Page 6 of The Explorer
Victor shrugged. “Then don’t tell him. You’re a long way from home now and we have no two-bedroom apartments available. If we did, I wouldn’t have to share my bed with a resident from a mold-infested building complex. That reminds me. Banni has been informed that you two are his new team members. He was excited.”
I lit up in a smile. “That’s great.”
“Banni or one of his men will meet you here tomorrow morning at nine.”
Indiana had moved to the short couch. “This is going to be uncomfortable to sleep on.”
Victor gave a sigh of irritation. "I don’t have time for your weird angst about sleeping next to Aubri. I’ve never understood that part of your culture. I’ll make sure you receive some groceries and set you up with wristbands that are connected to our network. Take the evening to relax and get some sleep.”
“What if we need to get a hold of you?”
“I’ll make sure the wristbands have my contact info in them, but I’d prefer if you used it as little as possible. Before you ask, the answer is, no, you can’t communicate with your family back home. All outgoing calls for the public are blocked on purpose.”
“Why?”
“It’s political. All you need to know is that if you want to send a message to your friends back home, I can help you. I’ll see if I can convince Rafael to let you have the same privilege as we delegation members. We’ve been allowed to correspond with the outside world.”
“This is ridiculous, Victor,” I complained. “Can’t you use your genius to find a way to fix the situation? We need to be able to call our family and friends back home.”
Victor looked like he had aged ten years in the last few hours. Raking his hand through his thick dark hair, he groaned. “If I hear one more time that I should use my genius, I’m going to kill myself. I’m not a fucking magician and I told you, it’s not a matter of technology. It’s politics.”
Indiana and I exchanged a look. Something was completely off about Victor.
“Hey, are you okay man?” Indiana asked but Victor just turned on his heels and left.
“Should we worry?” Indiana asked me.
“About Victor?” I snorted. “Why would we?”
Indiana was silent for a long moment. “I don’t know. He looked like he meant the part about killing himself.”
“He was tired, Indy. He said so himself.”
“Yeah, but it was more than that. He looked like he’d just learned that he was terminal.”
“Argh, don’t worry about him. Victor is a grown man, he’ll figure it out,” I said and walked into the small bedroom. The bed was so narrow that I started to laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
Turning I saw Indiana filling out the doorway with his large frame.
“They call this a double bed. That’s what’s funny.”
“I’ll sleep on the floor, don’t worry.”
“Stop it, Indy. You heard Victor. No one is going to tell my dad and I trust you.” Getting down, I stretched my legs out on the bed. “I wanna see if we can even fit on this kids’ bed.”
“You sure?” Indiana stood with both hands on the top of the doorframe.
“You’re acting like you’re afraid of me. Get down here.” I patted the mattress next to me.
The bed creaked when Indiana lowered his body to lie next to me.
“I’m not toxic, you know.”
“I didn’t say you were.”
“Then why are you on edge like you’re afraid of touching me?”
