Even late at night, the streets of the Eastside are usually crowded. This close to the river, I expected the sidewalks to be carpeted with the city’s most destitute, but aside from the odd dozing vagrant, the sidewalks were bare. October was in the air, and it had driven them indoors. Where, I didn’t care.

“Firecracker. That louse.”

The voice was my father’s, and it came from over my shoulder. I turned, saw no one, and realized he was speaking only in my head.

“You expected better?” I muttered.

“He was always a bully, but he was never smart enough to be a liar. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“You taught me to never trust anything that made sense.”

“Hmph. Then what are you going to do about it?”

“I don’t know.”

“You’ve got a long walk to figure it out.”

“Who can I go to? Who would care? Barbie is dead. Cherub is crippled. La Rocca can’t be trusted. Brass Aiken is a mess. I can’t go to the police. I can’t go to the mayor. They would love to see Thorne wipe out the Upper West.”

“Maybe he’s not after the Upper West. Maybe the guns are a kind of peace deal—Van Alen paying Thorne to get him off his back.”

“Arming your enemy is a strange way to make peace.”

“Maybe they were never enemies in the first place. Could this all have been some kind of scheme—a plan to get rid of Barbie?”

“Don’t call her Barbie.”

“I’m your father, and I’ll call her what I want.”

“You are not my father. You’re my imagination, and I’d prefer not to imagine you and her doing that.”

“Your mother has been gone a long time, child. Andrea had her charms.”

“Bring up my mother again and I’ll bash my head out on the sidewalk.”

That shut him up, but not for long.

“You could blow up the ship.”

“They’d find another way to get the guns across. Through Van Alen’s tunnels, maybe.”

“Wait until the guns are aboard.”

“And then what? What do I know about explosives? I can’t even fire a pistol. In fact, I’m quite proud of the fact that I can’t fire a pistol. It’s a barbaric habit. And suddenly you’re instructing me to start blowing up boats. Ridiculous.”

“It would save a lot of lives.”

“Where would I get the explosives? The only man I know who’s confident about that sort of thing is the man who’s selling the guns!”