“Excuse me?” Ruse asked.

“Breanna’s my ex-girlfriend. We’re not on good terms, really. ‘Blake’,” he put up air quotes, “is my son.” Then the sudden realization that this meant his supposed ‘son’ was missing came over him quite visibly. “I need to find him!” He raised his arms, about to turn and run. “Sat sri akal, my friends!”

“Let me help!” Ruse quickly shouted, reaching her hands out, hoping to stop him in time. If she could keep Astra from running off after being caught stealing, she certainly could keep this man around to help her find a new place to hide. She didn’t have any other plans anyways, and she didn’t want to put the stress of providing shelter back on Kevin or Astra. “We never got properly introduced,” she said to the man as politely as she could, “I’m Ruse. Hi.”

“...Pradeep,” said the man, sounding unsure. He made his way back over to the group of three and took a peek at Kevin’s phone. The look on his face after seeing the little boy showed to the others that he was truly concerned.

“And I’m Astra,” said Astra, sticking her hand out to him. She dropped it back to her side after receiving confused glances from her audience.

“Breanna is my ex’s cousin,” Ruse said to Pradeep. “My ex is trying to find me and he’s got all this police technology available to him ‘cause he’s a cop, and he’s dangerous and we’re trying to stay away from him.” She felt as if she had already repeated this spiel enough to have it memorized, but saying it out loud again just made it feel more real and scary. She went on, trying to make the situation less about her problems and more about finding Blake. Perhaps if Pradeep thought she was more considerate of his problems, he’d be less iffy. Everything was formulating in her mind in real time as she spoke. “Honestly, I’m so glad you were the one to have found us here.” This was true. He was the next best person the universe could have provided her with, after Breanna. “You’re just the person we need. If you can help us get to Breanna, maybe I can help get you back on her good side? She might find it sweet that you helped little ol’ me.”

“Maybe she can talk some sense into your damn ex,” Kevin added.

“That too,” Ruse agreed.

“You’re not hobos?” Pradeep asked.

“She is,” Kevin said, eyeing Astra. “Me ‘n Ruse have homes and jobs.”

“No, we’re not hobos,” Ruse corrected Kevin. “Please, I know we’re strangers, but I promise we’re good people. We just don’t have any safe place to hide and we could really use your help right now. I promise we won’t be a burden. If I could just get a chance to talk to Breanna, we’ll be out of your hair. What do you say?”

Pradeep scratched his head and shifted to the side. “I’m not so comfortable with you being hunted, but…” He shifted to the other side, “on the other hand, the good karma for helping you…and I don’t start my next job for a couple days…”

Ruse held her balled fists to her chest and gave him her most convincing puppy dog face. She knew she looked a hot mess in her ever-more-wrinkled clothes from the day before, with her hair coming slightly loose and frizzy from the lack of care, and her nail polish chipping, but she hoped that her disheveled appearance would aid in her attempt to persuade some help out of him.

Pradeep scrunched his pierced nose, but said, “c’mon.” He motioned for them to follow him. “You have to all sit in the back. We’ll go to the club first. Breanna’s neighborhood is on the way, it’s the gated one over there. She thinks I forgot the code, but I haven’t.” Then with great fondness he said, “I still think of her all the time.”

Ruse and Astra followed him without hesitation. Even if they wanted to hesitate, there were city vehicles with ‘JAPANTOWN DEMOLITION’ written on them in English and kanji pulling up across the street. Men wearing proper personal protective equipment and lanyards with photo ID attached were exiting these trucks with caution tape. They could really stay no longer.

“Now, I know what you’re thinking: Pradeep, why don’t you just call her on your mobile phone?” Pradeep said in a mock-feminine voice. “Well, I don’t have a phone. I’m a ghost. This job? Already been paid for it. I don’t like people knowing where I am or who I’m with. It leads to trouble. Trouble like you have, eh?”

Kevin listened to Pradeep yammer on at the girls, but stayed in place, standing outside the courthouse doors for a moment. He then grumbled, “what is this, are we going on an actual fucking quest or something now?” And after a few seconds of no response, he gave up and followed the girls. The demolition workers were closing in, anyway.

