Encounter in Atlanta

by Ed Howdershelt

her, he asked, "Change your mind about fish?" "I heard a shot as I entered the restaurant. I saw what happened, Ed." "If you heard a shot before you looked, you didn't see why it happened. The guy put a gun to my head. That gun." Cade moved his foot and took out one of his paper towel hankies to pick up the gun. "Who were they?" "Friends of the guy we disarmed. Look, I'm still kind of hungry and the cops will probably show up soon. Unless you want to spend the next few hours talking to them, you'll get us out of here." "Us? You're the one who was involved in the fight." "It was never a fight, and if I have to deal with the cops over that asshole, you've wasted my conversion. I'll just keep doing what I've been doing with the same people." Giving him a flat gaze, Mandi said, "Well, maybe that's for the best, if your opinion of civil authority is that low." Nodding, Cade said, "Yeah, okay. Later, Mandi," and started walking toward a phone kiosk at a nearby gas station. "Where the hell do you think you're going?" Pausing, Cade said, "If you want to know that, you can take me there or come with me." "What are you going to do with that gun?" Shoving the gun into his belt, he said, "Same answer," then started walking again. He heard her mutter something just before her arms slid under his from behind and she lifted him into the night sky. "Now tell me where the hell you were going," she said. "Okay," said Cade, shifting in her grip for some comfort under his arms. "Back to the hotel." "What about the gun?" "Turn it in. Dump it somewhere. Doesn't matter." Mandi landed them behind a nearby building and stepped in front of him to hold out her hand. "Give me the gun, Ed." Cade dropped the clip and cleared the chamber, caught the ejected round, and handed the gun to her, which she tossed on the concrete pavement. Twin beams lanced from her eyes and the gun glowed a dull red almost instantly. Flames and acrid smoke billowed out of it as the lubricants and plastics burned away, and suddenly the gun's outline glowed yellow, then almost white before it collapsed and became a bright puddle. The puddle spread itself like water on the concrete, then solidified quickly after she turned off her heat vision. "Mandi," said Cade, staring at the smoking puddle, "That was truly impressive. Will I be able to do that?" Ignoring his question, Mandi said, "Now the bullets," again holding out her hand. Thumbing the loose round into the top of the magazine, Cade dropped the mag in his jacket pocket as he said, "No point in wasting ammo. Carter uses a nine millimeter. So do some of the others." They heard sirens approaching and saw red and blue lights flashingly reflect off the sides of buildings at the end of the alleyway as two cop cars sped past the entrance. Before Cade could ask, "So, do I walk home or not?" Mandi had slung an arm around him, pulled him snugly to her, and launched upward. She remained only barely subsonic during their flight to their hotel's roof. At lesser speeds, Cade might have enjoyed being hugged to her like that, but he'd had to struggle to pull his jacket up enough to cover his head against the shrieking, blasting wind of their passage through the air. When they landed, it became obvious that the jacket had borne the brunt of that flight, having become considerably frayed -- almost shredded -- at edges that had been exposed to the wind. Quickly retrieving her purse from some hidden location near the roof door, Mandi yanked the door open and leaped down the flight of stairs to the hotel's top floor. Cade quickly put a foot in front of the closing roof door and followed her as she let herself out of the stairwell below. She was standing by the elevator doors as he exited the stairwell. As he approached her, Mandi said, "We'll talk later." Stopping beside her, Cade asked, "Why? You planning to feel differently about things later?" Glancing sharply at him, she said flatly, "No, but I want to give us both time to cool down a bit." "Ah," Cade said with an understanding nod. "Right." They waited in silence for the elevator and rode it to the fourth floor. When the doors opened, Mandi instantly strode out and headed for their room. Cade ambled out and headed the same direction, but he angled toward the ops room as Mandi used her keycard. She watched him take off his jacket, drape it over his arm, and knock on the