"A computer terminal at a public library in Flagstaff, the reactivation of an old social media account, a few cautious messages exchanged, one of them showing Jenna’s face as photographed on the computer’s webcam, and then Jenna was chatting with her childhood pen pal."

"Where were you when Chanelle Devlin gave her infamous press conference?

It was a question people would ask for a generation to come."

"Rudy and I sit together on the back porch at my house. We drink beer from bottles. We watch afternoon pass into evening. We talk."

"Gabe hit the livestream button and spoke to his phone."

"She was making for the front doors of the casino. She was going to leave."

"Down the tunnel and onto a metal catwalk. Concrete walls, televisions, flower pots—they were in the Underdeck now. They were on one of its upper levels. Jenna recognized the pattern of the wiring on the wall. They weren’t far from the generator room."

"On a restricted access highway outside of town, the black Devlin Enterprises van that had been parked on the side of the road, hazards flashing, headlights pointed towards Vegas, used the entire width of the road to make a U-turn, and drive back to New Rome."

"Gabe walked through the parking lot, onto the sidewalk, and towards Las Vegas Boulevard.

Doubts about what he was doing grew heavier with each step."

"Gabe looked at the plastic keycard that came in the envelope. He turned it over in his hands, thinking about the strange letter that came with it."

"The front desk clerk gave him an envelope. His name was written in purple ink on the envelope’s face."