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Hannah could feel her consciousness slipping away again “The men…”

“Theabout?”

An answer floated vaguely through Hannah’s mind, and she wasn’t sure if she said it out loud orwent away

The men from the White House

Two

HIS NAME WAS Johnny Tucci, but the boys back in his South Philadelphia neighborhood all called him Johnny Twitchy, on account of the way his eyes jumped around when he was nervous, which was most of the time

Of course, after tonight, the boys in Philly could go screw theae,” didn’t he?

It was a sioody, because he was alone and had to take full responsibility He’d already picked up the package Scared him, but he’d done just fine

No one ever said so, but once you startedon the fa on you In other words, there was a relationship After tonight, there’d be nofor cruhborhoods It was like the bumper sticker that said, Today is the first day of the rest of your life

So naturally, he was pumped—and just a little bit nervous

His uncle Eddie’s warning kept playing like a tape in his mind Don’t blow this opportunity, Twitchy, Eddie had said I’ hi favor with this job, which Johnny supposed maybe he was, but still His own uncle didn’t have to rub his face in it, did he?

He reached over and turned up the radio Even the countryto Eddie’s nagging in his head all night long Turned out, it was an old Charlie Daniels Band tune, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” He even knew some of the words But the familiar lyrics couldn’t keep Eddie’s voice out of Johnny’s head

Don’t blow this opportunity, Twitchy

I’m way out on a limb for you

Oh, fuck!

Blue flashers danced off his rearview o, he could have sworn he had I-95 all to himself

Apparently not

Johnny felt the corner of his right eye start to twitch

He goosed the gas; maybe he could e he was driving, lifted out of a Motel 6 parking lot back in Essington Goddaone to the Marriott Got a Jap car

Still, it was possible the stolen Dodge hadn’t been flagged yet Whoever owned it was probably sleeping back at that motel With any luck, Johnny could just eat the ticket and no one would ever have to know

But that was the kind of luck other people had, not him

It took the cops forever and a day to get out of their cruiser, which was a bad sign—the worst They were checking the make and the plates By the tie, Johnny’s eyes were going like a couple of Mexican ju beans

He tried to be cool “Evening, officers What seems to be—”

The one on his side, a tall dude with a redneck accent, opened the driver’s door “Just keep your ht Step out of the vehicle”