Checking Out- The Complete Trilogy by T W M Ashford

Author:T W M Ashford [Ashford, T W M]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-06-22T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

At least the rain had stopped. The smell of wet tarmac fought with the odour of pork ramen wafting towards them from the hole-in-the-wall vendor down the street. Water gurgled into drains and gathered in thick puddles. The moon looked down from a night sky that had only recently begun to shift its clouds.

‘Which way, boss?’ asked Wesker, stepping out into the cooling evening air. The front doors of the hotel closed and their over-door heater was cut off from them. ‘Can’t say I’d remember the way back from here.’

‘Oh man, I can’t wait,’ said Viola, grinning. ‘Let’s go show these Yakuza what a real criminal looks like.’

She hooked her thumbs into the waistband of her trousers and Pierre caught sight of an old-fashioned handgun.

‘Jesus Christ!’ he shouted. Somebody down the street almost dropped their bowl of noodles in surprise. ‘No guns, Viola! We go in, we grab the inspector, and we get out - nothing more. Put that thing away before somebody sees it, for crying out loud!’

Viola grumbled and hid the gun with her jacket.

Pierre glanced at his watch out of habit. It was useless pretty much anywhere but home, of course. Whenever he travelled to another universe, his actions there had no impact on the space-time fabric of his own. And even if it did, or if he were in his own universe, it would make little difference. No matter how long he stayed somewhere, no matter how far the hands on that clock turned, he could always travel back to the exact same moment he’d left. Or before, if he chose to.

Still, just glancing at his watch told him everything he needed to know. He was in serious risk of running out of time.

‘It’ll take too long to go all the way around again,’ he said, knotting his fingers together so much that his hands looked as if they were doing the tango. ‘We might have to try our luck cutting through the market.’

‘I thought you said it was like a labyrinth?’ said Wesker. ‘That we’d get lost trying to find the other side?’

They looked over at the other side of the street. There were all manner of alleys and crooked roads spreading out like roots from an old and gnarly tree. Some of them were so narrow it would have been difficult to walk in anything but single file; none were wide enough for a car to pass down without clipping off its wing mirrors, that was for sure. There were dozens of wires and cables hanging over the low tin rooftops, and the only light came from the neon signs sticking out from the craggy walls.

‘We could just use the keys,’ suggested Viola, shrugging. ‘I mean, we know where we’re going now, don’t we?’

Pierre shook his head. ‘But none of us have ever been to the arcade before. We could still come out someplace else and be just as lost as when we first got here.’

‘We might be closer though. I can’t imagine it would be hard to get our bearings once we’re near.

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