“Why?” I asked.
“To stop you from making a big mistake. You must stay away from the Gray Men. Abort your juvenile mission.”
“You made the mistake by showing up again,” Fiona said. “He used to be one of us, Quentin. But he took off with a good object.” She had her knife out now. I saw her raise it with a mischievous smile. She made a tiny sawing motion on the air.
Robert threw his hand to his cheek. It came away running with blood. “Keep these freaks off me, Draith,” he said.
“Tell me things,” I said, waving for Fiona to knock it off. “I don’t understand how we’re making a mistake. Explain it to me.”
Robert wiped away more blood as it oozed from his cheek. “Step down into this crater with me. I’ve got something to show you.”
None of us moved. Instead of following him to the center, we clustered close to the various boulders. They were the only cover out here. I looked around the dark desert. We were all expecting there might be others lurking nearby. Perhaps gunmen.
“You need to speak clearly,” Gilling said softly. “My companions are liable to become nervous and kill you, Robert.”
“We know you are out here to agitate the Gray Men,” he said.
“We?” I asked.
“The Community,” Robert replied.
I nodded. “Who among them sent you?”
Robert’s eyes flicked over us.
Fiona held up her knife again. “Can I?”
I held up a flat hand to stop her. “Who sent you?” I asked again.
“Every time, Draith,” Robert said, shaking his head. “Every time there is a shit storm, I can bet my bottom dollar you are in the middle of it, can’t I?”
“I’ve never met you before,” I said.
Robert laughed. “Did Meng scrub your brain clean again? We’ve met many times. We’ve worked together. Trust me.”
Fiona apparently didn’t find his response helpful. She gave him a tiny little jab this time. He made a sound like a dog that had been kicked and reached for his right thigh. Fiona giggled.
“Stop that, you little witch!” he shouted.
“He’s avoiding the question,” she said to me.
I nodded. “Who sent you?”
“Rostok sent me,” Robert said, rubbing at his leg and glaring toward Fiona.
“How’d you get here?” I asked.
Robert waved at the smoldering spot in the midst of the boulders. “How do you think? I had to walk past fifty lava pits full of slugs to get here and pop into this forgotten hole.”
“How the hell could anyone know we would be at this precise spot?”
Robert rolled his eyes at me. “You haven’t seen many of the big powers yet, have you, Draith? Don’t be a fool. You are just a small-time wizard in this game. Think big.”
“Help me out,” I said.
“Think time distortion. Think clairvoyance. Think rips that are instant and invisible. I don’t know. I don’t understand everything the Community can do.”
I nodded. I glanced at Gilling. He shrugged back. I took this to mean he didn’t know what they were capable of either. I marked this experience down on my long list of reasons to be cautious with the Community.
“You are an agent of the Community,” I said. “I get that. But why did you leave your ring with Jenna?”
“Objects are trouble. The more you have the more you get.”
I had to agree with him on that point. “So, Jenna was safekeeping for the ring, is that it? You figured you could always go back and take it from her?”
Robert shrugged. “The ring is small time. It wasn’t worth the trouble it brought.”
I thought about that. I didn’t believe he would leave the ring with Jenna forever. Maybe he would go back for it later and take it from her. Of course, he wouldn’t want to tell me that now. Whatever his intentions were concerning Jenna’s ring, he clearly had another object. Something that allowed him to travel out here. Was it the asbestos booties? I doubted it. They looked damaged and makeshift.
Robert was looking at each of us, as if gauging our positions. Did he think he could take us all? His attitude worried me. He was concerned, but not terrified. I decided to keep asking questions. If there was going to be a fight, I might as well get everything out of him that I could, first.
“Let’s forget about Jenna and the ring,” I said. “Tell me about Bernie from the Lucky Seven, and my house. Both were burned by lava slugs.”
“Bernard was my doing,” he admitted. “But your house was an accident. Sometimes when you step in and out, things follow you.”
“What about Tony Montoro and the others? Who has been killing these people?”
“The Gray Men have been behind most of the attacks.”
“Exactly,” I said. “That’s why we are planning to hit the Gray Men at their base.”
“Right. Total insanity.”
“Why?”
“Because they will slaughter you, for one thing. And even if they don’t, they will take your action as a formal declaration of war. It may be too late already, due to your prior actions.”