ops room door, then saw the door open for him before she let herself into their room. As soon as she'd closed the door, Mandi adjusted her vision and hearing and watched Cade head for the coffee pot in the ops room. He asked, "Anybody here using nine millimeter ammo?" and a brunette woman with her feet propped on the writing desk raised a hand. "I am. Why?" Cade reached in his pocket for the magazine and tossed it to her as he said, "Happy birthday, Beth." She caught it and examined it, then asked, "Where'd you get this, Cade?" Shrugging, Cade said, "I haven't used nine millimeter for years. No need to hang onto it if you can use it." That seemed to be answer enough for Beth. She nodded and said, "Thanks," then dropped the magazine in her purse on the desk and asked, "Where's Mandi?" Shrugging, Cade said, "Dunno. In the room, I think." Peering at him, Beth asked, "Aren't you two getting along?" With a small sigh, Cade said, "No, not really. That's why I dropped in here for coffee." "Want to talk about it?" "No. She's tense about some things that don't mean shit to me, that's all. Remember when I wouldn't go with Connie when she switched our Perlman tickets for that Barbara Streisand thing without telling me?" "Yeah. She was max pissed at you, Cade." Parking his butt against the desk, Cade sipped his coffee and said, "Well, this is the same kind of thing and I didn't cooperate tonight, either. Is the lost and found in here?" "You lose something?" Turning up the bottom seam of his jacket, Cade said, "Nope. Just want to swap jackets. This one's gotten kind of ratty at the edges." "Try the closet, left side. Have you had dinner yet?" Shrugging, Cade said, "I could probably eat something." "Then pick a clean one. Something fairly nice, so you can take me to dinner tonight." Grinning slightly, Cade said, "You're a pushy woman, Beth." Returning his grin, Beth asked, "You gonna do it or not?" Laughing, Cade asked, "Are you kidding? You're half my age and you're beautiful. Hell, yes, I'm gonna do it. I just wanted you to know you're a pushy woman, that's all." As Cade headed for the closet, Beth lowered her feet to the floor and said, "Crap, Cade. I'm thirty-six and I'm never the woman men notice first in any room." Checking out a green windbreaker, Cade said, "That's just your own, personal, heavily biased opinion, ma'am. How many times have you caught me eyeballing your legs?" That made the only other person in the room -- Tony -- blurt a laugh and say, "He's got you there, Beth." "Oh, bull, Tony. He eyeballs every woman's legs." "So? We all do. Can't help it." He let his eyes roam her figure for a moment, then added, "But only if they're worth it, Beth, and yours are definitely worth it." "Hey!" Cade snapped in mock anger, "Watch it, dude. You guys work in the same office. You can put the make on her anytime, but tonight she's my date." Putting on the jacket and adjusting the fit, he said, "See, Beth? An unbiased second opinion, offered without the slightest hint of duress." Beth snorted and said, "Unbiased. Sure. He's a man. Like he said, 'Can't help it'." "Finish the quote," said Cade, "'Only if they're worth it'. Need to make any stops before we go?" She shook her head as she slung her purse on her shoulder and said, "No. I'm starving. I haven't eaten since breakfast." Opening the door for her, Cade asked, "So I'm just some poor, susceptible schmuck you're tapping for a meal, huh?" With a sigh and a roll of her eyes, Beth said, "Oh, Jesus. If you've got any objections, now's the time, Cade." He paused to look thoughtful for a moment, then said, "Yeah, one. No Mexican food," and pulled the door shut. Across the corridor, Mandi had watched and listened as Cade had led Beth into tacitly accepting -- or at least acknowledging -- a personal compliment. She realized that Beth was a woman who felt a need to try to be 'one of the guys' when on duty, and she understood well the kinds of barriers such women maintained against anything that might somehow dent that image. Mandi also realized that Cade hadn't been in any particular need of a dinner date. He could have simply swapped jackets and headed downstairs alone to contend with his hunger. As Beth and Cade waited for an elevator, Mandi studied Beth; her posture, her figure, her vitals. Heartbeat and respiration were up slightly. Beth was somewhat nervous, switching h
er weight from leg to leg, but that may