Listen, these stories are from the twenties. They're not exactly PC. But Randolph Carter had a book written in Arabic tucked into a desk drawer!"
"I'm not buying."
"Well, I am. Which is why I'm going to Providence tomorrow."
This stopped Laura short. Ted was leaving town? Ted was doing something active? He'd followed her to Washington, to New York, and then to Boston, clinging to her like a remora. And now he was the shark all the sudden? It didn't feel right.
"I'm all for you getting out of town, but what's in Providence?"
"Well, Randolph Carter had a map of Providence in his dorm room. I actually downloaded it to your computer, so we can look at it if you want . . . " Ted opened the laptop and Laura reached out and snapped it shut.
"You downloaded a file from a hostile web site?"
"Well, it's not a hostile site, I mean, it's just that some hostile people use it, and—"
"And you downloaded a file from this site where hostile people hang out and you were about to open it on my computer."
"Well, yeah. I thought we could look at it and compare it to a real map of Providence, you know, see if there are any clues . . . "
"Did it ever occur to you that there might be a virus or something on this file?"
"Uh. No. I mean . . . "
"Do not open it. In fact, give me this." Laura reached out and grabbed her computer away from Ted. "Okay, so besides the killer Trojan horse virus map, what else makes you think you should go to Providence?"
Well, some people believe that the Necronomicon was real and that Lovecraft had it and hid it somewhere in Providence before his death. Other people think he donated it to Brown, but of course their libraries insist there is no such thing as the Necronomicon."
"Which only proves to these nutballs that Brown University is part of the conspiracy, right?"
"Exactly! Because if they did really have it, they'd deny it! So, I figure they're in Providence looking for the Necronomicon somewhere. I'll get a bus down there or something and see what's up."
Laura felt something strange when Ted said this. It took her a minute to realize she was kind of hurt. All this time dreaming of Ted being out of her hair, and now he was just taking off. He'd only be fifty miles away, but still. Who was going to look out for him? And didn't he feel like he needed her anymore? And if he wasn't weighing her down, what would she use for an excuse for not having a real social life?
After dinner, Ted settled in to watch some reality show that Laura found too stupid to even use to kill time. So she sat down to plan the Providence Operation. Because Ted was nuts, of course, and this was way more likely to be an organized crime thing than some kind of cult killing, but what if he wasn't? Certainly if somebody had told her at the beginning of freshman year of college—or when she was a first-year student, she reminded herself, remembering how she had ripped into anyone who dared to call her anything containing the word "man" when she was eighteen—that there was a colony of vampires, and that the incredibly hot sorority girl she had a crush on was several hundred years old, she would have said they were nuts.
And besides, even a fruitless chase after the cult of C-somethingorother was more exciting than looking for Whitey at the ATM, which looked like a project that was going to drag on pretty much indefinitely, as they had a fresh tip to check out a strip mall ATM in Naples now, and the videos were being uploaded and would probably be ready for analysis tomorrow. Ugh.
So she decided to play a little thought game. Let's assume these people are really in Providence, and that they are incredibly powerful badasses. It wouldn't hurt anything to assume this as she did her planning. (And, some part of her brain whispered, It would keep Ted safe, because she had to keep her Ted safe.) First of all, Ted getting on a bus and going to Providence alone wasn't going to work. He hadn't been seen in his completely
"I'm not buying."
"Well, I am. Which is why I'm going to Providence tomorrow."
This stopped Laura short. Ted was leaving town? Ted was doing something active? He'd followed her to Washington, to New York, and then to Boston, clinging to her like a remora. And now he was the shark all the sudden? It didn't feel right.
"I'm all for you getting out of town, but what's in Providence?"
"Well, Randolph Carter had a map of Providence in his dorm room. I actually downloaded it to your computer, so we can look at it if you want . . . " Ted opened the laptop and Laura reached out and snapped it shut.
"You downloaded a file from a hostile web site?"
"Well, it's not a hostile site, I mean, it's just that some hostile people use it, and—"
"And you downloaded a file from this site where hostile people hang out and you were about to open it on my computer."
"Well, yeah. I thought we could look at it and compare it to a real map of Providence, you know, see if there are any clues . . . "
"Did it ever occur to you that there might be a virus or something on this file?"
"Uh. No. I mean . . . "
"Do not open it. In fact, give me this." Laura reached out and grabbed her computer away from Ted. "Okay, so besides the killer Trojan horse virus map, what else makes you think you should go to Providence?"
Well, some people believe that the Necronomicon was real and that Lovecraft had it and hid it somewhere in Providence before his death. Other people think he donated it to Brown, but of course their libraries insist there is no such thing as the Necronomicon."
"Which only proves to these nutballs that Brown University is part of the conspiracy, right?"
"Exactly! Because if they did really have it, they'd deny it! So, I figure they're in Providence looking for the Necronomicon somewhere. I'll get a bus down there or something and see what's up."
Laura felt something strange when Ted said this. It took her a minute to realize she was kind of hurt. All this time dreaming of Ted being out of her hair, and now he was just taking off. He'd only be fifty miles away, but still. Who was going to look out for him? And didn't he feel like he needed her anymore? And if he wasn't weighing her down, what would she use for an excuse for not having a real social life?
After dinner, Ted settled in to watch some reality show that Laura found too stupid to even use to kill time. So she sat down to plan the Providence Operation. Because Ted was nuts, of course, and this was way more likely to be an organized crime thing than some kind of cult killing, but what if he wasn't? Certainly if somebody had told her at the beginning of freshman year of college—or when she was a first-year student, she reminded herself, remembering how she had ripped into anyone who dared to call her anything containing the word "man" when she was eighteen—that there was a colony of vampires, and that the incredibly hot sorority girl she had a crush on was several hundred years old, she would have said they were nuts.
And besides, even a fruitless chase after the cult of C-somethingorother was more exciting than looking for Whitey at the ATM, which looked like a project that was going to drag on pretty much indefinitely, as they had a fresh tip to check out a strip mall ATM in Naples now, and the videos were being uploaded and would probably be ready for analysis tomorrow. Ugh.
So she decided to play a little thought game. Let's assume these people are really in Providence, and that they are incredibly powerful badasses. It wouldn't hurt anything to assume this as she did her planning. (And, some part of her brain whispered, It would keep Ted safe, because she had to keep her Ted safe.) First of all, Ted getting on a bus and going to Providence alone wasn't going to work. He hadn't been seen in his completely
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