Timothy C. Hobbs's Blog, page 2
August 7, 2013
Wine in the Black Box
August 6, 2013
Movie Review: The Veil
August 5, 2013
3-Day Novel Contest: The Right Idea
August 1, 2013
Parade Route
July 30, 2013
Movie Review: Zombies Gone Wild
May 3, 2013
Chapter 22 Part 3 – Call for Obstruction
Go back to Chapter 1 to read from the beginning
OR read the summary below and jump in.
So far, Barry has signed his soul into servitude to Satan on Earth. He desperately wants out of his contract, but Margery, his demon boss, tortures him with her magical cigarettes when he refuses to follow orders. She’s forcing him to transport concentrated evil energy from Denver to Trinidad, Colorado, where demons dump the substance down air shafts into an abandoned coal mine. It’s forming a rift that will soon open The Gates of Hell and spill Hell’s refugee camp onto Earth.
Knowing how bad life will be for both humans and demons once the gates open, Margery and senior driver Vern ask Barry to help plug up the air shafts. He agrees until he finds out they plan to sacrifice innocent children down into the hell hole. To get Barry back on board, Margery contracts Nina, his love interest. She promises to release Nina from servitude and give her to Barry if he follows through on the plan.
After Margery sets up Barry as a decoy and Vern loses his head, Barry agrees to help Trisha, an angel’s apprentice stop the sacrifice. He finds a map of tunnels to the ranch where the sacrifice will take place and gives it to Trisha. While Barry is outside the warehouse, Nina tries to escape. Fed up, Margery intends to posses Nina with a demon she sends Oscar and Barry to retrieve from a vending machine.
The Courier Series is about Barry White, a twenty-something computer geek with an overbearing mother, no prospects of finding a girlfriend, and an unemployment record that’s made him pessimistic he’ll ever be happy.
The Courier was originally written as a twitter novel @TheCourierNovel in 2009, and the same year it won the Annual Textnovel Writing Contest. Later parts of the story are still tweeting.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
W. J. Howard lives near Denver and writes horror, fantasy and sci-fi with a bit of comedy mixed in. Wendy is also the Co-op Manager for Visionary Press Cooperative, leading an innovative way to publish.
Back at the garage, I ask Oscar, “If Nina can’t run, do you think Margery will let her stay here, with you, while we go to the ranch?” Even possessed, I doubt she’d last long around the demons out there.
He sniggers. “Highly doubtful with that demon in her.”
“What do you mean, that demon?”
Oscar opens the door to the back exit and points for me to go outside first. He doesn’t answer though. Before I can ask him again, we’re distracted by what’s up in the sky. White warriors, at least twenty of them, flying over the warehouse and the surrounding grounds.
Oscar’s staring up into the sky, his head scanning left to right. “Is this your doing?” he asks, then turns his head and glares at me.
“Hell, no.” I rush to answer and shiver, knowing damn well I’m partially responsible. Trisha must have sent them, no question in my mind.
“Trucks are down there, at the loading docks. Keys in the ignition. Drive them up here to the door, then come back inside.” He turns and reaches to open the door.
“Wait. What did you mean when you said ‘that demon’?”
“I lied to you. I shorted Margery’s offering. By now, she’s possessed Nina with a demon marked for destruction.” The guy appears happy for the first time.
I can’t bring myself to speak. I just stand there, hunched over, mouth gaping.
“It is doubtful the demon will behave any better than Nina. Agares demons are only destroyed when they are out of control and stray, but don’t worry. It will take several hours before it rebels. By then, the gates will be closed. And in the end, you will thank me.”
“What! Why!” I choke on my words.
“I want you both gone. You’re trouble and I don’t trust you,” he says. “Once the gates close, you take Nina and run. Run as far away as you can and never come back. The demon in Nina will show you how to hide and evade your contract.” Oscar turns to go back inside. “Enough said. Now go move the trucks.”
