He walked into a short, dusty hallway with an old coat of striped paint. His "friend" Preston stood at the door watching with a bemused expression. There was a window at one end of the hall and a door at the other. He glanced back blissfully to see if he was going to be followed. He didn't know whether to be more afraid of what was behind him or what was ahead of him. He peered through the dingy window before trying the door. He had no idea what time it was, but there was some light outside. Scanning the surroundings glumly, he was surprised to have a view of a backyard. He could see a couple of bits of litter, a poison ivy plant, and an opossum.
"Nuts, where am I?" he blurted to himself later.
"Welcome to Cell phone Lodge," the miniscule man said briskly as he waddled into the hallway. "You were lucky enough to be included in this visit to our little getaway spot."
"I don't care if your cell phones are ruined, I didn't buy any tickets to this place. You picked up the wrong guy."
"The Boss doesn't make that kind of mistake. You're perfect for the job, or you wouldn't be here."
He was quite sure he was not the right person for whatever job they had in mind. He had no interest in being caught up in anything big. Domestic dalliances, missing persons, background checks, lost statues; they held his interest sufficiently. "I'm going to take a walk," he said, bouncing toward the door. Might as well take a chance with the opossum, rather than hanging around here.
"Be back before dark," the man called out sweetly.
Once again, there was no effort to detain him as he swung through the door. He almost wished there had been. Maybe things would have made more sense, then.
Walking ingeniously toward the backyard, he tried to learn the lay of the land. The opossum looked at him timidly as he passed, but didn't see him. There were no other buildings in sight. There was a primitive road through the grass leading up to a Lamborghini that was parked in front of the building. He followed the road as it curved down and to the east. He was quite certain he was being watched. He figured no one was going to take a rifle shot at him; they could have killed him with a shoulder fired rocket earlier if that had been their plan. A lot less fuss when you do it that way.
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