Chapter 6: Look at Me

"Get in the car," Laurence said.

Eli got in.

The leather was warm, and the door shut with a soft, expensive sound.

Laurence drove out of town without speaking.

He went past the river and the last stoplight, to a diner with a buzzing sign and six cars in the lot.

He parked and got out, and Eli followed him in.

A waitress in a faded apron looked at the two of them and put down a pot of coffee.

"Booth by the window, boys."

Laurence took the side facing the door.

Eli sat across from him with his hands in his lap and waited.

"Two eggs, scrambled," Laurence told the waitress. "Bacon. Toast, wheat. Pancakes, a short stack. Orange juice."

"That's a lot of food," she said, smiling.

"It's for him."

She left.

Eli looked at the table.

"I wasn't going to run," he said.

"I didn't say you were."

"You were waiting outside the Foundation."

"I was waiting for my father," Laurence said. "He rings me when he's done something stupid."

His thumb began to turn the watch.

Eli had noticed that.

He noticed everything about Laurence, though he could not have said why.

"You enjoy it," he said.

The words were out before he could stop them.

Laurence's thumb went still.

"What?"

"The orders. The dog thing. Heel. You like it."

It was the nearest thing to a challenge he had ever said to anyone.

His heart was going hard, and he kept his eyes on the sugar jar.

For a moment Laurence did not answer.

The waitress set down the plates, and the steam rose between them.

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