“I don’t know. It had the ring of truth to me. All I know is she’s free, I helped make that happen, and I want my fee.”

“That’s not our deal at all,” said Lecker. “Lawyers are so good at changing the deal as soon as you have them write it down.”

“Come on, Doc. You owe me and you know it. But I guess I shouldn’t expect you to honor a deal.” He gestured out the window, at the corporate army mobilizing to steal its own sovereignty. “By what right do you think you can do this, in bald violation of the Compact?”

“The right of he whom no one will dare to stop,” said Lecker. “We have an invitation from the governor, who has deputized us members of his state guard. The state is not party to your revolutionary compact, and the territory we are repossessing belongs to the state.”

“I have everything I need to stop you.”

“You can tell me on the way there, then,” said Lecker.

“Never mind,” said Donny. “I have a better idea.”

He stood to leave. And it was only then that he realized the plane was in motion.

He grabbed the seatback and turned toward the forward part of the cabin. The door was closed. And between Donny and the door stood the beefy secretary, with a metal club in his hand.

Donny looked back at Lecker.

“I know about your ratline, Doc.”

“Excuse me?”

“Bruce here probably was one of the camp guards I’ve been looking for,” said Donny, nodding at the secretary. “That freaky TV pitchman grill of his should have given it away.”

“You really do talk too much,” said Lecker.

“That may be, but you are not going to shut me up about this one. Because I have the documentation to prove it.”

Lecker laughed. “That’s impossible.”

“Is it? I wasn’t surprised to learn a guy like you keeps such fastidious records, however much you try to code them. That’s probably the real reason you’re headed to New Orleans with your napalm posse. Not because they walked their debts, or because you want the real estate. You know they got their hands on enough of your files to put it together. Well, you’re too late, because they did. And they gave me a copy. And I made more copies. I brought one just for you.”

Donny opened his briefcase and handed the document to Lecker.

“The part about pulling their teeth and giving them new implants was a beautiful touch,” said Donny. “Too bad it achieved the opposite effect of what you intended. That was the initial key that unlocked the whole program. Now we know where every one of these bastards is.”

Lecker was flipping the pages as Donny spoke, taking in the information.

“What do you plan to do with this?” he asked.

“I thought maybe we could revisit our deal.”

56