Page 87 of The Paradox Club

“Go away,” came a deep male voice from inside.

“Open this door or I’ll shoot the lock off,” said Montag 5.

“Screw you,” replied the voice.

Clearly empty threats of violence were nothing new for this particular guest.

Montag 5 aimed his gun at the dead bolt and discharged a round. The door eased open an inch or two and he heard shouting from inside. Two voices this time. A swift kick snapped the inside chain off and the door flew open. A man whose stature did not back up his tough talk cowered in the bed next to a woman who didn’t even bother to pull the sheet over her naked breasts.

“Jesus, I thought you were Frankie,” said the woman.

“Give me your car keys,” said Montag 5, leveling his gun at the man.

“I…I…”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake,” said the woman. “They’re in his pants on the floor. Blue Toyota with Indiana plates. And close the door on your way out, will you. I’m working here.”

Two minutes later, Montag 5 had grabbed his things from room 8 and pulled out of the parking lot. He had committed multiple felonies in the past ten minutes, not to mention his adventure in kidnapping and transporting the victims across state lines, so a stolen car may not have been the safest mode of transportation, but he had little choice. He could think of two possible destinations as he sped down the highway: the McDonald’s in Sturgis where he’d sent Nemo 7 to pick up some food and the house on Vilas Avenue in Madison where this had all started. The McDonald’s was closest, so he stopped there first. He discovered the black sedan abandoned in the parking lot, but he didn’t have the keys and his attempts to hotwire it proved unsuccessful. That wasted another six minutes.

His only hope was to overtake them on the interstate on the way to Madison or to beat them there and capture the girl when they returned to Vilas Avenue. If they returned. Would they be that foolish? Or would they go to the mother’s house? The one he and Nemo 7 had staked out to begin with. They might think that was safe.

If they chose to hole up in some cousin of the White Pine Motor Lodge, Montag 5 might never find them, but he sensed they had a plan. Nemo 7 had clearly been working for some foe of Pilgrim 3, and that probably meant the president, Calvin 4. Had the old man been driving the second car?

All this went through Montag 5’s mind as merged onto I-90. He’d go toward Madison, driving as fast as he dared. He’d be able to recognize the car that had taken away Tess easily enough—the front left fender was completely caved in. If he overtook them within an hour, he’d follow and retrieve. If not, he’d have no choice but to call Pilgrim 3. Despite his bluster, his weapon, and his extensive training in hand-to-hand combat, nothing scared Montag 5 more than the possibility that he might be forced to make that call.

TESS AND HARRY ON THE DOCK

“My cocoa got cold,” said Tess.

“That’s because of the second law of thermodynamics,” said Harry.

“Can’t it ever just be because I left it out on the dock on a chilly night?”

“That’s another way of saying the same thing.”

“Okay, fine, tell me about the second law of thermodynamics.”

“It says that if you leave a cup of hot cocoa on the dock on a chilly night, the cocoa will get cold.”

“They wrote a whole scientific law just for that?”

“More or less.”

“But that’s just common sense.”

“Is it?”

“Sure. If I leave something hot someplace cold, then it’s going to cool off.”

“But why shouldn’t it be the other way around?”

“What do you mean?”

“Even chilly air has some heat in it, right?”

“Does it?”

“If you left an ice cube on the dock tonight, what would happen?”