Despite Tessa’s Dire Warning

• once he becomes self-aware
• using taxidermy as a front to smuggle drugs
• dressed in a Goofy costume
• I’m afraid that our hunt’s over
• We all loved him

Tune in next time part 60                             Click Here for Earlier Installments

Despite Tessa’s dire warning I found my way to the jail’s exit rather quickly, and stumbled out into the sunrise with some of my fellow former inmates, including a woman dressed in a Goofy costume who had been using taxidermy as a front to smuggle drugs. But Tessa was nowhere to be seen. Either she had remained behind in the holding cell, or she was using her ninja powers of disguise again. She could be anywhere.

I didn’t know where to go. Back to the church where Jason and Uncle Jinx were hiding? To the White House to recruit help from my powerful relatives? In my indecision I lingered in an alleyway. From above me on a fire escape, voices filtered down. Familiar voices.

“We all loved him,” Tessa said, “but he’s just not the same man he once was.”

I knew she was talking about me. I strained to hear the other side of this clandestine conversation.

“Our troubles will only multiply once he becomes self-aware,” was Lyudmila’s reply.

I was very uneasy about those two being aligned in any endeavor, especially one that involved talking about me. My only chance was to find where Tessa had stashed the loot. I stayed still and quiet, listening, until a garbage truck rumbled into the alley.

The sanitation workers were on the move.

A few flakes of rust drifted down from above me, as ninja Tessa sprang from her place of camouflage. She landed on the hood of the garbage truck, brandishing her katana.

Lyudmila appeared suddenly at my side. It seemed that she’d learned a few tricks of stealth from dear old Tessa. The blade at my throat was icy. She drew me backwards out of the alley and around the corner, whispering, “I’m afraid our hunt’s over.”