by F P Adriani
…Ring-ring, my phone droned on….
“Come on, Pia,” Nell said.
I sighed as I pulled out the phone and pushed the talk-on button.
It was Mike. In the midst of the move, I had still assigned him to the Millie crap on Tuesday (fuck you, Hu). And he’d finally turned up a few things.
Now he told me to grab a pen and paper. “This is what I’ve got so far,” he said, and then he rattled off a small list of Millie Factoids.
When he got to one about her having taken a flight to Hera, I interrupted him. “When did that happen?”
“Didn’t you hear the date, Pia?”
I groaned and swore under my breath. “Mike, don’t be a pain in my too-damn-busy ass. Was it after she disappeared?”
“Yeah, the day after. You know how hard that info was for me to figure out and get? A five-hour-long conversation at the Pine Shuttle-Port. A look at numerous security tapes—forbidden for nonemployees. I had to bribe an employee with a date with me.”
“I hope she’s worth it.”
“He isn’t a she,” Mike said.
I laughed. As far as he’d told me in the past, Mike was straight. So it now seemed he was an even more devoted part-time employee than I’d ever realized.
My laughing quickly faded though: Hera yet again.
I said to Mike now, “None of the other stuff—like her getting her hair done before she left—sounds worth my getting involved in. Hera’s the ticket, and that’s what I need: a ticket to Hera, from that same shuttle-port on the same path as hers. For next week. Get on that for me.”
As I said that last bit, Nell’s eyebrows once again shot up at me. Staring back at her, I clicked my phone’s talk-off button.
Now she said to me, “Hera—are you nuts, Pia?”
“That seems to be the popular consensus lately,” I said dryly. “Well, what choice do I have? Will you be able to hold things down here, you think? There’s only the new bank job—I’m not putting out anymore feelers. Don’t have any free arms for that right now. I’ve got everything bank-related in the computer file; Mike will fill you in on anything new there. But I’m thinking that when I’m gone, maybe you should work from home again and stay away from here. All of you should, unless maybe more than one of you are together here.”
Nell looked around the cheery room—and it really was cheery, especially compared to what we were used to from the old dump. Nell had brought plants here to decorate the big front window in the main part of the office; the strong sunlight shone in onto the glossy leaves, making them sparkle in greenery brilliance. And, yesterday, for that same window, Lori Godwin had come over bearing an armful of red checkered curtains—something I hadn’t seen since years ago on Earth in an antiques store….
Nell’s brown eyes finally fell back on me. “So then we went and set up this place for nothing now. We won’t even be using it yet.”
“I’ve gotta follow—”
“—the lead. Yeah, I know,” Nell finished, her disappointment not only in her words, but also in the uncharacteristic droop of her shoulders.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, frowning.
“I thought this would be a new start for MSA. And what will Tan say about you off to Hera and so damn fast?”
“Now that is the question. And you probably know what the answer will be: I’m putting that off. He doesn’t need to know before he needs to know—something like that.”
*
We worked together alone for most of that day and night, eating a spaghetti-and-salad dinner we both made in the kitchen alongside the main office room. But before I could head home for the night, I had to make one more stop back at the old dump.
It was that “something important” in Nell’s documentation. That first morning when I’d run outside to help Julianne and Lori, I noticed an unfamiliar-to-the-area green car parked a little ways down the road—the only strange car nearby at the time. Lori had since told me that John drove them there that day, but after he’d disappeared, what happened to his car?
I remembered now that the green car was still there that night when I left because I drove right by it. However, the next morning, the car was gone.
*
“This time, I need your help,” I said to Don, standing outside his office while he stood in his doorway frowning at me. “I need your security video for the building’s left side last week on Wednesday night and Thursday morning—the camera pointed down the street?”
“Whatchu need THAT for? Trying to hurt my cousin again?”
“Fucking NO. Don’t ask questions, don’t get involved. Just get me the damn video.”
“What about my Millie?”
“I’m working on it—I’ve got a lead. But it ain’t around here and I can’t tell you anymore right now. The video?”
He sighed loudly, then walked farther into his office. A few minutes later he re-emerged holding two disks and motioning with them for me to come to the security console in his tiny back room.
“So Millie had access to this console, huh?” I asked then. And I almost laughed at the sneer he tossed in my direction. “You’ve got a lot of nerve being pissed. Both of you are real pieces of work. And, believe me, you don’t want me to not trust you too. I hope you didn’t fuck with the video.”
“I did not,” he said in an indignant voice, the sneer back on his face.
*
As far as I could tell, he was telling the truth. But—no matter. Ultimately, I got the information I wanted: the video showed that at 2:45 AM last Thursday morning, the green car was still parked on the street. Then seconds later, a tall someone showed up, jumped into the car and drove it away.
That part of the street was too dark and the image too grainy, all of which had only allowed me a brief glance at the tall guy’s profile when the car lights flickered on for an instant upon the door being opened. But, as far as I could tell and remember, the build, height and hair color looked like him: John.
“I need a copy of this,” I said to Don. And he responded with a loud sigh.
*
I still couldn’t make it back to my hotel room yet: I drove back over to the Castano place.
