Page 25 of Exit Strategy

Nothing was said about Calanthe, no word about being assaulted in his own home, nothing. One of the people at the press conference was the towering figure of Maddy. If she was there, maybe he was more afraid of a follow-up or reprisal, not angry and sending his cult hounds after Callie and me. Or, if they were, they were going to wait.

Or, they were calling in outsiders, third party contractors or bounty hunters.

I wasn’t worried about any of them.

They were as often as not, fucking amateurs.

Knowing that we were in the clear, for the time being, was relief enough. My sleep was deep and dreamless.

* * *

Callie wasawake before I was and was familiar enough with room service to have it brought up. She seemed a little better, which was good. Most of the time, the only thing you could do for a concussion was rest. We could stay here, maybe another day, before moving on. I was waiting for a reply email from the Cryptonet, setting us up with an underground doctor, and possibly a financial conversion. EdenCoin was trading high but there were other things running in the mix, things that could be more valuable.

And I had to do something to address the fact that my cash on hand was very finite.

I was checking my email through a burner phone and blew out a breath of relief. There was a doc who was available, but I would have to meet them partway. They were in a place called Lake Valley, New Mexico – a Doctor Holoke Carter, an address, and the pertinent contact information.

And what it was going to cost.

The captain hadn’t mentioned that these people, who worked outside the system, were brutally expensive. I could take her to one of those walk-in clinics, drop a few hundo, and then we could be on our way, so long as no one recognized Calanthe, and so long as no one decided to play the advocate and call the police, or a domestic abuse counselor. That would be my luck, trying to get her medical aid and the police would be on my ass because some busybody tagged me as the potential abuser.

Or I would have to let go of something like ten thousand dollars’ worth of crypto. Fucking hell, that was expensive.

I sent an acceptance email, and an estimate of when we would be arriving. The response came quickly. Thankfully included in that cost, graciously accepted from my online account, included accommodations for the night, possibly longer depending on the patient’s condition.

I sighed.

I hoped it wouldn’t be long. I wanted to be somewhere secure.

She needed to be somewhere safe.

Away from New Eden and Arik. There was no way they would let this go. Arik’s ego was too big, and she was too well known. They wouldn’t want to deal with the scandal of their poster boy and number one donor being an abusive asshole, womanizer, and worse. The damage to Rex’s career might be salvageable. There were plenty of women who would forgive a man’s monstrous behavior if he was rich and charismatic enough. But the New Eden Centre would be gutted by that revelation.

They wouldn’t let him just abandon them, no. It would be like two monsters dragging each other down rather than letting the other escape or win. Something there about a squid and a whale, or a crazy guy and a whale? I wasn’t sure.

“We’re going to head south, when we head out,” I said.

“Where are we going from here?”

“Place called Lake Valley, in New Mexico. It’s between the Ute and Navajo reservations. Native American country.”

“Why are we going there?” she asked.

“There is a doctor there who is going to look at you, make sure that you’re okay, and maybe get you whatever meds or treatment they can give you,” I said. “Did you order all this room service for yourself?”

“No, most is for you,” she said. “The rest is that my stomach isn’t right, and I can’t seem to handle much of anything, but a little bit here, some there, it’s okay.”

“Nerves, maybe a touch of the head injury. If your inner ear is upset, it can throw your balance off, your appetite. It’s nuts how much that part of your body is connected to,” I said. She nodded and nibbled at what looked like a parfait. “That’s why hearing people sick up can make you sick up too.”

“Who says sick up?”

“Well, I do?” I said, and she gave me a smile.

“What is the itinerary for the day, since I don’t think we’re leaving today?”

“You rest, take it easy, and I go do some shopping for you, so you don’t have to wear my old clothes or those terrible clothes I purchased from that Goodwill three states ago.”

“That sounds okay. I know about shopping, but I didn’t see anywhere when we were driving up.”

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