“Hmmmm . . .”

I heard the soft feminine moan and thought that I’d just been having the best dream. The dream involved flashes of clarity, passion, and hot lesbian sex. I smiled, and rolled onto my back, the feeling of extra flesh on my chest shifting and settling to either side brought me fully awake, and I realized I’d been the one to moan.

I opened my eyes and spotted long blonde hair and then looked over at the soft shape in bed next to me. ‘Oh, God, what have I done?’ I wondered. Then I realized what I’d thought was a pleasant dream had really happened.

“I’m so dead.”

Lana sighed, and readjusted, and I used her movement to cover my escape from the bed. As I stood up I realized that at some point I’d put my nightgown back on but when I moved to the door I could tell that I’d forgotten to replace my panties. My head was pounding, ‘How much did I drink last night?’ I thought as I made my way down the cold hall to the bathroom.

I pushed open the bathroom door and flicked on the lights wincing at how bright they were. I took a quick look in the mirror, blonde hair, puffy eyes, flattish face, yup, this was the hung-over Kristina face. I hiked up my nightgown and settled onto the toilet seat. It took me a second to cut loose and I thought I could almost smell the alcohol in my urine. I must have been pissing for something like a minute straight. By now patting my flat, new, parts dry was becoming a normal routine. Then I started up the shower.

I climbed in cautiously and spent several minutes with my head under the stream allowing the hot water to wash away my alcohol induced stink. Feeling a little better I grabbed the loofah added some of the body-wash and went to work scrubbing my borrowed body. Twenty minutes later I wrapped a towel around myself and headed back to the bedroom.

Lana had rolled over onto her side but was still out. I got dressed quickly opting for comfortable underwear, jeans, and a t-shirt. I tried to be as quiet as possible because the last thing I wanted, at the moment, was to wake up Lana. I had no idea what I would say to her. Had I just destroyed the relationship between Kristina and her seemingly bi-curious friend? I knew it was a relationship formed between young girls and carried forward into adulthood and I might have destroyed it. I felt ashamed, and even though I was physically clean I still felt dirty.

I went to the living room and nearly stepped onto a shard of glass on the floor. I’d used Kristina’s broom yesterday, so I got it out and swept up the glass. On the couch I spotted the lap top I’d left there. I opened it and as soon as I typed in the password I saw that I’d missed two Skype calls. Then I spotted Kristina’s phone and it was blinking at me. I went over to it and saw several missed text messages.

Kristina: James, call me! What happened at the Facility?

Kristina: I tried to Skype w you where r u?

Kristina: Called your phone/skype/text . . . I’m worried. Call me

Kristina: You better be in trouble, if not, I’m gonna kill u

I suddenly felt even guiltier, if that were possible. I’d intentionally blown off Kristina because she’d used me and left me in the dark. There was obviously a lot going on here that I didn’t understand, and I was just sitting here in her apartment, like bait. That had made me angry and I’d gone out and done something stupid. With a sigh I picked up Kristina’s phone and dialed my number. I let it ring until it went to voice mail and then hit one.

“Hey, it’s me. I was out last night with Lana, spa, dinner, dancing. Sorry I didn’t see your messages until this morning. So it looks like we’re playing phone tag, so, you’re it.” Then I hit end.

“Who were you calling?”

Lana’s voice made me jump and I turned around. She was standing just inside the living room her brown hair in a morning tussle around her face. Lana took a step forward and I could make out her semi-erect nipples through the thin fabric of the t-shirt.

“Uhm, just a friend. How are you feeling?”

Lana reached up and ran a hand through her hair and then smiled at me.

“I feel like a whole new woman!” she said, grasping her breasts with both hands as if to emphasize her point.

“Well, based on how much you drank, I was expecting you to be hung-over.”

Instead of answering me Lana went over to the vitrine and looked at her reflection in the glass, in a mix of wonder and amusement. With one hand she touched her face, with her other hand she felt her ass, causing the t-shirt to shift and giving me a view of her naked cheek. Then she froze.

“I’m not wearing any underwear.”

She turned around, and looked at me with a frown, “Why aren’t I wearing underwear?”

“Uhm . . . well . . . I, how much do your remember from last night?”

Her frown turned into a scowl and she said suspiciously, “I don’t know. What happened?”

“Err . . . well, now, we . . . both of us weren't exactly sober when we got to the club, if you recall. But then you seemed so frustrated and annoyed with Andrew . . . and when this guy you were dancing with turned out to be such a jerk, you were really eager to get hammered and . . .”

