Page 22 of Never Enough

She rolled her eyes at him.

“What’s the eye roll for?”

“Just… look, I appreciate the chitchat and trying to distract me to keep me calm and all, but could you just do whatever it is you need to do and try to keep us in one piece?”

“Nemo,” Midas broke in, “I don’t mean to bust your moves, but you’ve got a problem. Put the goggles on.”

Nemo shook his head and said to Haskell, “You’re not getting out of our date, kitty cat.” Then to his brother, “What’s the problem, bro?”

“Cerberus.”

Opening the tool kit Waters brought him, Nemo took outseveral items, then dropped onto his back again on the ground. “I don’t see anything. Where, Midas?”

“Bottom left as you’re looking at it.”

In order to see where Midas was directing him, the fit under the chair was tight. With an awkward shove to his right socket, the joint seemed to stack the shoulder on top and behind its normal placement. Now there was room for him to fit. Not comfortably, but at least into a position that was less likely to jostle the chair while he was underneath it. Using his shoulder blades and hips, he crab-walked himself back under the chair. Once he was directly under it, he put on a pair of magnifying lenses, grabbed the penlight in his pocket, turned it on, and flashed it onto the casing of the device attached there.

Sure enough, a Cerberus stamp was present.

“Well, hello there, little doggie. Haven’t seen you in a while.”

“Be careful, little bro,” Midas reminded him.

“Yes, big bro,” Nemo mocked. “I’m thrilled you care, but I got this.”

Oh yeah. I got this. No problem. Bastard is the best explosives guy on Earth. How the hell did Haskell get on his radar?

“Okay, kitty cat, how are you doing up there?”

“I’m getting tired, Sawyer,” she admitted.

“Well, we can’t have that. All the guys will say I was a boring date, and I have a reputation to protect.”

There was a mumble in the background. “Did she just call him ‘Sawyer’?”

“Shut it, guys,” Midas warned.

He flashed the penlight around to look for secondary triggers. He didn’t see any, but that didn’t mean there weren’t any there. Cerberus didn’t use them as a rule, and bomb makers tended to be incredibly OCD on their signatures and methods,but there was always a chance that he’d try to “grow” his skillset.

He turned off the penlight and sighed silently. Things were about to get loud. And messy.

“Waters, how far back is everyone?”

“Café has been evacuated. We’re about a hundred meters back. The blue line is likely to be here quickly, though.”

Nemo hauled himself out from underneath the chair. “I’m going to need something solid to get under and get under quickly. It will need to fit three of us.”

“Shit,” Midas breathed out over the mic.

“Relax, bro.”

“You know he’s watching.”

“I know, Midas. Relax.”

Waters broke in, “What’s going on, guys?”

Nemo started rooting around in his front pocket and brought out a piece of gum. “Focus, people. We need something that three people can dive into that’s fire retardant, and we need it yesterday.”

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