Farley seemed to be shrinking inside himself again. “Nah, nah. It’s like I said in court. Carly was a girlfriend. I didn’t rape her none. I don’t have the balls. I didn’t do nothing to Audrey Meek. I’m nobody. I’m nothing.”

Rafe Farley stared at us for a long moment. His eyes were bloodshot; everything about him was pathetic. I didn’t want to, but I was starting to believe him. I’m nobody. I’m nothing. That was Rafe Farley, all right.

Chapter 40

Chapter 40

Sterling

Mr. Potter

The Art Director

Sphinx

Marvel

The Wolf

The cover names sounded harmless, but the men behind them weren’t. During one session, Potter had nicknamed the group Monsters Inc. as a joke, and that was an accurate description. They were monsters, all of them. They were freaks; they were deviates and worse.

And then there was the Wolf, who was in a whole other class.

They met on a secure Web site that was inaccessible to outsiders. All messages were encrypted and required a pair of keys: One key garbled the information; the second key was needed to recover it. More important, a hand scan was necessary to get onto the site. They were considering using a retinal scan or possibly an anal probe.

The subject under discussion was the Couple and what to do about them.

“What the hell does that mean—what to do about them?” asked the Art Director, who was jokingly called Mr. Softee because he could get very emotional, the only one of them who ever did.

“It means just what it sounds like,” answered Sterling. “There’s been a serious breach of security. Now we have to decide what to do about it. There’s been sloppiness, stupidity, and maybe worse than that. They were seen. It’s put us all in danger.”

“What are our options?” Art Director continued. “I’m almost afraid to ask.”

Sterling responded instantly. “Have you read the newspapers lately? Do you have a TV? A team of two took a woman in a mall in Atlanta, Georgia. They were spotted. A team of two abducted a woman in Pennsylvania—and they were seen. Our options? Do absolutely nothing—or do something extreme. An object lesson is needed—for the other teams.”

“So what are we doing about the problem?” asked Marvel, who was usually spookily quiet but could be nasty when he was aroused.

“For one thing, I’ve shut down all deliveries for the moment,” said Sterling.

“Nobody told me about that!” Sphinx erupted. “I’m expecting a delivery. As all of you know, I paid a price for it. Why wasn’t I informed before now?”

No one said anything to Sphinx for several seconds. No one liked him. Besides, each of them was a sadist. They enjoyed torturing Sphinx, or anyone else in the group who showed weakness.