She interrupted me. “Yeah, and so what? You just let this happen? The Kristina I know would never let someone drink until they blacked out! Who knows where else I could have ended up?”

I was blushing with guilt and then I had a flash of anger. “I WAS keeping an eye on you, how do you think you made it safely to my flat? But you’re an adult, and besides you handled yourself pretty well. I was fighting my own fight, when this Elvira person just showed up and started talking my ear off in that annoying voice she has. If you hadn’t escaped the dance floor and scared her off, who knows how long I would have been stuck listening to her babbling.”

At this she froze and then when she looked at me it was with a whole different expression. Gone was the bewildered and slightly confused look, it had been replaced by a look that demanded answers. Every inch of Lana was alert.

“Elvira Chen?” She held out her hand at about shoulder level, “This tall, skinny, black hair, cute?”

I nodded, “Yeah.”

“What did she want from you? Did she ask any strange question or was there anything unusual about her?”

“No, nothing. Ah, just the same old obnoxious El. Probably had a few too many of those pink drinks and just wouldn't shut up.”

“Elvira! Damn it! You must tell me exactly what happened, James.”

When she said this her whole body posture was different. Then it suddenly dawned on me.

“Kristina?!”

At this Lana’s body nodded, “Yeah, for a little while. I don’t have the time to go into details, but I’ve learned a thing or two about astral projection. It's almost morning in Mexico, and I’d been trying to call you and skype with you all night. So I figured I’d give it a shot and see if I was good enough to work the spell on my own and check on you. I made it to my flat, and I saw that you were taking a shower but I sensed another person in the flat. I spotted Lana and there was something odd about her. Most people are surrounded by an aura of spiritual energy that keeps psychic and spiritual predators away. But Lana was lying there with no aura and I reached out to touch her, worried, and as soon as I did, I was sucked into her body.”

“Kristina?!?” The disbelief had turned to surprise.

Lana nodded, “I was worried about you and wanted to talk to you.”

“If you’re there, is Lana in my body?”

At this she shook her head, “No, she’s in here, just . . . sleeping.”

“Okay, what the hell’s going on?”

Lana moved forward stopping only a few feet from me. She tilted her head to one side studying me.

“I’ve never seen myself from this perspective before.”

With that she walked around me in a full circle. I grabbed Lana’s wrist and pulled her around to a stop and forced her to look at me.

“Kristina, what the HELL is going on? Why did I get hauled into the facility? Who is Mr. Black? Why did they ask me about Douglas Stonewall and Jason Drake?”

Kristina looked down at where I’d grabbed her. Then up at me and shook her head as if remembering why she’d originally come to spy on me.

“We don’t have much time. I think you’ve been compromised. I don’t know how, but they know that I used the crystal and that you aren’t the original Kristina. If you go back in to the facility you won’t come out again.”

I nodded, “Okay. What is the New World Research and Development Corporation?”

“They’re a front company for a criminal organization known as the Syndicate.” Then she shook her head, “Look, I don't know how long I've got with this spell. You need to get out now. Get out of the country as fast as you can. Pack light and run.”

“Alright, where should I go? Mexico?”

“No, they’ll be watching the airports now, use a ferry or a train and get to the Continent. We’ll talk tonight and coordinate a location to meet up.”

“Fine, at least with you here, you can help me pack.”

Lana started to nod and then stopped. “James, why isn’t Lana wearing any underwear?”

The question caught me by surprise. “Uhm . . . er . . . maybe she likes sleeping in the buff?” As I said it, I took a step back.

Kristina took a step toward me, “Why does Lana’s crotch feel so STICKY?” She pulled up at the collar of the wide t-shirt to examine the rest of Lana's body. “Is that a hickey?!” she asked, pointing to a dark red spot just above Lana's right breast.

I felt my face turn bright red, “Well . . . we both had a lot to drink last night . . . and we were in bed together, and . . .” I held up my hands in a helpless shrug.

“Are you telling me you had sex with my best friend when she was too drunk to say no?”

“Not at all! She started it!” I protested. “Perhaps you've never noticed, but she's into you, and probably the alcohol brought it out, ok?!” I said, defensively and folded my arms. Once again I forgot I had breasts and squished the girls.

Kristina stopped mid-tirade. “Earlier, you said something about Elvira Chen. Did she bring you or Lana a drink?” At my slight nod she continued, “And you drank it!” The accusation left me feeling confused so it took a second for what she’d said to penetrate my befuddled brain.

