I flick my butt and it arcs out the open window and between the bars of the security gate.

– Because he’s an idiot, Terry. Because he’s the kind of asshole goes around hacking people’s heads off when he could just shoot them. Because he’s a fucked-up nut job who knows just enough about us to be dangerous, but not enough to know Solomon was clean.

Lydia is pointing at the window.

– You planning to go out there and pick that up? Litter doesn’t throw itself in the garbage, you know.

I pull out a fresh smoke.

– It bothers you, go toss it in a can.

– I swear, Joe, sometimes I think Tom was right about you, sometimes I think you’re working for the Coalition, trying to subvert everything we do down here.

– And we all know where thinking like that got Tom.

She comes away from the window.

– That a threat?

That a threat? Am I threatening the head of the Lesbian Gay and Other Gendered Alliance? Am I throwing down on a woman I might not be able to take one on one, let alone if she comes at me with a couple of her bulls behind her?

Fucking no, I am not.

But I have shit manners.

– Fuck you, Lydia.

– Fuck you twice, Joe. Fuck you all over if you ever come close to threatening me. Tom was a spy. A scumbag subverter and a counterrevolutionary and a real asshole. He got what he asked for. But you ever come close to threatening me with the sun again, I’ll bring fury down on you.

– You’ll bring fury down on me? What the hell is that supposed to-

Terry looks at the ceiling.

– Forest! Forest! Forest!

I crush the cigarette in my hand.

– Brooklyn. OK? I get it. Lydia gets it. Brooklyn is what’s going on. Brooklyn is the big picture. So what the fuck? What’s that got to do with the Candy Man?

Terry smiles.