And then: a sighting. Knightmare had just emptied a bank vault in Salinas, and that was only six miles away. They raced to the scene, but stopped well away as the town was crawling with every variety of law enforcement officer.

  “Knightmare’s got the same problem we have,” Shade said. “He can’t use credit cards, which means he’s either sleeping in the open or hiding out in no-tell motels he can pay for in cash.”

  “There are dozens of those within an hour’s drive,” Malik said. “And the police will have figured that out, too.”

  “Yes, of course they will. And they have the resources. Which means we need the same resources, we need to know what the cops know.”

  “What if we had a police scanner?” Cruz suggested.

  “That’s just the public frequency,” Malik said. “We’d need a radio tuned to whatever private frequency they’re using.” Then, to Shade, “How far can you run?”

  “I don’t know. But we could park a couple miles away, that’s just a few seconds’ run. I can go right into Salinas and snag a radio.”

  “Might be worth thinking about,” Malik mused, but Shade had already transformed and a second later was out the door. “Yes,” Malik called after her, “it was good to discuss all this and work it out in advance and not just go running off like a . . .” He sighed, sat back, closed his eyes, and said, “So, Cruz. Know any jokes?”

  But before Cruz could think of any, Shade was back and holding a squawking police radio. “And I got these.” She handed a pack of Smarties to Cruz.

Monster, Chapter 15