AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The sun beat down across his back, the lazy October breeze more summery than autumnal. Against his abdomen he felt the thrum of traffic from the parking decks below.
The RoamZone rested near his face on the blinding white TPO roofing. It rang, throwing up holographic sound waves beside his cheek, the caller ID also projected in 3-D.
Keeping the binocs in place with one hand, he answered.
“You over your bellyaching?” Tommy asked.
Evan said, “Yes.”
“Good. Last night sounded like you had piano wire around your nutsack.”
“I wish it’d felt that pleasant.”
“Well, hell, didn’t want to leave you OTF.” A favorite Tommyism: out there flapping. Tommy groaned as he rose or sat, the warhorse joints talking. “Got any big plans today?”
Evan tracked a familiar dark SUV as it turned onto Beverly below. “Not really. You?”
“Gonna go outside, drink my morning gallon of shut-the-fuck-up, and feed the mosquitoes. Finish up an order for DoD, then hit the rain locker. I got a lady friend coming over.”
“Lady friend?”
“Purdy little dental hygienist, wants to save me from myself.”
“She has her work cut out for her.”
“Yeah, but she’s determined.”
A rare awkward pause. “All right, then,” Tommy said. “If you’re done buggin’ me.”
“I need a new truck.”
“Fuck,” Tommy said. “Again? What happened this time?”
“Somewhere between the agents, the Black Hawks, Counter Assault Teams, cops, and uparmored SUVs, I misplaced it.”
“Ain’t that just like you. All right, I’ll outfit a new rig for you, have it ready by Saturday.”
“Tommy?” Evan pursed his lips. The breeze blew across his face, warm and steady.
“Don’t thank me,” Tommy said. “Bring cash.”
A click as the call ended.
Through the Steiners, Evan watched Mia sleep some more. At daybreak he’d texted Joey to tell her to dig up what she could on Luke Devine. Now that he was free and clear, he wasn’t sure why he was bothering. President Donahue-Carr’s priorities were not his priorities. Devine was nothing to him. And yet he couldn’t help but be curious about a man deemed sufficiently threatening to the leader of the free world to have set into motion the machinations of the preceding days.
Joey’s reply displayed her usual tact and candor:where the f were u last nite?
He knew he’d have to read her in at some point. She’d have endless questions and all sorts of big feelings, and he didn’t have it in him just yet, not given what he had to handle with Mia.
A movement at Mia’s door drew his attention, his grip tightening on the set of glass. An orderly entered bearing a vase of flowers, a lush spray of blue and yellow. Mia did not stir. The orderly set them quietly on the windowsill and withdrew.
Evan waited ten seconds before pressingCALLon his RoamZone.
Mia shifted in the bed. Turned slightly, screwing a fist into one eye. Through a drugged haze, she blinked at the ringing that issued from the begonias. Evan realized he might have underestimated the psychedelic effect of the ruse.
Mia blinked at the bouquet some more.
Evan hung up. Called again.
