She snorted. “Puh-leese. Don’t tell me you bought that noble for God and country duty-and-honor shtick. If anybody should know how good that professional liar is, it’s you. We get caught and tattle on Myers, he denies that he ever talked to us, and anything we say is just a lame attempt to get out of trouble. We end up in a shallow ditch in the desert, Stricken maybe has a few nagging doubts about some of his coworkers, but then he and Myers go back to their chess game of which bureaucrat has more clout again tomorrow. If we actually pull this off, then it’s just a happy bonus for Myers.”

“But you were like all friendly…You even said that you and Jefferson were cool—”

“That backstabbing son of a bitch? Of course not. The thing about Grant is that he really does think he’s doing the right thing. In his mind, he’s the hero. He’s got his own set of morals. Problem is, whatever he decides to do is automatically right. Anybody who gets in the way gets tossed under the bus.” Holly tried the door handle. As promised, it was unlocked. “Grant’s a real piece of work. Why do the really good-looking ones always have so much baggage?”

“I’m considered good-looking. I was in the top twenty of People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive once.” It had been a couple of years ago, right after Hold the Pig Steady had hit number one, but it still counted.

“That’s because girls will always love musicians, but like I said, baggage.” She shut her flashlight off, then slowly opened the door a crack to peek inside. The lights were on, revealing a metal stairwell. “Coast is clear. Now we wait for Grant and Archer to do their thing.”

The tunnel was humid and hummed with the noise of distant equipment. Occasional suspicious hissing noises didn’t do much to alleviate Mosh’s nervousness. “What do you mean ‘baggage’?” he whispered.

“Never mind.”

“No, really.”

Holly sighed. “I swear I always have to be the one that tells the truth, even when it sucks.” She kept looking through the crack. “Well, from what I hear, and your general state, the way I see it, you’re still wallowing in self-pity about what happened to you. You’re bitter, pissed-off, and won’t accomplish shit until you move on. You’ll either accept what happened, or let it eat at you until you die.”

Mosh wasn’t used to people being so blunt. Which was one of the main reasons he avoided his family. “You don’t know me, Holly.”