Mollie said, “I, uh … I never used to get so angry. But it’s like … it’s like after being exposed to supernatural rage so many times I can’t ever really leave it behind, you know? I’m tainted and I can’t get clean. And now I’m stuck in limbo and I get angry so easily and when I’m furious I start doing things with my power and when I’m back I don’t even understand what I did or how I did it. I’m dangerous. I need to be put away.” SCARE. That meant he was some kind of fancy federal cop, right? He could do that. “Look at me. I’m a mess because I just killed two people—fuck, it’s three by now—just because a shopkeeper chided me for knocking over some merchandise. I deserved to get thrown out of the store. They didn’t deserve anything at all except to live their lives. But he reached for me, and it reminded me of the way Berman would touch me, and it made me so mad…” She tried to wipe her eyes with the back of her hand, but it just smeared the blood stippled on her face.

Ray and Babel shared another look.

Mollie said, “And now you’re scared shitless. Which tells me you’re up to something important.”

Babel said, “We think we know how to stop this.”

“Stop me from losing my shit? Stop me from becoming a murdering lunatic?”

“Stop Horrorshow. We have a plan for putting an end to this.”

Mollie’s heart tried to chisel through her breastbone. Her pulse tripled. First in exhilaration, but then in dread. “And I’m the transportation.”

“Yes.”

“It means going back to Talas again, doesn’t it? Because that’s where … Because that’s the epicenter.”

Babel shook her head, waving her hands for emphasis. “No. No, no, you don’t have to worry about that. That’s the great part. We don’t need you to open a doorway to Talas. Instead, we need your help breaking somebody out of jail. He’s in Belgium. Very far from Kazakhstan.”

Mollie blinked. “I know I’m losing my mind, but still, I have to admit that is not what I expected you to say.” She shrugged. So far, it didn’t sound so bad. “Jails are easy. Who is he?”

“This jail won’t be,” said Ray. “Ever heard of the Highwayman?”

“Nope. Wait a sec—highwayman? As in robbing people on horseback?”

“Not exactly.”

“What’s he doing time for?”

“Ah.” Babel cleared her throat. “War crimes.”

Mollie leapt to her feet. “Are you fucking serious?”

Ray was out of his chair, too. Wow, for somebody whose face looked like badly sculpted clay he was spooky quick.

The entire world was getting absorbed by the evil insanity zone but instead of dealing with that problem these fucktards wanted Mollie to break some war criminal out of jail? What, so he could make the inevitable atrocities even worse? It was disgusting. It enraged her.