From the Pier, Tatiana Escorted Me
nothing but dark memories- many lives, or only one
- She nods flirtatiously.
- back into the family business
- My colleague won.
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From the pier, Tatiana escorted me across the black beach and into a cleft in the sheer rock face. The hidden doorway she opened revealed stairs, but not going up toward the stolen zeppelin. We descended for quite a while, my uneasiness growing. I had never met Myndilynn Mint, but I knew Mingus before he married her. We did one mission together, of which I have nothing but dark memories. What had he told his wife about the experience? Had he thought I betrayed him? It surely must have seemed that way at the time. But Myndilynn thought it was Jason being brought before her, which might work to my advantage. In the spy biz it’s good to have many lives, or only one identical twin you can impersonate to evade your enemies.
The stairs bottomed out at last in an echoey torchlit passageway. A minute later I was in an audience chamber where Myndilynn sat upon the lap of the wooden puppet of Mingus, which sat upon a throne of crystal.
“You wanted Jason brought to you immediately?” Tatiana addressed to the woman in the puppet’s lap. The answering nod reminded me of something about Myndilynn. She nods flirtatiously. It seems to be something she doesn’t realize she’s doing.
I doffed my hat with the badge that said “General” and bowed from the waist. Trying not to overwork the lisping, I said, “I assume you are trying to pull me back into the family business?”
Myndilynn nodded again, with that sly quirk of her eyebrow that always happens concurrently. But it was Mingus who spoke, his familiar baritone voice jolting me as I watched the puppet’s jaw flop around in crude synchrony with the words.
“We’ve missed your talents, Jason. I had a colleague who also rapped, but he was greedy and challenged for full control of the wedding division. My colleague won. Former colleague, of course.”
I pretended to stare at the puppet, but my concentration was on Myndilynn. Her mouth didn’t move. And how would she match his voice so exactly?
“Now that you’re back,” Mingus went on, “all will be restored.”
It had been only a blind guess that Jason was mixed up in Ventriloquist Syndicate affairs. Now to maintain my charade, I would have to keep up the bluff.
bonus points for using them in order