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“Took off with another woman, huh?” Marla said, grinning.
“No comment,” Rondeau said. He squinted at the house. “I note with interest that you
aren’t on fire, nor are you a purple flurry of killing rage, so may I assume that Mr. Finch
wasn’t home?”
“You underestimate my diplomatic skills, Rondeau. Finch and I talked. And,
admittedly, indulged in some typical primate dominance behavior. He says he’ll take us
to…” She glanced at B, then back at Rondeau. “He’ll take us where we need to go
tomorrow morning.”
“You trust him?”
“Rondeau, I’m surprised at you. Of course I don’t trust him. But I think he’ll do as he
said. I’d cause him too much grief otherwise. Anyway, I expect to have my business
done by tomorrow morning, and we’ll be out of here by tomorrow afternoon.”
“I don’t think so, Marla,” B said. “You really should listen, I have these dreams, and
something terrible is going to—”
Marla sighed. “Listen, B-grade seer-boy, nobody ever taught you this, I guess, but
there’s no such thing as destiny. You guys who see as through a glass darkly and all
that, you’re just seeing possibilities, likelihoods, okay? You extrapolate beyond the
limits of normal logic, or you get whispered at by various supernatural beings—and
they all have agendas to promote and axes to grind, believe me, they don’t report in an
objective manner—but you don’t know what’s going to happen. Maybe last night in
your dream the best-case scenario was pretty goddamn awful, but things have changed
now, and if you get hit in the head by a vision tonight, I bet you’ll see something
different, like me and Rondeau getting on a plane and flying out of here, mission
accomplished. Got it?”
“I hope you’re right,” B said. “But if not, if I need to find you—”
“You’re a psychic,” Marla said. “I guess you’ll just have to predict where we’ll be.
Come on, Rondeau, let’s get back to the hotel. We’ve got to get up early. See you,
Bowman. I’ll try to catch one of your movies on DVD when I get back home.”
“Take it easy, B,” Rondeau said. “And don’t take it personally. Marla just does things
her own way.”
“Otherwise known as ‘the right way,’” she said, and waved a hand to dispel the soft
keep-away spell she’d cast on the hot tub. People started heading for the water right
away. She stood up, and Rondeau clambered out of the tub. They headed for the door,
leaving B behind.
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