By the time dawn came around, I was ready to get out of town. I wasn't confident I wouldn't get kidnapped at some point, since that seemed to be my thing, so as soon as we could put Vida in the rearview mirror, the better.
A part of me would miss the house, well at least the kitchen, but I hoped my new apartment would have something comparable. In an apartment, space was tight, but I'd call the new fridge Tabby, even if it didn't have a built-in computer.
During the drive to the airport, we played a game of license plate bingo. It really wasn't bingo at all, it just sounded cooler if you said it that way. The game was basically trying to collect all the different state's license plates. In the two hour drive, we sadly only found five. My personal best from taking Winnie on a spin was twenty-seven.
I didn't have to get fully in the airport for my anxiety to kick in. Physically pushing the SUV back to New York sounded like a better idea to me.
"Are you sure we can't just drive back? We could catch a lot more license plates that way," I suggested what sounded like a brilliant idea to me.
"It'd take way too long and I really want to get back to the city as soon as possible."
"There's no reason to get back today. We can take the next day or two and spend some quality time together."
I knew it was a losing battle, but flying was for the birds, no pun intended, and adding in the quality time bit was the only thing I could think of that could sway him. I wasn't sure how I'd gotten through the flight the first time, which made a repeat performance unlikely. I knew I'd done a lot of sleeping, but I'd had a good night's sleep, so I wasn't a bit tired.
"As fun as that sounds, you'll be fine. You've done this once before, aren't you over the fear?"
Nate was ushering me to the rental car place to turn in the keys. We didn't have a lot of luggage, but he would've been wise to buy a new suitcase and throw me in it.
"I was fine once I hit the ground, but the thought of getting on a plane again is giving me the willies."
We turned the Suburban back over to the nice guy at the counter, and made our way to the flight check-in. I was still glad that I didn't have to worry about security with my FBI badge. Not only did I have my usual three knives on my person, but I had the one from the shoebox as well. I didn't want it to get lost in baggage purgatory.
The atmosphere of the airport wasn't growing on me. The smell of coffee was strong from the little caf? we had to walk by and it caused my stomach to turn. Add to that the crowd, and I thought the airport itself might have been worse than the plane ride.
We quickly made our way through the process of getting checked in and took a seat to wait for the flight to be called. Nate managed to find us a mostly quiet little area where I could breathe a little easier.
"Maybe I should call Rick and have him talk you into letting us drive back," I said, trying a different route. We had a few minutes, and I didn't have anything else crowd-friendly to talk about.
"You know that won't work either. He wants to see you more than I want to make it back to the city tonight. Calling him would probably only make it so he made some calls and had you personally escorted on the plane by local authorities," Nate retorted.
"You know it's really unfair that you both take the side against mine all the time. One of these times, you have to be on my side."
I had Frannie at home to side with me, but that just wasn't enough. Maybe I'd convince Ettie that New York would be the perfect place to relocate. I mentioned to her I knew someone in Chicago who was in the electronics business and if she wanted me to hook her up, I would make the call.
Jimmy owed me a favor, and every time I'd spoken to him since our inconvenient first meeting, he reminded me he'd do anything for me. I was fairly certain Nate wanted to kill him, but at the same time they seemed to get by alright after Jimmy made it clear he didn't have any plans that involved whisking me off to a deserted island.
As far as Ettie went, before we left, I did get to say a proper goodbye to her and Anne, letting them know the real reason Nate and I came to town and my real name. We promised to keep in touch and I told them if they ever made it to New York, to look me up, because there was no way they'd find me in Montana again anytime soon.
I didn't add that it would probably take my mother being out of the state for a hundred years before I'd return. They would've thought I was joking and I would've been dead serious, making things a little awkward.
Overhead it was announced that our flight was boarding, so we trudged towards the gate. I considered making a scene, in hopes they wouldn't let me on the plane. I didn't really like drawing attention to myself, which was the only thing that kept me from embarrassing myself.
I tried to fill any empty spots in my conversations with Nate by telling him we should stick with local cases. If he truly only picked the Vida case because he thought crazy scientists would help with my memory, he only partially succeeded. We had no idea what had really triggered my memory jumpstart, which had me a little concerned.
There was a look in his eyes when I brought up remaining local that told me he had other ideas. If nothing else, I needed my memories back to figure out what in the world the man was planning. He was very careful not to think about anything important when I tried to take a peek in his mind.
The flight and transfers went relatively smoothly. I didn't get kicked off the plane, so I deemed it a successful trip. The best part came at the end when Rick was waiting to pick us up and I ran to him, giving him a big hug. It was hard to believe I'd missed him so much after only a week, especially when we'd spoken more than once during the absence.
"Land. I'm finally back on land," I wailed, probably puncturing one of his eardrums.
"Oh, quit being so dramatic," he said. "When you remember how to change into your phoenix form, we'll have to go out flying, and then you won't be able to get enough of travel by air. I missed you too, by the way. Maybe the next time you two have a big case, I'll take a little vacation from work to make sure you stay out of trouble."
"I doubt your conclusion about ever liking flying, but it's so good to see you that I'll forget you brought it up. Where's my present?" I asked, trying to change the subject to something a little more crowd-friendly.