I don’t try to stop him. The guy is way more protective of Margery than I suspected, and he just gave me an escape plan.
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May 1, 2013
Sulfite Free Wine SUCKS!
Today I educated myself on sulfite free wines, and I think I’ll pass on buying any in the future. We don’t have any allergies in our family to the stuff, so no need to drink it anyways.
Side note, one of the interesting things I learned is that wine has less sulfites than most dried fruit.
Main reason is because we maintain a pretty large collection of wine at any given time. Until today, I didn’t realize the stuff only has about a 6 month shelf life, even when it’s stored properly. And you have no idea how it’s been stored before you buy it. So, every time we buy sulfite free, we never drink it before it goes bad. I opened another bottle tonight with “suck your lips right off your face” pucker power. It’s even hard to keep the stuff around for guests with allergies who drop by unexpected.
Yeah, going forward, BYO sulfite-free wine to my house . . . and one with sulfites for Michael and me.
April 29, 2013
Chapter 22 Part 2 – Call for Obstruction
Go back to Chapter 1 to read from the beginning
OR read the summary below and jump in.
So far, Barry has signed his soul into servitude to Satan on Earth. He desperately wants out of his contract, but Margery, his demon boss, tortures him with her magical cigarettes when he refuses to follow orders. She’s forcing him to transport concentrated evil energy from Denver to Trinidad, Colorado, where demons dump the substance down air shafts into an abandoned coal mine. It’s forming a rift that will soon open The Gates of Hell and spill Hell’s refugee camp onto Earth.
Knowing how bad life will be for both humans and demons once the gates open, Margery and senior driver Vern ask Barry to help plug up the air shafts. He agrees until he finds out they plan to sacrifice innocent children down into the hell hole. To get Barry back on board, Margery contracts Nina, his love interest. She promises to release Nina from servitude and give her to Barry if he follows through on the plan.
After Margery sets up Barry as a decoy and Vern loses his head, Barry agrees to help Trisha, an angel’s apprentice stop the sacrifice. He finds a map of tunnels to the ranch where the sacrifice will take place and gives it to Trisha. At the same time, Nina tries to escape. Fed up, Margery sends Oscar and Barry to purchase the essence of a demon from a vending machine. She plans to posses Nina with the demon to control her.
The Courier Series is about Barry White, a twenty-something computer geek with an overbearing mother, no prospects of finding a girlfriend, and an unemployment record that’s made him pessimistic he’ll ever be happy.
In Call for Obstruction, Barry has just lost his fourth jobs in the past year due to corporate downsizing. Desperate for employment, he jumps at the first position he’s offered over the phone, driver for OTG Courier Services. Shortly after meeting his new boss, a tiny yet fiery old lady named Margery, she coerces him into signing a questionable employment contract he soon regrets.
The Courier was originally written as a twitter novel @TheCourierNovel in 2009, and the same year it won the Annual Textnovel Writing Contest. Later parts of the story are still tweeting.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
W. J. Howard lives near Denver and writes horror, fantasy and sci-fi with a bit of comedy mixed in. Wendy is also the Co-op Manager for Visionary Press Cooperative, leading an innovative way to publish.
“What the hell does a demon essence look like?” I ask while sliding the last coin into the machine, then shuffle to the left and brace myself for whatever comes out.
“You will see soon enough.” Oscar presses a sequence of flavors: cola, orange, lemon-lime, orange, orange, cola, lemon-lime, as if entering a code. He pauses. “Get ready. It will slither out like an anaconda ready for a meal. I will grab the end that comes out first, then pull it out a length of three feet. You grab the other end before it comes all the way through. Hold it away from your torso or it will try to enter your body.” He hits orange one last time.
The cooling system kicks on and the motor purrs before it amplifies into a screeching whine. When I look around the side of the machine, I see the plug, laying on the cement, and it’s not plugged in. Why should I be surprised.
All at once there’s a clunk, the same sound you hear when a soda can drops out of a vending machine but louder. The machine shuts off.
