Damien walked over, appearing a little less shaken. “Thanks for humoringhim.”
I nodded. “You’re welcome. You oweme.”
He smiled, slipping a hand around my waist. “All the chocolate inVancouver.”
I grinned. “I was thinking we could do somehacking.”
Damien appraised me. “What did you have inmind?”
“The green stuff. The alien oil. I want to know how they’re getting it over, what they’re planning to use it in, and who’sinvolved.”
Damien huffed out a sigh. “Okay.”
It was one of those things that I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer to, but that at the end of the day, I had to know. If the government had sold the population for a renewable energy, then I was going to stop that shit and bring it all down in flames. That wasnotwhat my America stoodfor.
So we got to work. Jeremy up in his lab doing God knew what to my brain, Ronnie and Brisk off on a kitty capture adventure, and Damien, Nox and I searching for anything that had to do with the green stuff. Maxine was lazing on the couch, watchingFriendsreruns, and nursing her shoulder andleg.
By the time the sun had set, we’d found a ton of random info to look through. It looked like there was a huge green lake on a government site in Nevada, but the satellite Damien had hacked to get that info had dropped a firewall down on him and booted himout.
He rubbed his temples. “I’mtired.”
I was too. It’d been almost two days without sleep, making it hard to concentrate on these kinds of things. We’d all get some sleep tonight and hopefully be fresh for research in the morning. Maxine was able to run and hold a gun, so she was goingin.
We’d stocked up at the local military supply store, and now we all carried two RPG launchers each. Our new enemy was a big-ass giant that tucked away over a hundred humans a day. We wanted to beprepared.
The front door opened and Ronnie walked in, beaming like a newborn’s mother. In her hands was a tiny white kitten with creamspots.
Aw. Little fucker’s kind ofcute.
Maybe I did likecats.
I stood and approached them. “She’s so tiny,” Iobserved.
Ronnie nodded. “I just gave her a bottle, need to fatten herup.”
I reached out to touch the kitty, and she jerked her head to the side and batted at my hand, leaving a redmark.
“Ow.”
Asshole.
Ronnie pulled her back, as if I’d been the one to do something wrong. “She’s had some coffee. It makes her jumpy. You scaredher.”
Right….It was decided then: all cats were crazyassholes.
“What did you name her?” She wouldn’t really name her Kitty, Ihoped.
“Lucy, after that girl whose dad… ya know. She seemed to like cats, and it was a cute name.” Ronnie was a mushy, emotional soul, hidden in a rigid surgeon’s OCDbody.
“It’s perfect. Please keep her away from me,” I said with asmile.
She kicked me and I laughed, backingup.
The sounds of footsteps on the stairs drew my attention, and I looked up to see Jeremy shuffling sleepily toward us, a small black collar in his hand. When he reached Ronnie, he thrust the collar out. “I’m tired. Can we go to bednow?”
Ronnie grabbed the collar with a shaking hand. “You didit?”
He nodded. “Fill the collar with your blood when we land, and the cat will wake up withyou.”
