Page 53 of In the Nick of Time
“That’s why you touched my arm at the club. You wanted to know how I die. But… you said you can’t tell with me.”
The Undertaker shook his head, his eyes narrowed. “I can always tell. You are the first I have not been able to.”
“So, wait a minute here. How was Agent Schoenhut supposed to die?”
“Of old age, I believe. I saw what looked like a private room in an assisted-living facility.”
“So, instead of living to an age old enough to deserve a nice quiet room with light pink walls and fresh flowers every day, you took it in your hands to move up the timeline? What are you, some kind of freak?”
The Undertaker stiffened. “He did not deserve his power. He did not use it for what it was intended. And anyway, he never woke up.”
“You still killed him! Okay, wait just another minute before we get into the power thing. If you saw him experiencing a nice, peaceful death surrounded by loved ones, how come you didn’t see him being offed by you? Isn’t that a flaw?”
The Undertaker looked as if no one had ever asked him that question before. Nick didn’t give him time to answer it.
“You call yourself The Undertaker and yet you kill people. Okay, okay, I realize it’s just semantics, but as far as I understand, an undertaker deals with already dead people, but you’re killing agents so you can… what? What happens when you kill them? What do you gain?”
The man stared at him. Nick thought back to what he knew about the dead agents, which wasn’t a lot. No one had discussed the first two with him. Agent Schoenhut’s power was magnetism. That was a nice thing in Vegas for sure. What had Doug told him about Agent Carroll? She could smell lies.
“You’re trying to collect powers, aren’t you?” Nick asked. “And it’s not working.”
The last bit was a total babbling guess. Actually, everything Nick had spouted was a guess, but from the expression on The Undertaker’s face, he’d at least found the outer edge of the target.
“You are,” Nick gasped. “You’re trying to collect powers for yourself. I bet that’s not even possible. And what about your flunkies over there? What do they get out of this, this scheme?”
“It is so possible, I’ve seen it done. And those two get a lot of money.”
“Pffft. If you had a lot of money, we wouldn’t be in some derelict strip mall on the edge of town. That’s where we are, right? The Lonely Pine.”
“The Lonely Mine,” The Undertaker corrected.
Why was that important? It wasn’t.
“Right, The Lonely Mine.”
“No. That is not where we are.”
Damn. Nick snapped his lips together. He’d gotten the guy talking, but now his brain was catching up with his mouth. Luckily, he had an idea. He’d never tried this before, but it was worth a try.
FOURTEEN
DOUG
In which Doug learns that his sidekick is a talking tortoise. An annoying one.
The shopping centerwas as empty today as it had been yesterday. Emptier because the tent was gone.
“Motherfucker,” Doug said as he peered around, trying to manifest any sign of Nick Sedgewick out of thin air.
“What do you see out there?” Tim asked.
Right, because he couldn’t see out the windows. Doug had given up being weirded out by a tortoise talking to him. Nick was missing and that was all that mattered at the moment.
“Nothing. No cars. No people. The shops are as run-down and empty as they were yesterday.”
“Is there anything else in the area?”
Doug shook his head. “Nope. Well, actually, it looks like there’s something down an access road about a mile away. Maybe it’s a house.”
