“One did. And yeah, he definitely hit the jackpot with it. He made a ton of money – but he spent it just as quick, and the next year he was back out here, looking to do it again. I think for some of ’em, it’s not so much about the money but the chase.” Trent laughed. “Like some kind of really weird adrenaline junkie thing. Adrenaline junkies in slow motion.”
Zina nodded. She guessed she could understand that. She wouldn’t have chosen the job she had if she was totally immune to the call of adrenaline.
As they drove down the main street – or what Zinaassumedwas the main street, anyway, since it was fairly wide and had buildings on either side of it, though it wasn’t paved at all – she noticed a few people hanging around in what shade there was, dressed in shorts and sleeveless tops.
Okay, well, it’s not crowded, but there might be enough people to – oh! Oh SHIT!
“Trent!” she yelped.
“What?” He snapped his head around to look at her – and Goldie, still napping in his hair, woke up, raising her head and blinking her eyes curiously. At least until Zina, leaping forward, jammed a hat down over her, shielding her from the view of passers-by.
“Oh, fuck, that was close,” Trent muttered, as, from beneath the hat, there came a mournfulbrrrrrrup?
“It’s okay, Goldie,” Zina said as soothingly as she could. “You go back to your nap.”
“Brrp. Cheep?”
Thankfully, whatever Goldie thought of being covered by a hat, she seemed content to stay where she was. Looking down at Dusty – who had moved from her hands to her lap – Zina grimaced.
“And what are we going to do with you, young man?”
Dusty didn’t seem to have much of an answer to that, and simply gazed up at her with sleepy yellow eyes.
“I don’t suppose you’d consent to getting in my bag for a little while?” Zina asked him hopefully.
“Worth a try,” Trent said, reaching beneath the passenger’s seat before passing her back her bag. “Perhaps if we put some food in there to lure him in?”
“Good idea.”
Opening the Esky where it sat on the seat next to her, Zina grabbed a slice of bread from the loaf. Dusty hadn’t seemed to have had a preference for any one thing out of what they’d fed him before, and bread seemed the least likely of the three to make a mess in her bag.
“Hey – Dusty. You want some bread?” Zina asked, moving it what she hoped was temptingly in front of Dusty’s face.
Dusty, apparently, wasveryinterested in some bread. He got up, nostrils flaring as he sniffed at the bread, following it as Zina moved it slowly closer and closer to the opening of her bag.
“It’s not so bad in there, I promise,” she said. “You were happy in there when you were in your egg – and it’ll just be for a little while. I’ll let you out as soon as we’re somewhere private.”
Dusty didn’t have to be told twice. As she put the bread inside her bag, he willingly followed it inside. As soon as he was in the bag, he opened his jaws and started chomping on the bread, devouring it quickly – Zina just hoped it’d keep him occupied long enough for them to find somewhere to stay and to check in. At least he didn’t seem at all worried when she carefully zipped the bag closed again, with him inside. Judging from the way the only sound she heard from inside was that of happy munching, she assumed he was content to stay there for the moment.
“There’s a hotel up ahead,” Trent said. “Hopefully they’ll have a free room.”
“Is this place that popular amongst tourists?” Zina asked as they passed yet more windblown, beat-up-looking buildings. She could see in the past maybe these places had been pretty fancy, two stories high with wrought-iron balconies. But now there was no word for them butrun-down.
“Well, you’d be surprised,” Trent told her as he swung the car into a parking lot – which was more like a dusty space out the front of a weather-beaten building. “Lots of people come out to old places like this, out of curiosity or to see something off the beaten track. Maybe find some opals for themselves and set themselves up for life.”
Zina grinned. “I guess we should be so lucky.”
“Brrup? Brrp? Cheep?”
As Trent stopped the car, Zina could see Goldie starting to move around beneath the hat, poking up against it and causing it to move around in a way that definitely wasnotinconspicuous.
“You think she’s ready to come down from there?” Zina asked, reaching forward to peep under the hat.
As she did, however, Trent sucked in a sharp breath. “Ow, ow, ow.Shereallydug her claws in when you did that.”
“Um. It’s gonna be a bit hard to check in with what looks like a living hat on your head,” Zina pointed out. She moved the hat up again – and this time, a tiny clawed foot shot out, grabbing at the brim and yanking it back down into place. “But she does seem set on staying up there.”
“Well… I guess there’s not a lot we can do about that,” Trent said grimly. “It seems like either she stays up there or I lose my hair. And I really wasn’t planning on going bald quite yet.”
