Desolation. Derek Landy

where you are.”

      He laughed. “This is America, young lady. Land of the free. You can’t tell me what to do. If I want to walk, I walk.”

      He took another step, and another, matching her backwards steps.

      She snarled. “Sir, if you take one more goddamn step, you’re going to regret it.”

      “Yeah?” said the man, and then he showed her the gun he was holding under the map. “Somehow, I don’t think so.”

      Amber’s eyes widened. The gun was an automatic, and it had a silencer on the muzzle.

      “Don’t do it,” the man said. “Don’t change. Moment I see horns, I’m putting a bullet between them.”

      She didn’t need to ask him why he was here.

      “Where is he?” the man said. “The Ghost. Where is he?”

      “Who?”

      “The Ghost of the Highway,” the man snapped. “I know he’s here with you, so where exactly is he?”

      She thought about lying, but couldn’t come up with a way to exploit a lie, so she decided on the truth. “He’s keeping an eye on the Hounds,” she said. “You know about the Hounds, don’t you?”

      “Yeah, I know about the Hounds. But where is he?”

      “I don’t know,” she said. “He drives around a little. Checks the perimeter.”

      He aimed for her head. “Where is he?”

      Amber swallowed. “Over that way.” She jerked her head to show him.

      “Then we’re going in the opposite direction,” the man said. He motioned to the car. “In you get. Go on. No, the driver’s side.”

      “What?”

      “You’re gonna drive us right up to those Hounds, and I’m gonna sit beside you and keep this gun pointed straight at your gut.”

      “I can’t drive.” She held up her hands. “I can’t grip the wheel.”

      “What?” He shook his head. He looked furious. “What the hell did you do?”

      “I didn’t do anything,” Amber replied. “It was a guy like you, someone who wanted to take me back to the Shining Demon. He did this.”

      “Shit.” The man stared at her. He started chewing his lip. “Shit. Well, I can’t drive. I gotta keep the gun on you.”

      “Don’t know what you want me to do about it.”

      “Shut up,” he said. “Shut up and let me … Okay, right, Plan B. We walk outta here.”

      “Walk out of town? That’s miles.”

      “You think I’m happy about it? Walk ahead of me. We stay away from anyone we see, you understand? If you try to be sneaky and alert someone to what’s going on, I kill them, you dig? Get going.”

      They got to the park and cut across it, staying out of sight of the kids and their parents. Every minute or so the man would issue another instruction to steer clear of houses or roads or people walking their dogs. They got to an old walking track and stayed on it for a while.

      “So who are you?” Amber asked.

      “I don’t recall saying anything about small talk.”

      “This isn’t small talk,” she said. “I think I deserve to know the name of the man who’s going to deliver me to the Hounds.”

      She heard the smirk in his voice. “Yeah, maybe. Name’s Phil Daggett – though most people know me as the Yukon Strangler.”

      “Serial killer?”

      “There is not a name for what I am.”

      “You a friend of Elias Mauk, then?”

      “He’s never had the privilege of meeting me. But he will. When this is over and I get the power I want, they’ll all wanna meet me.”

      She glanced over her shoulder at him. His face was red and his breathing was laboured. He wasn’t used to this much exercise. Neither was she, for that matter. She didn’t want to imagine what her own face looked like.

      “You’re still alive,” she said.

      “Eyes front.”

      Amber looked ahead as she walked. “You’re still alive,” she repeated. “Most of the killers who sign up with the Shining Demon wait until they’re dead to … Wait. You haven’t signed up with him, have you?”

      “No more talking.”

      She stopped suddenly, and turned.

      Daggett pulled up, confused. “What do you think you’re doing?”

      “You haven’t made a deal with him, have you?” she asked. “So why are you here?”

      “Get moving.”

      “Not until you answer my questions.”

      “I will kill you right now if you do not start walking.”

      “The Shining Demon wants me alive,” she countered. “So come on – what’s in it for you?”

      He hesitated. “If I hand you over, I get my deal.”

      “You tried to make a deal before this,” she said, “but you weren’t interesting enough, were you?”

      “Watch your mouth.”

      “Explain it to me, Phil, or I’m not moving.”

      “Goddamn you, you little bitch …! You march when I goddamn say you march!”

      “Explain.”

      Fury danced in his eyes. “I tried to make a deal,” he said. “So what? I tried and it didn’t work. It doesn’t work for everyone. I understood. I didn’t let it stop me. I kept going out, I killed more women – whores and sluts and filthy, filthy creatures, the lot of them – because I knew, I knew that if I could just prove myself worthy of his interest, all my dreams would come true. Then the night before last my bedroom was filled with this light, with this incredible light … I figured it was a sign. I figured he was calling me. I did the whole circle thing … and it worked, and I was in his castle.”

      “And he offered you a deal if you could come in here and drag me out.”

      “I jumped in my car immediately. I didn’t think I’d be the first to find you, but hey.” He shrugged, and smiled. “I guess it’s my lucky day.”

      Amber frowned. “The first?”

      Daggett laughed. “You didn’t think I was the only one, did you? Everyone who’s ever tried to contact him and failed, he summoned. They’re all on their way here. Serial killers of all kinds are closing in on this town as we speak.”