Francine’s mouth dropped open when Elda burst into the house with what sounded like a bomb on the front door. The rental deposit wasn’t going to cover that.
Elda kicked what was left of the front door closed and pointed the pistol in her left hand at it. When she pulled the trigger, bright blue, red and yellow striped foam sprayed out. She drew a straight line down the doorframe, then included the foot-sized hole where the lock used to be, filling that with foam in a circular pattern. Francine thought it looked like she’d shoved an Earther all-day sucker in the hole.
Raphael demanded, “What in the space potato farm are you doing, Elda?”
“Don’t swear at me, Raphael,” she countered. Once the foam hit the door and the frame, it swirled around, changing to a whitish-gray color and then, miraculously, started turning the same color as the door and frame, respectively. In seconds, it was indistinguishable from the red of the door and the brown of the frame.Interesting. What is that stuff?
Raphael’s hands went up in the air. “You just blew the lock off the front door of my rental!”
“And I’m fixing it.”
“Chameleon foam is notfixingit.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll pay to have it properly repaired,” she said, finishing up her foamy fill-in job. “Just as soon as I cash in my bounty. It’s going to be huge. This will hold it in the meantime.”
The lock was still missing, as were the doorknobs on both sides, but at least the foam sealed the door from the outside. Francine wasn’t certain how they were supposed to get in and out without a handle, but they had bigger problems.
Raphael moved to stand in front of Victor, blocking the bounty hunter’s view of her quarry.
“Stand aside, Raphael, or I will make my way through you.”
“I’m not letting you take him, Elda.”
Francine moved to stand beside Raphael and Elda’s foam gun rose to point at her. “I already know that’s a foam gun.”
Elda turned it sideways and sighed. She stuck it back on her utility belt with a sheepish look, but leveled the other gun at Raphael’s chest.
“Elda, my love,” Victor said. “I took great pains to send you that secret message so youwouldn’thunt me down.”
My love?
“Well, I tried to keep my distance. Things changed when I saw the price of the bounty on your head,” she said, a lopsided grin forming as she looked past Raphael.
Victor moved around Raphael and Francine.
Elda lowered her gun, stowed it in her holster and ran to him. They met in the middle of the foyer and embraced like long-lost lovers and kissed like they were about to be parted forever.
“What is going on here?” Raphael looked perturbed. Francine felt for him. First the door blown to smithereens, now a new love connection complication at best.
Victor broke from Elda and told Raphael, “The reason I believe someone is trying to frame me for my father’s murder is because I want to marry Elda. My father was not too keen on the idea, as you might imagine, but he was coming around. He didn’t want Claudia or Roger to succeed him if I abdicated. Someone must have learned he was softening to the idea of a non-royal as my bride.”
Elda kissed Victor’s cheek. “I promise that I didn’t hunt you down at first, as you requested. When I found out how much the bounty was, I knew you were in more trouble than even you could handle. By then I didn’t know where to look. So I found Raphael and used him as my guide. My instinct was right.” She looked at Raphael. “You would never hunt him, no matter how much the price on his head is.” She pointed at him. “Say it, Raphael. Say I’m the best bounty hunter ever.”
“Yes, yes. You’re the best and baddest bounty hunter of all time, Elda. I’ll ensure it’s carved on your headstone one day,” Raphael said. “Are you happy now?”
“A narrow victory, all things considered, but I’ll take it.” Elda looked at each of them. “Well, fill me in on the plan so I can help. The sooner we get rid of this ridiculous bounty on Victor’s head, the sooner we can all get back to our regularly scheduled lives.”
When neither man rushed to speak, Francine said, “Here is my idea.” She filled Elda in.
“Wow. That’s a great idea. She’s a smart one, isn’t she? How did you get so lucky, Luther? I mean, Raphael.”
He rolled his eyes, but Francine could see his amusement.
Elda said, “My plan was to take Victor in as my prisoner and collect the bounty, hide some battle tech on him so he’d be able to escape and meet up with me later. Francine’s idea is better. It’s easier to control the parameters and Victor doesn’t have to go to jail. I don’t know if he’d survive it anyway.”
Raphael nodded. “You’re right. He might be shot trying to escape. My guess is that’s the way whoever is behind this would make it look.”
