Three Alpha Romeo

“Instant?”

He looked back at me like I had three heads. “What’s wrong with instant?”

“Are the barbarians still here?” I cried theatrically. “Is this their work?”

“The barbarians invaded the mainland,” said Randall. “With Sicily I think it was the Vandals.”

“Fuck the Vandals,” I said, opening and closing a few cabinets. “We need to go shopping. Pronto.”

“Negative,” said Holden. “We need to keep our profile low. Kyrkos is wary right now. He might be expecting us.”

“Kyrkos isn’t even here yet,” I pointed out. “He’s still on a yacht.”

“For another day or so, sure. But his men are here. And they know us. Some of us, anyway.”

“So what are we supposed to eat?”

“The MRE’s we picked up,” said Holden. “All we need is to boil some water, and—”

“The water smells like eggs,” I said. “And yes, I know it’s well water, but that’s still not cool. Especially with a whole town just below us, a quick five-minute drive away.”

Randall was hanging back, arms crossed, watching the debate. He was enjoying himself, I could tell. Maybe even Marcus, too.

“There’s no milk,” I protested. “No cereal.”

Now even Randall looked dismayed.

“The TV has three stations and they’re all in Italian,” I went on. “There’s no DVD player, so no movies. No radio.” I threw up my arms. “Shit, there’s not even a deck of cards.”

“We’re gonna need a deck of cards!” exclaimed Randall.

I saw the air go out of Holden as he finally relented. We had him.

“Fine,” he said. “One shopping trip. One store. Do it fast, and do it now.”

I smiled at him, and he smirked back. Randall actually cheered.

“Make it a good one,” Holden added. “Be sure to get everything you want, preferably in one place.”

“Aye-firmative,” I saluted sharply.

Rather than salute me back, he only sighed and tossed me the keys. Randall caught them mid-air before I could react, and winked at me consolingly.

“Sorry, Kitty Cat. I’m driving.”

Thirty-Six

ANDREA

The climb was arduous, but not grueling. It would be better described as tedious and long. You had be careful everywhere you stepped, because the path Marcus had chosen wasn’t a path at all. It was more of a rabbit trail, made slightly wider by his girth.

“This is as high as we come,” he said finally. “We’ll set up a little encampment here. But right there, see that curve?”

The Ranger pointed to a tiny brown trail that skirted a solid rock wall. It looked two feet wide, if that.

“Yeah?”

“Just on the other side of that is a small clearing that looks down over the opposite hill.” His gaze shot to Holden. “We’re bellies down from here.”