Page 67 of Good Enough

The car was silent for a while. Given that TB was an “information specialist” by trade, he had the silent treatment down. He would never be the first to begin a conversation unless he wanted to. Waters had withstood some of the worst interrogation and torture known to mankind, but if TB was going to use his “soft” approach, he knew that he would never win the Silent Game against his teammate. The twisted part of Waters refused to just give in, so he held out as long as he could.

TB sat and looked at him. He didn’t move. He didn’t blink.

After three minutes of silence where the only sound had been the crinkling of the plastic bottle that Waters drank from, he tossed the bottle in the back and refrained from smiling at hearing the soft “Hey!” from Nemo when he got hit with it.

Another minute or so went by without any noise at all. Waters just sat in the driver’s seat, one wrist resting on the top of the steering wheel, staring out the windshield.

The fingers of his free hand resting on his leg were getting ready to twitch.

“Just get it over with and spit it out,” Waters eventually grumbled.

Nemo piped up from the back. “Four minutes, nineteen seconds, Boss. New record. Way to go!” he praised with a congratulatory smack to the shoulder.

“Have you registered for china yet?” TB rumbled, totally straight-faced.

Here we go.

“Fuck you. I’m registering for a new Glock so that I can put you in the hospital and shut you up for a few days.”

Totally deadpan, the giant informed him, “I’m just checking. Wanna make sure I’m prepared to purchase early. I don’t want to be stuck as the chump who’s left with the gravy boat for four hundred dollars at the end.”

“Midas and I already have dibs on the gravy boat, so you’re stuck with the thousand dollar place setting,” Nemo offered just as deadpan.

“Okay, okay, you two have had your fun,” Waters interrupted. “What do you have for me?”

Nemo reached into his pack and pulled out a brown paper bag, stuck his head between the seats, and tossed it into Waters’ lap.

“What the hell is this?” He looked inside and laid his head back on the headrest. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Yeah, I know. But it’s what I have for ya. Cherry double-checked your kit before you left and noticed you weren’t packing. And after the last couple of weeks of watching you and Kubrick dance around each other like the hippo and the alligator from Fantasia, I figured that you needed them.”

With a look of disgust on his face, TB snarked, “I don’t think she’d find that comparison flattering.” Suddenly, he turned in his seat to look behind himself. “And why do you know that movie?”

“Name a movie I don’t know about, Total Brontosaurus. Why do you know it? Okay. So. Anyway. We noticed you were taking an unscheduled trip into town after yesterday’s blackout, so then I knew you needed them.” Another congratulatory slap on the back. “Smooth, motherfucker! Of course, now I’m kinda pissed that it’s imminent I’m going to lose the pool.”

Waters rubbed his forehead and grimaced. “Could we please not have a betting pool on my sex life?”

“Dude,” TB said, “there’s not much else to talk about right now. If I have to do one more round of Would You Rather with Nozzle, here, I’m gonna strangle him.”

“And even those games have been themed around your sex life,” Nemo added.

“Kill me now,” Waters moaned. “It’s not about me. I can take your trash, but it’s disrespectful to Kai, you dumbasses.”

Silence reigned in the vehicle. Waters knew he’d made a mistake the minute he’d said her real name. He leaned his outside elbow on the windowsill and covered his mouth with his hand.

Fuck.

“Well, there it is,” TB said.

“Okay, then,” Nemo added.

That one slip had made it clear he was declaring that his feelings were more than casual. A catastrophic rule break. More silence invaded the Jeep until TB decided to take pity on him and not make a bigger production out of his mistake. “Midas found a breadcrumb.”

Waters went into operator mode, removed his sunglasses, and turned to TB. “You couldn’t have led with that?”

TB shrugged. “Thought the other might be more fun. Problem is, the bread crumb is pretty tiny and pretty stale. It could be nothing,” he warned.

“Midas wouldn’t have mentioned it at all if he didn’t think it was something, though.”

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