“London, huh,” says Rick, nodding gently after you relay what happened inside the travel agent to him. You catch a ghost of a smile playing across his features.
“You knew,” you ask, half knowing the answer.
“I suspected, I had a few ideas about where she might have gone” he replies. “You confirmed it for me.”
“Well at least I did something,” you mutter unhappily.
“You did ok squirt,” says Rick in a tone you guess is supposed to be encouraging. “You had the presence of mind to make sure the blonde didn’t see you before you raided her skull. And you hid her away somewhere she wouldn’t think too much about when she came to,” he nods. “But did you remember to lock her computer after you were finished?”
“Fuck,” you swear. “Should I have?”
“You’re gonna be invisible squirt,” explains Rick. “But that doesn’t mean people can’t see you. Not where you are but where you’ve been. The ripples you leave behind. Blondie’s gonna come out in a few minutes and wonder why her computer isn’t locked. Someone like her, it isn’t going to matter so much, but the kind of guys you’re gonna be dealing with? Some of them are clever and some of them are paranoid.” For a moment you wonder exactly how paranoid someone has to be before Rick considers them so. “That’s a dangerous combination,” he adds.
“Like you,” you ask, the words slipping out before you have a chance to consider them.
Rick snorts. “Worse than me squirt, worse,” he explains. “Now, if I was going to grade you – which I’m not, because you’re here to learn, not to get bullshit grades – you’d be barely scraping a pass. Until you can pull jobs like this off without leaving any trace at all, you ain’t ready.”
“I see,” you say, staring at your feet crestfallen.
“Cheer up squirt,” says Rick grimly. “It ain’t that bad: You’re heading in the right direction. You just need more practice.”
“Thanks,” you reply quietly. “Actually, how did you know Kali would be going to London.”
“Oxford actually,” explains Rick with a shrug. “London’s just the closest airport. She’s gonna see Margaret. Margaret Dillon, her old mentor.”
“That’s a good thing right?”
“It’s the right thing to do, given the mess she’s gotten herself into squirt, yeah,” explains Rick. “Given all the different ways she might have reacted, this is probably for the best. It’s nice to be pleasantly surprised rather than have my cynicism proven correct again.” Rick grins again for a brief moment. “I guess I’d forgotten what a good little choirgirl Kali can be. Of course, she should have gotten help months ago,” adds Rick with a frown. “But Margaret will forgive that lapse.”
The way Rick stresses the name suggests that there are others in the Stellae that would not. You think better of asking though. “What happens now,” you ask instead.
“Well,” says Rick drawing out the word. “I should go to England and check that Kali has gone to Margaret and not laid out some clever diversion for us. Like I said before squirt – You always check, and then check again just to make sure.” He looks into the distance. “I hate flying,” he says under his breath.
“Cool,” you interrupt. “I’ve never been to England.”
“You ain’t going now squirt,” replies Rick. “I can’t stretch to paying your fare as well. Besides, this is just a formality, I’ll be back again in a few days. Miko will look after you till then.”
You try to hide your disappointment. It’s unfair, you think. You’ve helped out so much and now you’ve just been switched off and told to go home. You don’t even want to think what the next few days are going to be like with just Miko for company.
“Here,” says Rick, fishing about inside his faded sports jacket. He pull out a set of car keys and tosses them to you. “This’ll help you get back to Kali’s place,” he explains walking towards the travel agents. He only takes a few steps before turning back round to add something. “Oh, and squirt,” he says, his face solemn. “Take good care of my baby.”
You suppress a snort. Rick’s car is a banged up heap that looks like it’s ready to break down at any minute. Or fall apart, one or the other. Still, you guess it’s important to him, so you nod gravely. “Sure Rick.” He actually smiles at you before turning back round and heading inside to book his own flight.
The crowd on the concourse is a little easier to navigate now that you aren’t following along in Rick’s wake. Of course, you still have to deal with the airport’s architecture and confusing approach to signage to make your way back out to the short stay car park where Rick’s car awaits. You stop for a few seconds to puzzle out a sign that seems to indicate your way out goes through the roof as a group of three flight attendants walk by, small travelling cases trundling along behind them.
They work for the airline that Kali flew out on, you realise. In fact, they might even be the going to fly out to London given the time of day. It’s a little stray memory from the blonde in the travel agent that get’s jogged by seeing the uniform. You hadn’t even realised you were still holding her thoughts close.
A crazy, crazy idea forms in your head. Rick said he couldn’t afford to buy you a ticket. You’re sure if he could have done, he would have let you come. Ok, you’re not sure about that at all, but it’s a good excuse. After all, Rick never explicitly told you to go back to Kali’s apartment. What if you could stow away on the flight? Keeping your cloak wound round a jet full of passengers for the duration of a long haul flight would be impossible, but if you used the imago of someone who was supposed to be on the flight…
You watch as the three flight attendants continue away from you. Two women, one man, their red uniforms immaculate. If you could just split one off from the group and steal their face, their clothes and their suitcase, then you could be on your way to London, assuming that’s where they are bound for. Even if those three aren’t it wouldn’t be too hard to find the cabin crew for Rick’s flight and swap places with one of them.
An inner voice tells you that what you’re thinking of is a really bad idea. Not disobeying orders as such, but it’s certainly it certainly has the feel of something utterly stupid.
But then again, you always were stupid.
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