Exit to nowhere

Chapter VII. No ifs or buts

"Uhu?" Erica had no idea what to make of it.

"My wife's birthday is next week, " he says cooly, " and I've got no gift for her. Yet."

With a stare of a nitwit, Erica's jaw fell open. What? . . . has that got to do with me?

To her own horror she hears herself repeat the same stupid 'Uhu' to him.

He gives her a questioning stare, before his face lit up in that well rehearsed broad smile again.

"I'm sorry, how stupid of me. I just rant on here. An explanation would be in order, " he pushes back his chair and stands up, walking over to her, " Those earrings you wear, I like them. I want my wife to have a pair just as those."

Erica blinked. Where was he heading with this? Did he want her to go out and shop for him, or what? Talk about new assigments. Would look really good on her CV. Shopping for earrings. Honestly, she was curious to hear where this was leading. Oh, then she came to think of it. These were her grandma's old earrings. If she would or could find a pair exactly the same today, it would be blind luck.

He chuckled and shook his head a little. "I can see what you are thinking here, but no. I do not want you to help me like that. You see, I know they are old. I did my research. " he said as he took a slow walk around where she stood, " I know a jeweller downtown, and he's quite skilled. He says that if I could borrow your earrings for a couple of days, he will make copies of them . . . for me, to give my wife. What do you say, Erica? Can I borrow them for a few days?

Oh, was that all? What the hell, why not.' //

Oh my God, she thought and put her hand over her mouth. Luckily for her, at that moment Soran stood facing the ocean and did not see the gesture. She steeled herself NOT to allow her fingers to wander up to her earlobes.

Oh crap! Soran was right. It was somewhere on her. In her damn earrings.

She met Caspar's eyes , afraid to even blink, and she saw that he knew she remembered. He gave her a small nod of his head to calm her, telling her with his eyes not to worry about Soran.

"It's no use, " he then said out loud, making Soran turn around to face them, "It's obvious she does not remember anything."

In two strides Soran was by their sides, glaring suspiciously at both of them.

"You think?" he scoffed, his finger itching to grab the knife by his leg. "Somehow I find that very hard to believe."

Taking a huge gulp of air, Erica forced herself to built up some courage and she shrugged her shoulders at him,"Honestly, I don't." Then she did a thing that, honest to God, made her cringe. She bit her lip and fluttered her eyelashes to look as naive as possible.

Standing next to her, Caspar had a hard time keeping a straight face. Too bad though, knowing Soran as well as he did, he knew that he would not buy it, not in a million years.

Soran stepped closer to her, invading her personal space. "You must take me for a fool . . Erica" he said her name to her surprise, "but unfortunately for you, I am not. " he started to pace again back and forth in front of her, "You can try as much as you like, but although I would like to call you one, I do not buy this dimwit version of you. Especially since you've been boasting about your exceptional brain cells every day this last week."

She couldn't help it, but that last statement from him made her jaw fall wide open. WHAT? He had the nerve to call her boastful?

"So, why don't you save us all a lot of trouble , and yourself from ledpoisoning, IF you value your life, and just tell me what  you remember," he added, resting a watchful eye on Caspar, the tone of his voice ever so annoyed and vitriolic.

Exchanging looks, both Erica and Caspar realized that Soran was close to a tipping point, no telling when he'd be about to explode. The tension bounced between all three of them, and Erica just knew she would cave any minute now. And lying was her only option.

"Oh drat, " she sighed with a roll of her eyes, "I don't know for sure, but I think that perhaps it might be in my bag or my purse or something." The lie came easier than she'd expected, and she tried to hold her gaze on Soran as steady as possible.

"Already checked those about hundred times, " he stared her down.

"Well, you were looking for a visible chip, right? Something that would hopefully just lie around and rattle in my bag, huh? My guess is as good as any, but I think that this time you have to be checking for a microchip a lot smaller than usual, and not visible, get it? "

Erica saw the color drain from Sorans face as she told him, his eyes turned black and then she heard him curse under his breath.

"This just gets better by the minute, " he growled and shot Caspar a mean glare, " Okay, this is your area of expertise Sharpe. Make shit happen!"

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