Space-Time of Death: an Al Squires of the Protectorate Novel

Ch. 9.1: The House of Bliss; or, 3-Way with the Enemy

We followed Charlie's VW for well over a (subjective) hour. Mei and Lady Lane were up in the driver's and passenger seats, respectfully, while the rest of us were crammed into the back. I don't have to tell you that it wasn't the most comfortable ride for some of us; especially for Clint, being the tallest of us. Luckily, we had a shapeshifter among us who could manipulate hir size. So, we had that small mercy, no pun intended.

During that time, we all kept our minds away from our discomfort by voicing our personal ideas on where this Love-In was going to be; all while we listened to the Stones, the Beatles, the Doors, and other greats of the era as they played on the van's radio. A few of us thought it'd be somewhere outdoors yet remote, like a field or abandoned farm. Some of us thought it'd be a condemned or private building that someone's squatting in; like an abandoned warehouse or something like that. I was among the majority who thought it'd be at a private residence of some sort; possibly belonging to Charlie's mysterious benefactors and co-hosts.

As this was going on, the members of TO picked out their guns from Mei's arsenal, then handed over their guns to Lady Lane, who put them in her hemp satchel. She decided that it was best to do this in case they patted down anyone for guns before going in. Since the satchel already looked full, no one would expect any guns in there.

"You know, from one unique storage aficionado to another," I casually said to her as she put them in her bag, "we've got to swap techniques when this is over, milady."

"When this is over perhaps," she said without looking at me as she put guns in her bag, her tone sounding almost coy. She looked up to me and softly added, "Perhaps we might even swap more than that." She then gave me a flirtatious wink, as if to give me the context of what that 'more' would include.

Because part of the plan included him staying outside, Jorge was the only one who didn't hand over the gun that he chose. It was just as well: when everyone picked smaller handguns like 'Saturday Night Specials' and the like, the handgun Jorge picked was a .44 Magnum.

Norah, who was sitting behind Lady Lane's seat, looked at the guns with a concerned face as they were carefully passed to Lady Lane. "Are you sure that it's a good idea using guns in a place full of civilians, milady?" she asked Lady Lane. "Suppose we do get into a fight, and someone who wasn't supposed to die tonight gets shot?"

Lady Lane turned in her seat to look at Norah as she continued packing the guns. "I understand why you ask this question, my dear." she said to Norah, reassuringly. "But you don't need to worry about any casualties on Ouroboros' end. In case you didn't notice back in Studio 54, all Ouroboros agents are certified and highly trained marksmen: each of us taught how to handle firearms from all eras; from ball-and-powder pistols to fully automatics." She then pointed to one of her eyes. "Not only that," she added, "but our Temporalamac lenses also come with targeting assistance software: allowing us to locate the most effective but non-lethal location of our target. It helps us limit civilian casualties while keeping our assailants alive; just in case both are important to the Timeline in some form."

Norah looked over at me. "That's kind of like how some of your cybernetics work, right Al?" she asked me.

I shrugged a little. "On paper, there are similarities," I answered as I leaned back in my seat. "The same can be said about a jeep and a Ferrari," I added with a smug grin. "However, one never mistakes a jeep for a Ferrari. You can guess which cybernetics is which in this analogy." I paused, realizing how big of a douche that remark made me sound. I quickly sat up and cleared my throat. "No offense," I added as I looked around the van at the members of TO. I got a 'none taken' from most of them; you can guess which ones held out.

A few (subjective) minutes after this exchange, we discovered that the outcome to our earlier suggestions to the Love-In's location came to a tie, of sorts. We looked out of the back windows to see that arrived at an abandoned-looking neighborhood. We also saw a few cars and vans driving down the same road; most likely heading to our destination, wherever it was. When Charlie's VW slowed down, a lot of us in the back- me included- moved up front to see where we were. It appeared that we had arrived at our destination: an old-looking manor house on a small hill, with light coming from every window and the faint distant hum of music playing at full blast coming from inside. Even with it being relatively early, there were already at least five cars parked nearby; and with more and more coming in from seemingly in all directions just as we arrived. It was a good thing we got there just in time before the good parking spots got taken.