Jo's Chapter
"Hey Lupo!"
Donovan's pounding on the roof of her car nearly made Jo Lupo jump out of her skin, much less her seat.
"Relax, Lupo. You can call off the manhunt," Zane said. "The virtue of Eureka's young female population remains woefully intact."
"Where. Did you. Just come from?" asked Jo, in a voice forced into too much calmness.
"I was on a date. You know Anne, the hot new waitress at Café Diem? Turns out she's a Born-Again." Zane shook his head. "By the way, Jesus loves us."
"But how did you get out here?" Jo asked, getting out of her car. She was still visibly shaken.
"Uh, the kitchen door," shrugged Zane. Then he followed her gaze through the front window of his house and saw what was making Jo act like she had seen a ghost. His eyes widened as realization coursed through his frontal lobe.
"You thought that was me?" he exclaimed, pointing in the window. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a keychain. "It's a hologram, Lupo!" He clicked a button, and the image of Zane, casually watching TV and eating popcorn, disappeared. "You mean you didn't notice how it kept doing the same things over and over again? I only had like ten minutes at lunch to do the motion capture." He threw his head back and laughed. "Oh this is rich!"
Jo was still looking in the window, where holo-Zane had been.
"I saw your car, and I thought you were waiting to catch me coming back!" Zane could barely contain himself. "But this whole time you thought I was still in the house, because you were staking out a hologram! I fooled the head of GD security! This totally makes up for two and a half hours of non-naked Bible study with the Church Lady! I'm a believer! Amen!" Donovan nearly doubled over with laughter.
"Donovan, you're a jackass," said Jo, shaking her head in disgust. She got back into her car. Zane was still crowing about his minor victory, and had now attracted a small audience of equal parts late night dog-walkers and annoyed neighbors. She wanted no part of being Donovan's punchline.
As she pulled away from the curb, she carefully thumbed the safety back into place on her sidearm.
Jackass, she thought.