She grins at the alarmed look on my face. ‘If you’re lucky, John Smith, or whatever your name is, we’ll show you a video of how we use our interrogation techniques on Sam. But if you’re really lucky, we’ll show you some footage of that little blonde girlfriend of yours. What’s her name again?’

‘Oooooohhhh, shit,’ Nine says. I can hear the grin in his voice as he knows what is about to go down. ‘Now you’ve gone and done it.’

It takes me a second to find my voice. ‘Sarah,’ I whisper. ‘I know she’s working with you. What did you have to tell her to turn her against me?’

Agent Purdy grabs his cannon and settles back into his seat. ‘Are you kidding me? That girl wouldn’t tell us a thing, and, believe me, we asked many things in many different ways. She had nothing to say to us. She’s in love.’

Once again, I’m stunned. I was so sure Sarah was working with the government to bring me in. When I saw her last week in Paradise, she acted so strange. She met me in the park, but then started getting mysterious text messages – at two in the morning. Seconds later we were surrounded by agents and being slammed to the ground. I can’t think of anything else that explains it. It had to have been those text messages; they must have been from the police. How else could they have known that Sam and I were there? Damn. Now I don’t know what to think. And she’s still in love with me?

‘Where is she?’ I demand.

‘Far, far away,’ Special Agent Walker says. Is she taunting me?

‘Who cares, dude?’ Nine yells, interrupting. ‘Big picture, Johnny, big picture! She’s not in it! Neither is Sam!’

I ignore him. Now that I know the U.S. government has Sam and Sarah, I’m determined to find them both. I’m thinking of my next move, my next question, when I feel Bernie Kosar crawling out of my jeans pocket.

It’s almost time to go, he says. We’ll take the woman to lead us to Sam and Sarah.

‘Nine,’ I say. ‘You ready to get out of here?’

‘God, yes. Been ready forever. I really have to pee.’

Special Agent Walker glances from me to Nine and back again. She doesn’t know where to point the cannon, so she moves it back and forth between us. Agent Purdy stands again and does the same. The guard in the back of the truck points his rifle at us.

‘If they move, shoot anything but a vital organ!’ Agent Purdy says, moving to stand shoulder to shoulder with Special Agent Walker.

Bernie Kosar jumps from my lap and crawls up the glass door. He flitters his tiny cockroach wings at me and he says to count to five.

‘Hey, Nine?’ I ask.