Page 201 of Johnny

She scoffs. “As if.”

“I’m a professional too. I could kill you right now.”

“I’d like to see you try.”

“Who are you?”

“You’re no professional. They set you up and you fell for it. You fell for the oldest trick in the

book.”

“You’re fourteen. You don’t know anything about old tricks.”

“Ha. That’s funny. I was born an old trick.”

This makes me pause.

She was bred, and trained, and used. And now she’s here with me, caught by mistake.

And what did she mean? I fell for it?

“I’ll spell it out for you,” she says, like she’s reading my mind. “If it will move this little

transaction along a little quicker. You were sent down here to burn that lab down, Johnny Boston.

That lab was a clean-up job. They wanted it gone and for whatever reason they wanted you to do it.

Two birds, one stone. Oldest trick in the book.”

I just blink at the little girl.

“Yeah, and if you hurt me or refuse to let me go? I have three men more dangerous than you or

anyone you’ve ever heard of who will swoop in with the wrath of hell and make you pay.”

“You’re lying,” I breathe. But my heart is hammering inside my chest right now. My lungs are

tightening. Because I know she’s not. I know this creepy little girl knows more about me, and my life,

and what I’ve been doing all these years than I ever will.

And I’m suddenly… very fucking afraid of the truth locked up inside her.

“Need more? OK. Fine. I’ll give you more. How about some details to sweeten the pot? The Way

is breeding babies to force them to make antibodies which can then be injected into mature humans,

who will then be exposed to a deadly infectious disease. If they live, yay. We made a vaccine for the

worst epidemic this planet will ever see.” She holds up the silver canister. “If they die, back to the

old drawing board. You see, their grand plan involves decimating two-thirds of the world’s

population. It’s not easy to do that without fucking up the whole planet. So…” She shrugs. “Infection.

That’s way better than a nuclear war, don’t you think?”

“What?” I just stare at her.