Mr Hook's Big Black Box

Ferrari Delguessimo: Ready for Trouble

Before we left campus in Marco's truck, I did my best to make sure Monty was safe. The Box would have slid all over the truck bed on its own, but Marco had provided a variety of straps to hold it down. Some of them were sturdy canvas straps with friction grips to pull them tight, and some were bungee cords of various elasticities. The number of straps we used was probably overkill, but we were all dreading the tarp coming loose and revealing our cargo on the road, or even a nightmare scenario like the Box coming open along the way. It was like some postmodern spider's web, so there were plenty of points to hold onto, or to slip your legs under the various restraints like it was a normal seat belt. I made sure Monty was doubly secure, but left myself as free as I could manage. Under enough bits of webbing to hold me in place if the truck swerved off the road, but giving me freedom of movement in case there was some problem that needed dealing with.

The first problem I saw was a couple of guys who'd seen too many movies and had a very bad stereotype in their minds of how a secret service guy should dress. Black suits, white shirts. Tie and dark glasses, though both had the glasses in their pockets which made them pretty much useless for preventing a target knowing who you were looking at. We were just driving slowly around the ring road, and the guys didn't move to intercept us, so I didn't say anything right away. I kept on talking to Monty like nothing out of the ordinary was happening, which she seemed quite good at.

Actually, Monty wasn't good at talking about normal things at the best of times. She was so open minded, if you dropped any random fragment of new-age holistic ideology into a conversation, her mind would scoop it up and fit it seamlessly into her belief system. I already knew she believed in gods, land wights, ghosts, spirits (apparently not the same thing), muses, guardian angels, fairies, and dryads. Not demons, though. That would be silly. Sometimes I wondered if the fairies and angels weren't just some way for her to avoid giving up on her childhood imaginary friends. So, we were carrying on a conversation about as normal as she usually gets, which meant she was telling me that the Box didn't like being jostled around so much, and would be much happier if someone could look after it for once without all the stealing, fighting, and chasing.

Come to think of it, that would be a fairly reasonable assumption to make.

The second pair of suit-clad men in a black car drew my attention. They were watching us too, but one of them reached a hand under his jacket, making sure he could draw a weapon quickly if he needed it. I wondered for a fraction of a second if they might actually be government men. Still, if something was going to happen I needed everyone on their toes.

"Can you ask her to be ready for some more jostling," I whispered to Monty, not letting my tone or posture change. I didn't want these guys to know we were onto them. Then I shifted one hand to my belt and used the hilt of my sword to tap on the glass behind me. No visible movement from our observers' point of view. I couldn't see if Marco had noticed or not, but I could at least point at the guys observing us. I kept my hand almost flat against the window, making a clear signal to those in the cab while Monty's body shielded me from the view of the men in suits. "We're being watched, but it's okay. We can deal with them. It's all going to be alright." And then, feeling a bit silly but wanting to help my friend avoid panic, I laid my hand on the Box, round about where the shoulders would be if it really was a coffin, and repeated, "You hear me? I won't let anything bad happen to you. It's going to be alright."