When they were all three standing at the back of the white van, they noticed the two back doors had several locks on them, more than any sane person would have on a vehicle if they had nothing to hide, and Pradeep had already gotten started on the top lock. The key ring he was using had at least fifteen different keys dangling from it. He slowly unlocked each lock, then pressed a button on a key fob that unlocked the one the van had when it was built.

Ruse stood half-behind Astra with her two bags, somewhat regretting her decision to go with Pradeep after witnessing this suspicious behavior. The universe couldn’t just be kind to her without some sort of catch, it seemed.

“I don’t want you to be scared; I don’t hurt people who don’t deserve it,” Pradeep said, “and I’ve never hurt a woman. I’m a lady’s man, you know.”

Ruse felt as if she had heard these exact same words from Kevin at some point. And Kevin had turned out to be a slimy weirdo, literally and figuratively. There was no way Pradeep had just said those words to comfort her and Astra; he was about to reveal something terrible inside the van.

Pradeep pulled open the doors, which did indeed reveal a very interesting sight. Both the left and right walls inside had pegboards installed, decorated with an arsenal of swords, knives, and several black high tech guns. And below the window that separated the front and back of the vehicle sat a stack of what looked like banded hundred dollar bills.

“Ah, so you’re a man of the blade too,” Kevin commented. His tone had gone from reluctance to confidence upon seeing Pradeep’s collection. From behind the girls, he was eyeing an impressive sharp, shiny katana near the back of the left wall, and holding a hand to his chin. He stuck out his other hand to Pradeep. “It’s Kevin. Pleased to meet another cultured man.”

Ruse gawked in astonishment at how casually Kevin was reacting. This man had enough firepower in only a few square feet to blow the average local to smithereens, for crying out loud! And what was Kevin going on about? She knew he didn’t know anything about ‘blades’ outside of some samurai-themed anime trivia. He definitely didn’t own or use any blades to her knowledge, and she knew more about him than anyone. And on top of all that, how could be be so calm about this obviously dangerous man when he had spent the last several hours on edge about Astra, who was, to both their knowledge, harmless?!

“I’m not, really,” Pradeep replied to Kevin’s comment, giving the white boy’s outstretched arm a look of disapproval. “I was raised Sikh, but I kind of went crazy after I had amrit and was bestowed my kirpan.” No response. The group had no idea what he was talking about. He sighed. “We’re not supposed to seek after violence or money, and as you can see, I did. I was just drawn to the ways of the world… so my people rejected me. It’s why I don’t wear the turban, I’m not deserving of it. I don’t have ‘the culture’.” He reached down and dusted the loose blue carpet on the floor bed of the vehicle with his hand. “Honestly, Breanna was the first to accept me the way I am. Maybe she did because of the way I am. Even though she is independent, I think she liked my way of being different.” He smiled and stepped away from the doors so that the girls and Kevin could get in. “I think she liked me because I’m shrouded in danger. It’s a shame I haven’t seen her in so long…”

“Women, am I right?” Kevin asked, still sounding way too comfortable around this questionable stranger. “Never doing what they should, so we men never get what we deserve.” He slipped between the girls and Pradeep, scraping all three of them with his fat, and climbed into the van. He sat himself next to the pile of money and placed his banjo in his lap. “Sidequest unlocked!”

“Don’t touch the gold one,” Pradeep said sternly. There was a gold dagger in a sheath with a curled tip fastened to the peg board below the katana. “It is my kirpan. It is sacred.”

“Are you actually dangerous?” Ruse finally built up the courage to ask, even though she was still standing behind Astra.

“Only when I have to be. I do business sometimes with some pretty shady arms dealers. But these are mostly just to show off,” he was referring to his arsenal, “which is also prohibited in the faith…” He then looked back at the girls and dropped his serious tone. “I promise you, you will be fine. You have my word. And if you get really scared, you have my guns. You are right, we have just met, but we share our troubles, and we will solve this together.”

Astra looked back over her shoulder at Ruse. “I’ll make sure nothing happens to you,” she added as another layer of protection. She stepped forward and reached her hand back to Ruse. Ruse took it and the two climbed into the back of the van and sat themselves and their bags down. Pradeep closed the doors after them, took a few minutes to lock everything back up, then climbed into the driver’s seat, which caused the van to lean gently to the left for a bit, then re-center.

