© 2022, All rights reserved -- mimaster
Transformation complete, Brandi takes Christina to Vegas
*****
"Freewill", written by Neil Peart. Performed by Rush, 1979.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Sunday Evening, May 19th -- DAY 3
Maggie was still sitting at the island, staring at the computer in despair. Well, not in despair as much as she was in deep thought. Kalinda was pacing around the living area, a glass of wine on her hand as she ran through her head all the details that she knew, trying to make sense of the dilemma they were in, and how to attack it.
They both saw Alex descending the white metal staircase from his bedroom to the kitchen, his erection fast rising. He'd just made sure the kids were sound asleep, anticipating the naughty fun that awaited the rest of his evening.
That is until he saw the look in Maggie's green eyes. They flashed anything but brilliant, instead showing a resignation to their current fate. Instantly his member started to deflate, knowing that his night wasn't going to turn out like he'd hoped.
"Sorry sweetie," she sighed.
"Yeah... me too babe," he responded, surprising her with the use of a pet name. She was also disappointed that he was now worried. About Christina.
Kalinda picked up on the change of vibe in the room. "Hey, I've got this. I just need some time to figure it out."
"Kal, he's canceled the Bellagio. He's changed the rental. He's booked a plane ticket to Vegas on Wednesday night. One way. And just one person... him. What the fuck does it all mean?"
"Truthfully, I don't know. Yet. We don't have enough information to make an informed conclusion on anything, so we're not going to. We go only with what we know. That's our baseline, and we build on it."
"Well what do we really know?" Alex asked.
"Besides that this prick is always five moves ahead of us? Not much," Maggie bitched.
Kalinda was calming. "That's not true, Mag. What do I always tell you about these things?"
"Take my emotion out of it," she sighed again, her head slowly nodding. Taking a swig of her Fosters, she acknowledged, "You're right. I'd just rather be fucking right now."
"And we still can. But first we need to work the problem."
Alex shook his head quickly, actually chuckling a little in spite of the mood on the huge room. "Wait. She got that
from you?
"
"Got what?" Kalinda wondered.
"That line... from
Apollo 13
."
Maggie sighed. "I'm sure I'm not the only one that's ever seen the movie, Alex."
"Yeah, but... "
"I got it from her, sweetie. She says it all the time. You have to admit, it's wise advice."
Kalinda offered a different perspective. "Whats wiser is Gene Kranz saying not to make things worse by guessing. That's what you end up doing if you get ahead of yourself."
"Agreed," Alex said. "So what do we really know."
Kalinda grinned at him. "Well, nothing we can act on. We know he's been tracking you and Maggie. And Christina when she was here. There are GPS devices on all three vehicles in the garage. That's how he was able to coordinate meeting up with Maggie and Sarah at the shoe store."
"What the fuck?" he said under his breath.
"We know that he just made three changes to the itinerary that we've been told for the trip to Vegas. I'm still confused as to what his plan is. It's not adding up in my head."
"Wh... what changes did he make?" he asked nervously.
Maggie spoke up and said, "The first was changing the rental car. My phone went off, and the card was used. He's getting a vehicle today. Upgraded to a higher-end SUV of some kind through Enterprise."
"That's a blow," Kalinda shared. "I actually have an in with Enterprise. I was going to call him tomorrow and get him to return the favor of what this Gerard character did to you. Put a tracker on whatever vehicle he got so we could track where he takes Christina. Now, we're back to square one."
"Well, nothing we can do about it," he said philosophically. "What else?"
Maggie answered, "He canceled the Bellagio. Well, maybe not. Definitely canceled Monday and Tuesday. Put a hold on the rest of the week. And then there's the airline ticket. First, it was bad enough him renting a car on the company card. The hotel is reserved in Christina's name, but the SUV and plane ticket? Thank God I got Candice at the bank to set up that alert so we can at least stay on top of this. For fucks sake, I have no idea how we'd explain a one-way airline ticket in his name to your partners. Hell I can't explain why he's doing that anyway. A Wednesday night flight? It doesn't make any sense."
"It does if we consider he's definitely not doing this alone," Kalinda said as a hypothesis. "Didn't you just say the ticket is in his name?"
"Yeah... but like I said, so is the SUV."