When Lori let me inside, she said, “Julianne’s got a cold—but I’ll tell her to come down.”
“No—no need. You’re enough. I want you to look at something. You got a V-disk player?”
*
“What am I looking for?” Lori asked me once she’d started up the player on the big-and-long living room’s big-and-long TV.
I sank my ass into a soft brown couch cushion just as she dropped hers into the red armchair beside me. Then I pointed at the big screen in front of us. “That car, on the right there?”
Her brow lowered. “So what…oh. Oh, there’s someone coming there. It’s green…. Oh…is that John? It could be. Yes.” She turned to me.
“That’s what I think. Is that the car you came in that first day—to see me?”
“It looks like it. That’s where we parked. And I totally forgot about it sitting there till now.”
“You’re not the only one,” I said.
*
Later, when she walked me out the front door and we stood in the semi-dark driveway by my car, she asked me, “So what does all this mean?”
“It means…lots of people on this planet aren’t who they claim they are. And you-know-who’s probably been double-crossed.”
Lori frowned at me and twisted her hands together. “You mean he was a danger to us when he was with us?”
“I don’t know,” I said because I really didn’t know. But I had my suspicions. I just didn’t want to share my suspicions with her; I didn’t think she and her shaking hands could handle my thoughts right now.
I opened my car door, and she said to me then, “I meant to remind you earlier—don’t you want a security system at the office house? I could give you the name of the one we use here—”
“Don’t bother. I’m not a big fan of outside securit
y. I don’t trust it. But I’ve got Roberto looking into the place he moonlights for. At least he knows the ins-and-outs there so can tell if something fishy’s happened.” I slid into my driver’s seat as I glanced up at her face, which still looked very worried. I sighed. “Wish I could reassure you, but this thing’s ballooning here. I’ll be gone for a little while—not sure how long. Everything working out with Roberto and Darla?”
Her blond head nodded fast. “Oh yes, very well. Roberto’s a sweetheart.” The way she emphasized that sweet made me look at her more closely. I could have sworn I saw color in her cheeks.
…Well, shit, is that what’s been happening? I wasn’t sure if this development was a good thing or a bad thing, but it did explain why Roberto was suddenly so hot for the Castano job.
I was rolling my eyes as I drove away.
*
That night I slept so soundly that by the time I woke up the next morning, I’d forgotten who I was.
My mind felt totally wiped, as if I’d never existed in this dimension. The morning light hit my opening eyes, confusing and frightening me with the alienness of my surroundings.
What the hell? I thought.
Then I remembered who I was, sighed and said, “What the hell,” out loud this time.
*
Partly because of my sudden me-amnesia, I got to my new office later than I’d intended. Nell was already there, and she’d put on a pot of Diamond’s best, bitterest coffee.
As soon as I pushed open the kitchen door, the sharp rich coffee smell filled my nostrils.
“Omigod,” I said. “I really hope you brought something to eat with that because it smells like if I drink it on an empty stomach, I’ll literally be bouncing off the walls afterward, and taking chunks of them with me.”
Nell laughed as she stirred liquidized cado-leaf sweetener into her red mug, which sweetener was also Diamond’s best, sweetest sweetener.
“I see you did some shopping,” I said as she handed me an empty mug.
“Hope you don’t mind. Just thought I’d splurge out of the petty cash, to christen our first sort-of official day of business here.”
“Nope, I don’t mind—shit, I wish I woulda thought of it myself—”
My voice broke off at the sound of the office phone. Yesterday we’d finally had it turned on. And now I was suddenly sorry about that.
“Jesus, I barely walked in here…” I grumbled as I moved over to the main desk beside the front window and picked up the phone. I said a sharp, “Hello, MSA here,” into the receiver and heard Hu’s voice jump out at me.
“I left you alone for the rest of yesterday, but I wasn’t finished talking then.”
“Like I give a shit?” I said.
From the kitchen doorway Nell shot me a questioning frowning face. HU I mouthed back hugely at her. Nell’s hand jerked on her coffee cup, and she almost spilled the hot contents onto her white-shirted chest. Her mouth formed a large OOOOOhhhhhh in my direction. Then a WHAT?!?
Hu said now, “Here’s the thing: I can’t get near the girl—you can. You’ve got to get her to give you the notebooks, or at least the coordinates.”
“Coordinates for what?”
“I can’t talk about this over the phone in anymore detail. As I’ve said to you before, we must meet in person.”
Just like the first time she’d said that, I now had a good laugh.
Once I’d stopped laughing, she said, “You’ll have to trust me,” and then my laughing started up again.
She cut me off in mid-laugh. “Look, Senda—this is no time to lose your mind. You need to think clearly. I’m telling you someone did kill Amy—don’t you want to know who that is?”
“WHY should I believe anything you say?”
“Because. If I’m telling you the truth—and I am—the girl’s in continual danger.”
I didn’t have a quick response to that.
I looked at Nell, who was pantomiming and mouthing questions at me: What is it? Are you in danger? You want me to talk to her—kick her phone-ass?
I almost laughed at the last bit; instead, I shook my head and a hand at Nell, silently telling her it was all right.