“What? Yeah, she wouldn't let me go before we had a drink . . . But I didn’t want it so I gave it to Lana. Why?”

Now Kristina shook her head, Lana’s heavy dark hair swished from side to side. “I think I understand.”

“Well, could you explain it to me?”

Lana looked at me and I could tell she was worried, “Unlike everything you’ve been taught, magic is real.”

That simple statement, uttered so factually, took me by surprise. It shouldn’t have, since I’d been swapped into a female body by magic, but it was the calm, factual, way she said it, that caught me off guard.

“Elvira must have slipped you some kind of psychic potion designed to break down your mental and spiritual barriers. I don’t know what she had planned, maybe just a quiet conversation to find out what you know.” She shrugged, “Or maybe she planned to hit you with some kind of psychic attack while you slept . . . I just don’t know.” Then Kristina paused, “That makes sense, I shouldn’t be able to possess Lana with this spell but there was nothing stopping me from taking her body.” Then she refocused on me. “That would also explain why she was willing to sleep with you, since normally she’d never have done anything like that.” Kristina glared at me, “Did you try to encourage her?”

My mind was racing, replaying the event from last night. “Actually, now that you mention it . . . she touched me by accident, and by now I’ve figured out the two of you like to banter back and forth. So I made a joke, I think I said something like, 'That’s alright, I know you want me.’ And before I knew it, we were kissing and...” Not wanting to give more details, I decided to change the subject. “But this Elvira chick, Lana seemed to know her.”

Kristina looked at me, “Yes, we all went to the University together. Elvira is a year older than me and helped me get my job at the Corporation. She was transferred six months ago to Scotland. After a couple of months she just stopped talking to us.” A strange look flashed over Lana’s face as Kristina reflected, “I had to go up to Glasgow to visit my maternal grandmother and I figured I’d drop in to surprise El. I went over to her flat and when she answered the door she had no idea who I was.” At this Kristina gave me a strange look.

“You mean?”

“Yes, it was Elvira’s body, but El wasn’t home. Of course I didn’t know what was going on at that time. But that was the event that caused me to start digging into the Corporation’s hidden records.” Abruptly, Lana looked at the clock on the wall. “Shit! I’ve probably got a half an hour, tops.” Then before I could say anything she rushed ahead, “Lana doesn’t know anything about magic. She doesn’t work for the Corporation and it would be best if we kept her in the dark.”

With that she rushed back to the bedroom and it hit me. The reason why Elvira looked so familiar was because I’d seen her before in a grainy security video. I followed a little more slowly and got there in time to see Kristina toss the t-shirt to one side and start climbing into Lana’s clothes. Without stopping to look at me she said, “Ring me up a taxi. It would be best if I got Lana back to her flat and into bed before I release her. That way when she wakes up, if we’re lucky, she won’t remember last night. And if she does she’ll think it was just a dream.”

I returned to the living room to grab my phone and placed the call. By the time I got done I caught Kristina going into the bathroom.

“A cab will be here in five minutes.”

“Brilliant.”

A couple of minutes later Kristina opened the door, still looking like a mess. I’d thought that she’d at least brush her hair and teeth but she seemed focused on getting out as fast as possible. I followed Kristina to the door and she paused and turned to face me.

“Remember, you need to run, get out of here as fast as you can. I’ll call you when I wake up.”

“Fine. But when you call I’ll want more answers.”

“Sure,” and then she slapped me. It wasn’t a hard slap, more like a little sting, but I was caught totally by surprise. “What was that for?

“What do you think? Sleeping with my best friend!” Then she was out the door.

I shook my head feeling a little relieved, it wasn’t like I’d given her a date rape drug, and we’d both been drunk, but I still felt like I got off easy.

Kristina had said to travel light and I knew that was sound advice. I went to her closet intending to grab clothes to stuff into her duffel bag and then I saw the backpack. It was light blue and girlie, but it was a backpack, which meant if I was running I’d be able to carry it and have my hands free.

I started to dump everything I could think of into it absently noticing some tubular rubber thing in the bottom. A few changes of underwear, jeans, tights, t-shirts, and then on a whim a dress and matching set of heels. I went to her junk drawers and rummaged through them just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. Satisfied, I rushed into the bathroom and went through Kristina’s cabinets as quickly as I could dumping everything I thought I might need into the pack. Then I returned to the living room.

