“Necessary for what?” Nick asked. “What are you after?”
“Youwill help me.” The intensity on Gile’s face was twisted, as though he was saying something else with the words. “Five million dollars.”
Nick blinked. Of all the things he thought the parasite might want,moneyhad never even been on the list. “Why do you want money?”
“Five million dollars,” Gile said. “Or I will kill ten people.”
“Okay.” Nick held up his hands. He could see the faint green of Zahide’s magic on his skin. “You can do it—I’ve seen your work—but why do you need money? And why did you want to talk tome?”
“Who else should we talk to who has the power to do it?” Gile asked. His eyes raked over Nick. “You killed a god. Surely coming up with what we want should not be a problem. Paper costs much less than the blood we will answer with if we do not get what we want.”
“We?” Nick asked again. “Others like you?”
“We”—Gile’s voice was a sneer—“will not be questioned.”
“What are you giving us in return?” Nick said. “You want five million dollars, we need something to know your word is good.”
“You want him.” Gile shook his head. “No. But Iwillgive you time.”
“Time,” Nick said.
“Time,” Gile hissed. “I will give you time to get the money. If you do not do it in a reasonable amount of time, Redmond Gile will be among the first ten. Then there will be another ten and another and another untilI get what I want.”
“Let me talk to my bosses,” Nick said.
Gile turned away. “Yes. Talk. Then money.”
“And while I’m talking…” Nick trailed off. He didn’t want to force the parasite to put him under a clock, but he wasn’t sure what time spans the parasite considered “time.”
“While you’re talking, Gile will live. But thenten.”
“And then ten more,” Nick nodded. “Okay. But right now, zero.”
“For now,” the parasite agreed. Gile turned away, and Nick backed out of the room.
Once outside, Zahide checked him for spellwork, narrowing her eyes when she ran a hand over the fabric of his suit, like she could tell Parker’s magic was there, but had no idea what it did.
“Five million?” Rios said skeptically. They had retreated to a conference room, one wall taken up by case notes about a string of robberies and a massive map of San Amaro.
“What does a parasite need with five million?” Tate asked.
“I don’t know, but we have more information than we did before,” Nick said. “And we have some time.”
“What are you thinking?” Tate asked.
“I think we need to figure out who the other nine people infected are. Because he’s the only one we’ve found in the building. They must be outside. In the city.” Nick crossed his arms.
“Not necessarily,” Rios said. “All ten could be here in the station. We haven’t finished checking everyone.”
“No.” Parker shook his head, eyes locking on Nick’s, the way they did when he and Nick were so in sync that they were practically thinking the same thoughts. “Because if they took over two cops, they’d know that the station would get immediately locked down, then they could only have one round of theirWho Wants to be Bloody Gooreality show. He said ten and ten and ten… The other nine are out in San Amaro.”
Parker’s eyes went wide, and he looked back at the map of San Amaro. “They could beanywhere.”
CHAPTER TEN
They endedup back at Major Crimes, all packed into the conference room Nick had been in earlier. The pictures looked even more gruesome because now every time Nick looked at one, he saw Gile. Every bloody remnant was what would happen if they failed to find the others.
“How much time?—”
