When I get a second round, maybe I'll pretend like I have amnesia and ask him if he knows who I am. Alex snorted. He could just picture himself reeling around the bar with his hands pressed to his temples, murmuring, 'Where am I? Who are you? Who am I?'
Maybe it would have been better to keep searching the area around the rock. But they could go back to that tomorrow. Alex couldn't help wondering how much time they had left.
Max was looking bad. The effects of the akino were speeding up. And it was really affecting his body now. In less than a day his face had thinned out. You could practically see the bones pushing their way through his thin, translucent skin. Alex felt a pang of shock every time he looked at Max.
'Scotch. Rocks,' a voice ordered behind him.
A way too familiar voice. You knew it could happen, Alex reminded himself. He glanced over and saw his dad sliding onto the next bar stool.
'You military?' he asked Alex.
Of course. His dad grouped everyone into military or not military. He'd want to know who he was dealing with.
'Navy,' Alex answered. It just sprang from his mouth, maybe because Jesse had been talking about it so much. Maybe because, for once, he had an opportunity to impress his dad.
'Have one in the navy, one in the marines,' his dad answered.
Obviously I'm not worth mentioning, Alex thought. 'Any other kids?' he asked, just to see if his dad would continue to deny Alex's existence under direct questioning.
'One. Senior in high school and he has no idea what he wants to do with his life. None,' his dad answered.
'Huh,' Alex grunted. Then he realized he had a real opportunity. A chance to bait Pops for his own benefit.
'Sounds like my brother, Willy,' Alex commented. 'My dad was really worried about him. He tried to straighten him out by getting him to start an ROTC program at his high school. But Willy… he kept weaseling out of it. Too busy farting around on his computer and chasing after girls to bother. He managed to graduate without accomplishing a damn thing.' That last bit was pretty much a direct quote from his dad about what was going to happen to Alex.
'Exactly.' His dad pounded his fist on the bar. 'Exactly like my son. He doesn't realize that what he does in the next couple of years will determine the course of his entire life.'
You suck down that bait, Dad, Alex thought, starting to really enjoy his little fishing trip.
'So how'd this brother of yours turn out?' Alex's dad asked.
'You aren't going to believe this,' Alex answered. He drained his ginger ale, savoring the moment before he reeled his dad in and left him gasping on the shore.
'Willy's done real well for himself. You've probably heard of him. He goes by Bill now. Bill Gates.'
His dad choked on an ice cube.
Alex grinned. Yeah, Dad. Think of that next time you start harassing me about the ROTC. I could grow up to be a big software designer who owns pretty much half the known universe.
Isabel pulled the Jeep into the Weather Balloon's parking lot. The neon sign cast a rainbow of colors over the asphalt-the blue of the balloon, the green of the little alien who kept peeking out from behind it, the red of the alien's ray gun.
She hopped out of the Jeep and stumbled. She was still getting used to her new body. The guard had some serious mass, most of it muscle, but still.
A fortyish woman in leggings with little green men all over them smiled at Isabel as she approached the door. Isabel smiled back. She believed in being kind to the less fortunate. And anyone who thought she was attractive enough to wear those leggings in public definitely qualified.
The woman's smile grew even wider. Flirtatious.
Isabel gave a soft little groan. She thinks I'm coming on to her, Isabel realized. She thinks I'm a bleached- blond male bimbo-a, uh, mimbo ripe for the picking.
She made a blank facial expression as she walked past the woman and into the bar. Yeah, she was a guy, but unwanted attention was unwanted attention. And Isabel knew how to deal with that.
Oh no. Wait, she thought. What if that woman knew me-the guard? What if I just blew off the person I came here hoping to find?
Isabel glanced at the woman. She wasn't shooting any evil glances in the guard's direction, which she probably would have had she known him and he just walked right by her like that.
This acting-like-the-guard assignment was going to be trickier than she'd thought. She spotted an empty table and headed over. Then she sat down and crossed her legs.
Very masculine, she scolded herself. She uncrossed her legs and did that thing guys do, where they take up as much space as they possibly can. She draped her arm over the rail next to the table and spread her legs wide apart. Yeah, she was a man. Give her some room.
Max would crack up if he could see her right now. His little sister working the big strongman thing.
The thought of Max sent a stab of fear through her. The akino seemed to be entering a new stage-attacking his body. And what was she doing to help him? Sitting in a bar trying to remember not to cross her legs like a girl.
A waitress in a tight Weather Balloons T-shirt hurried up to her table. The double Os in Balloon were extra big-and positioned right over her chest. Poor girl, Isabel thought. She must get a lot of comments from the classy guys who hang out here.
'I'll have a beer,' Isabel said, making sure to look the waitress right in the eye. She figured she was probably the only guy not to stare at her Os all night. The waitress must have appreciated it, too, because she was back with Isabel's drink within seconds.
Isabel pretended to take a swallow of beer. She'd only ordered it because it seemed like what a guy like her would order. Besides, if she'd ordered a soda, she would have been tempted to drink it, and then she might have to pee, and peeing was not something she wanted to attempt in this body.
I wish I knew what my name is supposed to be, she thought. Someone could be calling me from the other side of the room and I wouldn't know it. She did a check of the crowd, moving her eyes quickly from person to person, careful not to give any of the ladies any ideas.
Her eyes lingered on the clock behind the bar. It had been almost an hour since she'd seen Max. She was almost afraid to go home when she was done here. Afraid to see what new changes she'd see in him.
Isabel scanned the crowd again, just in case she'd missed anyone. She didn't see even a flash of recognition on anyone's face. Maria's plan was insane. This was never going to work. And searching for the compound was turning out to be one step above counting all the grains of sand in the desert. Just another flavor of impossible.
A squeal from the next table jerked her attention in that direction. Her waitress was glaring at a prepster college boy and his two smirking buddies. The front of her T-shirt was soaked.
'Hey, sorry,' prepster boy said, not very sincerely. 'I thought I heard them announce the start of the wet T- shirt contest. You wanted to enter, right?'
'Wrong,' Isabel answered for her. This was one problem that wasn't impossible, and it would be her very definite pleasure to deal with it. She turned to the prepster. 'Apologize.'
The prepster stared at her a moment, eyes glazed. Then he turned to the waitress.
'I'm sorry,' he told the waitress. Then he winked at his buds. 'Let me help dry you off.'
Isabel leaped up before he could touch the girl. She grabbed him by the front of his shirt and yanked him out from behind his table. Then she pulled back her meaty arm and slammed her fist into his nose. She smiled when it squirted blood.
It was good to have a problem with an easy solution.
