The trip home was a little more awkward tharip up. I khat Sharron had it rough before being a samurai, but I didn’t know it was bad enough to cause her to freak out at the mention of the town.

  Sharrohe first half of the trip staring out the window, while I spent that same amount of time just trying to figure out what to say. I finally mao blurt out, “Do you want to talk about it?” by the time we got to the uy e.

  She scoffed. “Do YOU want to?”

  “Look, I’m not the greatest talker. I holy sidered waiting until we got home and immediately passing you off to Jane, but I think I ha if you just want to vent or something,” I replied.

  “At least you’re ho about it,” Sharron chuckled. “I’m… not great, but ok. I just got caught off guard back there. Just the mention of that town brought back memories of ‘w’ as an i flobal Rare-earth and Industrial Mining Corp. Your only choices were to perform the most dangerous tasks avaible and possibly die, or refuse to do them and have your debt increased. The pany didn’t care if is lived or died, they owhem until the end of their lives, one way or another. I saw a lot of people die in those mines, even before falling into the antithesis tunnels.”

  “Well, you don’t have to e if you don’t want to. I made a deal with Mirage to check out the tunnels, but you stay in Calgary. Even if those tunnels are crawling, I doubt there’s anything I ’t handle.”

  “I feel bad not ing with you. Maybe I should e and face my fears,” Sharron said with a shaky smile.

  “Maybe? It sounds healthy to me, which probably means it’s a bad idea. I’d suggest talking to Jane, or maybe that frog, before you make any decisions. They’re a lot better at making smart decisions.”

  Sharron ughed. “True, very true. Maybe I’ll give it a try.”

  I rexed a little when I saw Sharron smile again. It was the first time I’d seen her genuinely distressed about something.

  When we pulled into the garage, to my surprise, it was Sharron that hopped out first. “Thanks for the talk,” she said with a small smile, “Don’t fet to inform Jahat you’re leaving or you’ll never hear the end of it.” She closed the door, then wandered over to her RV. Guess she wasn’t quite ready to talk to Ja.

  I, oher hand, headed right for the residence. I could get the bears to do most of the preparation while talking to the family, which would save me a lot of pain and effort. As I ehe main area, I found Ja the table studying a tablet, while Isabelle and Jennifer argued at the other end of the table.

  “What’s this ruckus about?” I asked, raising my voice to be heard over the pair of kids.

  “Jeni says the samurai piece ’t move zigzag, but she’s wrong!” Issi decred.

  “That’s stupid.You’re tellihat one piece attaywhere on the board, how is that fair or banced?” Jeniffer growled.

  “Samurai do anything!” Issi tered.

  “Just leave them. I tried to mediate half an ho and realized after a few mihat this has to be something they o figure out themselves,” Jane mumbled as she put dowablet. “How did your meeting go?”

  “Well… that Mirage asshole invited Sharron, promptly brought up a traumatic experience for her, then tried to get me to do a favor for him.”

  “He did what? Is Sharron okay?” Jane asked.

  “No, but I did talk with her a little, and she’s a little better now,” I replied, sitting dowo her. “She may e and talk to you ter, though.”

  “I’ll make some time for her when she does,” Jane said with a nod. “Now, about this job…”

  “Don’t worry, I didn’t let him guilt me into going,” I told her.

  “Good.”

  “I raked him over the coals first,” I said proudly.

  Jane lowered her head and rubbed her eyes with one hand. “Evelyn…”

  “Hey, antithesis and iigating problems is kinda my job now, and there wasn’t anyone else avaible,” I said defensively. “He was desperate enough to push Sharron in order to get someone up north to che things, so I made him agree to a couple things that’ll make my uy improvements go smoother iure. I’m going to leave most of my bears here to keep the peace, and Sharron will probably stick around so you’ll be perfectly safe.”

  “I’m not worried about us, you moron. You have a habit of getting distracted and going overboard without someoo keep you focused,” Jane growled.

  “I’m not THAT bad,” I said.

  "Yes, you are,” Jennifer said, without looking up from her game with Issi. “I ’t t the number of times you’ve gotten distracted while on a job.”

  “I always brought food home at the end of the day!” I replied defensively.

  “Yeah, using the most ineffit methods imaginable,” Jennifer scoffed.

  “Don’t tease Evie. She’s trying her best!” Issi cut in. Even though she meant it in the very best ossible, it still hurt a little. The only orying to defend me was a six year old, and she was using a desding phrase to do it.

  “There’ll be other samurai in the area, and I’m not going into a massive fight, just an exploratory expedition,” I told everyone. “So there’s no reason to be worried.”

  "Uh, huh,” Jane said, obviously not believing me. “And when are you leaving?”

  “In a couple hours. I just he bears to fill my truck with necessary supplies, like extra ser fences and ammo. I’m only going to be a couple hours out, so I'll pop ba occasionally if it looks like I’ll be stuck there for a while. It won’t be like Seattle.”

  “Well, at least that’s something,” Jane said with a huff. “You better call every night to talk to the kids, and since you’re leaving soon, we should at least sit down a o time.”

  “That’s fine. I do that much,” I replied.

  “Yay! Numables!” Issi cried, instantly losing i in her game, to the frustration of Jennifer.

  “I’ll call the others,” Jennifer mumbled as she summohe rest of the for a meal.

  It was a good time, ohat eoo soon. I said goodbye to all the kids and made An promise to behave before heading bato the garage.

  I wasn’t pnning on taking any of the IFVs, so I packed as many supplies and bears as possible into the truck trailer. Six squads of bears, not including my team, five dozen squirrels, stacks of ser wall emitters, and a pair of lures pulled out of the IFVs. I could holy fit a lot more, but I wao keep most of my forces here, where they were needed. If the shit hit the fan, I could always request backup.

  Just when I was about to climb into my truck, I noticed Sharron was lounging around outside her RV, so I stopped by o time.

  “Are you sure you don’t need my help?” she asked.

  "Well, Jane and the kids seem to believe that I’m uo fun by myself, but I think I hahings for a little while,” I replied with a shrug. “I’d wele your pany if you decide to e ter but, sidering your rea earlier, I’d suggest thinking about it more. Talk to Jane, and maybe sleep on it. Just don’t make any rash decisions you’ll regret.”

  She bit her lip, then nodded. “I won’t. Stay safe out there.”

  I leaned in and, to her surprise, gave her a quick hug. “You too. I hope you feel better soon.”

  “Thanks,” she squeeked out.

  With that out of the way, I jumped into the driver’s seat of my truck. My team was already situated in the back, so all I had to do was direct the vehicle towards its destination. I waved at Sharron as the truck turheled in for the trip. stop, Hinton.