Fear: A Gone Novel

Spider-Man bust—which Sam had incinerated in a moment of irritation—but the ghost of that former bust. Which was decidedly crazy. But crazy or not, he had the power to instantly determine truth from lie.
    Even when it was inconvenient.
    Now Toto said, “Sam is not telling the truth.”
    “I have no intention of using the missiles,” Sam said heatedly.
    “True,” Toto said blandly. “But not true when you said you won’t ever use them.” Then, in a furtive aside, he added, “Sam thinks he may have to use them.”
    Sam gritted his teeth. Toto was extremely useful. Except when he wasn’t.
    “I think we might have all guessed that, Toto,” Dekka said.
    Dekka had recovered her strength after the shocking ordeal she’d endured from the infestation of bugs. She had not entirely recovered from what she’d thought was her deathbed confession to Brianna. Even now the two girls could barely be in the same room together without awkwardness.
    Dekka had never told Sam exactly what she’d whispered into Brianna’s ear. But he was pretty sure he knew. Dekka was in love with Brianna. And Brianna had evidently not felt the same way.
    “Yes, she might have guessed it,” Toto said, speaking now to his sleeve.
    “Mohamed, what is Albert’s feeling about this?”
    Mohamed had a habit of taking a long pause before answering any question. Even “How are you?” It was probably one of the things that endeared him to Albert, who had grown suspicious, some might even say paranoid, about secrecy.
    “Albert has never spoken to me about this. I don’t know whether he knows about these missiles or not.”
    “Uh-huh,” Dekka said, and rolled her eyes. She held her palm out to Toto. “Don’t even bother, Toto; we all know that’s baloney.”
    But Toto said, “He’s telling the truth.”
    Mohamed took another long pause. He was a good-looking kid with the barest beginning of whiskers on his upper lip. “But, of course, now that I know, I’ll have to tell him.”
    “If we leave them where they are, sooner or later someone’s going to find them,” Sam said.
    Edilio said, “Dude, all due respect, you’re trying to talk yourself into this.”
    “Why would I do that?” Sam demanded. He sat forward in his chair and widened his arms and legs, sending the message that he had nothing to hide.
    Edilio smiled affectionately. “Because we’ve had four months of peace, my friend. And you’re bored.”
    “That’s not—” Sam began, but with a glance at Toto fell silent.
    “Still, if the missiles have to be somewhere, better with us,” Edilio said reluctantly.
    Sam felt a little embarrassed by how eager he was to grab onto that rationale. Okay: so he was bored. It still made sense to secure those weapons.
    “Okay,” Sam said. “We grab them. Dekka, it’ll be on you and Jack to move them. We’ll have Brianna check out the area, make sure no one’s around. They’re just inside Caine’s borders. We’ll need to get them across our line as quick as possible. Get them loaded onto a pickup.”
    “Burn gas?” Mohamed asked.
    “It’s worth the gas,” Sam said.
    Mohamed spread his hands apologetically. “Gas is under Albert’s control.”
    “Look, if Albert gives us the gas he’s supporting us,” Sam said. “So how about if this once we just do it? It won’t be more than a couple of gallons. We’ll skim from several different tanks so it won’t show on your books.”
    Mohamed took an even longer pause than normal. “You never said that, and I never heard you.”
    “That’s not true,” Toto said.
    “Yeah,” Dekka said, rolling her eyes, “we know.”
    “Okay. Tonight,” Sam said. “Breeze out front; Dekka, Jack, and me in the truck. We park the truck and the three of us head to the beach. Hopefully we’re back by morning.”
    “What about me, boss?” Edilio asked.
    “Deputy mayor is a heavy burden sometimes, dude.” Sam smiled. He felt a rush from the idea of a daring nighttime mission. Edilio was right: running the lake had been boring after the first frantic month. Sam basically hated handling all the little details and decisions. Most of his day was taken up dealing with stupid fights over nothing—kids fighting over ownership of a toy or some food, people slacking off on work they owed to the town, crazy ideas for getting out of the FAYZ, unhappiness over accommodations, violations of sanitary rules. Increasingly—not without a feeling of guilt—he had turned most of it over to