McClane shifted around in him like a muscle flutter when Riley slid into a free corner booth and reached for the menu.

“What’re you so excited about?” Riley muttered, careful not to move his lips too much. No reason to scare off the waitress. Seeing as McClane had picked up on his thoughts before, Riley figured he didn’t actually have to speak out loud to communicate with the alien, but the idea made him uncomfortable. Talking to himself might make him look crazy, but having a conversation with a disembodied voice in his head felt a lot worse.

Nothing, really, McClane claimed.

Riley raised an eyebrow skeptically and waited, keeping his gaze firmly on the menu.

McClane broke satisfyingly fast. Alien food, he whispered, sounding both thrilled and a little uneasy. It smells weird, he added, a tad sheepishly.

Is it good? Do you think I’ll enjoy it?

Frankly, Riley hadn’t thought about it until now. He kept forgetting that, for the creature hiding in him, Riley and his world were as strange and probably as terrifying as the other way round. Everything was a matter of perspective.

“I guess we’ll find out,” he said quietly, “but if you’re anything like me, you’ll love the nachos.”

Did he ever.

ELEVEN

KOLYA called with unerring timing the minute Misha gave in to his body’s demands and went to the bathroom. The way things had been going, it didn’t surprise Misha. It did make him whine unhappily, though, because, of course, he’d left his cell in the office. Keep pissing or answer the phone when it might be Kolya bringing news about Riley? His bladder lost that argument. He snapped the cell open on the fifth beep, because habits are hard to break and he’d been washing his hands before his brain had caught up with his manners.

“Tell me you have him,” he barked, hope and frustration bubbling merrily in his poor, stressed-out belly.

“Fucking I-10’s closed,” Kolya reported, disgust dripping from every syllable. “Fucking military all over. They say a pipeline ruptured near Junction.”

Misha frowned, picking up on the man’s tone. “You don’t believe that?”

“I don’t really give a shit, except that they’re in my way.” It was as close to bitching as Kolya got. “Since when does the Army bother with gas leaks, is all I’m saying.”

“Could’ve been a major incident?” Misha hazarded, not all that interested in the whys of the military blockade either beyond the fact that it was keeping Kolya from following Riley. “Any way you can get around it?”

“Nothing on the TV, nothing on the radio,” Kolya singsonged dourly.

Apparently, the situation bugged him for some reason, but he shook it off and got back on topic with a little snort of annoyance. “I can bypass the area, but it’ll take time.”

Shit. They didn’t have time. Riley had already proved his ability to blend into the vast Texas landscape, lose his pursuers in the crowds of the big cities, then vanish in the maze of winding back roads and sleepy