“Come closer,” Oscar says.
I don’t move though.
A black curvy tip, a cross between a bird’s beak and a rattlesnakes tale, hedges its way out. The thing is connected to a jagged diamond-shaped head, and it twitches, as if sniffing at the air. Oscar grabs it. “I said, come closer.”
I’m still holding back. The thought of touching the thing makes me shiver, and having it in my hands means it’s another step closer to possessing Nina. I don’t want to be a part of this. I can’t do it.
Oscar’s still holding on tightly, but the thing’s powerful, bucking and clattering against the inside of the machine. “Grab it or I will let it bore up your ass hole.”
I step forward and lean over the opening. “Ready.”
Oscar tugs it away from the machine and what comes into view appears to be a spine or backbone, but more ornate than a human’s or animal’s. Portions of it are similar to spiky fossilized dinosaur bones. I take it in my hands and hold it cautiously while it continues to resist. There’s a pinpricking on my palms from the bristly surface. I keep it at arms length while it bends and veers toward my torso. Oscar was right about two people needing to carrying this thing. The longer we hold it, the more wildly it bucks, almost as if it’s gaining strength the longer it’s in our world.
“Hurry,” Oscar says and turns to go back toward the garage.
The whole while I’m thinking about Trisha’s insistence that I do what I’m told around here. But playing a part to a human possession has to qualify as stupid.
We enter the garage and Margery calls out, “Bring it to the break room.
“On our way,” Oscar shakes his head. “Again, she has to make a mess of the break room.”
I pause. “I can’t do this.”
Oscar growls when he nearly lets go of his end. He turns back to me. “You can and will,” he says and pulls the spine to prompt me to move, “unless you want one possessing you too. Besides, I told you she won’t remember the insertion.”
He’s not helping. Although I’ll be of no use to Trisha if I’m possessed by a demon. “Let’s go.”
Around the corner, into the break room, Nina’s gagged and tied to a chair. She sees me and bounces and moans. The look in her eyes begs for my help.
My stomach is in knots at the sight of her and I have to turn away.
“Enough of your whining,” Margery says to her, then snatches away the spinal column with her demon claw. It goes limp in her hand.
I curse in my head, realizing she could have gotten the damn casing herself. She’s not doing this to control Nina. She’s doing this to control me. “Is it really necessary to keep her tied up like that?”
“What, it doesn’t turn you on to see her like this? I kind of like the way she looks, all helpless.” Margery’s sonorous laugh echoes across the room. “Besides, I need her as still as possible when I shove this in her gut.”
Nina lets out a muffled scream and hops forward in her chair, attempting an unachievable escape. Her breath labors until she’s hyperventilating. I rush to help her, but run into the back of Margery’s scaled hands. She hurls me half way across the room at the same time Nina tips in her chair to one side. Her head crashing onto the floor, and her body goes lifeless.
“Get him out of here,” she tells Oscar.
“I thought you needed help,” Oscar says.
“Look at her. She’s out cold. The little bitch has a way of ruining everything. If she doesn’t wake up, I’ll get this demon in her in less than a minute and without the satisfaction of hearing her scream,” she says. “Have him help you ready the trucks. We leave for the ranch right after her demon settles into its new home.”
Oscar picks me up by the back of my t-shirt and drags me out of the room.
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April 16, 2013
Chapter 22 Part 1 – Call for Obstruction
Go back to Chapter 1 to read from the beginning
OR read the summary below and jump in.
So far, Barry has signed his soul into servitude to Satan on Earth. He desperately wants out of his contract, but Margery, his demon boss, tortures him with her magical cigarettes when he refuses to follow orders. She’s forcing him to transport concentrated evil energy from Denver to Trinidad, Colorado, where demons dump the substance down air shafts into an abandoned coal mine. It’s forming a rift that will soon open The Gates of Hell and spill Hell’s refugee camp onto Earth.
