Stone drew closer and lowered his voice to a whisper and tapped his shoes against the walls to disrupt any audio surveillance. “Any chance your agency will find you?”

Knox joined in the wall-tapping. “There’s always a chance. Looks like the only one we’ve got right now. But even if they do, you realize how many places there are to hide us here. Like you said, we don’t exist.”

“And they can always kill us. Invisible in life, nothing in death. Who sent you after me?”

“I guess it would sound pretty stupid to say that’s classified under the present circumstances. Macklin Hayes.”

A tiny smile crept across Stone’s face. “I guess that makes sense.”

“You served under him.”

“If you want to call it that.”

“What would you call it?”

“I didn’t serve under him, I survived him.”

“You’re not the first to tell me that.”

“I’d be surprised if I were.”

“You earned that medal. Why didn’t you get it?”

Stone looked surprised. “How’d you find out about that?”

“Did some digging. You were a slam dunk for the big one.”

“Every soldier in my company would’ve done the same for me.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it. I was over there too. All soldiers are not created equal. So why didn’t you get it? I looked at the paperwork. It stopped at Hayes.”

Stone shrugged. “I haven’t given it that much thought over the years.”

“You did something to really piss off the man, didn’t you?”

“If I did, it doesn’t matter now, does it?”

“Tell me.”

“No, I’m not going to tell you!”

“Okay, next subject. I know you killed Gray and Simpson.”

“Good for you.”

“Is that a confession?”

Stone picked up the intensity of the tapping. “Right now we need to come up with a way to get out of here. Because if we don’t it won’t matter to either of us what I did or didn’t do.”

“Okay, I’m listening,” said Knox.

“And I’m still thinking. But if we do escape, what are you going to do?”

“What do you mean?”

Stone’s eyes flashed. “You know what the hell I mean. About me?”

“If I had to answer you now I’d say I was going to complete my assignment and turn your ass in.”

Stone took this in and finally nodded. “Okay. Fair enough. Just so we know where we stand.”

“So fill me in on the events leading up to us ending up here.”

Stone started talking. A half hour later he was finished as both pairs of shoes continued to drum against the wall.

“Damn!” Knox said. “You weren’t kidding about picking the wrong town to hide out in.” He rubbed at a cut on his face. “I talked to your buddies, by the way.”

“Which buddies?”

“You know which.”