Kong tries not to look at the picture, but he just keeps on looking. He has a hard time with it. So do I.

“Look, Jeet,” he says with surrender in his voice, “even if I wanted to, what can I do? You’re not talent. You two don’t have the first fucking clue. Breaking into Azar’s isn’t like robbing ye olde gift shoppe. I can get you past the primary systems, but then what are you two bumblefucks going to do? Do either one of you know anything about the capacitive loads of bus network topology? Or the schedule of cellular telephony report patterns? Or how to accommodate a Neiderer-grade multiple-impedance relay?”

“With your help we can do it.”

Again Jagjeet pushes the picture of Charlie toward him.

“A hundred to one,” Kong says, riveted to the picture. “At best.”

He says, “You can’t pick a lock and this guy can’t even walk.”

He says, “Hamburger. That it? You want to be ground fucking chuck?”

He says, “Besides, she’s probably already dead. I’m sorry, but it’s true: dead.”

Then, still unable to take his eyes off the picture, he finally says, “Fuck. All right. I’m going to regret this. But it’s going to cost. You know what I want.” He makes a meaningful pincer slash across his throat.

“O.K.,” Jagjeet says. “I’ll try.”

“O.K. what?” I say, confused about what deal has been struck. “What’s O.K.?”

“Jimmy,” Jagjeet says. “He wants me to kill Jimmy the Hat for him.”

“No,” I say. “No one’s killing anyone.”

I say this because it is the only part of myself that I have left. I am a liar, a criminal, a man without friends or family, a failure at work and life and love, all true. But I am not a killer.

Kong says, “Then forget it.”

“What about money?” I say. “I can pay you.”

“Yeah?” he says to Jagjeet. “How much can this guy pay me?”

I empty my pockets on the table and spread out all my remaining possessions.

“I’ve got thirteen hundred dollars in twenties. I’ve got some pills. The street value of this stuff is got to be close to a grand. This is a Sankt-Moeller button. It’s only second generation but it’s still got GPS and everything. Not sure what you’d use it for but it’s kind of cool. When you press the button it alerts Janus and the cops to your location and it’s got this really cool light that blinks like this and—”

“Guy’s funny. I don’t know if I want to laugh at him or shoot him.”