Knowing how bad life will be for both humans and demons once the gates open, Margery and senior driver Vern ask Barry to help plug up the air shafts. He agrees until he finds out they plan to sacrifice innocent children down into the hell hole. To get Barry back on board, Margery contracts Nina, his love interest. She promises to release Nina from servitude and give her to Barry if he follows through on the plan. Otherwise, Nina will suffer.
Barry has no choice but to transport a box truck full of kids to Trinidad. On the way, Trisha, an Angel’s Apprentice seizes the truck and agrees not to kill Barry if he turns informant for the angels. Barry agrees, but Vern was not so cooperative and Trisha kills him. At the Trinidad warehouse, Trisha calls Barry outside and tells him there were no kids in the truck. They believe Vern and Barry were decoys and the kids were transported in the vans. Since Margery’s plan to sacrifice the kids to close the Gates of Hell is back on, Barry finds a map of tunnels Trisha and the White Warriors can use to get on the Bellow’s Ranch and save the kids.
The Courier Series is about Barry White, a twenty-something computer geek with an overbearing mother, no prospects of finding a girlfriend, and an unemployment record that’s made him pessimistic he’ll ever be happy.
In Call for Obstruction, Barry has just lost his fourth jobs in the past year due to corporate downsizing. Desperate for employment, he jumps at the first position he’s offered over the phone, driver for OTG Courier Services. Shortly after meeting his new boss, a tiny yet fiery old lady named Margery, she coerces him into signing a questionable employment contract he soon regrets.
The Courier was originally written as a twitter novel @TheCourierNovel in 2009, and the same year it won the Annual Textnovel Writing Contest. Later parts of the story are still tweeting.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
W. J. Howard lives near Denver and writes horror, fantasy and sci-fi with a bit of comedy mixed in. Wendy is also the Co-op Manager for Visionary Press Cooperative, leading an innovative way to publish.
“How’s the air?” Oscar says when he sees me walking back into the garage.
I grunt and pull the door closed, then pick up my pace to avoid any additional questions. My only concern right now is Nina’s condition after a run in with Margery.
“Stop,” he says while waving a fist-sized grey sack by the drawstring. “Margery needs us to get her something.” He throws it at me.
It clinks as I catch it, like it contains metal or coins. “What does the hag want now?”
“Something to make your girlfriend behave. She tried to run away,” he says. “Takes two to carry it.”
This can’t be good.
Oscar leads the way outside, through the main garage door and to the right, around the building. Grasshoppers jump away from us as we approach a patio with tall brown grass and wild sunflowers growing between cracks in the cement. There’s a picnic table, missing the bench seats to one side and two vintage soda machines against one wall of the building. It smells like rotting trash even though no one would ever come back here to eat. I can almost see Margery and Vern here thirty years ago, smoking and plotting to close the Gates of Hell the last time.
“Put the coins in the blue machine,” Oscar tells me.
“All of them?”
He nods.
I untie and spread open the sack. It’s filled with gold coins, stamped with an old man riding a crocodile. “Dang, that’s some expensive soda. What kind of money is this?”
“Not money. An offering,” Oscar says. “Put it in the slot.”
At first I approach the machine, but question why I’m blindly following Oscar’s directions as I reach to pull a coin out of the bag. I turn and tell him, “No.”
Oscar gnashes his teeth and rushes at me. He takes ahold of the collar on my t-shirt and twists it until it’s restricting my breath. Then, just as quickly, he lets me go.
I take a few steps back and cough, clutching my neck. “What the . . . !”
“I apologize. You deserve an explanation,” he says while he stands up straight and composed. “The coins are an offering to Agares, head of Eastern Hell. He is the old man, pictured on the coin. If he accepts, which he will, he will dispatch the essence of one of the demon in his charge. It will dispense there.” Oscar points at the slot where a can of soda would normally fall. “Margery means to posses Nina with the essence to control her.”