Then I said to Hu, “How do you know I wouldn’t bring you in to the authorities?”
“My insurance policy—remember?”
My face turned red. I did not want to remember that, but I saw her point. Nevertheless….
“How do you know that means anything to me?” I asked.
“Doesn’t matter. Let’s just say I’ve kept a loose eye on you. Or I’ve gotten some loose information through a grapevine about someone blowing out of somewhere, someone who could be dangerous to them. I can add two and two. At this point you need to do whatever you must to get Julianne to show you the notebooks. We need those locations.”
“Of what,” I stated in a dry voice.
“Of the danger, of what we need to find. Again, I can’t discuss this over the phone. And I’m tired of sounding like a parrot.”
My heart was doing its favorite rib-busting pounding now. “Talk about dangerous. Yeah right, I’m gonna meet you. You have any idea of the shit I’m in? I’ve even got cops on my ass now.”
“What cops?”
“This break-in crap—that’s what. I don’t need to explain any of this. My time isn’t my own now—shit, my whole life isn’t. And now I’ve gotta follow a lead to someone somewhere.”
“Where?” Hu asked. Then when I didn’t respond: “Where?”
Even if I didn’t tell her now, she’d probably find out about my ticket somehow. “Hera,” I stated bluntly, but I was sighing inwardly.
Hu’s voice now sounded incensed. “How on Diamond can you run off to Hera now? That’s absurd. There are important things here—”
“Fuck those important things. This shit’s gotten bigger than you. A gaping mouth the size of Hera’s calling me there.”
“Absurd again. We definitely must meet now—”
“Oh, not that shit again!”
“Do you only understand profanity? Fine. No more fucking antlers. If you don’t meet me, you’re fucking stupid.”
“How the hell am I supposed to do that with the cops sniffing around? Thanks for the socializing offer, but I’m not feeling particularly suicidal right now. Contact me at a future date. Maybe I’ll be happy to slit my wrists then—”
“We’re wasting too much damn time. Ironically, Diamond has softened you. I guess you’ve lost your touch. You really mean to tell me YOU can’t elude a few cops?”
I pressed my teeth together hard, listening to the long tense silence between us.
Then I sighed equally hard.
“What was that sigh all about?” Hu said then.
“A sigh of resignation,” I replied, my voice dry once again. “Look, you’ll hear from me shortly, at a more untraceable phone because I trust your reassurances about our privacy as much as I trust in immortality. You say talking over the phone’s safe, yet you won’t tell me anything specific over it. Talk about a contradiction.
“So here’s the deal: you call my hotel lobby phone in an hour and fifteen minutes. And we’ll take it from there.” I slammed down the receiver.
Nell stared over at me, her mouth gaping. “Pia, what the hell is happening now—”
“Ugh, don’t ask,” I said as I rushed into the kitchen in search of Diamond’s best coffee—and something solid to help push down the bitterness.
*
I made it to the lobby with about fifteen minutes to spare and found the place packed with people; the four-day-long Actor’s Costume Ball Convention had begun today. I’d seen the advertisements around the lobby and in one of the elevators, and now near the front desk stood a bunch of people in freaky exaggerated costumes, their hair in strange up-dos, their bodies either covered in regal or shocking get-ups, or mostly uncovered. Supposedly actors were coming from all over—including from Earth—to attend this hotel-hopping convention-gig.
I stood there in t
he lobby, half-frowning and half-smiling at their ridiculousness, and shaking my head—but not just at them, also at what I’d gotten myself into. From the get-go I’d seen the direction this whole shit was now moving in. But sometimes you were better off jumping into ice-cold water fast—the pain wouldn’t last so long then, wouldn’t hurt as much as if you waded in slowly.
I’d delayed the inevitable; I’d kept hoping to delay it even more. But maybe meeting up with Hu wouldn’t be such a painful experience if I just gave myself up to its inevitability soon.
At least that was what I told myself while waiting for her call. Nevertheless, my hand shook when the customer phone started ringing.
My unsteady hand picked up the receiver, and I quick-barked a “Hello.”
“So I’ve called,” said Hu’s voice. “When are you leaving for Hera?”
“Next week.”
Overnight so my sleeping wouldn’t get disturbed, I’d had my hotel-room phone off the hook and my portable phone off, and Mike had left me a message saying he’d booked a flight for me for Tuesday. But I didn’t tell Hu this—that much help she wouldn’t get from me.
“That’s not much time—” Hu started, but I cut her off.
“You don’t have much time. You want to meet me? Tonight’s the night or it doesn’t happen.”
A sigh of resignation came over the line, sounding a lot like the one I’d given her earlier.
Then we made a plan. Then we mutually hung up right after we’d agreed to the plan.
And now the hardest part of the day might be coming: I had to get Tan to go with me and behave rationally during the Hu meeting. This meeting I wouldn’t do alone—not again would I be near Hu by myself. What had developed the last and first time was more than enough alone time for me with Hu.
I needed someone’s help now. Nell would really be my first choice, but she was out because I wouldn’t endanger her; so was Roberto out because he was with Julianne today. And Mike just was not the person to bring to scenarios like this. So that left Tan.