“You have a secret lair.” Everett spins around, staring at the walls full of weapons.
Half of which, I don’t even know what they are.
“We don’t have time for you to gawk. Show Barb where to cut Fiona.”
Everett shakes his head. “She has to cut it out of me first. Then we can put it on Fiona.”
“What?” Vex stalks up to the kid. “You have a tracker on you. I thought we had an understanding.”
“It’s deactivated. I’ll activate it before we insert it into Fiona.”
Vex nods, stepping back.
“But I should warn you. It might bring along some visitors that want to kill me.”
What trouble has this kid gotten himself into?
“We’ll take care of your visitors.” Vex glances over at Payne, who seems to be loading up like we’re about to fight a zombie horde.
Does he really need that many hand grenades?
“What is that?” I squeak when Payne lifts a long tube off the wall.
“Rocket launcher.”
I’m going to die.
I’m so going to die.
“Who do you need me to cut open?” Barb stomps in. “Fiona…what are you doing here?”
Saving the world…based on the amount of weapons Payne seems to think we need. “It’s a long story.”
Barb nods. “Gotcha. Let’s make this quick. I’m in the middle of a debate. And if I’m gone too long, they're going to think they’ve stumped me.”
Do I even want to know? When it comes to Barb and her strange hobbies…probably not.
“You need to cut me.” Everett pulls off his shirt and turns around. “One-inch incision middle of my back, right next to the spine. You should see the scar.”
“Cutting next to a spine can be tricky.” Barb walks over to the sink. “Sounds like fun.”
Ten minutes later, she pulls out a pair of tweezers with a little plastic-covered chip pinched inside. “Is this what you’re looking for?”
“Yeah. It needs to be sterilized. Then hand it to me.” Everett pulls the phone Max gave him out of his pocket. “I’ve got the jammer already set up.”
“You can’t put that in my body. They’ll see the fresh wound and go looking for it.” It’s going to get me killed. Why did I think they were going to put it in a piece of jewelry or in my shoe?
“No, but if we’re trying to hide it, I could stick it under your scalp. Your hair would hide the incision. It would hurt way more, though.”
What’s a little pain? “Let’s do it!”
***
They say that clothes make the woman. And they’re right.
Payne picked out an outfit that said, ‘look at me…now pay me’. I haven’t worn this little in a very long time. Mixed with the right blend of makeup, I could have been turning tricks for the last ten years. The only place it’ll fall apart is if they look too close at my skin.
Hopefully, they’ll be too busy staring at other parts of my body to notice.