“You mean like the Exorcist?” My eyes widen. “And Margery expects me to go along with this?”
“You go along or Nina goes to the ranch, and she won’t come back.” Oscar unzips his coveralls down to his belly button. He points at a bumpy star shaped scar below his breastbone. “Insertion is quick, and I do not remember the pain.”
“You’ve got a damn demon in you?” That would explain a lot.
“No. It was removed because I behave,” he says. “Nina will learn too. Now insert the coins or I tell Margery you chose to send Nina to her death.”
“Wait a minute. What do you mean, Nina will learn?”
“Agares’ demons make runaways return or stops them from leaving. It’s the same type she put in me. Same type Margery puts in most drivers who try to run.”
“The same demon?”
“You don’t listen. Same type, not same demon.” Oscar’s frown tells me he’s irritated again. “Put in the coins.”
I pause.
“Now!” Oscar lunges at me again.
I jump forward and start putting in the coins. “This is insane, Oscar, buying demons from a vending machine.”
“Wait until you see the essence.”
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April 5, 2013
Chapter 21 – Call for Obstruction
Go back to Chapter 1 to read from the beginning
OR read the summary below and jump in.
So far, Barry has signed his soul into servitude to Satan on Earth. He desperately wants out of his contract, but Margery, his demon boss, tortures him with her magical cigarettes when he refuses to follow orders. She’s forcing him to transport concentrated evil energy from Denver to Trinidad, Colorado, where demons dump the substance down air shafts into an abandoned coal mine. It’s forming a rift that will soon open The Gates of Hell and spill Hell’s refugee camp onto Earth.
Knowing how bad life will be for both humans and demons once the gates open, Margery and senior driver Vern ask Barry to help plug up the air shafts. He agrees until he finds out they plan to sacrifice innocent children down into the hell hole. To get Barry back on board, Margery contracts Nina, his love interest. She promises to release Nina from servitude and give her to Barry if he follows through on the plan. Otherwise, Nina will suffer.
Barry has no choice but to transport a box truck full of kids to Trinidad. On the way, Trisha, an Angel’s Apprentice seizes the truck and agrees not to kill Barry if he turns informant for the angels. Barry agrees, but Vern was not so cooperative and Trisha kills him. At the Trinidad warehouse, Trisha calls Barry outside and tells him there were no kids in the truck. They believe Vern and Barry were decoys and the kids were transported in the vans. Since Margery’s plan to sacrifice the kids to close the Gates of Hell is back on, Barry has to find a way for Trisha and the White Warriors to get on the Bellow’s Ranch and save the kids.
The Courier Series is about Barry White, a twenty-something computer geek with an overbearing mother, no prospects of finding a girlfriend, and an unemployment record that’s made him pessimistic he’ll ever be happy.
In Call for Obstruction, Barry has just lost his fourth jobs in the past year due to corporate downsizing. Desperate for employment, he jumps at the first position he’s offered over the phone, driver for OTG Courier Services. Shortly after meeting his new boss, a tiny yet fiery old lady named Margery, she coerces him into signing a questionable employment contract he soon regrets.
The Courier was originally written as a twitter novel @TheCourierNovel in 2009, and the same year it won the Annual Textnovel Writing Contest. Later parts of the story are still tweeting.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
W. J. Howard lives near Denver and writes horror, fantasy and sci-fi with a bit of comedy mixed in. Wendy is also the Co-op Manager for Visionary Press Cooperative, leading an innovative way to publish.
I exit the women’s restroom at the same time Oscar comes out of the men’s. We both pause and stare each other down.
“At least you know your place,” he says with his usual scowl.
I roll my eyes and scan up and down the hallway. “Where’s Margery?”
“Hell.” He turns to go back toward the garage.
“Hey, Oscar.” I shuffle to catch up. “You been out at the Bellow’s Ranch?”
“Many times. Why you ask?”
“I might have to go out there tonight. Wondering what to expect.”
