Inventory

by Travis Perry -

Rolf and Nasir smiled at him as if they shared a secret he didn’t know. Ernsto did not, could not, let himself get annoyed by them.

Days ago he’d figured out that those two doorknobs were not the source of his problem. They were not the ones causing the blanks in his memory. They were not the cause of the angel’s terror.

Hobson was the enemy, of course. The wizard’s friendly confidence gave him away.

Ernsto strolled by the door guards and waved, letting a friendly slowness pass over his face. The guards had both been raised on Avenir…they were predisposed to think someone from “down under” was a simpleton, an ignorant rustic. He let them think that—it served his purpose.

He supposed the insight into these men had come to him from the angel. He found in himself, more and more, that he longed for the information and understanding she gave him.

He entered his cubicle of a bedroom. On his person at all times he carried the only key to a lockbox. The box contained a curved tool and a signal jammer. The signal jammer he turned on, in case there were bugs or unknown video dots in the room; he placed the tool between tight fitting wall panels and cranked to the left. A portion of the aluminum wall sagged forward.

Inside the wall he eyed over his collected inventory. He added to it his latest two acquisitions. A pair of flash-bang stun grenades found their places among homemade explosives, a plasma blaster, tranquilizer gun, projectile pistol, and three razor-sharp knives.

Ernsto sealed the panel and suppressed his emotion of triumph. Soon, old man. Soon ‘nough you’ll know exactly how I’m feelin’.