"This is disgusting, Jesse." Lexa made a face at the cold double bacon cheeseburger she held in her hands, as she sat with her back against a brown dumpster with peeling paint.
"Well, I'm sorry, Lady Lexa. The dumpster menu is limited." Jesse was seated next to Lexa. He had already consumed one of the cheeseburgers, and was unwrapping another.
Shalimar peeled back the wrapper of her burger. "At least this stuff is clean, and not, umm, partly eaten."
"Yeah, Burger Wizard has a strict policy about tossing sandwiches that have been sitting around unsold for more than two hours. They have standards to hold up."
"How do you know so much?" Lexa challenged grumpily. She still hadn't brought herself to take a bite.
"After I decided I didn't want to get married and I ran off, my grandfather wired me money for years so I could just travel around and have a good time. When he died, the money stopped, so I actually had to get a job. I flipped burgers at Burger Wizard."
"You had a job? With a paycheck?" Lexa's tone was dictated partly out of surprise and partly out of sarcasm. The last three weeks spent scrounging since the destruction of Sanctuary and the Flying Sow had worn down everyone's patience.
"Yeah, but I didn't put up with it for very long. I nearly walked out the morning the manager had the nerve to chew me out in front of everyone for being ninety minutes late. Me! In front of everybody! Then Adam and Shalimar walked in."
"This is how you met Adam?"
"Hee, yeah, that's what happened. Keep telling the story, Jess."
"So, Adam walks in with Shalimar and orders two chocolate-peanut butter shakes, six chicken chow mein fajitas, and two orders of humongousized spiral fries with embedded cilantro, dried tomato, and chili peppers."
"You remember all that?"
"Yeah. I also remember Shal nudging him, saying, 'He's like me, Adam. Get him out of here.'"
"How did you know?" Lexa asked.
"Wild guess."
"So Adam says, 'Kid, are you special?' and Shal says, "Like, are you a mutant, he means.' I told him, 'Yeah. So?' Then he said, 'Make that order for three people, and quit. We'll talk about it over lunch. You'll never have to work in a place like this again.'"
"And you believed him?"
"Sure."
"We brought Jesse right back to Sanctuary."
"Yeah, my eyes started to water as soon as we got inside, there was so much ammonia in the air."
"Ammonia?" Lexa asked.
"Shal's litter pan was a mess! It got a lot better after Adam got her a Litter-Maid for her birthday."
"You didn't have to mention that."
Lexa took a single bite out of her cheeseburger. "I wish Brennan has shared out the money from the wallets he lifted. I'd give almost anything for a hot shower and a clean toothbrush."
"Too bad he tried to pick the pocket of an undercover cop…all that cash went with him." Jesse sighed.
Lexa took another bite. "Brennan'll be in the courts for years…the bank job…murdering the woman in the wheel chair won't go over well with a jury…making Mason Eckhart take a dive and go splat won't fly far, either."
"But he did not make me go splat," a voice from above announced.
The kids looked up to see Mason Eckhart perched on the edge of the dumpster. He wore his heavy white coat, so had protection against the chilly air.
"You're supposed to be dead," Shalimar said.
"Except I'm not. That was my brother."
"Your twin Marcus drowned. You told me about it," Lexa said.
"We were actually a set of triplets. My brother Martin was never very good at imitating me."
A cold wind blew down behind the Burger Wizard.
"So, what are you going to do? Arrest us?"
"No need, Mr Kilmartin. Without Adam to tell you what to do, you are all neutralized."
"Neutralized?"
"Neutralized. Look at you: no skills, no education, no way of accounting for the last three years of your lives. Who would hire you? Perhaps you will follow in the felonious footsteps of your friend Mr Mulwray, who is facing criminal charges in several states."
"That's depressing," Shalimar said.
"Each of us has to live with the choices we make. You chose to blindly follow Adam, not giving a thought to your futures or raising a question about his goals."
No one replied. The truth stung. Eckhart slid nimbly down to the pavement.
"I am going inside for a fresh chow mein fajita." He turned away, then turned back briefly. "I almost feel pity for you. Almost."