“Hey, wait for me!” I called as I raced to catch up to him.
Several minutes later, we were at the gate of the rental agency. There were a few lights on inside and a lone sales agent manning the counter, but no one else that I could see. It struck me as odd, but I shook it off.
“All right, Rick, go rent us a car,” I told him, patting him on the back.
“Me?” Rick’s eyes almost bulged out of his skull. “Why am I getting the car? This is your trip, remember?”
“I left my card at home, remember?” I put my hands on my hips and tried to mimic his stance and his tone as best I could.
“Ugh!” Rick shook his head and patted his back pocket. “Fine, I’ll go rent the…” His voice trailed off mid-sentence.
“Rick? Something wrong?”
For a moment, I wondered if the failinis had finally caught up with us, and I glanced behind me, one hand on the hilt of my katana.
“I, uh…” Rick flashed me a grin. “I seem to have left my wallet in my car.”
A broad smile crossed my lips. “So he is human after all!” I quipped, smacking him on the shoulder. “I knew it.”
“Yeah, whatever.” Rick’s cheeks were a bright crimson. “Look, it could have happened to anyone, okay?”
I nodded. “Uh huh. Sure.” I patted his arm again. “It’s okay. You look after the eclairs and I’ll go see if I can smooth things over with the rental salesman. Be back in a jiffy.”
“What are you going to do, exactly?” Rick asked, eyes narrowing. “Nothing illegal, I hope?”
“Don’t worry, Rick!” I waved my hands dismissively. “I’ve got their app on my phone. I can use it to pay.”
It was a lie, but it seemed to mollify him for the moment.
“Okay, well, hurry back!” he demanded, his voice shaking.
Was that a hint of fear I detected? Was Rick still shaken up over the two near misses in the past day? Was there a chink in the Rick armor? One could only hope. He’d been getting kind of dull of late with that attitude of his.
I flashed him another grin and turned around, his odd moods quickly forgotten. Rick was right about one thing. We needed a car. And without money, that wasn’t going to be easy to come by.
For a brief moment, I considered trying to woo the desk clerk with my amazing Asian charm. It was a lady, and I’d always had decent luck with the ladies.
But only for a moment.
Nah, basic thievery was the name of the game today. I wasn’t proud of it, but I knew how to get into cars and start them up without the keys. And the lot had remarkably few security cameras, so it seemed like the more expedient option. Besides, this was Canada. If I left a nice enough note, they might apologize for making me steal the car in the first place.
Okay, probably not, but I made a note to be sure I paid them back after Mei’s dad paid me for the job. And it’s not like I was going to keep the car. I’d return it as soon as we were done with it. All in all, it seemed like a fair exchange.
I slipped a small piece of metal out of my pocket and slid it down the window of a nearby economy car. It wasn’t anything special, but I could see through the driver’s side window that it had a full tank of gas, and now that neither Rick nor I had much money to work with, having a full gas tank was quite the nice feature.
A minute or so later, I had the door open. I slipped into the driver’s seat and, much to my amazement, a pair of car keys were hidden under the driver’s side visor.
I could barely believe my luck, but then as I’ve been telling you all this whole time, I’m an extremely lucky fellow. It comes in handy sometimes. When it’s not annoying for saving my life, of course.
Anyway, I took a quick look around the place to make sure no one was watching and turned the key in the ignition. The engine purred, and the vehicle flared to life. I breathed a small sigh of relief that everything was in working order and went to go collect Rick.
When I found him, he was calling someone on his phone and speaking with them in a rather irate tone. I didn’t catch all of the conversation, but it sounded like he was trying to get a replacement for something sent out to him. Probably a replacement card, since he’d left his in the USA.
Of course, how they’d know where to send it I had no idea, but that wasn’t really my problem.
“Care for a ride, stranger?” I said, lowering the passenger window and giving him a wink.
Rick rolled his eyes and climbed into the car without saying anything, and we peeled off.
Believe it or not, I was a halfway decent driver. I’d driven before for certain jobs on multiple occasions over the years. I wasn’t overly fond of it, but I understood the basics of how it all worked. I just avoided it, because I didn’t have a license. But neither did Rick, now, so I guess that didn’t matter so much. We’d just better hope the cops didn’t pull us over. I’d never dealt with the Canadian authorities, but I couldn’t imagine them being much nicer than their American counterparts.
A moment later, Rick hung up his phone and growled, then jammed it back in his pocket.
“Something wrong?” I asked. At the same time, I stole a glance out the rearview window to see if anyone was following us out of the lot. No one was. Another spot of luck.
“Ugh,” Rick scowled. “My stupid bank. How hard is it to cancel your card and get a replacement sent?”
“Dunno.” I shrugged. “But it’s all right. We’ll be back in the USA before
