He thinks about that for a minute.
“I don’t know. I only remember a little of the caves from when I woke up and before they took me away. The rest I learned from people who come by to talk to me.”
“Like Cabal.”
“He knows a lot about them. He said there’s someone else who knows even more and told him about the Backbone after he did something for them.”
“Do you remember what he did?”
“No.”
“If I wanted to go into the Jackal’s Backbone, would you go with me? You could show me where you woke up.”
“I don’t remember it very well.”
“Maybe you will if you go back.”
“Maybe.”
“Would you go with me?”
“Hey,” says Tracy. “You can’t ask him that.”
Johnny says, “I don’t think you should go into the Backbone. It doesn’t seem right.”
“I have to. Someone is using Drifters to kill people they don’t like and now some are loose in the city. I have a feeling more are going to get loose. I need to understand why it’s happening. And there’s someone I need to look for and see if she’s in the Backbone.”
“You won’t be able to find one person. There’s about a million people there.”
“I still have to try. Will you go with me?”
Tracy says, “Johnny, don’t listen. You don’t want to go out there where people will be afraid of you.”
“No one will know I’m there if I go into the Backbone.”
“You can’t leave,” says Tracy. “That’s final.”
She whips around at me and sticks a finger in my face.
“And you, asshole. I knew I shouldn’t have let you in. Get out.”
“Johnny is one of the twenty-seven. I think if he wants something, he should get it. Including going home.”
“Get out.”
“It’s your choice, Johnny.”
“You need to leave now.”
I turn around. It’s Fiona. She looks very determined. The .45 automatic in her hand is probably helping with that.
I turn to Tracy. “Let me guess. Your old cop gun, right?”
Tracy says, “It’s a big bad world out there. A lady needs to know how to defend herself, doesn’t she, Fi?”
“Herself and her loved ones. You two need to leave.”
Allegra is frozen in her seat. I think it’s been kind of a long day for her. I take her arm and pull her to her feet.