“Stay clear of the demons and hellhounds, and you’ll be fine.” Oscar keeps forward, as if he’s hoping I’ll go away.
I’m not giving up though. “Demons and hellhounds?”
“Mean bastards. Sometimes Margery sends drivers out there just to get rid of them. Not that she wants to get rid of you.” Oscar sniggers.
I pause, swallow hard, and think how Margery’s been threatening to send Nina to the ranch. And what about Trisha. Surely she know what she’s getting the white warriors into?
Oscar turns into the garage and I follow, calling out, “How do you get on and off the ranch?”
“Drive.”
“You mean there’s nothing to stop people from wandering onto the ranch?” I ask.
“Not if they’re mortal.”
“What if someone sees what’s going on out there?”
“They’d never get past the hellhounds.”
“Is there some other way to get on and off the ranch?”
Oscar turns and glares at me. “Why you asking so many questions?”
I don’t know what to say at first, then stumble over my words. “If I go out there tonight. I mean, what if something happens. I don’t want any trouble.”
“Tunnels.” Oscar reaches into a tool chest, pulls out a hammer, and holds it up like he might use it on my head. “No more questions.”
* * *
Back at the lobby I stand over Margery’s table, scanning the papers strewn across the top. Tunnels. Where are the tunnels? How do I find the tunnels? As much paper as Margery keeps around here, there have to be records or maps detailing the underground, especially the coal mine’s air shafts. At least I’m optimistic there is.
Nina pokes her head out of a door off the kitchen, where I’ve only seen Margery go in and out. It’s the same door she disappeared through the day I signed my life away. I had assumed the door was off limits to drivers.
“What you doing, Bear?” Nina’s got this forced grin she gets when she’s about to ask for a favor.
“Looking for something,” I tell her while shuffling through what appear to be the new drivers’ contracts. “What are you doing?”
“Filing.” Nina rolls her eyes. “What are you looking for?”
“I probably shouldn’t tell you. I’ve already gotten you in enough trouble.”
“There’s a lot more paperwork in there.” Nina points to the door where she had exited. “More documents than a world full of trees could provide.”
I look at her confused.
“C’mon, I’ll show you.”
Inside the room, we weave through a maze of stacked papers, some of the piles towering out of reach. Overhead, naked lightbulbs are suspended in a black void, and there’s no telling the size of the room, because there are no walls in sight. One grey, metal file cabinets sits in the midst of it all. It’s old and dented, as if it’s been there for years.
“You weren’t kidding, Nina. Margery must be a hundred years behind on filing.”
“Get this. I have to file all this paperwork into that one file cabinet, and it’s already full.” Nina’s lower lip quivers. “This isn’t working for Satan, Bear. This is Hell.”
I pull out the second drawer from the top and examine the contents. Appears no different than any other filing system, completely packed with overstuffed manila folders. “When do you have to have it done?” I’m afraid to ask.
“She didn’t say.” Nina’s voice is squeaky now. “I don’t even know where to start.”
“Hand me one of those contracts,” I say to Nina.
She gives me a two inch stack of legal sized paper with the name “Abe Templeton” on it. I close the second drawer and open the bottom one, marked for files at the end of the alphabet. It’s also filled to capacity. A tab for the letter ’T’ is up front, and no surprise, so is a folder for Abe. I can barley slip a finger inside the folder though.
“Good luck getting it in there,” Nina says.
“You forget that nothing’s as it seems around here.” I slowly lower the contract and jerk when every last page is sucked into the file cabinet as if the thing’s part vacuum.
Nina claps. “Brilliant. You’re a magician.”
“Now that we know how to put files in,” I say, “how do they come out?”
Nina pushes me out of the way. “What are you trying to find?”
“Like I said, you’re better off not knowing. Besides, Margery can’t know about this.”
“Bear, you help me out all the time. Let me help you for once.”
“Okay. I need a map to a tunnel system. Below the Bellow’s ranch.”