Once the van was started, a string of blue and purple lights on the border of each peg board lit up, causing the glossy weapons to shine. Astra’s eyes grew wide.

“Not thinking about stealing from another innocent man, hmm?”

She ignored Kevin, denying him any opportunity to further persecute her.

Pradeep pulled the sliding glass divider window behind Kevin’s head open and leaned over so he could see into the back. “Feeling alright back there?”

“Feeling great,” Ruse responded, sounding as if she felt the complete opposite of ‘great’. She scooted herself into Astra’s lap and placed her back against Astra’s chest. They were in the opposite corner from Kevin, no doubt due to the stench of sweat radiating from him in such a small, cramped space. Astra wrapped her arms around Ruse and rested her chin on Ruse’s bare shoulder. Fortunately, the girl still smelled of orange blossoms despite being unwashed for days.

“It doesn’t take long to get there, so don’t get too comfortable,” Pradeep said. Then he closed the window.

As soon as the window clacked shut, Kevin began to gush. He pushed his fringe of auburn hair away from his eyes and let it rest around his face, very much like a girl who didn’t know what to do with her hands while she rambled about her crush. “This guy is John fucking Wick!” he whispered. “Well, if John Wick was a Paki or whatever the fuck this dude is.” There it was, his inability to avoid being racist. “And he’s a chad? This dude fucks. He landed a fucking stripper and had a kid with her. Damn. Goals. And did you notice the license plate? It’s tinted, like he’s a gangster. So sugoi.” He began playing a tune on his banjo with a big dumb grin on his face. It was as if the rude awakening he had received from Pradeep twenty minutes ago never happened.

Astra let out a soft sigh of a chuckle and leaned into the crook of Ruse’s neck. She whispered, low enough to barely be heard over the rumble of the van, “you’d think he was gay if he didn’t have a freaking rager for you all the time.”

Ruse giggled in response. Her gaydar was going off, too.

* * * * *

The sun was peaking over the eastern horizon, beaming rays of warm light over the landscape. Today was gonna be the day.

Henry’s metallic slate Mustang tore through the beautiful Native territory of Sicangu, South Dakota. There were green rolling hills dotted with livestock, horses, and the occasional shed or tepee on either side of the road, but they all went unseen. Henry had even heard a thump earlier on in the trip, but he couldn’t be bothered to check what sort of poor animal had met its fate under his wheels. It didn’t matter, anyway. Nothing was going to get in his way. Nothing was more important than what laid up ahead at the end of this journey.

Amped up strongly on several cans of energy drinks, Henry was unable to focus on anything but the road ahead. The road out of South Dakota and into Nebraska. The road that led to Ruse.

Empty cans, cardboard, and plastic rings littered the floor of his vehicle, and a brand new, unopened box of Red Bull sat in the passenger seat, ready to be ripped open and inhaled.

The finished 3D-printed Glock sat on the center tray of his dashboard, looking stunning. Beside it sat a familiar brown velvet box; there was a golden ring with a real natural diamond inside. Ruse surely couldn’t reject him twice, after all. To go with the gun, he had purchased a case of rubber bullets—less of a mess to clean up after—and loaded the magazine right after it had finished printing, and a few spare bullets were scattered around the gun. He also had 3D-printed a silencer for the gun, just in case he needed to avoid unwanted civilian attention when it was in use.

Henry’s left leg bounced furiously with the jitters, his left hand held the steering wheel in a death grip, and he was sure his heart was beating irregularly. It was probably all those thoughts of Ruse, he assumed, and how pleased she would be when she was finally back in her rightful place with him. Surely, that was it. It definitely wasn’t the fact that he hadn’t waited for this little ‘vacation’ to Nebraska to be approved by his superiors and just left without warning. And it couldn’t have possibly been the thousands of milligrams of caffeine.

He turned up the music already blasting from his speakers and subwoofers. The glorious noise of mumble rap exploded into his ears and he grabbed a can of Monster Energy from the center cup holder and took a big swig to magnify the experience.

He was going to be ready no matter what.