When the yellow neon of the Quick Mart came into her view, Tasìa checked the time. It was just shy of thirty-five minutes after Midnight. She wanted to skedaddle from the fuel station premises behind the wheel of the sportscar immediately, but there was something else that would not wait much longer.

Flushing out her diuretic system was her most current and most necessary imperative.

Tasìa allocated her time.

Five minutes to shop in the Quick Mart. Fifteen minutes to deal with these damn kidneys.

We then find Ydreä, most likely she was over at the Daga Chicas, that is if she didn't turn in early. We need to get her to open up the garage.

Tasìa ran up to the entranceway step and opened the Quick Mart door. She made her move heading towards the cold beverages.

An abrupt voice shouted from an aisle to the right of her.

"So, that was you who was here earlier. Thank you! Thank you so much!"

Tasìa kept walking to the wall of refrigerator units as she turned her head to the young woman who was stocking a nearby aisle.

Tasìa nodded to her graciously. With a shrug, she answered back.

"I saw a problem and I took care of it."

The clerk's tone did a sudden turn. She now spoke in a faint whisper even as she kept in motion between isles as she made her way towards the register.

"You're my hero. Not a word from me, but I saw how he pulled a gun on you, Avellana."

That caught her by surprise. Tasìa shivered.

Did the girl work here two years ago? That would have made the clerk a routine contact for her. That was not something Tasìa would have forgotten. Something was not right with her memory.

Interference from the treatment?

These concerns, she did not allow to affect her outer demeanor.

Tasìa suspired a casual sigh suggesting much experience in adventuress-related matters before she spoke again.

"It would not be the first time, Eliza."

With the clerk's name coming from her own lips, Tasìa's gut ran cold. The name was blurted out before any actual memory of the young woman made its presence known in her mind.

Tasìa knew as she said the name, it was the correct one.

She turned to slide the refrigerator door open and hide her loss of composure. Tasìa took her time as she grabbed four sixteen-ounce water bottles.

"Have you ever seen that guy before," Tasìa asked, peering from over her shoulder.

Eliza's head jerked somewhat apprehensively. Tasìa understood. It was not the first time Sal had made a nuisance of himself.

"Yeah. He usually makes a run every Friday to Asunción, and he stops here for gas. Why he is here on a Wednesday, I don't know."

Standing close to a semi-aisle for pets, Tasìa noticed chew toy replicas of dogbones on display. She grabbed one. When she finally did get the chance to take a piss, she needed something to clamp her teeth on.

It was going to burn like hell.

Tasìa turned back around to speak to the clerk.

"What does he do there in Asunción? Does he ever talk about it?"

Now, Eliza appeared very nervous.

"Yeah . . . he certainly does," Eliza muttered without elaboration.

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She avoided eye contact and she tapped the tip of one of her boots against the ceramic floor. On sight of them, Tasìa whistled in a high-pitched staccato. Eliza's boots were very nice, but the type of critter from whence the leather was fashioned proved to be unrecognizable to Tasìa's eyes.

The clerk followed Tasìa to the cash register.

With a much more expressive interest in her voice, Eliza continued speaking.

"So ... you like my boots? Can you guess the material they are made from?"

Eliza clearly did not want to talk about the other matter. Tasìa would have to indulge in a more roundabout charm offensive to get what she wanted.

"Absolutely. I adore the look," Tasìa began. She twisted her head to the side for a better view. "And I am afraid that I can't make out that material. The hue and texture look similar to that of a brown calf, but no Quadra girl worth her shadow wears cow. Very sweet and sexy; it looks as smooth as ultra-suede."

Eliza grinned as she blurted out the answer. Her outward bowed hands spread three feet apart as if in measure.

"Will you believe, giant wolf-spiders?"

Tasìa recalled her encounter in the basement of Tower Praxis and the gore on her work boots from stomping the beast. She winced in a most indelicate grimace.

"The fuck? Are you shitting me?"

Tasìa's incredulous response drew laughter from the clerk.

"No," Eliza answered as she smacked the counter with an open palm. "For real. They farm those hairy-ass bastards over where El Hoyo used to be. You would not recognize the place now. It used to be almost all clay and gravel, but is now overgrown in a jungle's worth of vegetation."

Tasìa glanced back at the boots. She and Eliza wore the same size.

"My friend, you might be able to help me out. How much did those cost you? Six hundred?"

Eliza shook her head.

"I'm afraid dearer than even that much. Six Seventy-five. They are not for sale though.

Pulling off a friendly smirk, Tasìa reached into her fanny-pack. She pulled out a Liberty coin and then placed it on the counter. With an effort - wrinkled forehead, wide-opened eyes, exaggerated hound dog jowls - Tasìa tried to appear pleadful.

She knew that it being so contrary to her personality, the face she made wasn't a very convincing expression.

As Eliza examined the coin, Tasìa continued.

"I need to be somewhere in about an hour where I would not normally be caught dead wearing these ugly, old tennis shoes. You would really be helping me out. You could buy another pair of wolf-spider boots and a matching belt and hat. A new pair of jeans, a corduroy jacket. An all-new suit if you want. It'll look so sexy on you. Sexy as hell, even. So how about it?"

After a once-over gaze down her own figure, Eliza began to take off her boots.

"If it means that much to you, my friend, I guess I do owe you a favor."

As they made their exchange, Tasìa noticed another item sitting in a little red display on the countertop. Ki-Jack Ginseng, All Natural Alertness Elixir. She checked the ingredients out and found the combination of herbs to be quite suitable for her purposes.

Tasìa grabbed two bottles.

She paid in USD for the water, doggy bone, and ginseng. The clerk bagged the items.

"Will there be anything else," Eliza asked as a habitual courtesy common to her profession.

Tasìa noticed that Eliza did not ask any follow-up questions about the incident, or what occurred afterward.

Did she just assume I rolled Sal? Am I that obviously a criminal? Or, was Sal just a very touchy subject for her?

Tasìa leaned forward on the counter.

"Eliza. You know you can trust me. There is no one here but the two of us. What do you know about Sal? He comes in here and brags about shit, doesn't he? Shit, he does in Asunción."

Eliza leaned on her outstretched arms. Her hands clung to the counter edge with a tight grip. Her head was turned to the side; she even shook it with a slight hesitance, but she did finally give up what she knew.

"Yeah. He brags about a lot of things. That his big, crooked daddy runs Villarrica. But a bigshot in a town like Villarrica is one thing, a bigshot in Asunción, however, is another. He is mighty proud of that other side in his genealogy. So proud he has taken his mother's maiden name as his own.

"His mother is from Asunción. Where he works for his uncle there on the weekends. He works for the family. By that, I mean the family."

Ah, shit.

Tasìa was finally catching on. No wonder Eliza did not want to know any more about how Tasìa's confrontation with Sal went down than she already knew.

Tasìa leaned in close to Eliza.

"You mean that little pisser is a Javierra?"

Eliza nodded. Tasìa thought of Ria Javierra, the mafiosa dame and prison snitch. Tasìa gave that bitch a warning the last time they spoke, and she promised to hurt the woman and her family if she did not keep her nose out of Tasìa's business.

She had every reason to believe Ria did not heed her warning.

Tasìa backed into the Quick Mart entrance door. Before she parted it, she called out.

"Thanks, Eliza. You have been most helpful."

One of the clerk's newly acquired tennis shoes smacked the floor in a nervous beat.

"Let's keep that between you and me, okay," Eliza answered.

Tasìa gave her a confident and relaxed smile.

"Oh, believe me, my friend, you chose the right side."