By Paths Coincident

Chapter 12

Eve took several deep breaths to calm the battle nerves that in the absence of discharge were making her feel as if her skin contained broken power lines, snapping and arcing. Not taking her eyes off the Brew Pub, she slowly holstered her pistol and backed up to where she could open the door of the pickup and step into the driver's seat.

She did not relax until they were several blocks away.

In the rear view mirror, she could see Ezekiel's face lit by the screen of his phone. Cassandra leaned sleepily against the side of the truck, the day obviously overtaking her. Beside her, Stone sat straight, staring into the night, the bandage on the side of his head standing out light over dark. Eve let herself gloat over them a little—her team, alive and mostly well. Safe, for the time being, from assassins and cults.

She would drop Ezekiel off first. Since his illegal activity significantly supplemented his income as a Librarian in Training, he had his own townhouse apartment in an upscale neighbourhood closer to the heart of Portland. Eve had no doubt the crime rate in the area was on the rise.

Cassandra and Eve had chosen economical apartments in the same building within walking distance of The Annex, so when they dropped Cassandra off, Eve would be able to dash in and grab her bag she kept packed for longer missions.

Stone had rejected conventional apartments and had found a room to rent on the top floor of an actual house.

When she informed her team of her proposed plan to spend the night with Stone, he objected, "I'll be fine. If anything goes wrong, I can call my landlady."

"If you are able to call her," Eve said, "you don't need her. Listen, you need someone to stay with you, wake you up occasionally, make sure you're okay. Jones would irritate you to death."

"And there is no way I'm babysitting you," Ezekiel chimed in.

"And Colonel Baird has the most experience in dealing with injuries," Cassandra put in.

"So, you don't have to like it, but I promised someone would spend the night with you, and I intend to keep that promise," Eve finished.

Stone was looking mulish, but the effort of arguing appeared to be beyond his capacity at the moment, for which Eve was grateful.

"That's settled then," Eve said. "I'll just pick up my overnight bag when we drop off Cassandra."

Stone's only resigned comment was "How am I gonna explain you to my landlady?"

Jones laughed. "It's the 21st century. You're a man. She's a woman. What's to explain?"

Stone pinched the bridge of his nose and grimaced in more than physical pain.

"I am going to strangle you, Ezekiel Jones," Eve said through gritted teeth. "Life imprisonment would be worth it. But no jury in the land would convict."

Ezekiel prudently subsided into his phone again. Several more blocks went by in blessed silence before an exclamation from the back seat startled all of them.

"No! I don't believe it! I do not believe this!"

Cassandra, yanked back from the gates of sleep, popped upright, exclaiming "What? What is it?"

"Do you know who those people were?" Ezekiel asked, waving his phone around. The light bounced around the cab, annoying Eve and making Stone wince.

"Which ones?" Cassandra asked.

"Those friends of Stone's cousin!" he said.

"Colin and Martha?"

"Exactly," Ezekiel said significantly.