For a full minute, all I heard were the sounds of water lapping the sides of the canoe’s metal hull, and birds calling from the trees.
“I don’t like tense silence,” Danetta said. “Somebody sing a song or something.”
“I’m fresh out of bouncy tunes,” I said.
“I’ve heard pulling a gun on somebody will do that to [...]

I felt someone poking my shoulder. “Rise, sunshine,” Chura said.
I was groggy. My legs and arms ached as I stretched them. “So, your aunt told me what her name means. Please tell me yours means ’snooze bar,’” I said.
“Well, until mom entered it wrong for my fake ID, it was Charu, which means, ‘beautiful.’”
“Even with [...]

“So, your sister doesn’t seem to be crazy about me.”
“You’re not the problem. She’s just one of those types who has very few friends and takes a long time to feel like she knows somebody. If I didn’t have her along, I wouldn’t be strong enough to do this. She supports our cause, but thinks [...]

After I paid Miss Jean, I headed back to the Jeep and helped Danetta lug the money case to our room door. I heard the river mumbling and gurgling in the darkness. I pulled out the room key, a piece of metal with jagged teeth about the length of my pinky finger. A piece of [...]

“That’s exactly what I was doing, and your treasure is right back there,” I said, pointing my thumb at the case. “I need to know which direction to turn. Chura, you might find a map in that compartment in front of you.”
By the time Chura unfolded the map and she and the others located us [...]

“Nothing,” I said. “Now, you still haven’t told me your plan. Let’s hear it.”
It was clear we would have time. The road became so steep and narrow that each tight curve put us at risk of a head-on collision. I only hoped that anybody coming the opposite direction had the sense to slow down, too.
“It’s [...]

“Just ignore that and keep going,” I said. “Danetta, get in.” The pounding on the front door continued.
She grabbed the case of money and walked as quickly as its weight allowed.
The controls on the older panel came back to me, and I managed to set the date and time and get her on her way. [...]

“We’re losin’ altitude,” he said.
“Um, at 100 feet, you pretty much have it or you don’t,” I said.
“It’s a slow descent, Billy-boy. Hang on.”
Please, call me Falcon. That ‘Billy-boy’ stuff was fine when it was all fun and games. This was not fun anymore.
We reached the end of the developed area and entered a forest [...]

“Gimme a closer look at that gun you don’t aim to use,” Theo said.
I pulled it out and handed it to him.
“Well, slap my momma. That’s a Ruger Big Fuckin’ Gun 3000.” He tossed it from one hand to the other, getting a feel for its heft. “Feels like nothin’,” he said. “Hold on. Be [...]

Instead of risking travel by skyporter, I made the trip on foot, and was surprised to find that the woods behind my apartment building stretched the entire two miles to the rendezvous point. I enjoyed a walk through woods that I had always known as sprawling parking lots surrounding a huge factory. Good riddance to [...]