Page 57 of Casting Butterflies

“One, what makes you think the passengers will ever be set free? And while I haven’t been able to check due to a lack of thumbs, I would assume those that did manage to upload anything have already had it scrubbed. The Russians are quite adept at controlling what they allow their people to see on the internet.”

“Surely they can’t keep the passengers imprisoned indefinitely?”

Cedric replied with a snort.

“How are the military explaining the goblins and their giant bug god?”

“For one, no one knows about them, as they’ve cordoned off the area. And two, part of your supposed terrorist act included spilling chemicals, which necessitated medical intervention and led to casualties amongst the passengers as well as vivid hallucinations.” So even if the witnesses talked, no one would believe them.

“Damn. They’ve got an excuse for everything.” I rolled to my butt and sat up. “How bad is the artist sketch they’ve given the public to identify me?”

“Why draw when there are several actual images of you? Some taken from the scene with background details removed. Another of you lying in the hospital bed. And since you were wearing your belt bag with your driver’s license, they also know your name.”

“Just fucking great,” I grumbled. “Guess it’s a good thing the hotel clerk never saw me.”

“He didn’t, but you did drop the invisibility cloak after we escaped and we walked in the open for many blocks before we checked in.”

“What you’re saying is a woman in scrubs and barefoot would have been noticed.” I collapsed back onto the flat pillow. “Guess I won’t be doing any sightseeing.”

“Afraid not.”

“What am I supposed to do now?”

“Continue our quest.”

“How? Misha never did tell us where his people hid.”

“I had time to think about that while you slept. The spirit within you would know where it was stolen from. Perhaps if you tapped into it, it would guide you to its former home.”

“An interesting idea only how do I tap”—I did finger quotes—“the entity into coughing up coordinates.”

“You could start by asking.”

“Isn’t talking to myself one of the first signs of insanity?”

“In your case, you did technically absorb another personality.”

“Not helping,” I snorted. “Guess it’s worth a try. But let’s say it does give me a direction, how are we travelling?”

“Car.”

“You say that like it will be easy and cheap to buy one.”

“Who says we’re buying?”

“Cedric, we can’t steal someone’s wheels,” I exclaimed.

“I don’t see as we have a choice. You can’t exactly walk into a rental place. Between your lack of identification and your face being plastered on the news, you’d get ratted out in a second.”

He made sense, but still… “I don’t know how to hotwire a car.”

“Why would you when I’ll just confiscate some keys?”

“From who?”

“One of the drunks currently slumped in a bar.”

“Who won’t notice it gone likely until he sobers up and returns in the morning to drive it,” I mused aloud. Cedric’s idea had some promise. I glanced down at my towel-wrapped body. “I’m going to need clothes, too.”