HIS UNSIGNED MERCY

of face that made you f

his car, or hadn't slept at all. He looked like a man who'd spent the night doing something unpleasant for someb

you're about to bolt, and I haven't sle

e door, one window, three stories

ress, and held the notebook out to me spin

ke

tar

were bagging this room an hour ago, and I told them I'd finish up." He shrugged. "I'm not a man who burns t

The words were out bef

t exits, not decimals." He grinned, and it was a g

It was dry and warm from his grip. I

you hel

y week two." He picked up his coffee again. "And because I've got a sister, and if she ever got thrown

undred dollars in tens and twenties, folded in thirds, and

s were out last night. I told them you'd left the city by midnight. The boss said morning, but Lucian doesn't w

decided in the fish market that I should

ee, back and forth, back and forth. Honest people don't usually need something to do with their ha

other option. I

is down for maintenance," he said, in the voice of a man who definitely hadn't arranged it. "Don't ask me

nd counted the steps down. Thirty-three. At the bott

tside a shuttered diner. I had fifteen minutes before the bus. I stood at the corner unde

es. I knew it the way you know

indow was

inged with red, and the skin under them was gray. He looked like a man who'd been awake all night

how to

ween us and one pane of glass. I did th

Two.

stop. He didn't point, shout, or lift a finger. His jaw

. Nin

up, and the SUV pulled away from the cur

the most dangerous man in the city had given

rstanding it. Mercy is a strange thing to find in

l with headphones, a woman with a baby. I took the last row, where I could see the who

e notebook

ther or blame him. I know this notebook the way other people know a song. Sixty-three pages, each numbered i

-one. Page

paper where page sixty

t. A clean, careful te

ittle drawing of a compass rose, and under it a string of nine digits. I'd never unde

give m

ross the street, outside the shuttered diner, a man stood under the awning with

wasn't wav

ing someone