First Date

After the drama with my parents, I needed to let off some steam. Just my luck all the bad guys seem to have hunkered down for the holidays. I'm pacing back and forth and the phone rings. Now, I haven't had very good luck with phone calls either, but I go ahead and answer anywhere.
"Hello?"

"Hey Terra,"

Well, well, well. What have we here. It's Neil. My coffee date. Just the distraction I need. Neil invites me out for a late night drink. Hmm. We might be on to something here. I quickly call my upstairs neighbor, Charmaine. On rare occasions, she's baby-sitted for me in a crunch. Lucky for me, she was happy to do it. I quickly dressed and got out of the house before something else could happen.

We met down at Shorty's, a little bar far away from the usual hangout of some of my team. Some of them are beyond nosy. We're sitting there, drinking, having a good time. When - you got it - my cell goes off. Now, I would ignore it, but I've got some bills to pay, so I need to be on the tab for this one. So I figure what I'll do is this: I'll wait for Dispatch to find someone else to answer the call.

Well, it seems nobody else wants to answer the call either. The phone rings twice more. By now, Neil's looking at me kind of strange. "Do you need to get that?"

I shake my head. "No it's okay," I answered as the phone went off again. This time it was a text message. Once again, I tried to ignore it. But unfortunately, nobody can hide from Dispatch. Within the next five minutes, I heard the bar's phone ring. Somebody called out, "Hey, is there somebody named Terra Stone in here?"

That's impossible. If I didn't know better, I'd think he had shoved a recording device in some unmentionable area of our bodies. I'd heard horror stories before that dispatch could find people anywhere, but I'd never believed it, until now.

I walked over to the bar and grabbed the phone.

"Dispatch, I swear whatever it is, it had better be damned good. And how the hell did you find me anyway?"

"Number One, it's beyond good, it's excellent. Number 2, it tracked down the signal in your cellphone."

"Next time I'll leave the damn thing home."

He laughed. "Look, we need your special powers for this one, nobody else can handle it."

That's what he always says when nobody else will answer. This is supposed to be the Urban 30. So you mean to tell me that out of thirty people, he can't find anybody else to handle this?"

Dispatch proceeded to give the details for the job. Sighing, I walk back to the table, trying to figure out how I'm gonna break the news to Neil that I've got to go. To my surprise, when I got back to the table, I found it empty, with money for the check and a note.

"Terra, give me a call when you get things together."

Damn. Just when things were starting to look up.