It also wasn’t great for morale. No one wanted to see their neighbors getting their chests ripped open in broad daylight. Made for a real bummer of a commute.

She also realized later that it was likely the plan all along to let her dad terrify people by repossessing a few organs so Lopez could swoop in and put a stop to it. They were good at always presenting Lopez as the good guy and her dad as the monster. But the truth was, everything that they did, they did together.

Maisie glanced at Lennon. “He’s what you heard. But he was also a good dad.”

He raised his eyebrows. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. My mom died when I was two—the virus—and he was actually pretty good at parenting by himself. Some of the other dads around here seemed to completely fall apart when their wives died, or they just had no interest in their kids. But Dad wasn’t really like that.”

“No?” He looked at her curiously.

“No. He took me nearly everywhere with him, when I was a kid. Even when he didn’t have to. I used to sit on his lap during his poker games, even though all the other kids were in the next room. He seemed to actually like having me around.”

“Wouldn’t know what that’s like,” Lennon said, looking up at the sky.

“What?”

“Having a dad who likes having you around.”

She hesitated, unsure what to say to that. Finally she swatted his shoulder lightly, with a smile. “Well, nothing like a little kidnapping to make your parents appreciate your presence, right?”

He laughed, his lips curving up into a bright, wide smile of his own. She hadn’t seen him smile like that, and she realized suddenly that this must be his real smile. The one that wasn’t tinged with terror or nerves.

“True,” he said. “My parents and my sisters will never take me for granted again after this.”

“You have sisters?”

“Yeah, two. Stella and Caroline.”

“Are you close?”

“Not so much with Caroline, my older sister. She’s always been the golden child, and since I was the screwup, there wasn’t much common ground there. But Stella and I are pretty close. I’m three years older than her, which was just enough to fool her into thinking I was cool when we were younger.”

“But not now?”

“No, now she’s sixteen, so she’s old enough to know better.” He grinned at her.

She smiled, pointing to the garage ahead. “The car’s there.”

“Do you know how to drive?” he asked.

“Of course I know how to drive.”

“Hey, I was just asking,” he said. “Sometimes people in cities don’t drive. A lot of New Yorkers don’t.”

“Dad taught me when I was twelve. I transported stuff for him back then; I had to learn.”

She stopped in front of the garage and typed out the code on the pad. The gate creaked open.

Lennon hopped into the passenger’s side of the small black car as she slid into the driver’s seat. He put the backpack by his feet and grabbed the map from inside.