I didn’t feel great about threatening the little guy, but he had information that I needed, and it saved time. He had been more than willing to listen once I had explained the situation to him, and gave me complete, concise answers.
He didn’t even question how I had managed to hide in his backseat for a half hour in the middle of the desert. Or why I was naked. Honestly, that would have been the first thing out of my mouth if it had happened to me, but at that point, I don’t think he was thinking about that. He was probably just grateful that I had gone out of my way to keep his family out of things.
But that didn’t stop him from protesting severely when I told him to strip to his underwear and left him on the side of the road with a water bottle and stole his car. I simply leveled my gaze at him and stared for a few moments before he complied.
God bless the cowardly.
I drove the rest of the way in silence, comfortable in my new disguise. Josh was a lot shorter than me, and it felt odd to be in such a small, skinny body. It was actually odd that it even felt odd, considering that I had been a freaking lizard a little while ago, but my mental state isn’t really all that important. Anyway, the suit fit me well, and I wouldn’t have any trouble getting into the Blackstone office. It would be a couple of hours at least before anyone happened to spot Josh on the side of the road. He’d be fine as long as he didn’t guzzle the water down in the first few minutes. The desert got hot really early, but if he had lived here long enough he’d know what to do.
At the end of the day, it really just wasn’t the guy’s fault. He had a job, and was just a paper pusher. His company didn’t do very nice things, but that wasn’t really on him.
My job wasn’t particularly nice, either. But it paid pretty well.