Jerry was still wincing from the pain of Jill's hits long after she was out of sight. That whole encounter was quite the blunder on his part. As much as Jerry liked to frame himself as the mastermind of literally every bad thing that happened in the United States, he was for the most part very good about avoiding situations that would allow people to notice his own flawed mortality. Still, there are advantages to getting beat up. The experience keeps a person from getting too much of an ego. At least Jill's first instinct was to capture him alive. The person Jerry was stuck with now was quite a different story. Or at least it would be if she had any idea who he was.
"You sure you're OK?" asked Huma, driving the car from the front seat. "I could take you to the doctor if you want."
"I'm fine, honestly," said Jerry. "I'd like to express some gratitude for you driving the car yourself. I'd have been sunk if this was a self-driving vehicle. What do those do in a situation like that? Just escape?"
"Something like that," said Huma. "I feel awful honestly. It's not a coincidence I'm driving myself. When I hired you I uh, I anticipated some danger."
"Danger like what?" asked Jerry. "You mean you know who that was?"
Huma sighed and slowed down the car. Jerry figured that in the unlikely event Jill had tried to pursue them, there was plenty of distance between them by now. In fact, Jerry was suddenly cognizant of the fact that he had no idea where he was. Huma had just been going down roads at random in an effort to throw Jill off. Which was idiotic. Jill was a tracker and she could easily detect the trail of a car if she wanted to. But Jerry could tell this was not the time to risk doing damage to Huma's ego.
"That woman was Jill Smith," said Huma.
"What, the leader of the Hunter's Guild?" said Jerry. "No wonder she kicked my ass."
"No," said Huma. "Don't you follow the news? She was kicked out in disgrace, and now she's providing support to fascists across the country."
Jerry found this factoid odd. Jill had specifically mentioned being motivated to seek him out through an encounter with Homer Ikari, who had identified the entire scheme. Evidently Homer hadn't had much time to talk to anyone about what he had learned.
"I'm afraid I'm not very good with news," said Jerry. "Especially since there's no Internet out here."
"Yeah, well," said Huma, "it's a situation that's getting out of hand. Have you ever heard of Jerry Shankar?"
"Who's Jerry Shankar?" said Jerry, having to suppress a smirk at being given a chance to use his own catch phrase.
"I know you don't mean that," said Huma.
"Mean what?" asked Jerry. "I don't have any idea who that is."
"Forget it," said Huma. "All you need to know is that this Jerry Shankar person is a murderous terrorist. Last year Jerry Shankar killed a few dozen members of the Social Justice Army at an anaerobic lagoon near here."
"Oh, so that's why you wanted a tour of Storm Lake," said Jerry. "I just figured you for a typical disaster tourist. This town's practically Chernobyl, you know, just for pig excrement instead of depleted uranium."
"And like Chernobyl, the place is completely safe now," said Huma. "Making it a perfect base of operations for domestic terrorists."
Jerry tried to role-play the situation in his head. It seemed like Gerald Littlefoot should be angry about being used in such a way. But did he really want to risk getting too mad at the woman who could kick him out of the only vehicle in the middle of plains lion country?
"This seems like something you should have warned me about ahead of time," said Jerry, trying to maintain a sardonic disposition.
"I know, and I'm sorry," said Huma. "I figured that if you were running regular tours here, then that meant that either the terrorists were good enough at hiding that you didn't see them, or that alternately, you were in league with them."
Following his recent near-capture experience, Jerry couldn't help but experience a brief, terrified moment of panic. He lurched toward the door, only barely able to contain himself from trying to open it before remembering that it wouldn't do him any good to look too suspicious.
"At ease friend," said Huma. "Obviously you're not working with Jerry Shankar, considering that I ran into his associate attacking you. Do you have any idea why?"
"Ah, um, right," said Jerry nervously. "All I can guess is that there was something at the high school."
"You think it's safe to go back?"
Jerry couldn't help but bristle in annoyance that the woman who had just been asking if he needed to go see a doctor was now itching at another excuse to go after terrorists. Still, Jerry ran the mental calculus in his head, and decided that misleading Huma Reid at this critical juncture was of considerably greater importance than staying in character. He nodded his head, and they were off.
As expected, the high school was fully ablaze upon their return. Jerry admired Jill's resourcefulness. This was no mere fire, it was an overpowering blaze that probably required the use of some explosions to move it along. Jill must have some mild talent with chemistry, in order to make a fire this spectacular with only the leftover elements from a high school chemistry lab. Of course, it probably helped that Jerry had left his own personal bomb-making recipes right out in the open. Jill likely had no idea that Jerry kept them so easily accessible precisely so that he could destroy evidence at a moment's notice.
"Well," said Huma, sighing. "I guess I can't say I'm surprised."
"May I ask," said Jerry, turning to Huma, "what you were expecting? How were the two of us supposed to collect any kind of evidence against an army of terrorists?"
"I didn't think anyone would be here," said Huma. "But someone being here at all proves my theory of collusion. I need to go public with this."
"Collusion with who?"
"Jerry Shankar and Jill Smith," said Huma. "Not to mention whoever else they've been talking to. Once I set the signal off I'm sure to get all the information I need to bring them both down."
"Well, best of luck to you," said Jerry Shankar, extending his hand.
Huma looked at Jerry's hand with a somewhat quizzical expression, but then she smiled and shook it. They both turned back to the fire.
"You need a ride to town?" asked Huma.
"Oh no, my bike's around here somewhere," said Jerry. "Besides, it's been awhile since I've been close to a fire like this. A bonfire practically. It's so warm isn't it?"
"Yes," said Huma, nodding serenely as she closed her eyes. "Just the faintest grazing of danger. I don't think I could live without it."