Chapter 15

Everywhere was death—even in stone.

Feeling a chill crawl up his spine, Adam pulled out a pad and pencil when he and Phoenix strode through the church graveyard looking at names.

“What are you doing?” Phoenix asked.

“I’m looking for someone about your age. When we find him we look up his past, and apply that to you. Hometown. School locations. Work. Family. Hobbies. And I think we’ll have a believable past.”

“I can’t take their name. I already have one.”

“No. You don’t have to take their name. And we’re not taking their past either. We’re just looking at the structure of their life and making it yours.”

“This is giving me the creeps.”

“Here’s one,” Adam said, looking down at a tombstone. “Samuel Townsend. Born June, 1985, died January, 2011. Damn. Poor guy. He was only twenty-six when he died.” He turned to Phoenix and looked at his face, turning it this way and that. “Yeah. That’s good. You don’t look any older than twenty-six. We’ll look up his past, and that should do it.”