He laughed. "It's at my house for safe keeping. I'll let you see it after you get settled. I'm sure you've got tons of stuff to unpack from that little suitcase of yours."
"You're funny. Speaking of getting settled, how soon before we go apartment hunting?" I asked Nate. It was pretty late at night, so I doubted we'd rush right off to look at something, but I wanted to reiterate that I was ready for that move.
"I have a place I lined up for after the sun rises today if you don't mind taking a little road trip," Nate said as we made it to Rick's car.
"Do you really have to wonder about me and road trips after I pretty much begged you to drive across the country instead of fly? I'm good with a little trip. I don't want to get too settled back in my apartment just to have to move again, so the sooner we figure out where we want to live, the better."
I sat in the backseat as Rick drove and Nate sat next to him, but turned so he could keep an eye on me. We filled Rick in on all things Vida, Montana. I was pretty sure by the end of the conversation he didn't have any plans to visit. He did have all sorts of questions about my heat projection ability.
I didn't have any answers, but promised to show them how I'd manipulated things. Rick hadn't heard of anyone being able to minutely heat things up the first time they tried, which made me think phoenixes didn't have very vivid imaginations.
At the apartment, Rick dropped us off and then yelled out the window, "After you're done hunting for a new place tomorrow, give me a call or just stop on by and I'll get you your present." I didn't know what the wink exchanged with Nate meant, but I was excited to see what he'd gotten for me.
"Will do," I said as I waved and followed Nate into our building.
When we got to my door, there was a very large suitcase sitting in
the hallway. I looked at the tag and it had my name on it. I'd never seen the black luggage before in my life.
"That isn't my suitcase." I looked at Nate to see if he had any ideas.
"Well, let's get it in the apartment and take a look at it. No matter what it is, it can't hurt us." He grabbed the bag as I opened the door. "This thing weighs a ton," he said, struggling to get it inside. Seeing big, strong Nate having issues made me wonder what could possibly be inside.
"Did someone pack a bunch of rocks and send them to me? I could totally see some of the people from that think tank doing something like that."
I stood out of the way as he started unzipping the suitcase. I have to say we were way braver than we should've been in the situation. Normally, I'd be calling the police to take the bag away in case it was a bomb. Nate seemed to think things were cool, though, so I was trying to follow his lead.
As soon as he opened the lid, something uncurled from the suitcase. I took a step back even further and ended up bumping into the wall. In front of me stood the smartest robot I'd ever met, and I was fairly certain I'd never meet one smarter.
"Vinnie, what in the world are you doing in New York?" I asked, surprised, yet for some reason not as surprised as I should've been.
"Coming with you seemed like a much better option than staying with the idiots," he said as he straightened himself up. "I wasn't expecting to have to be in the suitcase that long. How long did it take you to figure out the airhead was the one you were looking for?"
"You knew who we were looking for and didn't tell me? I think I'm offended, Vinnie. When did you ship yourself to my apartment?"
"Let's see, that would be the night after we had our conversation. I knew how the team would respond and since you seemed kind of nice, I decided to come live with you. Don't worry, I'm making plans for a humanoid skin, so you won't have people staring at you when you take me out," he replied. "Of course, I knew that little snot was the one stealing things. However, you seemed to want to solve the problem by yourself, so I didn't tell you."
?I looked at Nate and I didn't like the grin lining his face. "You pick up really interesting friends."
"I don't mean to. So, Vinnie are you self-sufficient? Do we need any special adapters for you or anything?" I couldn't believe I was actually thinking of keeping the robot. I imagined I'd get in lots of trouble if anyone ever figured out where he got to. It was a good thing most of the people in Vida didn't even know my real name.
"I'm good. I can charge from any outlet and, like I said, I'll try to have a new skin put on within a week, so if anyone comes looking for me, they won't recognize the new me."
The robot seemed to have everything all planned out. "It's a good thing we're moving soon, because with the three of us here, there isn't going to be any room," Nate said as he took my bag into my room.
"How soon do you think we can find a new place?" I asked. "One with at least two bedrooms, maybe a third now with Vinnie. You said you had one in mind, how sure are you that I'll like it."
"I'm fairly certain, and if you do end up falling in love with it, like I hope you do, I'm pretty sure we can move in right away," he responded. "And it meets your bedroom requirements."
"On the same subject, you said we'd be taking a road trip. We're driving away from the general direction of Philadelphia, right?" I asked. I hated to think he had plans of moving closer to my parents, but he could be a real jerk sometimes, so I wouldn't put it past him.
"Yes, we'll be driving north and east a little ways. It's only around an hour, so it isn't all that far away. We should get some sleep, so we can head out and see if you like the place first thing. If you do, between you, me and Rick, we should be able to get quite a bit moved tomorrow." I thought Nate's goals were a bit ambitious, but if he thought it was possible, I'd follow along.
Nate claimed he was uncomfortable sleeping on the couch with Vinnie watching, so he weaseled his way into the bed. Hopefully it was the last time I found him in the bed for at least a couple years.
CHAPTER 29
Life is like riding a bike; to keep your balance you keep moving