I did a quick search on line and found that the Eurostar would get me from central London to Brussels in about two hours. If I hurried I could make the one p.m. departure. I briefly considered getting Kristina’s car and leaving it at the station but then decided not to. If anyone were trying to track me, leaving it by the club might throw them off a little. Kristina’s laptop went into a soft leather laptop case and I did a quick inventory of Kristina’s purse and I was ready to go.

Suddenly I heard a loud pounding coming from the front door. For a second everything sort of clicked into place. That wasn’t Kristina or Lana, no way was she back here already. Kristina had said that I was in danger and I needed to run. I felt sure that the danger was now on my doorstep. My training kicked it.

I killed the lights in the apartment and made sure the curtains were pulled tight. By the time I got to the front door the apartment was almost completely dark. Even though my body was moving at a slow deliberate pace I felt like my mind was racing along at warp speed. It was light outside so a dark apartment offered a little advantage and I knew I needed every advantage. I stopped at the closet by the front door where I’d found the broom I’d used earlier today and pulled it out. I continued to the front door to peek out the spy hole while my hands worked to unscrew the broom head. When I looked through the spy hole I saw a pair of men in suits.

“Can I help you?” I shouted through the door tossing the broom head to one side.

“This is the police, open up, we have a warrant.”

“Hold your badge up, so I can see it.”

“Are you refusing to comply?”

“No, I’m asking for proof that you’re cops. Give me your station’s number and I’ll call to verify your identity.”

“Open the door now or we’ll force it open.” As he said this I saw him pull out a small black square package and move toward the door.

I opened Kristina’s bedroom door and stepped inside putting my back to the wall next to the door and held my broom stick tightly to my chest. The nice thing about a broom stick is that it’s almost the exact size of a Japanese Jo and I’d spent thousands of hours training with the Jo staff. I opened my mouth to allow the coming pressure wave to move through my sinus cavity without blowing out my eardrums. ‘One, one-thousand, Two, one-thousand, Three, one-thousand.’

The explosion came a tenth of a second later than I’d been expecting. It wasn’t very loud, as breaching charges go, but in the confined space of the apartment, even prepared, it left my ears ringing. I let the first guy move by and timed my Ski-strike to take the second guy in the ear as he moved past the bedroom. I wasn’t very strong, and didn’t have a lot of weight to put behind the thrust, but I used my legs to drive a twisting motion through my hips, up my lats, through my shoulders, and down my arms. I struck with all the force my one hundred and thirty five pound body could generate and put it right behind the end of the broom handle.

The broom handle was a circle about a half an inch in diameter. Accounting for the energy my muscles added to the weight of my body, all of it behind the thrust, I figured I’d generated about a hundred and fifty to two hundred pounds of force per square inch or three to four hundred pounds per half inch. All of that energy was concentrated on a surprise strike that connected with a crunching noise against the man’s temple.

He dropped bonelessly to the floor, his body going into convulsions. I glanced to the right and confirmed that there wasn’t anyone else outside the apartment, then moved toward the living room. I didn’t hurry, instead I focused on being smooth and aware. I carried my Jo in the high ready position and got to the living room just as the first goon turned around to look for his partner. I was shocked to see he was carrying a gun! I didn’t give him a chance to react. I had the light from the hallway behind me and the guy hesitated. I brought my improvised Jo down in a Shomenuchi strike to his wrist.

The crack of his wrist breaking was louder than the sound of the gun falling to the floor. I used my forward momentum to take a forward slide step and then moved smoothly to one side while I brought my weapon up and spun it around my head. Then I brought it down at an angle against the side of his head, in a classic Yokomenuchi strike. As I moved I could hear the whistling snap of the round wooden staff cutting through the air before it connected with his head.

The second thug dropped to the floor. For a second I stood there, utterly still. Nothing moved. It was a moment of perfect silence, a moment of ultimate beauty. Then reality returned.

“Son-of-a-Bitch!”

I knew I had to move quickly so I hurriedly collected my backpack, purse, and laptop case. I sat them by the door and then closed it as much as I could before turning the lights back on. The door was ruined and wouldn’t stay closed, but for now it would do.

I knelt to check the pulse of the guy in Kristina’s hallway. He wasn’t breathing and there was no pulse. The large purple bruise above his ear and the blood trickling from his nose and ear told me I’d probably crushed his skull and caused a massive brain hemorrhage. I returned to the living room and checked the guy there. He was breathing, probably had a concussion and certainly he had a broken wrist.

