Peppermint

Chapter 15 - Right Now

***GABE***

Dammit, now I'm really regretting leaving TJ unattended, even if - no, especially if - it was because Harris and I were screwing instead. Seriously, where the hell could my cousin have gone? It's not like we're actually taking steps to ensure his head is entirely free of Penner's little possession virus. Shouldn't that be priority one for us? Not fucking? And certainly not taking unsanctioned, thinly-planned heist trips down to Peppermint HQ?

Though at least we got something out of it, even if we don't yet know what the hell those damn space rocks are good for. Knowing Peppermint, though, they're probably not good for anything at all. Quite the opposite.

"Come on, come on..." I pull my phone away from my ear so I don't have to hear the dial tone taunt me. And so I can shake the thing in frustration.

"Gabe, stop it." Harris grabs my wrist and steadies it. "You know those things have accelerometers, right? Shake 'em the wrong way and you might accidentally hang up."

"I thought you had to shake it like you were jerking off."

"That's how it was done in the old days, yeah..." Harris muses. "But still, better not to take any chances."

I sigh, then bring my phone back to my ear just in time to hear it pick up on the other end. "You've reached Patel Bros. Local Inc., LLC, M.D., Pnk.Fl.D, BAMF," says Yash with a soft laugh and a damn good Rahul Kohli accent. "For business enquiries of a non-essential nature, press one and wait for my assistant to take a number and insert it directly into your ar-"

"Cut the crap, Yash," I bark as I put the phone on speaker.

"Sorry," he says, shifting back to his standard American accent. "Couldn't resist. But hey, we're about to isolate the code Penner left on your guy's phone-"

"He's not my guy," I say. "Not in the way you're thinking."

"How do you know? I meant it in a brothers-in-arms kind of-"

"It's cool you've got the code," Harris cuts in, "'cause we're gonna need you to make some kind of antidote as soon as possible."

"You mean a vaccine?" Yash asks. "If you don't mind me getting all Digimon on you."

"First off," I say, irritated at this meandering, "we're Pokémon fans around here. And second, we need that antidote, that vaccine, whatever you wanna call it..." I pause because I realize I'm holding my phone the same way I would wring someone's neck. "Bottom line," I continue after a deep breath or six, "TJ's gone missing, and we think Penner's gotten into his head again."

"And what, summoned him to his side?" It's Aditya's voice, and he's laughing even more than his brother.

"Maybe," Harris says. "That's what we're trying to find out."

"Well, don't say anything further on the phone," Yash orders us. "Just come down to the Terminal. We'll be waiting."

"Who's 'we?'" I ask.

"The royal kind," Yash says in that Rahul Kohli voice again. Now I think about it, he also looks a lot like Rahul Kohli, though with a less magnificent beard because he's younger. Or so he appears. Second 'Verse peeps age slowly enough, but what about peeps from other 'Verses? Whichever number on that list the Terminal would be. I always thought it was meant to the One-and-a-halfth 'Verse myself. (Prime-and-a-halfth?" Maybe.)

"Point being-" Aditya says.

"Yeah, yeah, we get it," I say, making a "flapping my gums" gesture to get a laugh out of Harris. "Not over the phone. Not safe. Too many green ears listening in."