Page 30 of Theta

"As did you."

"So we hid our feelings for each other from each other," she says, smirking. "Kind of ironic."

"I've never really understood what exactly the fuck irony really even is, to be totally honest," I admit.

Story laughs. "Y'know, me neither? I'm sure that that's not actually ironic, but I don't know for sure. Feels like my understanding of irony, if nothing else."

"Is the age gap still a thing for you?" I ask after a few moments.

She tilts her head to one side, glances up and away, and then shakes her head with a soft smile. "No, it's not. I mean, we are in different stages of life, I suppose. I have a career in Minneapolis, for one thing. Is it for you?"

"It can get a little weird in my head if I think about it too much, maybe. But when I'm around you? No, it doesn't mean a thing."

Story shifts off my lap and settles on her butt next to me, between me and the wall. "We have to make a plan for getting away from these guys."

"Yeah, we do."

"Best chance is now, before the other three come back. We stand a chance of overpowering one guy. Four? Not so much."

"But how? Without one or both of us getting shot, I mean. And also, I don't love the idea of killing this guy," Story says. “He seems like a decent guy, all things considered. Nicer than the other goons, at least."

"Goon," I say, chuckling.

"What?" Story says, frowning. "It's how I've been thinking about them in my head. Chief goon, boat pilot goon, and spare goon."

“You know goon has…um… another meaning, these days?"

"I'm aware. I'm using the more traditional meaning." Her tone is dry and wry.

I smirk, but it fades. "Have you ever?" I ask. "Um, killed anyone, I mean."

She shakes her head. "No. My career up to now has been about the opposite. Obviously I've lost patients and seen a lot of death. I know that I will, if I have to. I just don’t want to have to, you know?"

I nod. "Yeah. I don't want to either. But I'm not gonna sit around and wait for something to happen. Especially seeing as it seems like they don't know what's going on themselves. Somehow I doubt a boat launch off the side of a container ship in the middle of a storm was part of the original plan."

"No, probably not. And as far as I've ever known, most ships avoid storms if at all possible, and with GPS and radar they can almost always avoid them. Something isn't adding up, to me."

"No, and as I said, when shit goes this sideways, Bryn is usually involved somehow. Whoever took her is in for a hell of a ride, I'll tell you that much for free."

"So what's our plan?" Story says. "Any ideas?"

"Ask for food and attack? Create some sort of distraction? We have no weapons, no phones, no ID or money. Assuming we can get away from this guy, where do we go? How do we get there? We can't exactly just stroll around Europe aimlessly waiting for our families to find us. And I mean hell, we don't even know where we are, except for Italy, somewhere."

Story considers for a moment. "We would do whatever is necessary. Stealing a car would be priority number one. Head to a US Embassy, maybe?"

I frown at this. "Last I heard from Mom and Dad, that guy…what's his name, the evil INTERPOL overlord guy, he's still out there and has eyes in all sorts of governments and agencies, so I don't know if we can safely trust anyone we don't know we can trust."

"Yeah, true. Staying off the grid will be vitally important."

"So I guess the plan so far is to overpower this guy somehow, steal a car from somewhere, somehow, and just get away…somewhere, somehow.”

"Well gee, Killy, when you put it like that, it sounds like a piece of cake." She huffs. "But all joking aside, that's pretty much it, yeah. Dad always says that freedom is the biggest priority in situations like this. Stay calm, bide your time, pick your moment, and when the moment comes, do anything and everything you have to in order to get free."

I nod. "My dad always told me that if there's gonna be a fight and you can't avoid it or get out of it, then it's best to strike first and strike hard."

"Yeah, that sounds pretty familiar. 'If you must be violent, Liebchen,'" Story says in a remarkably accurate impression of Anselm's quiet voice and distinct accent, "'then do what you must to win. Make your violence swift and brutal so you may return to peacefulness that much more swiftly.’”

"Swift and brutal, huh?"