Chrono X Angel, Book 7: Trial By Fire

Chapter 15

By now Nonami had put several dozen miles between herself and the now-destroyed bunker, and with no signs of further pursuit, allowed herself a moment of relief in the backseat of Melody's 1988 Dodge van. It was a decent upgrade from the standard white van transport van herself and Millar had rented, if a bit cramped now with five people. Agent Millar was buckled into the back bench seats, while Nonami sat next to Elisabeth in the middle row, and Iris rode shotgun. The trip had initially been made in silence as no one was really sure what to say. It was Nonami who decided to break that silence, giving voice to a question she had asked earlier when the group had found her.

"How did you really know where we were. Seriously." She inquired, a general question though one also directed at the driver. She had previously claimed to have had some kind of intuition about "needing to be in that spot" but Nonami could not buy that as an excuse.

"I told you before Miss," replied Melody from the driver's seat, not taking her eyes off the road, "I just... had a feeling we needed to be there. Happened yesterday, Iri can vouch for it, can't ya hon?"

"Iri?" Thought Nonami briefly as Iris answered the other woman.

"Yeah, we were a state over doing some driving and scouting for a nice base-"

"House-" corrected Melody very quickly, as though the two had had this discussion many times before.

"-house," continued Iris with a roll of her visible eye, "when all of a sudden Melody there says we gotta drive 400 miles due east to some cornfield. Says it's vital to... what was it again?"

"To someone's survival," answered Melody quickly, "Miss...? What's your name, ma'am?"

"Nonami."

"Miss Nonami, sometimes I get these... I dunno what you would call em. Flashes, maybe? Of things that are gonna happen. Typically if I don't do anything they come true, which usually isn't a good thing. I think. Well in this one I saw someone who my brain was telling me was 'Lissy's friend being set on fire by really bad people. I gunned it to make sure we got there in time, drove through the night even... which reminds me, I don't think I've slept in almost 40 hours... wheeee..."

As if on cue, the half-asleep driver became fully asleep and slumped over the wheel causing the van to speed up and start veering off the road. Iris quickly intervened to jerk the steering wheel back towards the proper position while simultaneously trying to pull Melody's foot off the gas. Once the van had slowed to a crawl, Iris stepped out and pulled the loudly snoring woman from the driver's seat and carried her to the back. For a moment, Iris looked at Melody with a soft, tender expression, before buckling her into a seat next to Millar and tossing a blanket over her. Coming back around, Iris took over in the driver's seat before continuing down the road.

"So your friend... is psychic?" Asked Nonami, trying to make sense of what she had heard. Usually she would not take the words of someone so sleep deprived as gospel, but these were nothing if not extraordinary times.

"No clue, but I think so," replied Iris, "She's got good instincts if nothing else. Saved our butts getting out of Mexico, that's for sure."

There was a considerable bump in the road as they left the dirt path and started driving down pavement again.

"Ogopogo no, don't you're so sexy haha..." mumbled Millar in his sleep.

"...so that reminds me," said Nonami, doing her best to ignore that dubious statement, "How did the two of you get here? Last I'd heard you'd parted ways with Hyoka in Peru."

"That little snowflake said she wouldn't tell anyone about our involvement," growled Elisabeth.

"If it makes you feel better, she only told myself and Usoko," replied Nonami, "and neither of us are exactly on friendly terms with GARDNA at the moment."