Revenant

Chapter 36

It's hard to describe how I was feeling during the drive back to my apartment. Almost like I was equal parts freaking out and strangely calm. I found myself focusing on the various turns and street signals in front of me, staying within the boundaries of the law, occasionally wondering why I wasn't steering my car towards the nearest highway and driving as far away from this city as I could.

It seemed like I was getting lots of practice sitting in my car, driving around while feeling this way.

Whenever any miniature 'fight or flight' feelings of panic hit me I'd remind myself what I'd learned from my conversation with Moss earlier - the fact that he had, indeed, been very careful when it came to the acquisition of information about myself, The Hand, and both of our various activities. I didn't outright know that The Hand hadn't learned about me, true, but the fact that both myself and Agent Moss were still breathing was a pretty good indicator they hadn't, now that I'd had a chance to think about it.

Moss knowing about what had happened in Chennai for several years and somehow living to tell the tale was yet another good indicator.

Still, I also needed to remind myself that I'd acquired most of my newest information from a guy who was actually hoping to take down someone the caliber of Dreyvass, for Christ's sake. What's more, he was gullible enough to actually believe that I was willing to help him do so. In some ways Moss seemed like a very smart guy, true, but in other ways he was quite obviously crazier than a shithouse rat. It would be best to take anything I'd learned from him with a grain of salt.

I'd been made, yes. Moss knew exactly who I was. But I'd been made by one guy... a guy who now had a vested interest in keeping my skin intact. And he knew a great deal about both the stakes involved and the precautions he needed to take in order for me to be useful to him. Despite everything, I was feeling just a tad optimistic about what I'd learned these past couple of hours.

Perhaps I wasn't a walking dead man. Not just yet. In fact, despite all evidence to the contrary, it seemed there existed the possibility that I might not even have to skip town like I'd planned. Honestly, that was the best news I'd heard all week.

Of course, given all of the rest of the news I'd received this past week, it wasn't exactly like there was a hell of a lot in the way of competition.

Before long I arrived at one of the reserved parking stalls I maintained within walking distance of my apartment. I parked, performed a quick inspection of the immediate area, got out of my car, did another more thorough inspection of my surroundings, and then proceeded to walk over to my apartment building as nonchalantly as possible. It wouldn't do to get too complacent, given everything that was still going on. GQ had probably become aware of the fact that I hadn't actually been turned into pink confetti the other night, and that my phone call to him had merely been a small practical joke to wind him up. He'd be coming for me again, probably, and I needed to make sure he wasn't successful if he did.

If Moss was actually treating the kid as some kind of pet project while he was in town, with a little encouragement he might end up taking care of that particular problem for me, perhaps save me the trouble of putting the kid down. That would certainly be handy. I hate doing freebies.

Upon arriving at my building I walked around to the bar entrance, did a careful check of the panel displaying my various security measures, disarmed a select few of them, unlocked the door and opened it wide. As I stepped into the bar I half expected to see some uninvited guest already sitting at one of my tables, or something else completely surprising, which wouldn't exactly have been out of character given my luck as of late. However, the place was entirely empty, which was something of a surprise in and of itself. No strange weirdness to have to contend with, no unexpected visitors waiting in the wings, no overdressed douchebags sitting in my usual spot, no nothing. I swear, I damn near cheered.