“I wasn’t going to leave without Luke!”
“What?” Luke looked between them. “You came back for me?”
“Where am I going?” Marcus jerked a finger at the city skyline. “There’s a lot of empty that way.”
“You mean you could have left without me? You risked your life?”
“I told you he showed up at the wedding!” Dani said over the thrum of the engines, “And that one shot Katie!” She jerked a thumb at Marcus, who wiggled his fingers in a half wave.
“Destination?”
“May I remind you he saved your life!” Edwin shouted, apparently forgetting that they were all wearing headphones and could hear him just fine. Three people simultaneously winced.
“Where. Are. We. Going?”
“And what the hell did you mean about my mother? She’s dead!” Dani screamed as the helicopter dropped and rose again, slamming them into their seats.
“I said,” Marcus answered calmly when everyone turned to look at him, everyone except Dani white-knuckling the armrests. “Where am I going?”
The other three looked at each other, then as one Edwin and Dani turned to face Luke.
“Have enough gas to Orlando?”
“No,” Marcus said, “but there’s a truck stop on the south side of town.”
Dani blinked. “You planning on getting gas at a truck stop?”
Marcus turned the machine south and kept it low. Luke noted he was trying to stay under the horizon; police helicopters and small aircraft would have a harder time seeing him if the light wasn’t behind him. It was a smart move, and Luke’s estimation of the man rose a notch. Dani stared outside, her gaze never leaving the ever-changing scenery as the world zipped past the open the door.
Edwin, on the other hand, was nearly hysterical.
“What the hell are you doing? Are you trying to get us all killed?”
Dani sighed and turned to stare at her father, arms crossing. “Dad! It’s okay, just relax.”
Edwin turned to her slowly, staring at her in a sort of dazed wonder. “You haven’t called me that in years.”
Dani shifted in her seat, and stared at the ceiling as if it were the most fascinating thing in the world suddenly. “Yeah, well... it worked, didn’t it? Now shut up and let the man fly.”
The sun was nearly below the trees by the time they got to the place Marcus had chosen. A huge neon sign split the darkness, advertising an All-You-Can-Eat Buffet and Diesel Fried Chicken. They also seemed inordinately proud of their public scale and their showers.
Just past the truck stop, as the last of the sunset leached away into the darkness, Marcus set the bird down in the shallow courtyard of a U-shaped building. Luke had a momentary loss of breath when he saw the narrow area Marcus had chosen, but he set it down with almost surgical precision.
“Air Force?” he asked through the head set when he could breathe again.
“Navy,” Marcus corrected, drawing himself up with a certain pride.
“Where the hell are we?” Edwin demanded, leaning forward, trying to see the building in the semi-darkness.
“It’s an old motel,” Marcus said as he shut down the engines. The loud copter had strangely gone unnoticed. No police cars tore up to block off the open end of the courtyard. No curious onlookers rushed over from the truck stop. The building around it was deserted. Luke wasn’t sure where this was in relation to the city, but it had to be rather remote; all the windows in the old motel were still intact. A miracle in this day and age. “We should be able to get something at the truck stop,” he said, shutting down.
“How did you know about this place?” Dani asked him while climbing out.
“None of your business,” Marcus replied shortly, and Luke looked at her.
He mouthed the words ‘No-Tell-Motel’ and Dani’s eyes grew larger and she covered her mouth, not quite successful in her attempts to stifle a sudden attack of the giggles. “Him?” she whispered. Her face crumpled up in a mixture of merriment and disgust.
“Yeah, whatever,” Marcus said, stepping down onto the cracked pavement with as much dignity as a man could muster when trying to exit a helicopter. “I was young once, you know?”
“Sorry,” Dani mumbled, and to Luke’s complete shock she really did sound humbled.
“Someone care to tell me what’s going on?” Edwin shot out from behind. The three of them hadn’t realized he’d fallen back. Although Marcus was close in age to his employer, he had obviously kept the physique that he’d gotten in the military, or at least had maintained a semblance of it. Edwin, whose FBI record reflected a brush with a little football in junior high, had no particular shape to maintain.
They stopped to let him catch up.
“What was on that stick anyway?” Luke asked.
“Does it matter?” Edwin said, his expression lost in the darkness. “If it’s destroyed, then it’s all over and there’s not much point anymore.” He bent at the waist, and held himself upright by bracing his hands on his knees while he struggled to catch his breath. “We should probably just split up now. Call it a loss.”
“Running away again?” Dani sniped at him, hands on hips, not looking like she was going to forgive him anytime soon. For anything.
“Yes, dear.” Edwin took on the tone of a man patiently explaining to a small child the thing that should have been obvious. “That is what we have been doing for a half hour now, running away.”
“No! No, you don’t get to bring up my dead mother like she’s waiting for me and then split again! All this,” she waved her arms, indicating the darkness, the motel, the truck stop, and everything she’d been through, “ALL of this is because you ran away!”
“HEY!” Luke yelled over her, before Edwin could scream back, “Might I just say ONE WORD please?”
“WHAT?” Dani yelled.
“BUFFET!” Luke yelled back at her, pointing to the monstrous orange sign flickering in the darkness just over an entire fleet of parked semis. “I’m starving.” He turned and headed to the truck stop.
Marcus stopped and stared at the sign as though it were something holy, and turned to Edwin. “I’ll be taking my lunch break now, sir,” he said.
Luke smiled without looking around. He could hear Marcus running to catch up to him and then, after a moment, Dani’s light steps as she jogged to catch them both.
They crossed the street and waited there for Edwin to catch up again.
“Damn, please let them have beer,” he huffed as soon as he joined them. The three of them looked at each other and left him there to catch up on his own time.
The buffet had the standard truck stop four food groups: Starch, Salt, Grease, Sugar. Edwin piled his plate high, Dani poked at some wilted iceberg lettuce, and Luke and Marcus both risked the fried chicken.
“What’s on the USB?” Luke asked Edwin again as they sat around a table that wobbled dangerously to one side, and had enough food stains on the tablecloth so as to render the menu unnecessary.
“Is?”