endearing.
"Make you a bet," he said. "If we make it as far as the yacht and shove off without trouble, then it's smooth sailing the rest of the way. A leisurely cruise. And if I'm wrong, then I owe you one."
"What are we betting here?" she asked, wary.
"Loser gives the winner backrubs for a week."
Liz barked a derisive laugh. "Some incentive. Your back's three times as wide as mine. And let's not even talk about the difference in hand size."
Hellboy looked at Abe with a stage-managed sigh. "Well, I tried bribery..."
As the ride went on, Liz tried to judge how far they'd gone. Not easy to do, with no windows to look out and the frequent start-and-stops of city traffic. They must have at least gotten far enough south to clear the main congestion of central Rome, because they seemed to be rolling more smoothly now.
Then she noticed Abe, and the way he seemed to be tensing with the realization that something was wrong, pins and needles growing under the skin. His gills suddenly fanned out and rippled.
"Abe?" she said, and now Hellboy had snapped to as well. "What is it?"
"We're going the wrong way," he said. "That last turn...we're going east."
"Yeah, so?" Hellboy said. "The streets here have to work around the Tiber. It's the most screwed-up street layout I've ever seen."
Except Abe wasn't having it, shaking his head no, no, no. "We're going the wrong way now..."
And when Abe started talking navigation, you tended to believe him. It was more than a knack, like her father's keen directional sense when childhood vacations took the family to unfamiliar towns in which he hardly ever got lost. No, with Abe it seemed to go much deeper...a fundamental part of him, maybe on some level aware of polarities and magnetic fields. Something to do with the Icthyo part of his makeup, she suspected, rather than the Sapien . Like the way salmon could abandon the ocean to return to the same river where they'd been spawned.
"We're heading away from the sea."
And that's when Hellboy and Abe's radio beepers started to go off.
Chapter 8
H e'd hardly used it at all this trip, but it was sure squawking now: standard bureau issue, a cross between a walkie-talkie and a mobile phone. Everybody carried them on investigations for occasions when they might separate on-site. Sync up on frequency and encryption code before arrival, and they'd be good to wander apart. Transmissions could be sent to an entire group or to just one agent. Hellboy's unit had spent most of the time in Rome being ignored.
He plucked it from its leather sleeve on his belt, Abe slower on the draw.
"Yeah?" he said, but even before he heard her voice, he knew it could only be Kate.
Except she wasn't coming through clearly. He didn't know how many miles they'd ridden, and could never remember the effective range of these things, but they must have been on the ragged edge of it right now. The thick steel walls of the armored car probably weren't helping, either.
"You're breaking up," he said. "Make it quick."
Choppy, frazzing into bursts of static, whatever Kate was trying to tell him was coming in as though her words were being run through a broken fan. She must've realized it, though. Sounded like she'd boiled her message down to its essence and was repeating it over and over...
Bodies, he picked out.
--guard--
--found--
--street--
Under the circumstances, that was about all anyone needed to hear. He switched the radio on standby again and stuffed it back into its sleeve.
"I think we've been hijacked and didn't even know it," he whispered, and with Liz and Abe looking at him, he touched a finger to his lips: Shhhh.
He stood, moved to the front of the compartment. Undid the lock on the sliding metal plate that, when opened, would reveal a small grilled window into the driver's cab. He gave it three jaunty taps, then slid it aside. Couldn't see much. There was the back of someone's head directly in front of the window. A beret over mouse-brown hair that looked
"Make you a bet," he said. "If we make it as far as the yacht and shove off without trouble, then it's smooth sailing the rest of the way. A leisurely cruise. And if I'm wrong, then I owe you one."
"What are we betting here?" she asked, wary.
"Loser gives the winner backrubs for a week."
Liz barked a derisive laugh. "Some incentive. Your back's three times as wide as mine. And let's not even talk about the difference in hand size."
Hellboy looked at Abe with a stage-managed sigh. "Well, I tried bribery..."
As the ride went on, Liz tried to judge how far they'd gone. Not easy to do, with no windows to look out and the frequent start-and-stops of city traffic. They must have at least gotten far enough south to clear the main congestion of central Rome, because they seemed to be rolling more smoothly now.
Then she noticed Abe, and the way he seemed to be tensing with the realization that something was wrong, pins and needles growing under the skin. His gills suddenly fanned out and rippled.
"Abe?" she said, and now Hellboy had snapped to as well. "What is it?"
"We're going the wrong way," he said. "That last turn...we're going east."
"Yeah, so?" Hellboy said. "The streets here have to work around the Tiber. It's the most screwed-up street layout I've ever seen."
Except Abe wasn't having it, shaking his head no, no, no. "We're going the wrong way now..."
And when Abe started talking navigation, you tended to believe him. It was more than a knack, like her father's keen directional sense when childhood vacations took the family to unfamiliar towns in which he hardly ever got lost. No, with Abe it seemed to go much deeper...a fundamental part of him, maybe on some level aware of polarities and magnetic fields. Something to do with the Icthyo part of his makeup, she suspected, rather than the Sapien . Like the way salmon could abandon the ocean to return to the same river where they'd been spawned.
"We're heading away from the sea."
And that's when Hellboy and Abe's radio beepers started to go off.
Chapter 8
H e'd hardly used it at all this trip, but it was sure squawking now: standard bureau issue, a cross between a walkie-talkie and a mobile phone. Everybody carried them on investigations for occasions when they might separate on-site. Sync up on frequency and encryption code before arrival, and they'd be good to wander apart. Transmissions could be sent to an entire group or to just one agent. Hellboy's unit had spent most of the time in Rome being ignored.
He plucked it from its leather sleeve on his belt, Abe slower on the draw.
"Yeah?" he said, but even before he heard her voice, he knew it could only be Kate.
Except she wasn't coming through clearly. He didn't know how many miles they'd ridden, and could never remember the effective range of these things, but they must have been on the ragged edge of it right now. The thick steel walls of the armored car probably weren't helping, either.
"You're breaking up," he said. "Make it quick."
Choppy, frazzing into bursts of static, whatever Kate was trying to tell him was coming in as though her words were being run through a broken fan. She must've realized it, though. Sounded like she'd boiled her message down to its essence and was repeating it over and over...
Bodies, he picked out.
--guard--
--found--
--street--
Under the circumstances, that was about all anyone needed to hear. He switched the radio on standby again and stuffed it back into its sleeve.
"I think we've been hijacked and didn't even know it," he whispered, and with Liz and Abe looking at him, he touched a finger to his lips: Shhhh.
He stood, moved to the front of the compartment. Undid the lock on the sliding metal plate that, when opened, would reveal a small grilled window into the driver's cab. He gave it three jaunty taps, then slid it aside. Couldn't see much. There was the back of someone's head directly in front of the window. A beret over mouse-brown hair that looked
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