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“Ugh, speaking of, Mia keeps begging for a dog. I told her to convince Uncle Eli to get one so she could visit.”

“Not a chance,” said Eli. “There’s barely enough room in my apartment for me.”

“I’ve actually been thinking about getting one,” said Carter. “Now that I own my own place and don’t have to worry about pissing off landlords.”

“Great, then I’ll send her your way,” Greer said.

Jack looked between them, watching this exchange like a spectator at a sporting event. He wasn’t even on the sidelines, he realized. That would imply he had the skill set to jump into the game. As the others spoke about their new lives, he knew he was on the outside looking in, and he couldn’t quite figure out how to join them. Their worlds had kept turning, their lives had kept evolving, and they had just let it happen. It was a strange and uncomfortable thing to be made so acutely aware of, that despite Jack being the one in a new body, they’d all changed in more significant ways while he’d remained in the past. It was an easier place to be. A time before responsibilities. Before expectations. Before Jules…

It was okay, he told himself. He just had to bide his time. In a few short hours they’d be on the road to complete the most important job of their lives, and that would bring them all right back to where they used to be. How could it not? That night’s Master List heist would be everything the You Agains had ever been and then some. All that had happened in the intervening years paled in comparison, and soon they’d see that. He just had to wait.

• • •

Jack flicked to the game for Dale and he and the rest of the You Agains piled into Margaret’s Mercedes. It was forty minutes until midnight, and they needed enough time to set up before the Master List thief arrived at the meeting spot. A plan was only as good as its execution, after all.

Eli mic’d Greer up from the back seat with equipment he’d rented for the occasion and handed out earpieces and little round disks.

“Your phones might not get a signal down there,” he explained, indicating the disks. “These will help me track your locations so I can guide you through the tunnels. Keep them in your pockets, and make sure this button is turned on.” He flicked a little switch on the underside, summoning a glowing green light. “Greer, mic test?”

Greer counted to five and her voice came clear through the earpieces.

“Good,” said Eli. “The mic seems to be working well, so we should be able to stay in touch.”

“Great,” said Jack. “Carter?”

From his back jeans pocket, Carter pulled the sewer map and flattened it on the car’s center console. He traced a finger along the labyrinthine paths.

“The only accessible entrance left is here.” He pointed at a spot that corresponded to a location a few blocks away. “The handoff will be here in this area, so Greer and I will go down this tunnel and turn down that way. Jack, you’re going off into this little alcove here at the fork.”

Jack nodded. “This should be pretty straightforward,” he said. “Whoever the thief is, they have no idea we’re going to be there. Greer, you’ll turn on the waterworks, and with any luck they’ll turn over the list without issue, but if they do give you any trouble, you’ve got Carter there for muscle. I’m hoping to stay in the shadows. Whoever the thief is, they’re someone I work with, and seeing me there might scare them off before you get the chance to convince them to give up the list. But if you need me, Greer, just say so. I’ll hear you through the earpiece. You good?”

Greer gave a stiff thumbs-up. She always got nervous before a job. Out of all the You Agains, she had the worst prejob stage fright, but it never impeded her performance in the end.

Jack stepped out of the driver’s seat and Eli took his place, slipping his laptop out of its case and setting it up on his lap. Three little dots in different colors blinked from a map on the screen: one green, one blue, one yellow. They were clustered together, one a fraction removed from the others, corresponding to where Jack stood by the car.

“That’s you guys,” Eli said, pointing to the dots. “I’ll have an eye on your movements here. I can also communicate through the mic on the computer. Can you all hear me okay?” He pressed a button on his keyboard, his voice filtering steadily through Jack’s earpiece.

“Got you,” said Jack. “All right, let’s get in position before the seller gets here.”

The trio strode through the neighborhood toward a rolling field crisscrossed with power lines.

“You’re gonna veer to your left,” Eli said in their ears.

They adjusted course accordingly, coming to a stop at the base of a grassy hill. Carved into the hill was a wall of white stone, a gaping circle in the middle baring metal teeth. In the center of the rusted bars stood a door, the handle chained with a padlock.

“Door reached,” Greer said into the mic under her T-shirt.

“Copy,” Eli replied in their ears.

Jack crouched by the padlock, examining the keyhole. A tiny smile tickled his lips when he realized it was built for a skeleton key. He dug through the purse on his shoulder for his lock picking kit and pulled out the same tool he’d used in the Room of Records. He slipped the tool into the lock and gave a few twists and jiggles before hearing the satisfying click of success, the lock and chains falling away.

“Door breached,” Greer reported to Eli.

“Copy,” came Eli’s voice again.

Jack hauled the door open, its rusted hinges resisting with a disgruntled creak. He hopped over the raised stones surrounding the metal bars and stepped inside. The cavernous sewer beyond exhaled a breath of cool, musty air, the ghost of human refuse past still haunting the space with a sour pungency. The others filed in behind him and Jack turned on his phone flashlight, leading the way down the decrepit, brick-lined tunnel. Dust motes danced in the phone’s yellow beam, celebrating their first encounter with light in what must have been decades. The air continued to chill with each step, the stillness around them so absolute that every footfall echoed back to them like a gunshot.

Eventually they reached the fork Carter had circled on his blueprints, the tunnel splitting into three like the heads of a man-made hydra.