A string of lanterns on caribiners hung

  inside a box truck.  Two convoys were converging. 

  "Listen to me.  Just me." A man told a woman.  Eyes looked all around, settled on the man's face.  "This whole thing's changed again." 

  "What thing?" The woman slammed down a cigarette purse.  The plethor strap which was already torn, broke.  She sat on a crate.  Put her throbbing migraine in her hands.  Hands covered in tie-dye colors.  The man took her hands in his.  "What did you girls do last night?" She blew out a long breath.  "Babysitting for some Officer couples." The man took this in with a gentle but strong nod, (i)Oh(i).  "Did the kids survive?" A little laugh.  "Not my forté." 

  "Well, what in here is going to get this stuff off of you?" 

  "Why?" 

  "You are needed." 

  The woman's sharp sarcasm had cooled and she let her eyes look at the truck floor.  She looked at the man's dirty pants.  "Who's going to do your laundry?" 

  "I'll have to do it myself.  There's some real towns on my itinerary." 

  "Should I ask you, needed how?" 

  "I don't have all the specifics myself, but," the woman started to squirm on the crate, "I know, you're not committing, here, now." 

  The man put his callused hand under her chin and lifted her face.  "I think you can do it.  They explained it as a sort of linchpin position." 

  "What the heaheck is that?" 

  "I'm going to let them explain it." He knocked on the wall to the cab.  It opened. 

  "The tornado guys?" She asked. 

  "That's not the only thing we chase," one said without looking away from a monitor scrolling hundreds of "mugshots". 

  "All bad guys?" The woman was drawn in.  "Not at all.  People filtered out of jobs by algorithms." 

  "What's algorithm?" 

  The guy in the driver's seat looked at a huge watch velcro'd to the dashboard.  "Got time for dinner?" 

  "Oh shit!" The woman dug a shoelace with a wedding ring and cross necklace stuck to it out of the cigarette purse.  "How 'bout not dinner but beers?" 

  "I could get onboard with that plan." 

  The guy in the passenger seat absently shook his head (i)no(i), "Doesn't work for me." 

  "I'll go get a pizza," the man said.