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"We gave you what you asked for Let the prisoner go," the man on the roof said

"Prisoner? Don’t you ames," the man above snapped "We’ve held up our end"

"And I’ll hold up mine I won’t kill him This week"

"Where is he?"

"He’s comfortable"

"We want to see him"

"No," Gates said plainly It was a conversation stopper The man clenched his fists and stared down

"No one has to die," the man finally said "We only want to take care of you We want the sa"

"Perfect," Gates said, his voice vicious and smooth in the saet us the sah hter spread and grew They poured soda in each other’s gullets while they gave the parents the finger They threw crumpled beer cans up at the roofline They ild anirateful brats, and they were loving every second of it

"Let’s hear it for the Saints!" a Geek screa

The peal of the crowd oose bumps rise up all over Will’s body They roared for Gates Like he was a pop star or a fa him to take hold of the moment and , he didn’t seeht up in the rush of the moment whatsoever The cocky satisfaction hich he’d made his demands must have been all show for the crowd because now he looked depressed

"It worked, et a little happiness out of hie

"The et crazy Hey, we should take requests for stuff you should ask for That’ll keep everybody on our side, then on’t have to worry soto take Sam," Will said, his mind lit up with possibility "We’ll be the most popular kids in school"

"You handle it," Gates said

"What do you ?"

"Don’t feel like it," Gates said He put his hands in his pockets and slogged out of the quad without another word

20

THE SLUTS’ TRADING POST WAS A MADHOUSE They had a line out the door, thanks to Violent’s quick thinking during the drop The Sluts only went for clothes rather than spreading the they saw But just collecting clothes was no small task It was apparent how seriously the parents had taken Gates’s threats by how literally they’d interpreted his ransom list The parents had actually raided closets, nearly every one in Pale Ridge by the look of it Old, led with new clothes that still had security tags and the prices on the ticket iterills, the Sluts arment piles up to their noses

Their classroom in the market looked like a Macy’s after an earthquake, but if anybody wanted a neardrobe, they’d have to cooodies in McKinley, but what good was having a bunch of toys at ho like crap? A new, clean outfit, on the other hand, not only ood, it made people see you like they’d never seen you before

Waist-high piles of underwear stood next to equally high piles of jackets, next to piles of pants, of dresses and skirts and socks and so on throughout the center of the classroo, while bartering tables ran the perimeter of the room, where a customer would take their clothes for payht door, allowing no athered in the hall outside dru, and by the time Lucy asked someone what time it was, she realized three hours had passed and business wasn’t slowing down

Sophia set a bottle of water down on the table in front of Lucy Sophia had been working the floor,with customers had what she needed to do her best work, like a snack or a pen and paper She even doled out the occasional ?" Sophia said, when Lucy’sin his nose, walked aith a pair of black leather pants andjacket draped over his shoulder He’d paid with a five hundred count bulk box of condoms, and Lucy stashed it behind her chair, where a ridiculous pile of goods was heaped up Lucy opened the bottle of water and took a long, patient drink