Being quiet might be a good thing.
He put a hand to the smal of my back, propel ed me toward the hal way door and then took me to the control room and Shamus.
*
“This is cool! ” I shouted when I entered the control room. Shamus ran to me and jumped up on me, his body aquiver with excitement. I just avoided him cracking three more ribs, gave his head a good rub and then gently pushed him off. He sat on my feet, tongue lol ing.
“Hi, I’m Monty,” a man with a blond military cut stood and smiled at me, offering his hand. I took it, we did a shake and I tried not to wince when nearly al my bones were crushed.
Monty was slightly older than most of Lee’s boys but no less fit. He was also slightly more in tune with social nuances, like saying hel o.
“What is al this stuff?” I asked, looking at al the monitors on shelves on the wal , DVD recorders under them, knobs, buttons and racks of electronic equipment. It looked like they could strap me in and we could go to Mars.
“This is the surveil ance room. We run security through here and… other things.”
I looked at the monitors.
I gawked at the monitors.
“Hey! That’s Fortnum’s! And so’s that… and that…
and…” I trailed off.
Dear God, they had nearly every corner, the front and back of Fortnum’s monitored. I watched Uncle Tex banging away at the espresso machine at the same time he seemed to be carrying on an argument with Duke.
Monty flipped a switch and Uncle Tex’s voice boomed into the room.
“I don’t want to listen to no fuckin’ Hank Wil iams, Jr.! You got Johnny Cash, I’l listen to Johnny Cash. If not, put Cream back on, Turkey!”
Monty flipped off the switch.
“Holy cow,” I breathed.
“We monitor Fortnum’s twenty four seven,” Monty said.
“Best part of the day surveil ance shift,” Luke put in.
I tried to think of the time I’d spent in Fortnum’s. Almost none of it had gone without some embarrassing incident.
I looked at Monty and Luke. Luke was wearing his half-grin. Monty was smiling flat out.
“Shit,” I said.
“Have a seat,” Monty told me, the smile stil playing about his face. “You can eat your breakfast in here. I’l show you what we do.”
“Where’s Hank?” I asked, sitting next to Monty, looking back to the monitors. Shamus moved to settle at my feet.
“Hank’s indefinitely delayed,” Monty replied, but I wasn’t listening. One of the monitors showed a visual of the room I’d slept in.
I turned in horror to Monty.
“Did you watch me sleep?” I asked.
He nodded. “Hank’s orders. Constant surveil ance. If we aren’t with you, we’re watching you.”
“But… I was just down the hal ,” I said, mortified that they had watched me sleep and I hoped I hadn’t drooled.
“One thing I’ve learned, you can never be too careful,” Monty replied.
Okay, so, maybe he was right about that.
Monty took my mind off the alarming news that they had watched me sleep and told me what they did in the control room; some security, mostly investigation. Then Dawn showed with my latte and a blueberry muffin. The latte was cold and had hazelnut syrup in it. The muffin was crap. I didn’t say a word and ate the muffin while we listened to the police band radio and Monty taught me some of the codes.
Then he turned down the police band, I sipped my latte and we watched the monitors.
About half an hour later, I was losing the wil to live and the control room had lost its coolness. How could these guys do this day in and day out? It was stupendously boring.
The phone rang.
“Thank God!” I yel ed before I could stop myself. I was happy that something, anything was happening. I didn’t care if it was the dry cleaners cal ing to say Monty’s shirts were ready to be picked up.
Monty shot me a grin then looked at Luke while he reached for the phone. “These girls like their excitement.”
“Thank fuck,” Luke muttered his reply.
I didn’t know what that meant but I suspected, at least, that it was good.
“Yeah?” Monty said in the phone. Then he said, “She’s right here.”
He turned to me.
“Hank.”
I took the phone and put it to my ear.
“Hey,” I said, dipping my head and feeling weird in that little room with Monty and Luke having nothing to do but listen.
“How’re you doin’?” Hank asked and I felt a thril race through me at the sound of his voice.
“Monty and Luke and I are hanging in the control room.” Silence.
“Hank?”
“I thought you’d watch a DVD or something.”
“No, they’re teaching me police codes.”
More silence.
“Dawn brought me a latte and muffin. Luke said I could have whatever I want so she ran out to get it for me,” I said this because I didn’t have anything more exciting to say.
“Bet Dawn liked doing that,” Hank said, apparently knowing Dawn.
“She didn’t seem tickled pink,” I told him.
I heard Hank’s soft laugh and another thril raced through me.