“Who are you?”

“Trigo.”

“My question was rhetorical.”

“As was my answer,” he said. “With overtones of sarcasm. Undertones?”

“Are you saying that attempting an escape with Eigen shows too much or too little imagination?”

“Scratch my belly. And give us one of those chips.”

I did both.

“What does have feelings for mean?”

“I don’t know, Trigo.”

“Well, it’s not something you need to figure out. A little higher. Right there. She’s our friend, that’s all that matters. So, yes to the somewhat predictable car chase. You’ll need cash. Go to the ATM and take out a few grand.”

“Really?”

“Trust me.”

The phone rang. I fell awake on the bed. Trigo lay beneath a fluffy towel beside me, his head on a pillow.

“It’s twelve fifty, Mr. Kitu. Your lunch date is at one o’clock.” I didn’t recognize the male voice.

I sat up, stretched, decided to leave Trigo to sleep peacefully. I found my socks and shoes and stepped across the hall and knocked on Eigen’s door. Again and still no answer. I used my key and opened the door. She was not there. I made way downstairs to the Bourbon Steak.

At the table with Sill, Eigen, and Gloria was General Auric Takitall. Sill was dressed for a boating excursion on a warm day. Gloria and Eigen wore red and green skintight leather bodysuits. The general was decked out in full regalia but seemed as comfortable as if he were also dressed for boating.

“Just a couple of minutes late,” Sill said, smiling and indicating with a gesture the empty seat across from him. “You remember General Takitall.”

“Yes, of course. General. Eigen. Gloria.”

Gloria stared right through me, though she didn’t appear unhappy.

“We’re having pizza,” Sill said. “Be here soon. In the meantime why don’t you tell the general how you plan to handle our prize once we acquire it.”

“You want me to tell him what we’re going to do with nothing?”

“Yes.”

“Nothing.”

Sill smiled at Takitall. “Beautiful, right?”

“The perfect thing about this weapon is that you don’t have to arm it, aim it, or fire it. We just sit back and do—” He nodded to me.

“Nothing,” I said.

“Nothing,” Sill repeated. “Gloria, what do we do?”

“Nothing,” she said.

“Nothing.” Sill leaned back in his seat and looked at the ornate ceiling. “Hallelujah. It’s better than ice cream. And I love ice cream. By the way, they have really great ice cream here. We’ll have some after the pizza.” He looked at me and then at Takitall. “Of course, before we can sit around letting nothing happen, there is a lot to do.”

“That’s very true,” Takitall said.

“Gloria, just how closely are we being watched? On a scale from one to ten. One being the assholes don’t know where the fuck we are, ten being they can smell my farts and count the hairs on my balls.”

“Seven,” Gloria said. “They know where we are. They know who we’re with. They have no idea what we’re doing. They are nervous and have been given the green light to shoot us if they want.”