“Talk about Camp Cypress,” Karch said, and threw the pamhplet down at me. Dex hit me again, right across the mouth. My front teeth felt loose, like they was floatin’ in blood.

“I found that pamphlet is all,” I said, but I’d been sayin’ that for a while and they weren’t buyin’ it. But what was I supposed to say? That I wasn’t goin’ there? That I was just wantin’ to track down Danny’s kid brother to make sure he didn’t squeal? “I just found it, is all…”

“I ain’t talkin’ to you,” Karch said and he got real close to me face and looked into my eye like he was peepin’ through a hole. “I’m talkin’ to you.”

Didn’t that beat all? Karch and his guys was always makin’ fun of me for talkin’ to that voice in my head. And now he wanted to talk to it, too.

He just wants to know about the guns, I kept sayin’ to myself. He just wants to know about the stash of guns you and the boys were stockpilin’ down at the Indian Hole. Maybe you should tell him. Maybe you should tell him about the little army you were gatherin’. Maybe you should tell him how you thought the Pool Boys might try to take back some Hunter territory. Or maybe you should just take him to the kid and let him spill the beans. 

“SHUT UP!,” I shouted. Karch got mad. Dex popped me another one in the mouth and I felt one of my front teeth squirt out. “Sorry, I wasn’t talkin’ to you, Karch.”

Karch laughed at that, and then started reading the pamphlet again.

“I heard about this place,” Karch said after a while. “Andersonville, they call it. What you got goin’ on over there?” Karch looked at me again, and said “Maybe I’m kinda feelin’ like a roadtrip, myself.”