{"id":526,"date":"2014-08-05T00:00:05","date_gmt":"2014-08-05T04:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/?p=526"},"modified":"2014-08-04T20:29:19","modified_gmt":"2014-08-05T00:29:19","slug":"forty-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/?p=526","title":{"rendered":"Forty-Three"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhat the bloody hell<\/em>, Seph?\u201d Ben\u2019s gaze bounced between Sephora and Padraig wildly, like a ball kicked between two teenage futbol players. \u201cSomeone blew up the girl\u2019s house? How did no one hear about this?\u201d<\/p>\n

Their waitress swooped over with a towel to clean up the mess. Ben snatched the towel from her hand. \u201cWe\u2019ve got it,\u201d he snapped her. \u201cBring me another in five minutes and make yourself unseen until then.\u201d<\/p>\n

The girl went white and retreated. Sephora winced and reached for the towel.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t need to\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

He relinquished the towel but not his anger. \u201cWhy didn\u2019t it hit the newsnets?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWho the hell knows,\u201d Padraig growled, glaring at his own glass for a moment before he watched Ben mop up the mess of whiskey and shattered glass from the tabletop with Sephora\u2019s help. \u201cFar be it for me to say, but probably conglom suppression.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIs she still here<\/em>?\u201d Ben asked, freezing in the midst of cleaning up the mess. \u201cIs she somewhere safe?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sephora glanced at Padraig, brow arching in question. Padraig exhaled quietly, leaning back in his chair.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe left on a transport for E-557 last week.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Foundation? You must be desperate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sephora put her hand on her estranged husband\u2019s arm. \u201cThey may have finally gotten things right, Ben. They might be<\/em> our only hope\u2014the last refuge of the lost and desperate, of the ones who have nothing left to believe in.\u201d<\/p>\n

He stared at her for a long moment, expression slack and eyes bleak. \u201cYou sound like me,\u201d he said at last. \u201cThe way I sounded back at the height of the last round of electoral ridiculousness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery round of electoral ridiculousness.\u201d Her fingers tightened for a moment before she withdraw her hand. He caught it before she could pull away.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you in danger?\u201d Ben asked. He glanced toward Padraig. \u201cAre both of you in danger?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t done anything illegal<\/em> if that\u2019s what you\u2019re trying to get at,\u201d Padraig growled. \u201cMaybe not entirely above-board, but nothing shadier than what I\u2019ve seen get rubber-stamped lately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben shook his head, wrapping the towel into a ball with the broken glass trapped inside of it. \u201cThat\u2019s not what I meant. Is anyone out to…to…\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo get us?\u201d Sephora asked, one corner of her mouth curving into a wry smile. \u201cYou\u2019ve been watching too many classic 2-Ds, Ben.\u201d<\/p>\n

He laughed at that. The waitress came around and gathered the towel, leaving Ben with a fresh glass of whiskey in return. \u201cMaybe,\u201d he said, eyes bright with mirth that faded all too quickly. \u201cIn all seriousness, though, is<\/em> someone out to get you, so to speak?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDamned if I know,\u201d Sephora said. She sighed and rubbed at her eyes. Her temples throbbed dully, the pain rooted deep somewhere behind her eyes. \u201cMaybe not yet, but it\u2019s coming. Someone\u2019s going to take offense to our digging, our probing. Then the real trouble\u2019s going to get started.\u201d The comm in her pocket buzzed, vibrating against her ribs. She murmured a curse. The cadence meant the call was being routed through headquarters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong?\u201d Padraig asked as Sephora dug her comm out of the hidden pocket.<\/p>\n

\u201cCall routed through HQ,\u201d she murmured.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan\u2019t even have a drink with a friend and your estranged husband without getting buzzed, can you?\u201d Ben asked, expression souring for a moment.<\/p>\n

Sephora cast him a nasty look before she glanced at the comm\u2019s screen. The message was text-only, but she didn\u2019t need a voice to know who it had come from, even without some kind of signature attached. Her stomach dropped through the floor and halfway to the planet\u2019s heart, blood running as cold as the icemelt from the polar caps.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not possible.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou look like you\u2019ve just caught a call from a ghost,\u201d Ben said, his expression softening. He reached for her arm again, fingers squeezing gently as he wrapped his hand around her wrist.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have,\u201d Sephora whispered, swallowing hard against the sudden tightness in her throat. Freder.<\/em> She stood from the table abruptly. \u201cI have to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGo?\u201d Ben\u2019s brows shot up. \u201cGo where?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s wrong, Seph?\u201d Padraig asked, already waving to their waitress in the hopes of getting their bill that much faster.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot here,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ll have to go somewhere else.\u201d A shudder raced through her. Is there even anywhere safe to have whatever conversation I\u2019m about to have?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cName the place,\u201d Ben said, throwing a few hard credits onto the table as he rose. \u201cDid you drive?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI walked,\u201d she said, numbness spreading from her core to her extremities. The world seemed dimmer, more surreal.<\/p>\n

I just got a goddamned message from a fucking <\/em>ghost.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI drove,\u201d Ben said, gently taking her by the arm and steering her toward the front door. \u201cYou two can ride with me. Just tell me where to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe beach house,\u201d she whispered. \u201cThe beach house on the coast where we used to go on vacation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben startled. \u201cYou didn\u2019t\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t sell it,\u201d she whispered. \u201cI couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cTake us there. Now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhat the bloody hell, Seph?\u201d Ben\u2019s gaze bounced between Sephora and Padraig wildly, like a ball kicked between two teenage futbol players. \u201cSomeone blew up the girl\u2019s house? How did no one hear about this?\u201d Their waitress swooped over with … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-two-ashes-to-ashes"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p25yjF-8u","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":527,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions\/527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.embklitzke.com\/e557\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}