“Adrian?”
I frown. Is that…“Ruby?”
She appears from behind me, stands at my side, and looks down, confused. “What the fuck are you doing?”
I scoff. “What am I doing? What are you doing? How are you not dead?”
She shrugs. “I saw him coming and dove out of the car just before he shot the gas tank. I waited till he’d gone, and when I didn’t see you come out, I circled around back to see where you were. Why are you just sitting here like an idiot?”
I sigh and let my shoulders slump with shame. “There’s a bomb under my chair. If I stand up, it goes off.”
“Piss off! There’s no way…” She crouches down and looks under my chair. “Holy shit!” She stands up and punches my arm. “There’s a bomb under your chair!”
“I know! And, hey!” I nod at my arm. “Do you mind?”
“Oh, sorry… So what’s your plan?”
“My plan? Ruby, if I had a plan, do you really think I’d still be sitting here?”
“Huh, fair point. Well, listen, there are cop cars and fire trucks everywhere out front.”
“I figured. Your ex-boyfriend also mentioned the CIA are coming, so we really have to find a way out of here, and fast.” I shift uncomfortably on my seat while trying to keep all my weight on it. “Any bright ideas?”
She frowns. “Wait, how does Fernando know the CIA is heading here?”
I let out a tired sigh. “Because the director of the CIA hired him to kill me, and you, and everyone else on my list. Ashton Case is already dead, as is the remaining person who we didn’t get a chance to approach. He knows where Jonas is going to be, so we need to find your ex and kill him.”
“That bastard! I’m gonna—”
“Ruby? Can we please focus on my problem? We’ll get angry at him later, okay?”
She sighs, tucks her gun at her back, and crouches beside me again. “Okay, fine. Gimme a minute.”
“Hey, whoa, what are you doing?” I grip the edge of the seat in both hands, my body tensing.
“Relax. I’m just going to defuse this thing…”
“You’re gonna what? What do you know about bombs? And why are you being so casual?” I look down trying to see what she’s doing. “Ruby? Ruby! I don’t like you messing with this thing! Just—”
She stands. “Okay, you can get up now.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Huh?”
She smiles. “You can stand up. I’ve disabled the dead man’s switch. The bomb won’t detonate if you get off the chair.”
“But how did you…?”
“Hey, I’m not just a pretty face, you sexist asshole. I dated this guy for a few months. He might’ve shown me a thing or two. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I showed him a thing or two as well, if you know what I…”
I glare at her.
“…You know what I mean — never mind. Look, just trust me. Get up so we can get out of here.”
I take a deep breath. And another. I try to stand, but my legs don’t agree with what my brain’s telling them to do. Don’t get me wrong, despite my initial reservations I’m actually starting to like Ruby. I think trusting her might be a way off, but I’m open to the idea at least. One day. But…
Ah, fuck it.
I jump out of the chair into a crouch, shielding my head with both arms. I hold my breath.
One second. Two seconds. Three… four…
Nothing.
I look around and see Ruby standing with her arms folded across her chest. She doesn’t look happy.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence, dickwad.”
I scratch the back of my head nervously. “Heh… sorry. It’s not that I don’t… I just wasn’t sure if… I’m…” I give up. “Thanks for saving my ass, Ruby. Heh… Literally!”
She continues frowning and pouting at me for a few moments, and then her face relaxes. “You’re welcome. Now, can we get out of here?”
I nod. “Yeah.”
She turns and heads for the back. I follow, but stop after a few steps as an idea hits me. “Ruby, hang on a sec.”
She stops and looks back at me. “What?”
I glance back at the chair. “How good are you with bombs, exactly?”
She paces slowly toward me, frowning. “Why?”
“I’m just spit-balling here… We’ve got Christ knows how many CIA agents heading here to kill us, right? There’s no way they’re going to keep us alive a second longer than they need to if we’re caught. Their orders would’ve been very clear, probably given by either the CIA director or the president himself.” I shrug. “Would be nice to get one over on them.”
She smiles, with a hint of disbelief in her eyes. “Are you suggesting we take them out?”
“I’m suggesting you set that bomb to count down and go off in, say, three minutes’ time? The way I see it, if it goes off before they get here, there’s a chance they’ll think we were taken out by the blast, which buys us time. If it goes off once they arrive, there’s a good chance we’ll take them out, which would also be pretty useful and entertaining.”
Ruby raises an eyebrow and starts pacing back and forth, staring at the floor. I’m not sure, but I think she’s experiencing doubt…
“What is it?” I ask.
“Killing people I’m paid to kill is one thing, but killing G-men is something else… We’re not stupid, Adrian. That’s a whole other level of heat we’d be bringing—”
I hold my hand up to stop her. “Ruby, sweetheart… it’s a little late for that, don’t you think? In case you haven’t noticed, those G-men already are coming to kill us. And they’re doing so because President Cunningham wants them to. It doesn’t actually get any worse than that. This is what you signed on for — it’s literally us against the world right now.”
She takes a deep breath and nods slowly.
“Besides, it was only a week or so ago that I took out over twenty NSA agents with a proximity mine…”
“You what?”
“Hey, it was me or them…” I shrug. “Fuck ’em.”
She chuckles somewhat desperately. “Christ… okay, gimme a sec here.”
She crouches beside the chair and carefully picks it up, flips it over, and rests it on its side, revealing the bomb. It looks… impressive, for want of a better word. Explosives aren’t my strong suit — never really used them or found a good enough reason to learn how.
I watch Ruby as her hands move delicately and expertly over the device, figuring out the wiring and reconfiguring it to suit our own violent needs. She carefully starts moving things around. I hold my breath instinctively.
“Three minutes on the clock?” she asks.
I nod. “Yeah, that should do it.”
She reconnects a couple of wires in different places and presses a few buttons.
“Okay, and… done.” She stands and looks at me. “We should probably leave.”
I glance down at the device, which is now showing two minutes fifty-four seconds. “Good idea…”
We both run over to the back of the bar, through the storage area, and toward the rear entrance. I ease the door open slowly, peeking out as I do. There’s a track that runs along the back of the building like an alley. There’s a squad car parked at one end with its nose facing the parking lot opposite, but I can’t see any cops. Cautiously, I look the other way, which leads away from the main street toward some railroad tracks. It looks clear.
“Come on,” I call over my shoulder.
We step outside, careful not to make too much noise. We check all the angles, quickly and professionally, and then I reach behind me, grab Ruby’s wrist, and break into a jog. She keeps pace without a word, and we make it to the tracks without being seen.