“These guys? Couple of hotshots I picked up in Baghdad. They got cut loose from Blackstone a while back. These are their wheels. Mine got impounded. They’re looking for work, they heard about Parr. Word gets around. I told them I’d take them to see the man himself. He can decide to take them on, or not. If not, they’re walking home. Or riding a camel.”

Watts laughed. “You,” he said, looking at Luke. “You got ID on you?”

Luke nodded. “Yeah.”

“Roll your window down and hand it to the man standing there.”

Luke powered his window down, reached inside his shirt, and came out with his contractor identification card. He handed it to the shaggy-haired gunman outside his window.

“What’s your date of birth?” Watts said.

Luke didn’t hesitate. “April 23, 1974.”

Watts looked at the man holding the ID card. The man nodded.

“What’s your sign?” Watts said.

“My sign?”

“Yeah. Your astrology sign.”

“Why? You looking for a boyfriend?”

All around them, the gunmen laughed.

“Funny guy,” Watts said. “Everybody knows their sign, even if they never read the horoscopes. Except for you, apparently.”

“Taurus,” Luke said. “The bull.”

Ed Newsam had also handed his ID to the men outside his window.

“You there,” Watts said. “Where did you grow up?”

“It doesn’t say it on my ID.”

“Play along, anyway. Just for fun.”

Ed shrugged. “East New York.”

Watts laughed. “East New York? What’s that? Like East St. Louis?”

“It’s a neighborhood. In Brooklyn.”

“Yeah? What’s it like there?”

Ed leveled his gaze at Watts. “It’s the pits. Like Tikrit, except the people are tougher, and there’s more gunfire.”

“You must feel right at home, then.”

Ed shrugged again, didn’t say anything.

“All right, gentlemen. The gate will open for you now. Cole, your two buddies will surrender their weapons once inside. Parr’s getting a little paranoid in his old age. He doesn’t like people he doesn’t know carrying guns around the house.”

“Fair enough,” Cole said.

It made sense, certainly. Luke could see the logic in it from their point of view, and it would raise suspicion if he tried to argue against it. But it was also going to make this arrest a bit more complicated.

Just ahead of them, the engine of the bus roared into life with a belch and blat of black smoke, and the old beast pulled slowly forward. The gate was open.

“Here we go, boys,” Cole said.

* * *

They left their guns with two men in the courtyard beyond the gate. One of them wore a white skull mask. The other wore a black mask that covered everything but his eyes, like a Ninja warrior.

“Hey, McDonough,” Cole said to the man in the skull mask. “How are you doing?”

“Cole,” the guy said. “I heard you died.”

“Well, I’m back from the dead,” Cole said.