telling him he had coverage. It looked as if he might not have enough battery life to check the forty-six voice mails and sixty-seven text messages he’d missed. “Good God,” he muttered as he looked at those numbers again. “Are you kidding me?”
With a snap of his thumb, he moved the cover of his phone aside to reveal a small keyboard and a screen that looked complicated enough to enter trajectory data for a barrage of missiles. Since he didn’t even know what most of those blinking lights meant, he ignored them and sifted through his text messages. The first few were of the “How’s your vacation?” variety, and then they drifted toward the “Where the hell are you?” end of the spectrum. Rather than start punching out replies, he swiveled the cover shut and dialed his voice mail.
The recordings were about the same as the text messages. After listening to the first five or six all the way through, Cole started deleting them once he’d listened long enough to get the general flow of the message. After that, he deleted them after hearing the tone in the caller’s voice. Finally, he pressed and held down the button that was the speed dial for Jason’s private line.
After a few rings the connection was made.
“Jason Sorrenson,” droned the voice on the other end.
“That’s so pretentious when you answer that way,” Cole said. “Can’t you say hello like a normal human being?”
“Cole?”
“That’s me.”
“Jesus, man, we were starting to think you’d gotten lost or weren’t coming home,” Jason exclaimed.
Cole chuckled and ran his fingers over his eyes. “Afraid I’d get addicted to maple syrup?”
“That or hockey. What have you been doing? Are you still in Canada?”
“No. Actually, I’m back in the States.”
“You need a ride from the airport?”
“Not that state,” Cole added. “I’m in Chicago.”
After a slight pause, Jason said, “That’s not a state, moron.”
Cole laughed a bit too hard at the snide comment, but couldn’t help himself.
“So why haven’t you come home?” Jason asked. “A pool just got started around here that you shot yourself through some part of your body and were too embarrassed to call from the hospital.”
“What did you have your money on?”
“The right shin. A grazing shot through the right shin. I know it sounds a little obscure, but it’s a better payoff.”
“Asshole,” Cole muttered.
“Hey! You don’t even want to know where Nora put her money.”
“Is she upset?”
“She misses you.” Cole had no trouble picturing the cruel grin on Jason’s face as he added, “Kind of like a pet.”
Before Jason asked about it again, Cole told him, “There was…an incident in Canada.”
“That doesn’t sound good. Are you all right?”
“Yeah. It was messy, but I’m okay. Have you heard anything on the news about…”
Once a few seconds had ticked by, Jason asked, “About what?”
Cole realized then that he couldn’t explain anything to him. He knew better than to try and lay out the facts that he’d been attacked by some sort of monster and was now in the care of a Skinner. Jason wouldn’t believe it. Nobody in their right mind would believe it. He, on the other hand, had no choice but to believe. Even if he might somehow manage to convince Jason, it seemed a cruel thing to do; kind of like dragging a preschooler off the playground so you could explain topics like rape and war. Unless there was a good reason, it was just mean to tell so much to someone who was so unprepared for it.
“Come on, Cole,” Jason prodded. “About what?”
“About some stupid American shooting himself in the right shin.”
“Yes! I just won enough to pay off my new home theater.”
“Glad I could be of service,” Cole replied.
After the laughter died down, Jason asked, “When are you coming home? A lot of us were really worried when we couldn’t get ahold of you. I might have been worried too, if I didn’t already know that piece of crap phone you insist on carrying couldn’t get a signal beneath an antenna.”
“Leave my phone out of this. It wasn’t her fault. Things have…changed.”
“Now that really doesn’t sound good.”
Although there was nobody to see the wince on his face, Cole knew his voice would reflect it. “There’s a lot going on, but I should tell you I probably won’t be back for a while.”
“Aw, damn it. Are you sure?” Jason moaned.
“Yeah. If you want, I can sign into the system from here and—”
“We’re too far along now to start sending stuff out of our own system. All we need is one asshole kid to get hold of one of those screen shots or some of those character models and it’ll be all over the Internet.”
“Free publicity,” Cole pointed out. “It’s never a bad thing.”
“Sorry, Cole. You’ve earned the time off, but this is a hell of a bad time to take so much of it.”
“Yeah, I know. I wouldn’t even ask if it wasn’t something really big.”
“Big enough to maybe give you some ideas for the next pitch meeting?”
Cole chuckled and let out a breath. “Hell yes.”
“Then do what you gotta do. I know you wouldn’t put me in this spot unless you had a good reason.”
“Thanks, Jason.”
“Can you at least e-mail me those bugs from
Cole nodded, then reminded himself yet again that he was alone and said, “No problem.”
“How long are you gonna be gone?” Jason asked.
That was the question he’d been dreading since he dialed Jason’s number. “Honestly, I don’t know. It may be a while.”
A heavy sigh drifted through the earpiece. “As your boss, I’ve got to tell you this may cause some bigger problems than just
“I know,” Cole replied.
“As your friend, I just want to make sure there’s nothing else I should be worried about.”
Anything he should be worried about.
That one made Cole smile.
Once again resisting the urge to drop the bomb that vampires and flesh-eating monsters actually existed, he said, “No. I’ll check in before too long.”
“I’m going to get back to sleep now, since some of us need to go to work in the morning.”
“All right, Jason. Take care.”
The connection was cut after a short beep and a snap of static. Cole looked at the screen, but didn’t know what he expected to see. After putting the phone in his pocket, he dug out Gerald’s satellite model. He went through the motions of choosing one of the few numbers in the phone’s memory and hit the button to get the call rolling. It was answered after one ring.
“MEG Branch 40.”
“Stu?”
“Yeah,” the voice on the other end replied. “Is this Cole?”
“Yes it is. Doesn’t anyone else answer that phone?”
There was a tired chuckle and the familiar clack of fingers on a keyboard. “I practically live here. Besides, this place has one hell of a computer setup.”
“Really?” Cole asked. “What’ve you got?”
“More than enough to keep tabs on lunatics like you. Also, I can play in three different
“
That question caused Stu’s voice to slip into a more relaxed tone that hovered somewhere between a whine and a yawn. “
