This is a little snip from "Moving Targets," which should be out later this month....



It was 3:55 A.M. I didn’t know what to do. So I put the coin and the paper back in the cylinder, got in my car and drove around, trying to figure it all out.

Let me tell you, driving around at 3:55 in the morning is highly overrated. Probably. Assuming anyone bothers to rate that sort of thing, I’m sure they’ve overrated it. Highly.

I stopped at an all-night convenience store and grabbed a Pepsi and a Reese’s Snack Bar. The clerk was a tired-looking mid-30s black guy sitting on a folding chair behind the counter, reading a car magazine.

“Ain’t got no money,” he said, without looking up.

“What?”

“I said I ain’t got no money. You might wanna try the gas station over on Halsted, they might have some money.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about you ain’t gonna get nothin’ robbin’ me, that’s what. Ain’t got no money.”

“I’m not trying to rob you.”

“Who comes in at 4 o’clock in the freakin’ morning unless they wanna rob me? Besides, what you doin’ with that gun?”

“I don’t have a gun, I have a Pepsi and a snack bar.”

“Call it what you will.”

“I’m calling it what’s on the label.”

“Gun ain’t got no label. I ain’t got no money.”

I shook my head. Am I awake?

“Look, I want to buy these two items. Period. That’s all. It’s a simple business transaction. You probably do this sort of thing a thousand times a day.”

“Not on this shift I don’t. This is the robbery shift. Every other guy walks in the door thinks he’s gonna rob the place. Boss got tired of it, now we ain’t got no money here.”

“Why do you even stay open then?”

“I don’t know. Not my place to say. That’s what they call an executive decision. Only the executives ain’t never here at 4 o’clock in the freakin’ morning. They must be in bed, sleeping, dreaming about not gettin’ shot and not gettin’ robbed.”

“Is it that bad?”

“Who can say? What is ‘bad’? What is ‘good’? What is ‘lemony’? These are the big questions, the things that keep me up at night. Well, that and having to be here for eight hours.”

“Can I buy these?”

“You can do whatever you want. It’s a free country. For those of us fortunate enough not to have to be robbed and shot in a rinky-dink convenience store at 4 o’clock in the freakin’ morning.”

“OK, then, I’ll just leave the money on the counter. You can keep the change.”

“I don’t want your money. If I take your money, then I can’t tell people I ain’t got no money. Because I’ll have your money.”

“It’s like three bucks.”

“Three bucks is money. It’s three bucks worth of money.”

I pondered this for a minute.

“OK, I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do. I’ll take this three dollars and I’ll hide it somewhere in the store. Then, if you feel like looking for it, you can.”

“That’s no good, man. There will still be money in the store.”

“No, let me finish. The thing is, you have no way of knowing if I actually left the money here somewhere. Maybe I do, maybe I don’t. So the next guy who comes in, you can still say you don’t have any money because you really don’t know if I left it or not.”

He glanced up at me. “Hey, that’s good. It’s real good. I’m not lying then. Maybe he won’t shoot me. Maybe he will. Maybe you will. I don’t like the looks of that gun.”

“I told you, I don’t have a gun.”

“You can tell me a lot of things. Don’t mean you ain’t holding a gun.”

I raised both hands. “I have a Pepsi in my left hand, and a Reese’s Snack Bar in my right hand. As far as I know, neither of these is a gun. They can’t hurt you.”

“What is ‘hurt’? What is ‘damage’? What is ‘beekeeping’? Who can say?”

“There’s no way this conversation is ever going to go anywhere, is there?”

“No sir, it is not.” He turned a page in the magazine.

“OK, whatever.”

I took the three dollars, walked back to the snack aisle and stuck the bills under some little packages of Oreos. Then I walked out.

“Don’t shoot me,” the clerk called out as I left.

I got back in the car and continued to drive around aimlessly for awhile. Then I decided there was only one thing to do, and I headed for Kedzie Avenue.

i like it already

Me too...!!

Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Lex's books are amazing..

Very intriguing!

nice! captivating dialogue!! hope it does well lex!

That's good. The back and forth was spontaneous and it caught me off guard. Like real conversations, you often don't know where they'll lead.

Is this out already?

Lex- you know I have to get this next installment. Intriquing-curious...who was doing the talking? Can't remember the point of view you wrote with this one. I'll be sure to get it and add to the rest of the series as soon as it's out!!

Yeah, I probably could have set that up better!

Here's the lead-in:

Larry's dog has vanished. Just POOF and gone. Now, since this particular dog can time-travel, there could be any number of ramifications involved.

N-trac's people claim that it's probably Oton behind the disappearance -- he could have captured the dog because of her time-traveling ability. Oton wants the chassitron particle so he can go back in time and prevent humans from evolving on Earth at all.

So one night, the dog shows up at 2:55 in the morning, wakes Larry up, and drops a cylinder on his bed. Then she vanishes again. This is a clue that Oton is not involved (she seems able to travel at will).

Larry opens the cylinder and finds the Commodus coin from the story "The Coin" in "Moving Parts." Well, this coin is actually on a shelf in Frank's basement (you can see this on the "Moving Parts" cover), so how can it be the same coin? The trick is, the one Larry found in the cylinder is the same coin but from 500 years in the future. I know. Don't ask. It's not going to be fully developed until "White Rainbow."

So, at this point, Larry is really confused and thinks a late-night drive might help to clear his head. Of course, the Kedzie Avenue reference at the end means he's going to the ostensible abandoned storage facility to talk to Frank.

See how easy that was?

Not yet. I'm waiting for the proof copy. Once I give the OK, it'll be up on Amazon, etc., within a few days.