Chords, Cars, and Cons

Chapter One: Sun Sand and Heat

Chapter One:

Sun, Sand, and Heat

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Cairo, Egypt

Four Weeks Until Due Date

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"I hate Cairo," muttered Russell for what must've been the billionth time in the last two weeks.

Mandy looked up from her book and then buried her face in its pages. "Ew! Russell, they have robes for Pete's sake. Wear one!"

Russell was standing in the doorway of the bedroom, a towel around his waist. He was still dripping wet, and he did not look very happy.

"There's no hot water," he complained, retreating back to the bathroom. "There's been no hot water, and if the air-conditioning goes back out again, I will die!"

Her brother reemerged wearing a plush white robe and looking disgruntled. Any normal human being would've thought the hotel was luxurious. Russell, however, was used to marble showers, ten different types of shampoo, and lots of hot water.

"You know why we have to stay here," Mandy explained again, laying down her book.

"Yes, yes," said Russell. "Anybody looking for us will expect us to be in the nicest hotel. So we have to stay in a just nice hotel."

"There's also the fact that you hate Cairo," Mandy pointed out. "Everybody who follows you on Twitter knows you hate Cairo. So, this is the last place on the planet that Eduard Rodriguez and his little hit men will expect us to be."

"That does not change the fact that all there is in this city is sand and sun and heat," said Russell.

He was rifling through their meager suitcases. They hadn't been able to stop back at their normal residence to pick up any clothes, so they'd been stuck with the emergency supplies they always stocked on their private jet.

Russell sighed as he pulled out a black t-shirt and a pair of jean shorts. "Please tell me we're getting some more clothes soon," he said.

"Russell, we're in self-imposed exile. Please inform me how we're going to go clothes shopping," said Mandy, sighing heavily and opening her book again.

They were staying in Cairo for a few months, probably with very few excursions. Neither of them were really the tourist type, and they'd already hit the good museum twice. Also, there was the fact that Eduard Rodriguez wanted them dead.

Just then, the phone of the bedside table rang. Mandy looked at it warily, wondering who it could possibly be.

"It's probably room service, Mandy," Russell said.

Mandy nodded, thinking that she was way too paranoid, and then picked up the phone. "Yes?"

"Hello, Alyssa," said a familiar, soft voice.

Mandy's eyes widened. It was Julian. Why was he calling her? Had his father found them? They had to leave right away. She started to hang up the phone.

"I wouldn't do that," said Julian. He didn't sound angry, he just sounded sad and hurt. Mandy hated that sound. You were never supposed to reconnect with a mark.

"How did you find me?" she asked, trying to keep her voice from trembling. She didn't mention Russell in case - by some chance - they didn't know about her brother.

"Remember when you got lost in Graceland and I had to come pick you up?" asked Julian, still in that unbearably mournful voice. "I found you and told you that we could never lose each other. Even now, after everything, that is still true."