Maybe Glory Mooncalled would turn on his Karentine employers once he polished off the Venageti Warlords. It wouldn't hurt.
I said, "If you've had your way with me, then I'll be running along. Best of luck getting the boy back."
Her expression said she doubted my sincerity. "You can find your way to the street?"
"I learned scouting when I was in the Marines."
"Good day, then, Mr. Garrett."
Karl Senior exploded the second I closed the door. It was a good door. I couldn't decipher his yells even when I put my ear to the wood. But he was having a good time working the panic and frustration out.
______V______
A miranda caught me just before I reached the gate. I caught my breath, then chewed on my tongue a little so I could still fake being a gentleman. She'd changed from the show ensemble she'd worn to fetch me and now, in her every days, looked like something I find only under the covers of midnight fantasies. She looked good, but she also looked worried. I told myself this was no time for one of my routines. My sometime-associate Morley Dotes tells me I'm a sucker for a damsel in distress. He tells me many things about myself, most of them wrong and unwelcome, but he has me on the damsels. A good-looking gal turns on the tears and Garrett is a knight ready to tilt with dragons.
"What did she say, Mr. Garrett? What does she want you to do?"
"She said a lot of not much at all. What she wants me to do is nothing."
"I don't understand." Did she look disappointed? I couldn't tell.