An Encounter in Atlanta Part 9

Grinning, Cade asked, "Want me to find you some, uh... super glue?"

Giving him a droll look, Mandi said, "Very funny."

Pointing at a nearly-new white Crown Victoria in a line of similar cars, Cade chuckled and said, "Just like Pearl Harbor. All lined up in neat rows.

That's the one we want."

He opened the door for Mandi and handed her into the car, then got in and drove the car to the loading docks. Manuel hopped down from the dock and pulled a red plastic five-gallon gas can and some hose from behind some boxes.

A few minutes later the car's gas tank was more or less empty and Manuel had produced cleaning equipment. By eight-thirty the Crown Vic had been washed, vacuumed, waxed, and was ready for indoor use as a prop.

While Manuel put things away, Cade dampened one of the hotel towels, put it into one of the hotel's plastic trashcan-liner baggies, and set the baggie on the pa.s.senger-side floor.

He then hosed the driveway all the way to an empty parking slot and hosed out the slot itself. Moving the car to the slot, he parked it and locked it, then returned to Mandi.

Manuel looked a bit puzzled when he saw where Cade had put the car.

As he rolled up the hose, Manuel said, "Man, you lookin' for trouble parkin'

in those s.p.a.ces."

"I'll fix it with the boss. Here's thirty bucks. The extra ten is just plain ol' appreciation for the help."

With a smiling nod, Manuel took the money and said, "Hey, de nada, man. You lemme know when you got anything else you need done, y'know?"

"Will do."

Nodding again, Manuel went into the building. Cade and Mandi walked around to the front of the hotel and stood watching the never-ending crowd flow from one hotel to the other for a few minutes.

"It's only eight-thirty," said Mandi. "Is there anything going on that you particularly want to see?"

Watching a brunette in a skimpy barbarian-princess outfit go down the ramp, Cade said, "Nope. Not really. I've seen the movies and I'm not into the RPG stuff. Guess we could hit some of the dealer's room before it closes for the night."

He turned to face Mandi and said, "After all, that's where we were both headed when we met."

"So we were," said Mandi with a smile. "Good enough."

Chapter Ten

The dealer's room was jammed with people, as expected. As Mandi and Cade circulated, he looked for WiccaWorks clients and took a few moments with each to let them know he'd drop by the next day so they could restock from the products he'd brought.

Mandi found a silver pendant on a chain that appealed to her at one of the booths and bought it while Cade was talking to the booth owner. Their conversation wrapped up about the same time as Mandi's purchase.

Cade stepped over to Mandi, lifted the pendant and chain from her hands, and offered to put it on her. Lifting her hair, Mandi let him drape the chain and fasten the clasp as she looked in the booth's mirror.

Her eyes met his as he brought the two ends of the chain together and thumbed the clasp. When her eyes fell to the pendant, his didn't, nor did his hands fall away from her shoulders immediately.

"It's kind of amazing," said Cade softly. "You can haul cars into orbit, but you look and feel just like a showgirl."

One of Mandi's eyebrows went up.

"A showgirl?"

Grinning, Cade said, "That's what they call women of exemplary beauty who strut around on stages in fancy costumes. I'd have expected you'd know something like that, being from Vegas and all."

Turning to look at him, Mandi said, "Uh, huh. Smarta.s.s. You aren't from Vegas, so how the h.e.l.l do you happen know so much about showgirls?"

With a shrug, Cade said, "Been there. Got involved with a dancer for a while. A nice lady, but kind of obsessive."

Tilting her head, Mandi asked, "Obsessed about what?"

"Dancing. It's all she thought about, day and night. Well, almost all. She thought about me, too, now and then."

"Did she?"

"Oh, yeah," said Cade with a firm nod. "Every night for two weeks. Then I had to go back to Dallas." Sighing dramatically, he added, "Leaving her was kind of traumatic, y'know?"

Grinning, Mandi said, "I'm sure it was and you have my most profound sympathy, of course. Are you going to tell me that I remind you of her? Maybe that I look a bit like her?"

Trying to appear somewhat shocked, Cade said, "Of course not! She was a head taller than you and had brown hair. Not nearly as pretty, either. Great legs, though."

"Uh, huh." Mandi lifted her pendant and eyed it as she said, "You know, I've been expecting something like this to happen sooner or later."

With a snort of soft laughter, Cade said, "Sorry, but nothing's happened, ma'am. That wasn't a pa.s.s."

Looking at him somewhat sharply, Mandi asked, "If it wasn't a pa.s.s, what was it?"

"At most, a compliment. Ready to move on?"

Glancing around, Mandi said, "I guess so."

They were less than halfway down the aisle before she asked, "Are you sure it wasn't a pa.s.s?"

"Yeah, I'm sure," said Cade, reaching for a book past a tall woman in Klingon garb who was studying a figurine display.

Possibly because he'd spoken, she chose just that moment to turn and her rather ma.s.sive, plastic-armored left breast collided with the side of Cade's face with an audible 'thunk'.

Apparently a.s.suming no responsibility whatsoever for the collision, she stiffened and straightened, glaring at Cade. Mandi snickered, but otherwise kept silent.

"You wanna watch where you stick your G.o.dd.a.m.ned nose?" bellowed the Klingon woman, sounding as if she might actually be from Brooklyn.

"You wanna watch where you point those things?" returned Cade. "They're dangerous."

A large hand clapped solidly onto Cade's shoulder and clamped down.

Cade turned to see a guy a head taller than himself, also wearing Klingon gear, who said, "That's my girlfriend, dude."