“Well, let’s look under maps and tunnels,” Nina says. Only there’s nothing under either.
“Let me check Bellows,” I tell her and cross my fingers it’s in there, and it is, taking up half the drawer. I flip through the file, searching for anything that looks like a map, but nothing even close to a drawing exists.
“Barry.” Nina’s voice is muffled and in the distance, but still sounds frantic about something.
What is she into now?
“Barry! Hurry!” she calls out a second time.
“Hang on!” I sigh and jog further into the maze, ready to save her ass yet again.
She’s standing in front of blueprints, stacked up into the darkness, holding one partially unrolled, and pointing at the legend. “I found it. I can’t believe I found it!”
I take it from her and spread it out on the floor. There are three maps in the roll: one of the warehouse, one of the ranch, and one of the tunnels connecting the two. Nothing detailing the air shafts though. I’m just about the kiss her when we hear the door slam closed.
“Hey! Girlie! Where are you? I said no breaks.”
We both freeze, our eyes widen, then Nina holds her finger up to her lips to shush me. “Coming!” she calls out, then whispers to me, “I’ll get rid of her.”
I shake my head frantically and reach to grab her wrist, but she’s already gotten away.
“I’m sorry,” Nina says. “I’m just so tired, I must have nodded off.”
“You worthless little whore,” Margery’s voice deepens as she speaks.
“Really, Marge. You sound like my mother.”
Oh, no. Did Nina just say that?
“You want a mother figure? Come here. I’ll give you a mother figure.” By the sound of Margery’s tone, she’s full demon.
Nina’s screams fade into the distance and are lost behind the door slamming again.
Shit! I jump up in a hurry to go after Nina, but a voice in my head tells me different. Get the map to Trisha first.
* * *
On my way to the thorn bush, where I last met Trisha, I decide to take a shortcut through the garage and run into Oscar again, literally. He’s like hitting a rock and knocks me off my feet. The rolled up blueprint flies up into the air and Oscar catches it.
He leans over and hands the blueprint back to me. “Where you headed so fast?”
“Fresh air.” Before he can ask me any more questions, I’m on my feet and running out the door. Outside, I dive under branches and out of sight.
“Trisha,” I whisper, “I’ve got something for you.”
Tricia appears out of thin air, up close to my face. “What you got?”
I jerk backward into a hundred or more thorns. “Damn. Warn a guy a little slower next time.”
“Pshaw,” Trisha utters. She’s in the middle of filing her nails and her hair is all messy again, like the time we first met. “You’re getting back to me awfully quickly. This better not be a waste of my time.”
I hold out the blueprints. “Drawings of the warehouse, ranch, and tunnels between both.”
She grins and snatches it out of my hand. “Tunnels, huh.” She unrolls it partially and studies the layout.
“Yeah, tunnels,” I say. “There’s one right under us that leads west to the Bellow’s Ranch. You think you can use it?”
“Use it? Barry, you have no idea how valuable a find this is.”
Finally I’ve done something right. I wonder if it’s enough for Trisha to help me out of my contract. And, considering Nina was first to find it, maybe she’ll score a few brownie points too. Still, it’s probably not the right time to bug Trisha about what I want. So instead I ask, “What now?”
“Go back inside,” Trisha rolls the print back up in a hurry. “Do whatever Margery tells you to do, and I mean anything.”
“Oh, no. I’m not getting myself in any more trouble. Plus, I’ve got Nina to take care of.”
“I’m telling you not to worry about any of that. You have to make it look like you’re on Margery’s side, or she might get wise to us.”
“And . . . if I do something against one of those Ten Commandments your side is always preaching about, you’re not going to hold it against me?”
“Don’t be stupid,” she says. “Now go. If I need you, I’ll find you.” Then Trisha’s gone, taking the blueprint with her.
I crawl out from under the bush, feeling a lot uneasy about a wanna be angel telling me to be bad.
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