Allie thought about it, and found the idea both compelling and disturbing. “Do you mean diving into random people, and searching their thoughts for crimes?”

“Not necessarily,” said Milos. “We could search the minds of people awaiting trial, or perhaps people who are suspected of getting away with the perfect crime. We can find the truth within them, and then make them confess. Have you ever seen a criminal confess to something they might have otherwise gotten away with? Well, maybe they were justiced by a skinjacker.”

“But isn’t that … invasion of privacy?”

Milos shrugged. “No more so than a search warrant, and that is perfectly legal. We just search a little deeper.”

Although Allie felt conflicted, she had to admit that it could be ethical, if there were strict guidelines—such as only searching those who are already under official suspicion. But then, who would decide what the guidelines should be? Every skinjacker would make up their own rules, and not all of them would be as honorable as her.

“This is a good skill to know,” Milos explained. “You see, there are those here in Everlost who will pay well to have their killers brought to justice.”

“I don’t want to be paid.”

“Fair enough,” Milos said. “Sometimes a good deed is payment enough.”

Which led them to the second lesson of the day. Terminizing. For this he took her to a hospital in the outskirts of Nashville. Once there, they found several terminally ill patients. Milos amazed Allie by skinjacking one of them— not to take over the patient’s body, but simply to make himself known. By the time Milos peeled away, the man had a look on his face like he had been visited by an angel.

“We tell them the truth,” Milos explained. “We tell them that there is something more. That after their last heartbeat, the tunnel and the light will come.”

“But we don’t know what’s in the light.”

“It does not matter,” said Milos. “Most people just want to know that there is something, whatever that something is.”

As they went searching for another patient, Allie dared to ask, “So, what’s in it for you?”

Milos looked down. “I see,” he said sadly. “Everything Milos does must serve Milos.”

Allie immediately felt bad she had said anything.

Milos held his pout for a moment more, then it became a mischievous grin. “I ask them to put in a good word for me when they reach the light.”

Allie slapped his arm, and he laughed. “Shut up! You do not!” But she was never quite sure if he was joking or serious.