I thought about it. I had tended to get interrupted by one thing or another when I tried to ask Graham questions. By his phone, for instance, or a cracked kettle. Or a car accident.

Sticky accelerator, the other driver had said. I felt cold.

“A couple years ago,” Kara said, “I was on a job with this other Nolander named Kyle. Nice guy, but sort of dumb. Turned out he’d been doing half-workings to make fake lottery tickets. At first he was careful and just gave himself little wins. Then he got greedy, made himself a Powerball ticket. It was a big jackpot, and he got on the news. The boss got wind of it, put the hit out on him. Graham took it on. Anything to make himself look good, the bastard.”

Kara made a disgusted sound, then continued.

“So, I didn’t know about any of this, right? I’m with Kyle on this job, and Graham catches up with us in Des Moines. Now, Kyle might not have been the smartest guy, but he was strong. Double gifts: flight and fire. So the two of them square off, right? And Kyle comes rocketing at Graham with a fireball in each hand. Looks like he’s moving way too fast for bad luck to catch him. Graham’s just standing there like a dope. You know what happened?”

Kara paused for effect.

“A fucking 1959 Cadillac Eldorado fell out of the sky, landed right on top of Kyle.” She shook her head. “Right out of a blue sky. Damnedest thing I ever saw. When the police found him, they called a weather guy. Weather guy said the car must’ve been picked up in a tornado they’d had earlier that day a hundred miles away. Sure enough, it was registered to some old guy in Omaha. That’s the kind of thing that happens when Graham’s around.”

“But you said his range was a mile, not a hundred miles.”

“Kyle wasn’t a hundred miles away, right? That’s what counts.”

“But Graham had to influence an event a hundred miles away to get the car up in the air.”

Kara shrugged. “Yeah, I know. That’s how it works, though. It’s like he controls everything without even meaning to. There’s probably something happening in Timbuktu right now that will end up helping him next week.”

It was hard to believe. Really hard. But all these people believed it, and there was that car accident. I shuddered. Jesus.

“Well, this boss guy you mentioned will just have to come out here and take care of things himself,” I said.

Kara snorted. “Come on, seriously? The Seconds never ‘take care of things themselves.’ If they went around doing workings all the time, they might get discovered, and you know what would have to happen then. That’s why they have us. We’re expendable.”