Daughter of Zeus ✔

5.3

On the next few stops, still shaken by their first encounter with interstate thugs, Ada was careful to visit guarded stations.

Her fear and actions worked in tandem with Kressick's plans, and he played on her paranoia. He convinced her they should avoid staying overnight at hotels. They slept in the car, confident as the car drove itself. After a few days, he regretted his manipulations. His back was locked in the same position, and he craved a full meal, not pureed smoothies prepared and dispensed by the car.

Ada seemed to experience cabin fever as well. Ignoring her looks and grumbles became harder and harder. As the second night approached, he saw yet another digital board alongside the highway projecting holographic images of the nearest hotel. Ada looked at them longingly. Ignoring the advertisements for food and lodging was difficult, as many of them were painted onto the road itself, each word and picture laid out one at a time in a vertically ascending line, like:

Next Exit: Burgers and Rest Stop

The car was programmed by Kressick not to stop, and so didn't take many exits. When they did stop, it was to re-charge the car battery. The last stop had been a mistake, so he asked Ada to remain in the car, and for once, she listened.

He even suggested they stop at an interstate motel to rest for a night, and she agreed to that as well. Sitting and sleeping in a car did not make for a comfortable situation. Likewise, the pureed smoothies prepared by the car's interface quickly bored his palette, and Ada must have agreed, from the grimace on her face as she sipped on her latest meal.

Kressick programmed the car to self-guide and park at the nearest hotel.

The fact that she let him decide small factors of the trip did not go unnoticed.

He counted on her continued compliance.

~ * ~

Shylar Mullens chose his path, and he thought himself lucky.

Interstate motels could be as dangerous as any way station, guards or no guards. A hotel had too many rooms, too many comings and goings for a few State guards to keep under control. Fine by him. The occasional theft, rape, or murder went unnoticed on the daily. Like him, many interstate thugs were repeat customers, though the smarter ones, like him, kept to themselves for the duration of their hotel stays. The dummies were the ones to watch out for.

His work as an interstate thug may have had its uglier moments, but with his work came job security. Fear of replacement by machines (or the term that had been popularized online, obsolution), would never be an issue for him. Fear of death, now that was a downside.

The Prominents put a gun in the hand of nearly every citizen, even Tramps. Escaping a jobsite without being fired at was quite the exercise. Shylar was spry. He'd been hit by a bullet less than a barrel full of times. Once in the arm, once in the leg, and twice in the ass. He kept the two bullets the back-alley surgeon pulled from his ass to remind him how lucky his backside was.

His misled fortune enabled Shylar to feel invincible in any situation. He felt invincible whenever he started a job, he felt invincible on the run from citizens and stupid Staties, and he felt invincible as he watched a woman and man pay for their room at the front office of The Good Night's Sleep. The office interface greeted the couple, quoted their fee for the night, then dispensed their keys.

He studied them closely. There had been no exchange of funds, and yet, the office interface had dispensed their keys anyway. A complex situation required an invincible man to investigate.

~ * ~