“Ahh, that was fun,” Severo said happily. He pushed the floating cart with their things inside the apartment, moving quickly out of the way so Seri could walk in behind him. The man had at least a dozen bags hanging off his arms, along with Skya strapped to his chest.
“That was exhausting,” Seri groused as he shut the door and followed him down the hall, past the kitchen and into the living room. Reaching it, the man let all the bags drop off his arms, before pulling off his hat and scarf and letting them fall where they may.
“Exhausting? Really? Huh… Odd, I feel like I have so much more energy to burn after that.”
Seri stared at him in disgust. “You are both a morning person and an extrovert, aren’t you?”
“I mean…a bit.” Severo shrugged, removing his own hat and scarf, before placing them on the kitchen island.
Seri pointed. “You! No more waking me up before at least ten. Preferably noon.”
“Seri…it was eleven when I woke you up…”
“We got in at like three!”
“Which is why I let you sleep until eleven… Also, noon is too late! Maybe ten, but not noon…half the day would be gone by then!”
“I don’t care. I need my sleep…and coffee.” Seri suddenly gasped in horror. “We should have gotten an instant coffee machine! All we got was clothes…and baby stuff… Coffee! I need coffee.” The Nymph sank to his knees on top of the bags with a whine.
Severo chuckled. “Do you want me to head out and buy a machine?”
“Yes, use your stupid endless energy and get me coffee.” Seri slipped down the bags and just sort of laid there on his side holding Skya, who was giggling at her daddy’s antics.
“Okay, I will, but first I need to contact my boss. I’ve only been out of contact for a few days, but it should have been enough time for him to secure things on his side.”
Seri’s face blanked, expression turning serious. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
Severo sighed. “Yes, Seri. Cyrus can be trusted. Oh, yeah, someone will be by later to set up a high security internet connection for us, for the laptops and other tech stuff.”
“Oh right,” Seri grunted. “I forgot about the stuff they gave us.”
“Yeah, I haven’t even removed them from the black duffle bag.” He eyed the Nymph still laying on the floor. “You…stay here, I’ll go get them…”
Severo shook his head, left the cart near the coffee deprived Nymph and headed to his room.Entering the bedroom, he eyed it. The room was a decent size, and its color scheme matched the living room. The bed was round, the end tables were square with rounded corners. There were two matching dressers. On the nearest dresser sat the duffle bag, where he had left it after securing the gun early that morning.
Quickly snagging the phones from the bag, he returned to the living room to find the Nymph now sitting on the couch instead of laying on the floor. Skya was still strapped to his chest and looked sleepy.
“Here,” he said, handing over the blue phone. “I imagine they’ve already programmed in the numbers we need, but I don’t know as I haven’t had a chance to look.”
The Nymph took it and looked the device over with a brow raised. “I can’t say I’ve ever had such a new model. I’ve always bought prepaid full rectangle phones. The ones that don’t get any smaller.”
“Do you know how to open the screen?”
Seri snorted. “Of course. I may have been too poor to buy one, but I’ve seen plenty of people using them before.” The Nymph ran his thumb over the rectangle and the screen slid out.
“Ah, looks like I handed you the right one…or they are set to open to both our thumbprints. Anyway, it’s secure and will keep your calls private, and us hidden.”
“Who would I even call?” Seri drawled.
“Well, umm, they will just be useful to keep my calls hidden then,” he said with a sigh as released the screen on his own.
He typed in the number for Cyrus’ hidden phone, and waited as it rang. In an effort to gain Seri’s trust, he held it up and showed himself putting it on speaker. Seri didn’t react.
“Severo?” Cyrus’s voice rang out.
The Nymph tensed.
“It's me.”