"Hands off," said Cade. "She b.u.mped into me, that's all. No damage, no problem."

"I'll decide if there's a problem," said the guy, his grip on Cade's shoulder intensifying a bit.

Reaching up quickly, Cade drove his thumb into the inside of the faux-Klingon's bicep just above the elbow and snapped the area solidly back and forth. The guy hissed and yanked his arm away as if he'd been shocked.

Stepping toward the Klingon to let some people get past, Cade said, "Okay, then. You decide. Is there a problem?"

The Klingon wannabe rubbed his arm and glared at Cade as if thinking about the question.

A fortyish blonde booth attendant rapped the pommel of one of the daggers from her display on her table and said, "Don't make me call security, boys."

Pus.h.i.+ng ungently past Cade, the female Klingon went to stand by her boyfriend and tugged his undamaged arm. After another moment of glaring, he turned to accompany her.

As Cade turned to go with Mandi, the booth attendant held up the dagger in her hand and said, "Hey. I'll give you this dagger if you can teach me that trick."

Cade eyed the dagger. It had a wire-wrapped black handle, a fancy bra.s.s crossguard, and a stainless, stiletto-style, double-edged blade about seven inches long.

"Way too fancy," said Cade. "People would think I was from the French Quarter or something. How about those, instead?"

He pointed to a set of three small stamped-out stainless throwing knives.

Each knife was about five inches long and they came with a sheath that held all three at once.

She shrugged at his much less expensive choice and said, "Uh... Sure. Okay."

A few minutes later Cade left the booth with his knives as the woman practiced the move on her boyfriend's left arm. He yelped satisfactorily and she grinningly waved at Cade.

"I think I've got it!" she said.

Cade waved back as Mandi sidled up to him and took his left arm in hers, a gesture that made him look at her with a raised eyebrow as he tucked the knives into his back pocket.

"The dealer's room closes in ten minutes," she said. "That leaves two hours until showtime. Is there anything on the schedule that you particularly care about?"

"Nope. Actually, it'd be nice to get away from the crowds for a while and I left most of my dinner sitting on the bar. You got any thoughts on the matter?"

With a shake of her head, Mandi said, "Not really. This is my first time in Atlanta. I saw a couple of places in the city guidebook, but they're nowhere near downtown."

With a grinning glance, Cade said, "You can fly at warp speeds, milady. Even with heavy ol' me aboard you could zip pretty much anywhere in town in seconds."

Matching his wry grin, Mandi gave Cade's arm a squeeze and said, "Okay. True enough, but I don't feel comfortable about leaving the area. Four of the men on John's list didn't turn up today, which doesn't necessarily mean they aren't somewhere near."

Shrugging, Cade said, "Let's take a walk, then. Maybe we'll find something interesting within a couple of blocks."

They were nearing the dealer's room doors when Mandi gave his arm another squeeze and said, "You're a refres.h.i.+ng change, Ed."

"Refres.h.i.+ng, huh? Gee, lady, how'd I manage that?"

"You just are. The others on the teams act as if they either wors.h.i.+p me or they're scared s.h.i.+tless of me. I've only met two people during this operation who seem able to treat me like... well, who don't go overboard one way or the other. You're one of them. Mind if I ask you why?"

"Why I don't wors.h.i.+p you or why I'm not scared of you?"

"Yes. Both."

Stepping back and eyeing Mandi from toes to hairline, Cade said, "Well, you asked..."

He opened the door to the sidewalk for her and followed her through before he spoke again.

"Mandi, you're kind of like a fighter jet in that you're extremely powerful and you're on our side in this thing against terrorism. People should respect things like fighter jets and behave in a responsible manner around them, but they shouldn't fear them. You're also a very beautiful woman and I expect you have all the usual feelings that come with being a female human being. Your feelings deserve a level of respect and responsibility."

Some moments of walking toward the corner pa.s.sed before Mandi asked, "And..?"

"And what?"

"That's it?"

With a shrug, Cade said, "Yes'm, that's about it. I've been treating you like a beautiful woman because that's mostly what you are to me. If you need more than that -- or less than that -- you'll probably have to look elsewhere."

"Mostly?"

"Yeah, mostly. I'm not forgetting that you can speak other languages and fly, but at the moment you're just walking beside me and being good company.

Seems to me that I should respond in kind; that is, to make every effort to be good company in return. If you wanted more, you'd probably be somewhere else with someone who'd feed your ego."

With a grin, Cade added, "With the guys on the fourth floor, for instance, who'd either be waiting on you hand and foot and fawning all over you or avoiding you."

Sighing, Mandi said, "That gets old fast, you know. People either weigh and measure every word they say or they babble. There's almost no middle ground."

"The price of fame," said Cade, "However clandestine."

"Screw fame," said Mandi. "I haven't had an intelligent conversation with anyone but John since Wednesday. Well, not until you showed up, anyway. All anyone wanted to talk about was me. Same old questions, over and over."

Making a suitable sigh of pity, Cade said, "Well, I'll try not to disappoint you, milady. I won't ask where you're from, how you got here, how fast you can fly, or anything like that."

Peering sharply at him, Mandi said, "Yeah, you've managed to avoid those questions so far. Why?"

"Because I don't really need to know the answers. It's enough that you're on my arm and sharing time with me."

Continuing to regard him askance, Mandi asked, "Or is it that you already know the answers? Did John or someone else brief you about me?"

"Nope. You appeared out of nowhere today when you hopped over a car and jumped into the sky with it. A little while later I ran into you at the elevators."