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“Ifwe win,” said Devin, folding his big arms.
The host shrugged. “That’s how the Race works, yes. You know the motto: thereisno second place.”
Noah reached behind him with an empty hand, and one of the few people who’d hung back gave him a stack of paperwork. He held it out to us.
“You’ve seen these all before,” he said, yawning. “Release forms. Liability wavers. All the same legal bullshit you filled out last time. You’ll get the standard stipend to make up for your lost wages, plus a little bonus for each week you’re still around.”
Reese was as animated as I’d ever seen him, eagerly accepting the pen that was thrust his way. But Devin looked miserable.
“This could be the end of our company,” he told Hayden.
“Might be,” Hayden agreed, without looking up from the paperwork. “But can we really pass this up?”
I felt bad for him, knowing he was in a tough spot. Just earlier he’d been called away to deal with some scheduling problems, and to talk to a potential new hire. Whatever they had going on in Minnesota was apparently flourishing, and moving forward in full gear. Something like this could really put a damper on things, though. If not grind them all to a screeching halt.
“What about you?” Devin asked, spinning in my direction.
“Me?”
“Yeah, don’t you have work next week? Tours to run?”
“Sure, but I’m not anyone who’ll be missed.” The admission was stark, and even a little bit sad. “Cliff took over leading the quad tours while I’m here, so he could just keep rolling with it.” I shrugged. “He’s always been talking about hiring some extra help, anyway. This just accelerates it.”
Devin’s face went sour. It wasn’t the answer he expected or wanted.
“Look, it’s not my company,” I said, “so it’s a bad comparison. I totally get where you’re at. I’d understand if you couldn’t do this.”
There was a moment of silence. Eventually, Reese coughed.
“There’s a guy leading tourists through a motorized tour of the desert mesas, and his name isCliff?”
I sighed as I shot him a sarcastic frown.
“Damn.”
The turmoil in Devin’s eyes was mirrored in Hayden’s. I could tell the both of them were stuck.
“Could we think about this for a minute?” Devin asked. “Maybe sleep on it?”
“Think it over for a minute?” Noah smiled. “Yeah, sure. But sleep on it?” He shook his head. “Not a chance.”
As we huddled closer together, Devin pointed to the one camera that was still rolling.
“Maybe without being filmed?”
Once again Noah shook his head, this time a little more apologetically.
“We filmeverything,” he scoffed, donning the same shit-eating grin he did at the end of every episode. “You know that.”
