More trials and tribs ... or is that sibs?
Ever game to help out, Rini and Grace assisted dragon in moving the cord wrapped form onto the thickly padded bed of the inimitable All Purpose Cultural Cat Truck Nuku Nuku. Grace still did not understand the nickname for the vehicle, but that wasn't important. They pulled the rollover cover out so that the body in question was neither obvious, nor in much discomfort due to the desert sun.
"Uhm - dragon ..."
"Yep."
"Ian's in jail."
"Yeah."
"We're going to - drive ..."
dragon grinned at her. "Actually, through the wonders of wierd science, the brood has installed a tesserect in the dashboard of the truck. I set the coordinates thusly," which she did with a flourish.
"And we are ... not in jail, thank heavens," she pointed out with a chuckle. They were, however, standing on the golden sands of a desert lacking the stunted vegetation of the one they had been standing in.
Grace's eyebrows rose in inquiry while Rini giggled.
"Trust Mom." She leaned over and reset the coordinates, pushed the "Go Now" button and they were still not in jail. Or even near one. Rini frowned at the device. "Mom, what'd you do?"
"Nothing. I pushed the buttons to tell it the coordinates and ... that's it."
Rini sighed, pulled a much smaller version of the device from her pocket and left for a moment, essentially stranding Grace and dragon wherever they were with their captive.
"At least it's not snowing," dragon pointed out helpfully as neither she nor Grace were dressed for snow. Since the cover for the truck bed could be tented and allowed access to the massive airconditioner unit installed in the diminutive truck, they took refuge with their "gift".
"You're sure that's Meela?"
"Well ... uhm ... no."
"What do you mean 'no'?" Grace expostulated.
"Well, it looks like Meela, but that means it looks like Anck-su-namum, as well. Frankly, given the tempers of either, I don't want to find out."
The figure made a muffled, irritated noise. Who the heck were Meela and ... whatever that other name was?
Rini appeared at the end of the truckbed with the Revsam in tow. "She was going to take you to lunch," she pointed out to dragon. "But, noooooo, you've gotta be sittin' in the middle of the most forsaken part of the Gobi Desert!"
"Mongols?" dragon perked up curiously.
"Mom!" The ever multisyllabic Rini expressed her annoyance. "We have the coordinates."
Grace clapped and dragon grinned. Both clambered out of the back of the truck and went to supervise as Rini punched in the correct coordinates. Then, they were in jail, but only for the length of time it took to sneak the wrapped up present into Ian Howe's cell and stop abruptly when they discovered there was no Mr. Howe in his cell.
"Released?" dragon whispered?
At which point the sirens went off and all hell broke loose.
"Jailbreak," Rini deciphered unhelpfully.
to be continued ...