I search for a focal point to help get me through the pain, and see Nine groaning on the carpet. From where I am, it looks as if he’s having trouble breathing; it also looks like he can’t move his arms and legs. I want to help him, and struggle to get up, but I’m kicked back down as soon as I start to move. I roll onto my back and immediately a long cylindrical tube is pressed into my left eye. There are hundreds of lights inside the tube, and I watch them swirl together to become one solid green beam. It’s definitely a Mogadorian cannon, the same kind that paralyzed me outside our burning house in Florida. I focus my other eye past the side of the weapon and see a man in a khaki trench coat. He pulls back his gas mask to reveal a ring of white hair and a fat, crooked nose that looks like it’s been broken more than once. I find myself looking forward to breaking it again.

‘Don’t move,’ he growls at me, ‘or I’ll pull the trigger.’

I glance over at Nine, who seems to be recovering. He’s sitting up, looking around, struggling to shake off his dazed expression. The man with the cannon pressed to my face looks over at him. ‘What do you think you’re doing?’ he says.

Nine smiles up at him, clear eyed and calm. ‘Trying to decide which one of you I’m going to kill first.’

‘Shut him up!’ a woman yells as she enters the house, also carrying a Mog cannon. Two men press their boots against Nine’s shoulders and force him back to the floor. The woman motions at me, and someone takes me by the shoulders and pulls me onto my feet. Another man grabs my wrists to put me in handcuffs.

‘Son of a bitch!’ he cries as he touches my red bracelet. I may not know what all the bracelet does, but I like this part of it.

Once upright, I get my bearings. There are ten or twelve men in masks, all holding rifles. The man and woman who were speaking seem like they’re in charge. I look for Bernie, but don’t see him. Even so, I can hear him inside my head.

Just wait. Let’s see what they want and what they know.

‘What do you want with us?’ I ask the man with the broken nose.

He laughs and looks over at the woman. ‘What do we want, Special Agent Walker?’

‘For starters, I want to know who your friend is over there,’ she says, pointing the tube back at Nine.

‘I don’t know this kid,’ Nine says. He blows his hair out of his face and offers a smile. ‘I just stopped by to sell him a vacuum cleaner. The place looked like a dump and I thought he could use it.’