Chapter 3

“Why me?” I asked in a less flat tone.

“Because of the way you fought those guys back there.” He said.

“How did you see me? You weren’t back there.” I said my voice now sour.

“No I wasn’t. But there were video cameras built into the walls. We all saw you. I didn’t want any of these guys here as my partner. They pretty much suck. Before you walked in called dibs on you as a-“ before he could finish his sentence I cut him off.

“You called dibs on me? What am I a trophy?”

“No you’re not a trophy. So will you be my partner?”

“Sure I guess so.”

“Great. So now we can get started. Let’s leave.” He got up and pulled me with him towards the exit.

“Don’t you think we should go through that door? The one that says ‘continue here with partner’?” I said.

“Um, yeah I didn’t see the sign above the door.” Wow, it was a good thing he was cute. We walked through the room to the other door. In the doorway a laser grid that was blue made our entrance feel weird. A metal door slammed behind us. In front of us was a giant bolted door. Two screens were hammered to the door. I touched the one on the right. He did the same with the left. A screen popped up. The words said to enter/type your full name. I typed in Ally Harrington and hit enter. I saw him type in Ryan Delzar. His name reminded me of something; a dream or a memory. Next we had to choose a name we could use on the job. I used my favorite name; Lily Roberts. He used Justin Tyler. I’m surprised he didn’t use Tyler Justin. Then he backspaced and used Tyler Justin. Wasn’t he predictable? The next screen didn’t have anything but the word print. So I touched print and out popped my ticket and two ID’s. I heard a woman’s robotic voice say “The credit cards you are about to be given are from rich billionaires that we’ve killed. Don’t worry, neither of you will be blamed for killing anyone. That’s why you have two ID’s. If you tell the police about this, you will be killed. The name for Ally Harrington’s banking account shall be changed from Jessica Roberts to Lily Roberts. The name for Ryan Delzar’s banking account shall be changed from Conner Justin to Tyler Justin.” A credit card landed on my head. Then the voice said to go home, pack up, and return here.

“How?” I wondered aloud. “They stole my car.”

“Mine too.” He said. “I had a nice Porsche. Red. She was a beauty.”

“Do men really think of their cars as women?”

“Yes. Yes we do.” He smiled thinking it was a joke. When I didn’t smile back he realized it wasn’t he said “Oh, that wasn’t a joke?”

“No obviously it wasn’t.” he reached the door before me.

“Ladies first.” He said trying to be a gentleman, opening the door for me. I walked out into open air. It smelled like freshly watered grass and pollen. I started to rub my nose, dang allergies. There was my car and his in the otherwise empty parking lot. I got in making sure nothing was missing and nothing was. Good.