Out of the Box 7 - Sea Change by Robert J Crane

Author:Robert J Crane [Crane, Robert J]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Publisher: Revelen Press
Published: 2016-02-17T00:00:00+00:00

45.

We left the park at four in the afternoon, almost on the dot. Turns out the bomb squad had to give the SUV we drove in a once-over before we could leave in it. The driver, for his part, swore up and down that no one had been near the vehicle, that he’d been parked a couple streets away the entire time, waiting for the call to pick us up. I believed him, because he looked too bewildered to be lying and Redbeard didn’t strike me as the type to have a well-ordered conspiracy behind him. He was a lone gunman sort, but without the gun. Lone bombman? Lone phase-through-peoples’-chests man? Doesn’t have much of a ring to it, does it?

We got stuck in traffic, which I had more or less worked out was a feature of LA, not a bug. It was a feature I hated, like the distressed look in clothing or customer service help lines that automatically route you to a robot for a “Dial 1 to Induce Bone-Chilling Rage At My Lack of Understanding Your Very Basic, Slow-Diction Speech!” Something like twenty-seven hours after first stepping into the car, we made it back to the hotel. I think the sun had risen and set multiple times, but no one had spoken, Guy Friday and myself squeezing Kat into the middle of the backseat, Scott in the front. She squirmed like a petulant child, acting like a black hole trying to collapse in on itself to avoid touching either me or Guy Friday, which was probably wise in both cases, but for very different reasons. When I let her out of the back of the car at the hotel, she stalked off in a huff, not even daring to look at me. I didn’t complain, but it did make for an awkward elevator ride.

When we got to the room, she disappeared upstairs, stomping the whole way. Taggert emerged from his suite next to us as Scott, Guy Friday and I stood uneasily in the living room. Well, Scott and I stood uneasily. Guy Friday …

“I should go watch the blond girl,” Guy Friday said.

“You mean stand guard by the door of her room, right?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“What if someone sneaks in?” Friday asked, making his way up the stairs. “We can’t take that chance.”

He disappeared up the balcony, and I started to interject, but Scott spoke first. “I need to talk to you in a bit,” he said, eyes a little downcast. “Privately.”

“Uh, okay,” I said, my eyes making their way up to where Guy Friday had just disappeared. “You mind going up and taking a look to make sure Guy … err, Yancy … doesn’t get out of line with Kat? I’d go myself, but—”

“Yeah, I heard the dustup in the park,” Scott said with a nod. He seemed uncomfortable, and he wouldn’t look at me. “Just come find me in a few, okay?” He made his way up the stairs slowly on wobbly legs, without waiting for an answer.

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