The bus dropped them on Seventh Street near Pershing Square. As it rumbled off, a blue Ford SUV pulled up, blasting black metal on the sound system. Coop didn’t know what band, but he recognized the style because it sounded like a gorilla stuck in a clothes dryer. Between the shaggy, headbanger lycan driver, the haze of weed rolling out the side door, and the broken side window, the SUV could not possibly have looked more stolen. Coop had to admire the wolves’ complete lack of giving a shit when he noticed that they’d noticed him noticing them. One of the gang who’d been on the bus stuck his butt out of the side door and dropped his pants, waving his human ass as the rest of the gang gave Coop the finger. The van sped off trailing a thick ganja fog, taking the gangsters away to party with friends, while Coop knew all he had going was a date with a single bed in a one-star hotel room, with overfriendly roaches and a TV stuck on the Weather Channel.

He heard a car honk from up the street. When he turned, Coop saw Morty in the Corvette about half a block behind him. He got out of the car and waited on the sidewalk, but didn’t get any closer. As Coop walked over, Morty took a step back.

“Don’t go getting all Rowdy Roddy Piper again,” Morty said. “Who do you think got you out of jail early?”

“You got me in in the first place.”

“And I got you out.”

“How? You don’t know anybody. I don’t know anybody and you know even less people than me.”

“That’s because you’re antisocial. You should get out more.”

“I don’t want to know people. They get you arrested.”

Morty ignored the remark and looked around.

“Not the people I know. They get you unarrested.”

Coop shook his head and turned to go.

“I don’t want to hear it.”

“You kind of have to,” said Morty.

Coop stopped.

“Why?”

“That’s how I got you out. I told him you were good for the job.”

“You know what I’m good for right now?”

“What?”

“Not talking to you.”

Coop jaywalked through traffic to a bus stop across the street. Digging in the plastic bag, he came up with enough change for the fare. When he turned around, Morty was right beside him.

“You just said it yourself, you don’t know anybody. Where you going to go?”

“Away from you and your shifty friends.”

A bus arrived and Coop started onto it, then stepped down.

“You have a cigarette?”

“Sure,” said Morty. “Here. Keep the pack.”

“Gee, the whole pack?” said Coop. “I guess this makes up for everything.”

The door closed and the bus rumbled away with Coop on it.

FOUR