"No. Fine. Thanks." She waited until he'd walked away before she seethed. "He's got to stop doing this."
Peabody ran a loving hand over the glistening fender. "Why?"
"Because," was the best Eve could come up with, and she uncoded the door. "Map out directions to Monica Rowan's address."
Peabody settled in, rubbed her hands together as she scanned the cockpit. "Air or road?"
Eve spared her a steely look. "Road, Peabody."
"Air or road, I bet this baby moves." She leaned forward to study the on-board computer system. "Oh wow, she is loaded."
"When you finish being sixteen, Officer, map out the damn route."
"You never stop being sixteen," Peabody murmured, but followed orders.
The in-dash monitor responded immediately with a detailed map of the best route.
Would you like audio prompts during this trip? They were asked in the computer's warm, silky baritone.
"I think we can handle it, ace." Eve cruised toward the exit.
As you wish, Lieutenant Dallas. This trip comprises ten point three miles. Your estimated time to complete at this time of day on this day of the week, at the posted speed limits, is twelve minutes, eight seconds.
"Oh, we can beat that." Peabody shot Eve a quick grin. "Right, Lieutenant?"
"We're not here to beat anything." She drove decorously through the parking garage, into and around airport traffic, and through the gates.
Then there was a stretch of highway, long, wide, open.
Hell, she was human. She punched it.
"Oh man! I want one of these." Peabody grinned as the scenery blurred and flew by. "How much do you think this honey goes for?"
This model retails for one hundred and sixty-two thousand dollars, excluding tax, fees, and licenses.
"Holy shit."
"Still feeling sixteen, Peabody?" With a quick laugh, Eve swung onto their exit.
"Yeah, and I want a raise in my allowance."
They hit the commuter high-rises, strip malls, and hotel complexes that edged the suburbs. Traffic thickened on the road and overhead, but remained well-mannered and well-spaced.
That made Eve immediately miss New York with its nasty streets, rude vendors, and snarling pedestrians.
"How do people live in places like this?" she asked Peabody. "It's like somebody cut it all out of a travel disc, took a few thousand copies, and pasted it down outside of every goddamn city in the country. They're all the same."
"Some people like all the same. It's comforting. We took a trip to Maine when I was a kid. Mount Desert Island, the national park?"
Eve shuddered. "National parks are full of trees and hikers and weird little bugs."
"Yeah, no bugs in New York."
"I'll take a good honest cockroach any day."
"Come over to my place. Sometimes we have parties."
"Complain to your super."