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“Sir,” Officer Padden said, pitching his voice in that careful talking-to-the-family tone, “There was an attack on the Cenbliu Plaza this afternoon.” He held up a forestalling hand as the man across the table stiffened. “There were no confirmed deaths. But we believe your wife has been taken.”
The man across the table bit his lip. “What happened?”
Officer Padden described the events as he understood them. Stick to facts. Reduce the drama. Beside him, his young partner McGraf did her best to look generally-reassuring.
“Why did they take her?”
“A local political extremist group. We don’t think they had a specific target in mind, besides tourists.”
“They didn’t know who she was? They didn’t care?”
“I’m sorry, sir. Crime is often senseless. But we have every confidence that we’ll be able to get her back safely.” He didn’t, but it was what you said.
The man across the table finally reacted. He rested his head on his hands, hunched over the table, ball cap covering his face. His shoulders shook.
“Those… …poor bastards,” he managed. His voice only broke a little.
“Ah. Sir. We believe your wife was the only one taken.”
The man nodded, face still hidden. “Yeah, I know.” He gulped. “You said.”
Padden shared a look with McGraf. McGraf shrugged.
“We’ll keep you informed of any developments, of course. Officer McGraf can stay here with you, as a liaison —”
“No! Thank you. I’d rather be alone.” The man stood up with a lurch. The muscles around his jaw were strained and tight. “I’ve… got to make sandwiches,” he said, and stumbled out of the room.
Officer Padden shared a look with his partner, then shrugged.
“Everyone handles shock in their own way.”
“Yeah. Poor guy.”
———
Joker drove around the construction site twice, slowly. Itwas empty, which was stupid — if Rhi had been running the police op, there’d have been a sniper here — but that suited him fine. He parked the rented air car on the hill overlooking the facility in the valley. Finding out where the kidnappers had holed up was easy; the police systems were secure, but their comm channels weren’t. After that, it was just a little work with a map.
He got out a picnic blanket, a beer, a magazine, and a pair of binoculars, and settled in to wait.
———
Joker saw the explosion before the police registered anything. It was small, as explosions went, and right up at the front of the facility, near the biggest police presence. His earpiece, tuned to the police channel, filled with urgent shouts.
Joker swung the binoculars around to the opposite side of the building, scanning the exits. He watched for a few minutes before taking it off his hat and waving it above his head. Then he grinned, put his hat back on, and slid off the hood of the rental. The picnic blanket and magazine went in the backseat, and the unopened beer went back in the cooler. The beer and reading material had been cover; a little plausible deniability he hadn’t ended up needing. No one had come near.
He slid into the driver’s seat, unlocked the passenger door, and started the AC. He’d put some blankets in the back, in case this took longer, but the air was still warm. It made the car a bit stuffy.
A few minutes later the door opened, and Rhi slid into the seat beside him, bringing a waft of tropic air and fresh sweat.
He gave her a once over. A spatter of drying blood stained her pants leg, and she was missing her shirt. Instead, she had a large SMG slung across her chest and a pistol at each hip, none of which she'd been carrying when she left the hotel.
She got untangled from the weaponry, then fell on the cooler at her feet like a starving animal. “Sandwiches!” She shoved half of a roast-beef-and-swiss into her mouth. He was pretty sure the next words were, “Joker, I love you,” but it was hard to tell. That was a lot of sandwich.
He started the motor and aimed them out of the construction area. “Besides starving, you’re alright?”
She gave him a thumbs up, then washed her food down with a swig of energy drink. “Oh, and lemon-lime. Thanks.”
He grinned. “Anything for you, babe. You lose your shirt?”
“It made me too obvious.”
It had been white, and kind of gauzy-floaty. “Too bad. It was a nice shirt.”
She grinned and pulled one of the guns out of the backseat. Somehow, she managed without whacking it on the roof. “Ah, but if you sell an Arnex SilverShotX3 SMG, you can get enough credits to purchase many nice shirts!”
“Police may want it as evidence, babe.”
“Eh, I left ‘em a lot to play with. This one’s mine.” She took another gulp of the energy drink, then sighed. “But yeah. The police.”
“Yeah.” He patted her thigh. “We should probably go talk to nice Officer Padden.”
“But if we go straight there, I won’t be able to thank you for the sandwiches.”
“You could say thank you?”
“I won’t be able to thank you carnally.”
“I really want to stop this car and take you up on that.” He glanced sideways. “But I also just watched you unhinge your jaw and swallow two roast beef and one ham-and-tomato whole. I’m pretty sure snake women need time to digest.”
She leaned back in the seat, laughing, and settled for stroking a finger down the outside of his thigh instead. “Okay, okay. We’ll go talk to your Nice Officer Padden.”