UnSouled

“Or maybe he’s buying somethin’ better.”

She gives a dubious chuckle, and Lev gives her a wi

Lev thanks her and heads off with his burger and slushy. If he appears overeager, it’ll just play into his cover story.

Having passed the DQ earlier that morning, he knows exactly where to go—but as he reaches the corner, he hears something that sounds out of place in a town like Heartsdale. The rhythmic chop of an approaching helicopter.

Even before it arrives, a series of police cars pull onto the street. Their sirens are off, but their speed speaks of urgency. There are more than a dozen vehicles. There are Juvey squad cars, black-and-whites, and unmarked cars as well. The helicopter, now overhead, begins to circle the neighborhood, and Lev gets a sick feeling deep in the pit of his gut.

Rather than following the cars, he comes at the scene from an adjacent street, cutting through a few backyards, so as not to be seen. Finally he finds himself peering through the slats of a wooden fence at an unkempt ranch-style house that is in the process of being surrounded.

A house with a green convertible T-Bird parked on the driveway.

6 • Co

That same morning, Argent comes down with a TV and plugs it into the outlet attached to the single dangling light fixture.

“All the comforts of home,” he happily tells Co

Argent, who must watch bad TV and infomercials all night long, didn’t wake up until after Grace had been gone and back, delivering her message to Lev. “Mum’s the word,” she had said. Co

The little TV pulls in a weak wireless signal from the house that makes everything painful to watch.

“I’ll figure out how to make it work better,” Grace tells Co

“Thanks, Grace. I’d appreciate that.” Not that Co

“No worries,” Argent says. “We don’t need a signal or cable to watch videos.”

By Co

Argent, who called in sick at the supermarket, spends the morning playing his favorite videos, his favorite music, his favorite everything for Co

“You’ve been out of circulation for a while,” Argent tells him. “Gotta reeducate you on what’s cutting-edge in the world,” as if he thinks Co

Argent’s theatrical tastes lean toward violent. Argent’s musical tastes lean toward dissonant. Co

“Once you let me out of this cellar,” Co

Argent doesn’t respond to that right away. Since yesterday, Co

Argent leaves Co

Co

“Classic Kasparov opening,” she says after four moves, suddenly not sounding low-cortical at all. “But it’s no good against a Sicilian Defense.”

Co

“Hell no!” says Grace proudly. “The brain’s all mine, such as it is. I just do good at games.” And then she proceeds to trounce Co

“Sorry,” says Grace as she sets up a second game.

“Never apologize for wi

“Sorry,” says Grace again. “Not for wi

Throughout the next game, Grace gives a blow-by-blow analysis, pointing out all the moves Co

“Don’t worry about it,” Grace says, capturing Co

Co

“Who taught you to play?”

Grace shrugs. “Played against my phone and stuff.” Then she adds, “I can’t play games with Argent. He gets mad when I win, and even madder when he wins, because he knows I let him.”

“Figures,” Co

Grace smiles. “I won’t.”

Grace leaves and returns with an old-fashioned backgammon board—it’s a game Grace has to teach Co

Argent comes back during the second game, and with a single finger, flips the board. Brown and white pieces scatter everywhere.

“Stop wasting the man’s time,” Argent tells Grace. “He doesn’t want to do that.”

“Maybe I do,” Co

“No, you don’t. Grace just wants to make you look stupider than her. And anyway, she’s useless. She couldn’t once get her game on in Las Vegas.”

“I don’t count cards,” mumbles Grace morosely. “I just play games.”

“Anyway, I got something much better than board games right here.” And Argent shows Co

“Argie!” says Grace, a little breathless. “You shouldn’t be using great-grandpa’s bong!”

“Why not? It’s mine now, isn’t it?”

“It’s an heirloom!”

“Yeah, well, form follows function,” says Argent, once more completely missing the actual meaning of the expression. This time Co

“Wa

“I’ve been tranq’d enough,” Co

“No—see it’s different when you smoke it. It doesn’t knock you out. It just throws you for a loop.” He pulls out a red and yellow capsule—the mildest kind used in tranq darts—and puts it in the bowl with some common yard ca

Co

“I’ll pass.”

Argent sighs. “Okay, I’ll admit something to you. It’s always been one of my fantasies to do tranq with the Akron AWOL and talk some deep spiritual crap. Now you’re actually here, so we have to do it.”

“I don’t think he wants to smoke tranq, Argie.”

“Not your business,” he snaps without even looking at Grace. Argent takes a hit from the pipe, then puts it over Co

The physiological response is quick. In less than a minute, Co

“You feeling it?”

Co

As Co