It's Dolly's Birthday | Previous: OK, so THIS is the happy reunion...
It's Dolly's Birthday
Chapter 21.
Dolly gets a rib-bing...
They could hear the sound of the helicopter over the water, the throbbing beat of its rotors echoing back from the hillside on the Ohio bank.
Instantly, Dolly was on high alert. She swooped on her discarded rifles and snatched one into her hands. "What the fuck is that?" she demanded.
Pete chuckled. "Relax there, killer. It's ours. Housekeeping. Got to move fast, 'cause the cops might show up any second.
Dolly relaxed at Pete's reassurance and realized that it had been less than ten minutes since she had broken free of her bonds and begun her escape. In fact, it had been maybe four hours since she'd been kidnapped at her own front door.
"You know, that was pretty fast!"
"Say," Drummond interrupted, having done the same calculation himself. "That's not your chopper, is it?"
Pete shook her head. "Nope. It's the Bodiccea team."
"My old squad?" Gabrielle's interest was piqued.
Pete nodded. "Yup. The same. They'll be glad to see you, too."
"But," Drummond protested. "How did they get here from Columbus so fast?"
"They didn't. They were about twenty minutes behind us the whole time."
"Why didn't you tell me?" He let a tiny amount of hurt creep into his voice.
"You didn't ask. Anyway, why would you think that Terry would only send one squad after Gabrielle? After all, she is The Doll."
"Urrrr," Dolly growled, doing a humorous slow burn. "I hate when you say that!"
"Speaking of Terry, I need to talk with her. Is there a cell phone around?"
"Sure. There'll be a team here with our street gear in a couple of minutes. They'll have our phones with them. We need to get out of this crap," Pete plucked at the flame orange parachute cloth of her disguise. Drummond nodded.
"Hey, that's right!" Dolly said, slapping Drummond on the chest. "What's up with the togas?" She sidled up to Drummond and slid her hand into the gap under his arm and across his back, pulling up against him. "Not that I care, mind you."
Drummond grinned at her. "It was all my plan. I figured it would be a turn-on."
"Oh, yeah, Baby. Seeing you in a Da-Glo orange toga really gets me hot in the silks. I wanna throw you down and do you right here and now."
Drummond gazed into her eyes, taking in her sarcastic smirk, and loved her for it. He just smiled and shook his head.
"What?" she demanded.
"You Da Doll," he said.
She shouted wordlessly in her outrage and smacked him again with her open hand, fighting to keep from laughing. She failed.
#
"Hey, Terry," Drummond spoke into the mike of his cell phone. He'd changed back into his jeans, red gingham shirt, and boots. Around him, the Trolls were doffing their robes and climbing into street clothes. Their weapons and the bodies of the Meqs were being hustled aboard the hovering chopper out back.
"Hey, yourself," came Terry's voice. "You get her back?"
"You know we did."
"I know nothing of the kind."
"Terr, if we hadn't, you wouldn't be talkin' to me. I'd be dead."
"Don't go all drama queen on me, Mitch."
"Terr, I'm not kidding. I know for sure I wouldn't want to live without her, but I'm not to sure I could, either."
"Whatever." Terry wasn't so much dismissing his statement as putting off her reaction to it. He envied her that ability to compartmentalize. He never could. "What did you want to talk to me about?"
"Yeah. Listen. We have a prisoner. I want to bring him back to the Center for interrogation. And I want us to be gentle with this guy."
"What! He almost..."
"He didn't, though. And I think it's time we take that into consideration. I mean, since the first Rohan clone got loose a year ago, what's been our reaction to it all? All we do is try to kill these people and stop whatever it is they're trying to do."
"They're evil, Mitch!"
"But why? Understanding can reveal a lot. It might even tell us that they aren't all that different from us."
"How can you say that?"
"I..." Drummond began, but the phone was taken from his hand. Dolly put it to her own ear.
"Terry, it's Gabrielle. Listen. I think Drummond's right. We've been beating our heads against this friggin' wall for a year now, and where has it gotten us? Constantly escalating hostilities with no end in sight. As Ayn Rand said, if reality doesn't match your expectations, then it's time to re-examine your premises. We have to reconsider our whole response to this thing."
"It's gonna be hard..."
"Don't I know that! But you gotta know it's true."
Terry sighed. "Yeah. I do. I've just been putting off facing it." She sighed again. "OK. You guys take a week off. You've got it coming anyway. Next Tuesday -- a week from today -- we'll hold a meeting of the whole action council and hammer out a plan."
"Thanks, Terr. I don't think we'll be sorry. Do you need to talk with Mitch?"
"No. Thanks. Just give him a big sloppy kiss for me."
"With pleasure," Dolly said as she thumbed the disconnect. "With pleasure." And she turned and held up her arms to the man who loved her.
THE END -- for now.
It's Dolly's Birthday | Previous: OK, so THIS is the happy reunion...