a.s.shole ever holding a baseball bat again," said Eric. "You hadn't got rid of his hands, I was taking the other thumb, too."

Danny held out the three thousand dollars. "I think I cheated him, if you're okay. I mean, a thousand of this was for the goods we sold him, but the other two thousand were for your medical expenses."

"You kidding? He owed us at least five. So you gave him a discount. Let's say his thumb was worth a thousand. He's still a thou ahead."

"I think he's dead," said Danny.

"You killed him?"

"No," said Danny. "I was just an accomplice before the fact. I think Jose just shot him."

"None of our business," said Eric. "And you saved my a.s.s, man. You're the one who told me he'd do that, and I didn't believe you. I'm the streetwise guy, right? And you're the one who knew."

"You knew, too," said Danny. "You just didn't want to believe it."

"My life as a burglar is over," said Eric.

"Glad to hear it," said Danny. "Now let's take the money and get out of here."

"Um," said Eric.

"What?"

"Maybe after that gunshot we shouldn't be seen walking down this street away from the store."

"Well, I'm not going toward toward the store," said Danny. "Who knows but what Jose would shoot us, too, if he saw us? If he hasn't already got himself halfway to Union Station." the store," said Danny. "Who knows but what Jose would shoot us, too, if he saw us? If he hasn't already got himself halfway to Union Station."

"Get your head in gear," said Eric. "You just proved you can get me through one of your gate things alive. So let's get back to Stone's house."

"No," said Danny.

"What do you mean? You can do it, it's easy."

"You're not going back there," said Danny. "And neither am I."

"The h.e.l.l I'm not!"

"You're covered in the blood of a murdered man," said Danny. "You're not tracking any of it into Stone's house. You've got three thousand bucks, you're going to get yourself into a restroom and wash up as best you can and then you're getting out of DC and back on the road."

"My stuff's in Stone's house!"

"So is mine, and it's all worthless, you can replace all you left behind for a hundred bucks," said Danny.

"I'm going back there whether you take me or not," said Eric. "You tell me I'm not the boss of you? Well, you're not the boss of me, either."

Danny sighed. "Okay, fair enough. I'll take you back there, and then then I'll go. Because I'm not bringing any of this down on Stone's head." I'll go. Because I'm not bringing any of this down on Stone's head."

"Fair enough. Once I get my stuff and wash up and all that, I'm going too. I promise."

Danny figured he probably meant it. For the moment. But then he'd decide to stay a few more days. And he'd start bragging about taking a man's thumb in a fight. And since the cops would be looking for whoever bit off Rico's thumb and left it in a garden a couple of doors down, there was a better-than-decent chance it would lead the cops to Stone's door sooner or later.

"Give me your hand," said Danny. "Hold tight so you don't get stuck in between like Rico did."

Eric got a sudden look of fear in his eyes. "You're not going to leave me partway, are you?"

Danny rolled his eyes. "You hold on to me, me, then," he said. "Hug me like your mama so you go through when I do." then," he said. "Hug me like your mama so you go through when I do."

"I think I'll walk," said Eric.

"I saved your life," said Danny. "You think I'm going to hurt you now?"

Eric thought about this. "How come you gave me all the money? How do I know you aren't going to kill me and take it back?"

"The money was always for you," said Danny. "Don't you think I could gate my way into any bank vault in the world and get all the money I want?"

Now Eric got angry. "Why didn't you say so! Why did we go through all this burglary s.h.i.t and this c.r.a.p with Rico if you could just get nice clean money!"

"Dye packs," said Danny. "Serial numbers on FBI lists. I've seen cop shows. Come on, I did your your plan and I got you paid and I got you out of there before he could beat you any more than he already did. Come on." Danny held out his arms like he was going to hug a long-lost brother. plan and I got you paid and I got you out of there before he could beat you any more than he already did. Come on." Danny held out his arms like he was going to hug a long-lost brother.

Eric stepped into his embrace and wrapped his arms tightly around Danny. "You're the best thing ever happened to me, kid," said Eric.

"I know," said Danny.

Then he gated them back to the place where they had met, behind the shops near the Lexington Wal-Mart. It was just starting to snow.