Tasìa shut the vault door, she turned towards Annebél.

"Well, that went down smoothly, right?"

Annebél let out a long-drawn breath.

"If you say so."

Tasìa rejoined her in the kitchen. She opened the last two bottles of the Canadian, Trappist-style ale.

Tasìa felt slightly irked by Annebél's response. She tried not to let it show.

"You realize, my friend, he is waist-deep in the Javierras' sewer, overfilled as it is with a river of shit running through it."

Annebél leaned her head against the bottle.

"I don't think he cared for the way you played him."

Tasìa shrugged.

"He already had something on you. That is why he showed up. He was playing up being sympatico a little too hard not to have an agenda behind it. He was reading you for contradictions.

"So, it was, in my opinion, the better strategy not to be vague, hoping it would all go away when Ferenzi left town, but instead, force him to make a choice. Steer him to the one that would suit his best interest and ours."

Annebél stood straight up.

"Tasìa, you don't know the history that Frenzy and I have. We were lovers, and I don't mean to gross you out -."

Tasìa waved her hands, open and defensive.

"I have nothing against a rotund guy like that. In fact, I am a little curious how a bitty little thing like myself would faire under something as big as that."

Annebél laughed until she was hoarse again. She gulped some beer down and cleared her throat.

"I should have known that is what your mind would insinuate, and I love you for it, but that is not what I meant by grossing you out. Frenzy was my lover before I could control my condition."

"Ohhh . . ."

Tasìa sipped at her beer as her imagination grasped at what Annebél meant. She too had many opportunities over the years to indulge under the same less than optimal conditions, but a strong phobia and even stronger stubborn pride prevented her from doing so.

Both of them milked the silence with darting glances at one another. To Tasìa's eyes, Annebél had the frail, bent over appearance of someone who had been hurt. With a twinge of guilt, it occurred to Tasìa, hurt by me.

Perhaps, she should have let Annebél keep control of the situation.

But it's so clear to me that her past association prevented her from seeing the game Ferenzi was playing for what it was. Still, the big girl thought she had a better strategy.

She looked the redhead in the eye, trying to appear as sympathetic as possible.

"Annebél, I think he knows about the girl."

"He should. I picked her up at the police station. Likely, the cops talked. That's why your explanation wasn't working its magic on him."

Tasìa heard the sound of feet shuffling behind her.

"Avellana," Agu began. "Do you know you have a really pretty neck?"

"Why, thank you, Agu."

He stood with a dreamy, at ease look on his face for several seconds before speaking again.

"Can I massage your shoulders? Your neck looks stiff. You could really use a shoulder massage," he asked.

"Go for it."

Tasìa looked to Annebél, amusedly. His touch was timid at first, but still, he leaned over her head. Like with most males, the offer of a shoulder massage was mostly an excuse to get a better view of a pair of boobs.

With the scarf and bandanna covering and supporting her girls, all he was seeing from his raised angle was a bit more cleavage than before.

The poor dear.

Tasìa returned her attention to the conversation.

"So, you didn't have to go in there in the police station on a rampage to rescue the girl? No wonder we can take our sweet time with this being on the run business."

With the last comment, Tasìa nodded her head towards the three suitcases.

Annebél answered thusly.

"The cops weren't sure what to do with her. They weren't getting any directions from anyone. Then I showed up, and I offered to pay for her bus ticket. They were all too happy to be rid of her."

Tasìa chuckled as Agu successfully attempted an old horndog maneuver. He slipped his thumbs beneath the scarf and bandanna at her shoulder blades as if to innocently enough rub the bone plates. By raising the materials upward, he loosened the support in the front.

Now he could peek down at her boobs to his heart's content.

She felt like awarding him with a cookie for the extra effort he put into it.

She looked up at the wide grin on his face. He was in his mid-twenties but would likely be locked in a juvenile mindset all of his life.

Poor, nearly sexy but for those droopy eyes, dear.

"You do that really well, Agu."

"Annebél taught me."

Tasìa raised an eyebrow to the redhead. Annebél put her hands to her chest, dismissively.

"He hasn't been curious about these since I first grew them."

"Your boobs. They scared me," Agu said, haughty. He then turned to Tasìa. "I thought they were little monsters growing inside my sister. They were weird looking when she first started growing them with clumps that didn't make any sense, not like real boobs. Nipples like antennas on a spaceship. They look really nice now, of course, but I'm still a little frightened by them.

