He paused again. I didn’t say anything. My explanation of my presence and of my (deplorable) condition had been feeble at best. But the next best explanation was a flying saucer.
Mr. Hunter went on, “Wife and I have never had any words with the Imperial Police. We don’t aim to. So, if you don’t mind walking a short piece down this road to the left, you’ll come to Eudora. And I’ll turn my team around and go back to our place.”
“I see. Mr. Hunter, I wish there were some way I could repay you and Mrs. Hunter.”
“You can.”
“Yes?” (Was he going to ask for money? No!)
“Someday you’ll find somebody needs a hand. So give him a hand and think of us.”
“Oh! I shall! I surely shall!”
“But don’t bother to write to us about it. People who get mail get noticed. We don’t crave to be noticed.”
“I see. But I’ll do it and think about you, not once but more than once.”
“That’s best. Bread cast upon the waters always comes back, miss. Mrs. Hunter told me to tell you that she plans to pray for you.”
My eyes watered so quickly that I could not see. “Oh! And please tell her that I will remember her in my prayers. Both of you.” (I had never prayed in my life. But I would, for the Hunters.)
“Thank y’ kindly. I will tell her. Miss. May I offer you a word of advice and not have you take it amiss?”
“I need advice.”
“You don’t plan to stop in Eudora?”
“No. I must get north.”
“So you said. Eudora’s just a police station and a few shops. Lake Village is farther away but the Greyhound APV stops there. That’s about twelve kilometers down the road to the right. If you can cover that distance between now and noon, you could catch the midday bus. But it’s a dogtrottin’ distance and a pretty hot day.”
“I can do it. I will.”
“Greyhound’ll take you to Pine Bluff, even to Little Rock. Urn. Bus costs money.”
“Mr. Hunter, you’ve been more than kind. I have my credit card with me; I can pay for the bus.” I had not come through the swim and the mud in very good shape but my credit cards, IDs, passport, and cash money had all been in that waterproof money belt Janet had given me so many light-years ago; all had come through untouched. Someday I would tell her.
“Good. Thought I’d better ask. One more thing. Folks around here mind their own business, mostly. If you just go straight aboard the Greyhound, the few nosy ones won’t have any excuse to bother you. Better so, maybe. Well, good-bye and good luck.”
I told him good-bye and got moving. I wanted to kiss him good-bye but strange women do not take liberties with such as Mr. Hunter.
I caught the noon APV and was in Little Rock at 12:52. An express capsule north was loading as I reached the tube station; I was in Saint Louis twenty-one minutes later. From a terminal booth in the tube station I called Boss’s contact code to arrange for transportation to headquarters.
A voice answered, “The call code you have used is not in service. Remain in circuit and an operator-” I slapped the disconnect and got out fast.
I stayed in the underground city several minutes, walking at random and pretending to window-shop but putting distance between me and the tube station.
I found a public terminal in a shopping mall some distance away and tried the fallback call code. When the voice reached: “The call
-where I, bold as brass, used my Imperial Bank of Saint Louiscode you have used is not-” I slapped the disconnect but the voice failed to cut off. I ducked my head, dropped to my knees, got out of that booth, cutting to the right and being conspicLous, which I hate, but possibly avoiding being photographed through the terminal, which could be disaster.
I spent minutes mixing with the crowd. When I felt reasonably sure that no one was following me, I dropped down one level, entered the city’s local tube system and went to East Saint Louis. I had one more top-emergency fallback call code, but I did not intend to use it without preparation.