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….
The girl remained silent in response, continuing to portray a thinking brick with her face, only shifting her gaze from me to mom and back.
Such a good, wary, and at the same time very curious look, like: what else will these adults pull, and how should I react?
"She is a wonder, isn't she?" I switched my attention to the elder Kinney and, not giving her time to answer, slipped outside.
In the next few minutes, the escaping family finally vacated the stolen helicopter, and I was able to get down to business.
I had chosen this spot not only because of the relatively close town and secluded hills but primarily because of the entrance to the Path of Shadows I sensed here.
Honestly, I didn't really believe that even if the authorities found a helicopter stolen in New York near the Mexican border, they would link it to the destruction of a secret bunker on the other side of that border, let alone conclude that Dr. Kinney had survived.
But I've always believed that if you're going to do something, you should do it perfectly.
So now, this conviction forced me to strain my muscles slightly, pushing the civilian chopper into the partially opened passage to the shadow paths, where nothing would remain of it in a couple of days.
I wouldn't say the machine's weight was heavy for this body, but god, did the sand giving way under my feet annoy me…
Oh, words cannot convey it! I was wearing dress shoes, and this loose grit stubbornly worked its way inside… And I couldn't just transform them back into boots because it would be too awkward to do so in front of an audience.
In short, deserts are evil! And not just because I'm a Frost Giant!
Next on the list was a stop at some hotel, although judging by the picturesque terrain around, more likely a roadside motel.
If we were lucky, maybe even a relatively decent one without extra wildlife like rats, cockroaches, and bedbugs.
It took us more than an hour and a half to get to the nearest town. Either I messed up the distance slightly, or it was my companions.
No, Laura caused no complaints, with her physiology, the very concept of "physical fatigue" was hardly familiar to the girl, and the short stride length was easily compensated by their frequency.
Sarah was another matter. The woman wasn't a fan or adept of sports to begin with, and a sedentary job in a confined space didn't improve the situation.
In short, the lady ran out of steam very quickly and slowed us down significantly.
But she wasn't ready to let a "shady stranger" carry her, and Laura could only have moved her by dragging.
But we made it, and thanks for that. Next, I made our appearance more or less decent for idle tourists and started looking for a place to spend the night.
Finding a motel took much less time than walking through the desert, and twenty minutes later we were checking into two rooms on the second floor of a long two-story building.
It was run by an elderly married couple, and the maid was a girl of about nineteen or twenty, alas, like almost everyone in this universe, not particularly cute, if not frankly plain.
The old folks were somewhat surprised that we arrived on foot; after all, their clients were usually truckers or citizens traveling by car, in rare cases, passengers of intercity buses.
The chatty old lady told me all this and much more while I filled out the guest book. My answer that our car had simply stalled about an hour's walk away caused a sorrowful lamentation and an offer to go with Frank, her husband, to tow it here.
Oh, and naturally, no one asked us for ID.
Having fought off the sweet old dear with words that I had already called a service, was very tired, and anyway there was nothing to take from the car since we had already taken everything valuable, I was finally released "to the family."
Nevertheless, after all the Strykers, Rices, Natashas, and Kimuras, I was pleasantly surprised by a simple, responsive rural elderly lady.
Even my misanthropy, which had escalated recently, subsided a little. And the dinner provided by the "hotel" in the form of some vegetable stew completely reconciled me with reality.
Miss Kinney glanced at me with considerable suspicion, but didn't seem to plan any stupidities yet, although she clearly thought about something like that from time to time.
The little innocent girl, keeping a perfect poker face, methodically and briskly "shoveled" the provided provisions "into the furnace," asking no questions and showing no preferences regarding food, although from the outside it looked like she hadn't been fed for a week.
I even felt irrationally ashamed, even though this little thing had polished off my entire cooler bag of pastries and drank a large thermos of cocoa.
Okay, not alone, Sarah helped her a little, but still! And here my conscience is gnawing at me for that one éclair I won for myself. Children are terrifying! That's what I'll tell you.
Nevertheless, having finished dinner, we dispersed to our rooms, Sarah and Laura in one, and I took the second. Not that I really needed it, but why not?
But, lounging comfortably in bed, I was able to switch completely to my illusion next to Yuriko. It was worth clarifying our location so the girl wouldn't drive past, and just to keep her company…
….
Yuriko pulled up right after breakfast.
A fancy trailer, or rather, a self-propelled monster based on a full-sized bus, drove into the motel parking lot as if a king decided to drop into a simple farmer's yard.
Looking at this steel beast with a fresh head, I thought I might have overdone it after all.
On the other hand, now we didn't need to rush anywhere and could move with comfort. And several sleeping places, a full kitchen, a toilet, and a shower cabin, coupled with a separate gasoline generator in addition to the main diesel one, provided this very comfort quite well.
Prospectively, true, a small problem could arise from such an act, since any cash purchases exceeding a certain amount in the US cause some nervousness among sellers and dealership managers, and might even attract interest from guys on the other side of the law, since large sums of cash usually come from drug sales, racketeering, and other bad things.
But that's in the future and, actually, not very likely, because my newly minted assistant departed in an "unknown direction" much faster than anyone could react.
Specifically, another phantom of mine waited for three hours at that airport for the departure of the nearest flight to Malibu after the Asian woman left.
….
Bonus Chapter on every 500 power stones;
If you want to read ahead by 20+ chapters from here you can visit my Patre-on.
[P] [A] [T] [R] [E] [O] [N]
[email protected]/Yggdrasil_Loki