Peasy’s plan

The dead man grinned again. “I’m gonna make a deal with you, doc,” he said. “You need a bunch of exes doing what you say. I need somewhere to lay low while I figure out what I’m doing. You see where I’m goin’ with this?”
I didn’t.
The grin spread even wider. It pulled at the flesh around the hole in his cheek, forming an oval crater in his face. “Congrats, doc,” he said. “Your gizmo works.”
Now I did.
“Why?”
“Because I can,” he said. “Maybe I owe you one and I don’t like owing people nothing. You made me into death incarnate.”

Excerpt From Ex-Patriots, pg 422
Peter Clines
https://books.apple.com/us/book/ex-patriots/id585738393