The clock read 1:32am. I turned the car on again. Kimber muttered her approval and laid her face next to the heater. She gently banged her forehead against the dashboard. "We're getting fucking nowhere." She said. And she was right. We had been arguing for hours and still agreed on nothing. The mission was suicide no matter how we went about it so we were really just arguing how many of us should die and in what order.
"They're going to kill you if they see you - period. Those guys have no reason to let you live." I said.
"Yeah, I'm not arguing that. But how are you going to shoot anybody when you have one bullet and they know you're coming anyway?"
"And they know about the bulletproof vest." I added.
"And they know about the bulletproof vest!" She repeated. "Making it absolutely worthless."
"Yep." I leaned my head back against the headrest and closed my eyes. I just wanted to sleep.
"We need more time. At least another day."
"If we don't come to them in the morning, they'll come to us." I murmured.
"And kill us either way."
"Right. We're dead in every scenario."
"Hmm." Kimber suddenly sat up. "Unless..."
I turned my head to look at her through one eye. "Unless what?"
"Unless we do something stupid."
"Oh, Kimber, that ship has fucking sailed."
"No, listen, I'm serious. You wear the vest - and you give me the gun."
"Split up the vest and the gun?"
"Yeah, they won't expect that."
"Yeah, because it's fucking stupid. As soon as one of us pulls out the gun they're going to get shot. So, if that's the plan, I'd rather you wear the vest."
"But I need the gun." She countered.
"Then wear both."
"No, that's...that's..." She was silent a moment. "Well actually, that's pretty brilliant." She finished.
I gave her a dubious look. "What are you thinking?"
"Hear me out. I'm going to get shot either way and that actually puts us at an advantage. Let him shoot me. And then once they've forgotten about me, and they're not paying attention to me anymore, I'll shoot him."
"Well, you're banking on the fact that they don't search us when we get to Borrasca."
"Yeah."
"And that they won't just shoot you in the head."
"Granted."
"And also that they'll shoot you at all, I mean they could just, you know, keep you there."
"Okay."
"And finally that Jimmy will - or even can - take control of the situation like he promised."
Kimber nodded. "Okay. All acceptable risks." She smiled.
"You're high, Kimber."
"I'm fucking not, but are you? Because for this to work I'm going to need you to Streep the shit out of this."
"I wish," I scoffed.
Kimber raised an eyebrow.
"That package didn't have drugs in it, you know." I said.
"What."
"Sorry, but I couldn't tell you at the time. You would have realized that I was going without you."
"You are a dick, Sam Walker. So what did it have in it?"
I shrugged. "It was a care package from Seth. He sent me video cameras."
"Why? For what?"
"Remember the night I disappeared with the car for several hours?"
Kimber's eyes narrowed. "Yes."
"I used the directions Jimmy Prescott gave me to find Borrasca 2."
"Please don't call it that. Also, please tell me you're fucking joking."
"Sorry. And no, I'm not. I couldn't see much or hear anything but I was there. I know the way. It's the reason we're parked on this road right now."
"I can't believe you went to Borrasca. I can't believe you, Sam. That's madness."
"Yeah, I realized that too late. And the whole thing took me longer than it should have because I had to be fucking stealthy - which, I don't' know if you've noticed but I'm not a graceful person - and I had to climb fucking trees to Velcro that shit down. Oh, and I had to fucking find the place."
"So, holy shit, we're going to have actual footage from the mine! It's brilliant!"
"Not exactly. They're...dummy cameras."
What does that mean? They're not real?"
"Yeah, they're sold as like...deterrents."
"But then...why would you risk that! Why even bother putting up deterrents?"
"To, you know, deter anyone from murdering me."
"Oh. Goddamn it, I really wish they were real."
"Yeah, me too. But there's no way I could have installed something like that."
"Fuck, if we had film we wouldn't even need the Borrasca records."
"Seth thinks that if we figure out where the files are he might be able to get in and download them."
Kimber sighed. "So many ifs."
"So you really want to get shot, huh?"
"I think it's the best plan we've got. Maybe I'll just stumble into camp later than you. You know, 'get caught'. That way they'll assume you have the gun and I was just being careless. Sam. Sam."
She was shaking me. I had drifted off.
"Sam, wake up."
"Wake up."
