Valentine considered telling her his real name now, and his destination - though not his purpose. Travel was a lot safer with a companion in case of illness or injury, he rationalized. "How's that?" he asked instead.
"Never taking a run at me. Queer?"
"No".
"Balls blown off?"
"No".
"What, then?"
"Don't have much luck with women", he finally said.
"Just sex, you know. It's healthy. Might get that stick out of your ass.
Valentine opened the autogyro's canopy, revealing the twin seats, the passenger above and behind the pilot. He grabbed the steering-wheel-style stick and turned it so the little ship was pointed down the road, and opened the tool pouch. His nose detected something rotten in the right cargo compartment. Sure enough, Jimmy had left him a dead rat as a going-away present. Valentine extracted it and flung it into the dry, weed-pocked soil beside the road. "Wouldn't work that way with you", Valentine said.
"How's that?"
"I like you".
She stared at him for a moment, her upper lip working back and forth, then tousled his hair. "I know you do. Otherwise you wouldn't have gotten me out".
"I'd like to think I'd still have tried even if I didn't".
"You hide behind a lot of ifs, Max. I know you're a pretty good card player. That's about it".
"Let's change the subject. What's next for you?"
She squatted beside him and lowered her voice, even though there was no one to overhear them but the grasshoppers. "I'm joining up".
"Joining what?"
Her eyes brightened. "The resistance. There's a big army up here, out in the mountains to the west. The flyboys tell me they're tearing assholes out of the KO. I'm gonna join them. I didn't tell you before because ... because I didn't want you to be an accessory. Just in case they picked me up or something".
"Or in case I was some kind of informer".
She shrugged. "I suppose anything's possible".
"How do you know they'll take you?"
"Can I fire off a couple from your gun?"
"Help me get this thing ready first. I want to be able to take off quickly if we need to".
She helped him stow their gear intelligently enough. "You keeping this thing, or you going to trade it?"
Valentine sat down and tested the simple cable controls. "I'm wondering how easy it'll be to find fuel. I'm more of a horse-and-pack-mule person, most of the time".
"Thought you were a biker, with those leathers".
Load balanced in the little cargo spaces to either side of the chutelike cabin, they were ready to go. "I think it's time to come clean with you, Gide. I'm aiming on the resistance up here too. I just had a few hundred more miles to come".
"Fuckin'-A!"
"If you like, I'll give you a lift to the mountains. Safer for two to travel together".
"You're this gal's knight in shining armor, Max".