Hi there!

I was editing the raw audio of Part 17 and thought y’all wouldn’t mind a surprise Monday excerpt…

More on Wednesday!

Sigrid

Louise hurried downstairs and made her way to the lobby of the presidential residence. She looked around but didn’t see Stucky anywhere. She did find Hobbs arguing with Eleanor and Woodward when she stepped into the lobby, though.

“Be reasonable. The roads should be clear by noon,” Woodward said, sounding exasperated.

“Says who?” Hobbs asked.

Eleanor answered, raising her hands in the air. “Our weather system!”

“Yeah, I don’t trust your system,” Hobbs said.

Louise stopped by his side. “Good morning.”

Eleanor’s eyes immediately focused on her. “Be sensible,” she pleaded. “We can leave once the storm has passed. You’ll still have most of the day.”

Louise shook her head. “We can’t afford to wait,” she said firmly.

Eleanor turned abruptly and walked over to the corner of the hallway. She touched the wall and a screen lit up. Louise and Hobbs exchanged a look. They hadn’t seen this before.

It was the first time Louise saw Eleanor use a terminal, she realized. She walked over out of curiosity. Hobbs followed. The technology seemed state of the art. But why on earth was it built into the wall? Why not have a portable terminal?

“This is the projected path of the storm,” Eleanor said and pointed at an animation on the screen.

The storm wasn’t big but did look like it might cause some flooding. Louise hoped she could still find a way to ask about Stucky.

“I’m not going to have this discussion again. We’re leaving. Now,” Hobbs said.

Eleanor sighed in frustration. “We don’t have a weather radar in the car. We’ll be sitting ducks if the storm changes course!”

“We can use our devices,” Louise suggested.

Eleanor shook her head. “You won’t have a signal.”

“You don’t know that,” Hobbs replied.

“Yes, we do. We jammed your signals,” Woodward reminded them.

Hobbs spun around. “Then unjam them!” he said.

“It’s not that simple,” Eleanor said as she walked over to Woodward.

“What? Did the off button get stuck?” Hobbs replied sarcastically.

Louise thought she heard the sound of nails on the marble floor in the distance. She perked up and looked at the door just in time to see Stucky race into the lobby. He had a cute, pink elephant toy in his mouth.

“What the fuck,” Hobbs said, taking two steps back. If Louise didn’t know any better, she would think he was scared.

Hobbs’s response caught Stucky’s attention too, of course, and he scrambled to turn in Hobbs’s direction with even more enthusiasm.

“Stucky! No!” Eleanor said firmly.

But Stucky didn’t listen. Louise watched it all happen in slow motion. She didn’t do anything to try to stop it because she simply couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

Have a great week 🙂