Wanted: Undead or Alive

Kind of Like Airport Security

I parked near the grocery entrance and went inside to do my shopping. Maybe I would just buy a few things and then drive home again. Probably that was all I could do, anyway. Just because he listed the store as his address didn't mean he actually lived there. Obviously, it was a front. He wasn't likely to be snoozing in a tent in the camping supplies aisle.

However, I did find myself in the sporting goods section of the store, but not because I was looking for him. I had been meaning to buy an emergency flashlight since I moved into my apartment. It was the kind of apartment that lent itself to electrical disasters and a girl could never be too prepared. Just to be sure, I peeked inside the single display tent. No one was sleeping in there. Of course. Because the whole bounty hunting thing was nonsense, and Drew Freeman was nonsense, and Chantelle was right about all of it, and I needed to move on.

But then I got to the checkout and paid in crisp twenties, and I still had a bunch of twenties left over. Those were bounty hunting twenties, and surely there were more where they came from.

It couldn't hurt to drive around a little and keep an eye out for a big black Jeep Rubicon.

I found it near the loading docks. And there was Agent Drew Freeman, still all in black, even bigger than I remembered, talking to some skinny girl in a hoodie.

He looked in my direction, and recognition crossed his face immediately.

The girl disappeared. Poof. She was gone. Maybe she'd run really fast or ducked behind the car, but I really didn't think so. I was pretty sure she literally disappeared.

The bounty hunter looked to where she'd been standing and sighed. His big shoulders moved up and down like glaciers rolling with the ocean waves.

For a moment, the reasonable part of my brain almost managed to take control. Reasonable Olivia would have put the car in reverse, backed away, gone home, put her groceries away, and never given another thought to vanishing girls and foul-smelling skeleton scarecrows walking the streets in plain sight or the people who hunted them.

The moment passed.

When I got out of the car, Gigantor crossed his arms over his barrel of a chest and watched me approach without doing a thing to make it less weird.

"This is my karmic reward for cutting you in? Doesn't seem fair. The Universe mocks me."

I fiddled with the keys in my hands to burn off a bit of my internal energy, lest it cause me to spontaneously combust. That felt like a real possibility. "I want to know more about what you do."

"No. You already know more than you should."

"Why? Why not just tell people the truth? We'll assimilate."

His mouth twisted into what might have been his version of a smile. "You survived a pandemic during which folks suggested vaccines contain microchips, and you've heard politicians blaming Jewish space lasers for the effects of global climate change. If you honestly think humans would assimilate, you're too stupid to bother with."

I sputtered something about clear and consistent messaging, but it was hard to talk with him giving me the, I think you're an idiot look.

"Go home. Enjoy your little windfall. Forget last night ever happened."

Yes. Because last night was the kind of thing a person could forget on command, not the kind of thing that stayed with them in nightmares long after they'd grown old and senile and forgotten everything else.

"I helped you." Good lord. That sounded pathetic, even to me.

"And I thanked you."

"I'll keep pestering you." I gestured to the empty spot where the disappearing girl had stood. "That's bad for business, right? Better to have me working with you than against you."