I went into the kitchen. It took a few seconds but I found some duct tape under the sink along with a few tools Kristina kept in the apartment. I returned to the unconscious thug. I rolled him onto his back and taped his arms together starting at the elbows all the way to the wrists. Then I wrapped a strip around his mouth encircling his whole head a couple of times. I checked to make sure he could breathe and then I gave his eyes the same treatment. Unable to see or talk he should feel pretty helpless. Lastly, I tapped his legs together. ‘That ought to hold him for a little while.’ I thought. Hopefully, he didn’t have back up waiting on the street. But then if these guys were from the company where Kristina worked they’d struck me as semi-trained amateurs. A real team would never have passed the bedroom. An unknown threat at your back was really stupid. I looked at my watch, exactly five minutes since the charge had destroyed Kristina’s door.

“Okay you’ve got two minutes Jimmy-boy, make’em count.”

With that I searched the guy who’d come through the door first. His credentials said, Sgt Thomas Murphy, NWRDC – Security. They were from the corporation.

“Time to go.”

I returned to the hallway, picked up my gear and headed carefully down to the street. I didn’t feel like messing with public transportation at this point so I pulled out my phone and called a taxi service. I gave them a corner three blocks from the apartment and then hung up. As I hurried along I started to realize that the backpack stuffed with everything I could think of along with my laptop and purse was a lot of weight.

“Damn, girl-body!” I cursed and stuck to my steady pace.

I hadn’t had time to worry about fixing myself up for the trip, I’d skipped makeup, and decided to use my time waiting for the taxi to pull my hair back. I dug into the backpack, ‘Why is it that whenever you want something it’s all the way at the bottom?’ I wondered. Then I spotted the rubber object that had been in the bottom of the backpack. I started to pull it out curious about the soft rubber and the round tubular shape of the object. I had it about half way out of the backpack before the size, shape, and texture registered. I looked down and it took me a half a second to understand what I was seeing. Then I dropped it as if my hand was on fire.

“Shit!” I said, softly, looking around as my face heating up with embarrassment.

‘Why the hell does Kristina have a purple dildo in the bottom of her backpack?’ I thought. Once I was sure no one had seen my accidental discovery I dug back in and found a hair tie. It only took a few seconds to get my hair pulled back into a ponytail, and I tried not to think about what happened in the flat. If I was lucky I’d fit in with the Euro backpacking crowd. Kristina was young enough to pull it off.

I had to wait almost ten minutes for the taxi to get to my corner and spent the whole time listening for the wail of sirens. I breathed a sigh of relief when the cab pulled up and I climbed in without hearing anything abnormal. I asked the driver to take me to the central London Eurostar station and then leaned back and tried to relax. One of the more useful things I’d learned in the military was how to compartmentalize things and how to relax on demand. I used that skill now taking the events of the last hour and sealing them off to be examined later while I closed my eyes and focused on breathing deeply. I started with my toes, wiggle, and relax. Lower legs, clench relax, upper legs, clench, relax I slowly worked my way up my body forcing my heart rate and blood pressure into a normal range.

By the time I arrived at the train station I felt like nothing odd had happened. I paid the cabbie and frowned when I realized that I was going through Kristina’s cash at a pretty high rate. I just hoped that Kristina’s credit cards weren’t maxed out or this was going to be a very short run. Then I realized that I needed to be careful using plastic. If the corporation was as savvy with technology as they were with magic, tracing my movements via my credit card purchases would be very easy.

I didn’t worry about security until I dropped my pack, purse, and laptop onto the belt that would take it through the scanner and it hit me. Would they see the toy hidden inside? I felt my face flush, but there really wasn’t anything I could do about it now. ‘Why the fuck, didn’t I toss that into a trash can?’ I wondered.

I went through the metal detector and moved over to collect my items. There was a tall man in uniform who handed me my backpack.

“Does this belong to you, ma’am?” The smirk on his face made me realize it was possible to blush from your hair to your toes.

“Uhm . . . well . . . yes.”

“Enjoy, your holiday.”

I took the pack from him and collected my purse and laptop case. ‘The prick, he just assumes that because I’ve got a sex toy in my pack I’m on holiday!’ I thought, furiously. I moved away from the security check point before I realized that maybe distracting the agent as I went through security wasn’t such a bad thing.

I settled into my seat just a bit before the train accelerated away from the station. Kristina’s visit, possession of Lana, and revelations had left me feeling even more off balance than the body swap. Then the attack from the Corp, that was unexpected, but it explained Kristina’s fear and the reason why she’d acted the way she did when she couldn’t get in touch with me. I sat there trying to puzzle my way through what I knew and what I’d observed and there were still more questions than answers.