"Your boobs, though. Should be on the sculpture of a goddess. They only give me good thoughts."

Tasìa wanted to laugh, but the utter sincerity of Agu's delivery and words made her contain herself.

"Thank you, Agu. That feels really good. Unfortunately," Tasìa said as she reached behind herself to tighten the twin bindings back in place.

Then she stood up. "I am afraid we need to get going with our plans. Annebél, I see you have already packed your bags."

"Ready to go whenever you are."

Tasìa pulled out her neoPalm and she placed it on the surface top of the kitchen island. She pulled up the index screen.

"Ferenzi saw those suitcases too," Tasìa said, cautiously.

She found the app she needed. CamOverRide. Soon after she flicked it on, a list of every camera in a quarter square mile was generated. She could expand the range, but the processing time would grow exponentially with each expansion.

As she waited for the app to cipher through the local passwords and settings, she looked up at Annebél, and Tasìa made an assessment.

She is way too fatigued to have merely sent the girl off to the bus station.

"So, you bought the girl a ticket," Tasìa asked.

"That's what I told the cops. I got in touch with an uncle of hers that lives an hour to the South of her hometown. I met him halfway, so he could take care of her for now."

Tasìa looked back over the list to see what had been greenlit. She was surprised to see that a few cameras from the office complex still functioned. She zoomed into the parking lot.

Freddie Ferenzi's Cadillac was no longer in the front lot, shared by the four buildings.

"Perhaps, he has left," Annebél suggested, peering over her shoulder.

"He saw the suitcases so he knows you are on the move. He is still out there somewhere."

Agu sat down in the seat beside her. He gently nudged his knuckles against her free hand. Tasìa accepted the offer and wrapped hers around his own.

Tasìa peered back up at Annebél.

"While we wait for the other cameras to open up," Tasìa began, "we have some time to chat. So, if you would oblige me, tell me when and where did you blow up the Alfa Romeo HybrClydis?"

As she raised her back up stiffly, Annebél grimaced, brushing her hair back.

"I didn't. When I pulled off of the highway just above a carpet joint in the town of Inzo, twenty miles due East of here, that just so happens to be owned by the Javierras, to do just that, blow up the damn car, a pair of federale copters came up the ridge on top of me. They tried to chase me down, but I shook them off when they almost crashed into one another."

Tasìa suddenly felt elated knowing that the car had not been destroyed.

Agu moved his hands onto Tasìa's lower thigh which he touched in gentle scrapes with his fingers. She realized something then. With any other man she had flirted with an attempt at intimacy, León, Jún-Jún, or Cuervo, that kind of direct, intimate action would have stirred her guts into purge mode.

But now, she simply enjoyed the caress on her thigh and the nice soft stir aroused her.

What was different? Was it because in the case of Agu she was the dominant party in the relationship?

In the back of her head, Tasìa made some plans that Annebél would certainly not entirely approve. But, the stirring she felt was something new and if Jún-Jún or León's weren't available, it would have to be explored.

"Avellana, did I lose you there?"

Tasìa grinned back as she shook her head.

"No. I was thinking about how that beautiful Alfa Romeo HybrClydis is still intact."

Annebél's eyes lowered. Uh-huh, the orbs seemed to say.

"Well, I've hidden it for now, but I still plan to blow the car up. When we get to Asunción, right there, smack in front of Don Javierras' mansion."

Tasìa gave another shake of her head in disapproval.

"Hey, it was a pinky swear. A fair trade," Annebél reminded her. "You know you love your Virago much more than you will ever love a sports car."

Tasìa shrugged as she looked down at the neoPalm. More cameras came online. She switched back and forth between them until she found what she sought from a camera located at a boat dealership sitting on a nearby property.

The Cadillac was parked on the lot behind Annebél's office suite. In a blind spot where they would not have been able to spot the car from any of the windows.

Tasìa gave a low gasp in bafflement. From Ferenzi's vantage point back there behind the buildings, how would he know when Tasìa, Annebél, and Agu made their move?

She flipped back to the first camera. The answer came clear to her. From the transients out front. One was standing so tense and rigid, she instantly pegged him for the lookout.

He had a straight line of sight to the Cadillac to throw Ferenzi's driver a signal when they came out.

"Annebél, do your windows open up?"

"Of course. What do you have in mind?"

Tasìa flipped through the cameras once more to make sure she didn't miss any details that could complicate the matter. Once satisfied, she nodded her head.

"Okay. This is what we are going to do."