Chapter 24

So I got lied to. Hero Companion could go the first time if their hero had completed a successful mission.

Talk about double talk ... If I hadn’t completed a mission successfully I wouldn’t need a companion ... Undertaker, sure. Companion? Nope.

Zo buckled down and REALLY studied that manual ... it took three weeks with a magnifying glass but she got to the going with the hero part.

“Look here,” she said, holding the magnifier over the offending paragraph. “See?”

“If you would hold still I might be able to see. Right now a bicycle going down the 174 Spanish Steps of Rome would have less vibration,” I said. “Gimmie that!”

I grabbed the handle and looked. Sure enough ... A hero’s companion is meant to accompany the hero and is not bound by the three week cooling off period.

“See,” she crowed trimphantly. “I could have gone...” she snatched book and glass out of my hand ... and sanity set in... “Oh ... but you couldn’t.”

“And you can’t go by yourself.” I said. “Gather your shit and come on.”

“Where are we going? What shit? Why are you dressed for Crossroads? What?”

“21 days is how many weeks?”

“Umh ... three?”

“How long did we have to wait?”

“Well ... what are we waiting for?” She hollered at Cyn. “We’re going now.”

“Let me connect Olaf.”

“Who is Olaf?” I said.

“Autopilot.”

“Olaf?”

“Got to name the helmsman something. Why not Olaf?”

Cyn tramped down the companionway ladder. She started in about the first step.

“Going where? JW ... we’re a hundred miles offshore ... umh? Crossroads? Time?” She looked at the wall calendar... 21 X’es. “Let me get my book.”

“We have to wait for Miss Worrywart to get dressed anyway.”

And we both looked at Zoe.

She blinked ... what ever she was holding went flying. Cyn caught the Rules for Hero Companion and I caught the magnifier. Zo was halfway to our cabin. Two hours later, I asked Cyn to check on Zo.

Cyn moseyed down the companionway.

“JW? Come here.”

People in a hurry tend to forget that while the overhead had plenty of head space, the bulkhead hatches were not so tall. I have to duck. Zo forgot.

Zo was laid out halfway between the stateroom and the hall. She had a lump to end all lumps and she was bleeding profusely. I wasn’t worried ... head wounds bleed like crazy. But she wasn’t waking up. Unconscious she looked like a puppy running in its sleep.

“What in the Hel is she doing,” Cyn asked.

“Trying to get dressed,”

“That’s so cute.”

We were three days late.