Chapter 5 Part 4

Before she sat back down on her bucket, she hit me upside the head.

“Ow! What was that for?!” I asked, massaging the back of my head.

“You, idiot! What are they doing here?” she whispered loudly. “They kidnapped me and now they’re standing in the middle of my garage?! What the hell were you thinking?”

“They asked if they could join us and help out. They said—”

“What they said doesn’t matter! They could be spies! What if they just said that crap to find out where our main system of operation is?”

I brought my palm to my face and thought hard. Crap. I didn’t think of that. If that was the case, then we were screwed. I had already explained how Clariia and I worked together and had shown them where we work. If Clari knew all that. . . Wait a second. . .

“What if we could use them—and their cards—to our advantage?” I thought out loud.

Clari’s face suddenly resembled the clockwork I had seen in the bathroom earlier—a weird comparison I know, but true. It was as if the wheels behind those blue eyes started turning as if she were working on one of her inventions.

“True. . . I see where your going with this. . . But what if they bust us before we can make any worth while plans?”

I frowned and stared at a chemical stain on the floor, a stain that had been the result of one of Clari’s experiments long ago. She had thought she’d known what she was doing, but obviously didn’t. Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been a lime green stain on the cement beneath our feet.

“If they are spies, then they want something—and probably something bigger than a measly purple car—from us. We need to watch them and see if they slip up. . . leave any,” I thought, still staring at the spot on the floor, “stains behind them.”

Clari nodded her head and smiled menacingly. “I like it.”

I frowned. “First things first: Did they get ahold of the card?”

Clari smiled bigger and shook her head, pointing silently toward the radio. She then mouthed the word “hidden.”

“Time to listen to the music and follow after where ever it leads us,” I said, smiling at my pun.

This was going to be fun.