“It’s Out of Harpoon Range”
unhinged their jaws the next time she saw them- with a hammer and sickle tattooed on the side of his head
- countless x-rays
- and at the same time believable
- an industry catering to “needs”
Tune in next time part 144 Click Here for Earlier Installments
“It’s out of harpoon range, you know,” I said to Aimeloxym, hoping I sounded more confident of that than I really was. The presidential zeppelin’s altitude was hard to gauge, because of the vessel’s sheer size. Who’s idea had it been to choose such an easy target as the primary means of transporting the president?
Oh yeah, it was mine. But I hadn’t really expected anyone to take it seriously!
Aimeloxym lowered her weapon. She blinked the fuzzy sweater strands loose from her metallic eyelashes. She looked my way, those glinting fang-lashes giving her snake eyes, eyes that I’m sure unhinged their jaws the next time she saw them in the mirror.
In even better news, she didn’t aim the explosive harpoon at me again. She said, “You have no idea how badly you’ve messed things up. I was trying to tell you that you were in the wrong place.”
I slapped my forehead. How had I gotten so confused? What made me think my tattoo’s message referred to the aquarium? My first thought had been of a totally different locale, not even in this city, and it had been correct. Maybe it had something to do with the red-haired woman and her mysterious jigsaw puzzle, which was now scattered and soggy, lost in the flooding when Aimeloxym blew the place up. But that didn’t make sense, because she didn’t show up until I’d already blundered to the aquarium.
“It was Freya,” Aimeloxym sighed. “She misdirected you. Her hypnosis skills have come a long way. You probably didn’t even notice the man with the hammer and sickle tattooed on the side of his head.”
“You mean that trash-Santa she was writhing around on?”
Nodding, she showed me a picture on her phone, of a young, fit mercenary with a shaved head. The soviet icon was clearly visible. “This is what he really looks like. And you should see this, too.” She swiped through the images on her phone, past countless x-rays of feet, until she reached a photo of a building and everything was crystal clear and at the same time unbelievable.
“Hey, how do you know about all of this? I only saw my tattoo for the first time today myself.”
Aimeloxym sneered. “I paid off the spa agents, of course. Such places are an industry catering to ‘needs’ of more than one kind, as you should already be aware. But now you must run, before the presidential landing party catches you. Thor is out of the loop and will only mess things up even worse.”
bonus points for using them in order