Being tracked was going to be a problem. I pulled out my phone and removed the battery before returning it to my purse. Then I got out my laptop and did the same thing. Now, at least no one could track me until I allowed it. I felt a little safer and closed my eyes. How did I get myself into all of this? My days of doing this kind of shit were supposed to be over. The movement of the train sort of lulled me, making me feel drowsy, and before I knew it I was out.

Normally, I sleep deeply and wake up refreshed unable to recall anything I dreamed. Now, I tossed and turned fitfully my dreams filled with color and light and me running from some unidentifiable threat. I woke up several times and then went back to sleep for most of the two hour trip. Then I awoke with a start when we pulled into the station in Brussels. For a long second I couldn’t figure out who I was, or where I was.

Then a lose strand of blonde hair fell into my eyes and it all came rushing back. Obviously, the Syndicate was behind the attack, what would they tell the police? Or would they clean it up themselves? Then I thought about Kristina possessing Lana, and the mind blowing sex I’d had with Lana last night. That thought left me more than a little confused.

Everyone else, in the train, was up and moving, but I wasn’t in a hurry. I spent a minute just watching the people around me. ‘People are people,’ I decided as I watched them hurry to get off the train. At last, I stood up and reached up to pull down my backpack and settled the weight on my shoulders. ‘God, this feels heavy,’ I thought, as I pulled it from the overhead storage. Yet, another, reminder that I was now much weaker, physically, than before. I slung my purse over my shoulder and picked up my laptop case by the handle and exited the train. Once on the platform I wasn’t in a hurry, so I paused to look around.

I wasn’t exactly sure what to do next. Kristina had wanted me to go to ground in Europe, but I didn’t have a destination. I could grab another train at random but that would require plastic. As risky as it was I needed to make contact with Kristina. That meant I needed a phone. I pulled out my phone, snapped the battery in, and powered it up. I didn’t have any missed calls or texts from Kristina, but I did have a missed call from Lana.

She was probably trying to figure out why she’d woken up in her bed, in her flat, when she’d gone to bed with me. I figured Kristina had taken care of the Lana situation somehow, and at the moment there were more important matters to consider. I dialed my cell phone number and it went straight to voice mail.

“Kristina, call me. Things have changed since we talked. This is urgent.” Then I hit end.

Okay, the next priority was to find a safe place to kill some time until Kristina called. If she was in Mexico then it would be around eight a. m. But I figured that probably didn’t mean much, since she’d spent most of her night calling and sending me texts and then, once desperate enough, she’d used her new ability to astral-project herself to check in on me. Based on all of that I was guessing she was tired and wouldn’t be calling for a few hours. That meant I could either find a public place to wait, like a café or I could hole-up somewhere like a hotel. I opted for the hotel.

Since I’d already powered it up, I figured there was no harm in using my phone, so I clicked on an App to locate hotels close to my current position. It came back in a couple of seconds with one hundred and twelve hits! I pick one at random the Floris, just a little over half a mile away. I could either use the metro or walk. I opted for the hike, I needed to take advantage of every opportunity to get some exercise in this body.

The Floris was a nice looking hotel and I felt a little underdressed when I went into the main lobby. I moved up to the counter and a short thin man, with advanced male pattern baldness looked up at me.

“Goede dag, hoe kan ik u helpen?”

“Hi, could I get a room for one night?”

“Certainly,” he switched to a lightly accented English so smoothly I wondered how many English speaking customers he got.

“Will this be for one, or do you have a traveling companion?”

“Just me.” I said, and dragged out one of Kristina’s credit cards.

The room was on the third floor and turned out to be a little nicer than I’d been expecting. It had a combined bedroom-living area with a window that gave me a good view of the street in front of the hotel. I collapsed onto the couch feeling wore out, but strangely not tired.

I leaned back and closed my eyes. I was a little surprised that I hadn’t gotten a text or had a missed call from Kristina. I really needed to talk to her, there was so much going on I didn’t understand. Just then my stomach rumbled and I realized I hadn’t eaten anything except a granola bar today.

“Well, time to see if this place has room service.” I said to the empty room and stood up.

I toyed with the idea of going out to a café but if I did I’d need to take everything with me. If I left anything here I might as well consider it gone. Getting separated from your gear on a mission meant missing gear. I picked up the hotel menu and was happily surprised to see everything printed in English, Deutsch, and French.