Day Seventy-Six

Day 76: 16 Oct 2010

I was packing the car today when Cassie appeared outside the hotel room.

"We going somewhere?" she asked.

"Where the hell have you been?" I was angry, and I didn't try to hide it. Some screeching definitely crept back into my voice.

"Um. . . where you told me to be. Checking in with some people, seeing if we could get a location on Travis."

She frowned. I could tell she was confused, and I was definitely heading that way myself.

"And I told you to do this?"

"Three days ago. We were standing almost exactly where we are now. You said it was worrying that Travis hadn't shown up yet. I agreed," she said. "Then I mentioned I could check in with Vince, but you said the phones probably weren't safe."

I didn't remember any of this.

"That's when you suggested we split up -- I go see Vince and a few other contacts, see what I could find out. You'd stay here. Wait to see if Travis popped up."

"I. . . shit. I don't remember that conversation at all."

The slug had done the talking. Of course. Probably while I was asleep -- that didn't worry me, as it happened all the time. And it wasn't even a bad plan, really. What really bothered me was that the slug hadn't let me know about it at all -- he'd just let me think Cassie had vanished.

Either he meant to keep me out of the loop (for what reason, I can't say), or he forgot to tell me, thanks to his growing weakness. I'm really hoping for the former, as that's at least happened before.

"So, what did you find out?"

"A lot. None of it good."

Cassie went on to tell me that the West Coast people in Las Vegas were either dead or running scared. Others had stepped in -- the Chinese, the Russians, a few more -- but they hadn't been messed with. Travis didn't seem to care about them -- just my bosses. From Las Vegas, he'd left a trail of bodies leading to the West Coast Syndicate's home city -- Los Angeles. Just as I'd sensed.

"So, looks like we go there," I said.

"Yeah," Cassie said. "Just one more thing -- he knows we're coming."

"How could he?"

"Because I told him."