ed, "Change your mind about fish?"
"I heard a shot as I entered the restaurant. I saw what happened, Ed."
"If you heard a shot before you looked, you didn't see why it happened. The
guy put a gun to my head. That gun."
Cade moved his foot and took out one of his paper towel hankies to pick up
the gun.
"Who were they?"
"Friends of the guy we disarmed. Look, I'm still kind of hungry and the cops
will probably show up soon. Unless you want to spend the next few hours talking
to them, you'll get us out of here."
"Us? You're the one who was involved in the fight."
"It was never a fight, and if I have to deal with the cops over that
asshole, you've wasted my conversion. I'll just keep doing what I've been doing
with the same people."
Giving him a flat gaze, Mandi said, "Well, maybe that's for the best, if
your opinion of civil authority is that low."
Nodding, Cade said, "Yeah, okay. Later, Mandi," and started walking toward a
phone kiosk at a nearby gas station.
"Where the hell do you think you're going?"
Pausing, Cade said, "If you want to know that, you can take me there or come
with me."
"What are you going to do with that gun?"
Shoving the gun into his belt, he said, "Same answer," then started walking
again.
He heard her mutter something just before her arms slid under his from
behind and she lifted him into the night sky.
"Now tell me where the hell you were going," she said.
"Okay," said Cade, shifting in her grip for some comfort under his arms.
"Back to the hotel."
"What about the gun?"
"Turn it in. Dump it somewhere. Doesn't matter."
Mandi landed them behind a nearby building and stepped in front of him to
hold out her hand.
"Give me the gun, Ed."
Cade dropped the clip and cleared the chamber, caught the ejected round, and
handed the gun to her, which she tossed on the concrete pavement.
Twin beams lanced from her eyes and the gun glowed a dull red almost
instantly. Flames and acrid smoke billowed out of it as the lubricants and
plastics burned away, and suddenly the gun's outline glowed yellow, then almost
white before it collapsed and became a bright puddle.
The puddle spread itself like water on the concrete, then solidified quickly
after she turned off her heat vision.
"Mandi," said Cade, staring at the smoking puddle, "That was truly
impressive. Will I be able to do that?"
Ignoring his q