One Day in a Small-Town Desert, chapter 12, page 1

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PART III: NIGHT AND DAY

Chapter 12: Dreamscape



Umo Amuéné placed the automobile telephone back in its cradle between the two front seats of his beige Rènzas sedan. It was time for them to go. Gogzhuè’s police radio had picked up an accurate description of Zhíno Zhudıro in the small town of Tuhanı.

Without undue rush, Umo placed the key in the ignition and started the engine. The headlights illuminated rust-covered machinery and piles of slag rock.

In the seat beside Umo, his partner Lango Víkınémé continuously wrung his hands, his elbows flapping. The rhinestones on Lango’s jumpsuit quietly clacked together with each movement. Before Umo even put the auto into gear, Lango burst out, “What did he say? What are our orders?”

As Umo eased his luxury auto forward over the rocks and potholes of the abandoned quarry, he replied, “Get the guns. Kill Zhudıro if possible.”

Lango cackled a laugh, rubbing his hands together.

Umo doubted the opportunity for murder would present itself, at least not to his standards. He would never let all his plans and hard work be for naught, just because of this Tara-fucking punk Zhudıro.

Lango kept giggling and rubbing his hands.

Staring impassively through his sunglasses, Umo briefly glanced at his greasy partner. Lango shut up. His hands barely stopped moving, though, as they went to check his gel-frozen bouffant.

Umo’s own hair was in a similar swept-back wave, but he absolutely refused to use gel or spray. He also declined to wear rhinestones on his jumpsuit, but that was more for job-necessitated silence than a sense of dignity. If a man’s hair couldn’t hold a pose on its own, then perhaps that man shouldn’t wear that style, Pétíso damn tradition.

The dirt road finally exited the quarry and arrived at the paved highway. Umo turned right and smoothly accelerated down the road. They had at least three hours to drive till they reached Tuhanı. Hopefully the police wouldn’t find the guns and explosives before then, or else things could get a mite complicated.

Umo didn’t need complicated.

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