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“Human vellum, you moron. And guess what? It’s not that old.”

I unroll the scroll on the table.

“Is that what you’re afraid of? If you talk you might end up someone’s grocery list?”

“Don’t joke about it,” she says. “They peel that off you while you’re alive.”

“You’ve seen it?”

Marcella wraps her arms around herself and shakes her head.

“No, but I’ve heard it being done.”

I point to the symbols.

“What do they say?”

She glances at it, then moves away again.

“That mystical shit isn’t my department. I just gather information.”

“You kidnap and torture people. Is that where the vellum comes from? Is it part of the torture?”

She takes a breath and sits down on one of the benches.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“You think they’ll do this to you if you talk.”

She looks at the floor but doesn’t say anything.

“My offer still stands. I’ll take you out of here.”

“They’ll find me. You can’t run from them.”

“Then help me wipe them out. That way, we’re both free.”

“No,” she says, and I can tell she means it.

I roll up the scroll and get up.

“That’s it?” she says.

“That’s it.”

“You really are a Boy Scout. I’d have a cattle prod on your balls and be waterboarding you in hot tar by now.”

“In Hell they do the same thing, only with boiling shit. I can still taste it in my dreams.”

I head for the door.

Just as I’m about to leave she says, “Atticus Rose.”

I look back at her.

“The Tick-Tock Man?”

“You’ve heard of him?”