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Chapter 10

“Okay,” Prudence said, tugging on her gloves, then cracking her knuckles “First order of business, we break in No sweat”

Easy for her to say I looked around at the block ere in The Meathook was a rough neighborhood, sure, and noisy fro and yelling, cars honking, and for some reason, like, a lot of cats in heat – but it was exactly why a break-in was that much more feasible for us That kind of chaos and noise would just blend in

Bastion seemed unbothered, and he just jerked his neck fro It was starting to feel like the two of the to feel woefully under-equipped for the task at hand

We stopped in front of a conderohatever weird greenery could survive in Valero’s so streets It had shattered s boarded up with thick planks, graffiti everywhere, the works, and soht have passed for a door At least that’s what the heavy padlock on the outside toldthe lock She rapped her knuckles on the not-door

“Really clever getting soically lock you in like this, Hubert Makes us think that no one’s in there, that you’re out for business What do you do to get in and out, clih a ?”

No answer I turned to Bastion He was tightening his gloves, too

“Come on, Hubert,” he called out “We know you’re in there”

The response: more silence

“Maybe he really isn’t in there,” I said, unsure of why, if I was so confident about his absence, I was keeping my voice so low

“It’s what he wants us to think,” Bastion said He looked around, down the street both ways, then nodded, seeh privacy, for whatever value of privacy one gets on a grubby street outside an abandoned warehouse

“Go for it,” he said, nudging Prudence with an elbow

She frowned “Why me?”

Bastion shrugged “I’ht? Remember last time?”

I wasn’t enjoying all this vagueness “What about last time? What happened then?” Bastion looked away Prudence cleared her throat “Will so?”