“Hey,” said Slider, friendly enough in his gaze when their eyes met. Donny liked to think he had earned Slider’s trust after successfully helping him out of a few jams, yet every time they met, he could never be sure.

“Holler if you need me,” said the woman. “I’ll be in the shed.”

Slider nodded.

“Can we sit?” said Donny.

Slider nodded again, in the direction of the living-room furniture. Slider took the armchair, and left Donny the loveseat, which tried to swallow him when he sat in it.

Slider laughed.

“For my next trick I will step right onto the trapdoor,” said Donny.

“We actually have one,” said Slider. “This safe house has a basement.”

“Really,” said Donny. “Doesn’t sound like such a great idea here in the city of underwater freeways.”

“Yeah,” said Slider. “That’s what I thought, but this spot is pretty high and dry. Not much of a basement, just kind of a rough cellar, but a good place to cache stuff.”

“What do you keep down there?”

“Better if I don’t tell you,” said Slider. “Even if you are my lawyer.”

“Maybe your lawyer isn’t even sure he wants to know why you still need a safe house. The fighting is over, in case you missed the memo. You won.”

“That’s a matter of opinion,” said Slider.

“How so? We were both there, when the people took over Washington.”

Slider nodded. “Yeah, and that was awesome. But just the beginning.”

“I hear you,” said Donny. “We still need to work out what the new Constitution is going to look like—”

Slider rolled his eyes like Donny didn’t get it.

“That kind of thing takes a while,” said Donny. “Especially when you want to make sure executive power is never concentrated in the hands of a single individual ever again.”

“Man, I thought you were smarter than that,” said Slider. “The change we need is so much more radical than what any of those do-gooder dorks think. The only ones who half get it are in New Orleans, and even they don’t have the balls to take it far enough.”

“Your parents would have been pretty happy with it,” said Donny.

“What do you know about what my parents wanted? Give me a fucking break.”

“Maybe you’re right. I’ve just been reading up on their work. Watched some old interviews, found their manifesto. I feel like their ideas helped us get here. And I think I’ve figured out a way to get justice for what happened.”

“You mean lawyer justice? For what they did to my parents? The amnesty deal your friends in Washington cooked up is what that is. Fucking nada, sorry, thanks for playing. In case you didn’t get that memo. That’s what killed the case your buddy Miles Powell tried after he gave me the same speech.”

“I know. I helped Miles and Percy with that case.”