Lupin the Third: The Del Monte Ruby

Chapter 7

At dawn the next morning, when the train arrived at its first stop on its northbound route, the conductor made his usual rounds, checking all the cars. He came to the one filled with feedstock. There, he found a collection of burnt-out cigarette butts and some vaguely human-shaped contours in the hay. Someone had stowed aboard the train last night. In fact, the stowaways might still be onboard somewhere!

As the conductor leapt out of the boxcar to check the surrounding ones, that was when, a tiny yellow Fiat zoomed off the flatbed. It practically leapt through the air as it blazed past the conductor. Behind the wheel, a man with a maniacal looking grin bid the conductor a boisterous, "Ohayou Gozaimasu!"

In the backseat, Ruby clung to Jigen's shoulders from behind, biting back a scream. The conductor watched in astonishment as the Fiat hit the ground, and then, with a screech of tires, zoomed through the field towards the highway.

Goemon had departed in the wee hours of morning to parts unknown, so it was just the three of them now; Ruby swallowing her terror, Lupin driving, and Jigen in the passenger seat using the car's cigarette lighter to service his bent cigarette. They left a trail through the tall grass as they blazed away from the railway loading depot and up the hill to the northbound highway.

Lupin chuckled as the Fiat zipped carelessly onto the freeway, cutting off other cars as they blared their horns. He had quite nearly caused a three-car pileup before the drive became gradually more smooth and less hurried.

"Beautiful morning, isn't it?" said Lupin with a carefree spirit. "I slept like a rock last night!"

"I didn't," grumbled Ruby. "I stayed up all night -- or at least I tried to -- because I was almost certain you guys were gonna ditch me. Any time I nodded off, I woke up in a panic that I was gonna find you guys gone and some rapist redneck from Deliverance looming over me."

"Oh, come on," Lupin laughed. "Did you really think we were gonna leave you?"

"Besides," added Jigen. "The person you should really worry about looming over you during the night is Lupin."

"Hey, come on now," said Lupin. "That's really harsh."

"Really? My friend thinks you're responsible for many a hashtag," commented Ruby. "You have a reputation for being kinda sleazy apparently." She was only teasing, as evidenced by her grin, but there was a part of her deep down, wondering, 'Why hasn't he acted skeezy towards me?' And she couldn't quite figure out if that relieved her or disappointed her. And she sort of hated herself for it.

Jigen leaned back in his seat with a foot on the dashboard as he took a drag off his cigarette. "We should get breakfast."

Ruby's stomach poetically chose that moment to growl. "Uh, yeah. Please. I don't think I ever ate dinner last night. Some birthday, huh? No dinner, no cake. Just some fucking shrimp."

"Hehehehe! I think Pops ate more than you did when he went through that buffet table."

Ruby winced. "Ouch."

Lupin glanced over his shoulder at Ruby in the back seat. "Do you have your phone on you? Find out where we are. Then maybe we can figure where we can pull off for some breakfast."

"Oh. Right." Ruby took out her phone. "Well, we better make use of it as fast as possible or find a charger somewhere, because this thing isn't going to last a full da— Uh oh."

"Hmm?" said Jigen. "What's the matter?"

Lupin glanced at Ruby in the rearview. "Trouble?"

A swarm of texts had blasted her phone during the night and into the wee hours of the morning. Texts from Kierra and Adela and her sister. There were several missed calls from Diana. And even one from...