Four Past Midnight (27 page)

“When I was a kid, we used to play Indiana Jones,” Albert said apologetically. “I made something like this and pretended it was my whip. I almost broke my brother David's arm once. I loaded an old blanket with a sashweight I found in the garage. Pretty stupid, I guess. I didn't know how hard it would hit. I got a hell of a spanking for it. It looks stupid, I guess, but it actually works pretty well. It always did, at least.”

Nick looked at Albert's makeshift weapon dubiously but said nothing. If a toaster wrapped in a tablecloth made Albert feel more comfortable about going downstairs in the dark, so be it.

“Good enough, then. Now go find a stretcher and bring it back. If there isn't one in the Airport Services office, try someplace else. If you don't find anything in fifteen minutes—no, make that ten—just come back and we'll carry her.”

“You can't do that!” Laurel cried softly. “If there's internal bleeding—”

Nick looked up at her. “There's internal bleeding already. And ten minutes is all the time I think we can spare.”

Laurel opened her mouth to answer, to
argue
, but Dinah's husky whisper stopped her. “He's right.”

Don slipped the blade of his knife into his belt. “Come on, son,” he said. They crossed the terminal together and started down the escalator to the first floor. Albert wrapped the end of his loaded tablecloth around his hand as they went.

Nick turned his attention back to the girl on the floor. “How are you feeling, Dinah?”

“Hurts bad,” Dinah said faintly.

“Yes, of course it does,” Nick said. “And I'm afraid that what I'm about to do is going to make it hurt a good deal more, for a few seconds, at least. But the knife is in your lung, and it's got to come out. You know that, don't you?”

“Yes.” Her dark, unseeing eyes looked up at him. “Scared.”

“So am I, Dinah. So am I. But it has to be done. Are you game?”

“Yes.”

“Good girl.” Nick bent and planted a soft kiss on her cheek. “That's a good, brave girl. It won't take long, and that's a promise. I want you to lie just as still as you can, Dinah, and try not to cough. Do you understand me? It's very important.
Try not to cough
.”

“I'll try.”

“There may be a moment or two when you feel that you can't breathe. You may even feel that you're leaking, like a tire with a puncture. That's a scary feeling, love, and it may make you want to move around, or cry out. You mustn't do it.
And you mustn't cough.
”

Dinah made a reply none of them could hear.

Nick swallowed, armed sweat off his forehead in a quick gesture, and turned to Laurel. “Fold two of those tablecloths into square pads. Thick as you can. Kneel beside me. Close as you can get. Warwick, take off your belt.”

Rudy began to comply at once.

Nick looked back at Laurel. She was again struck, and not unpleasantly this time, by the power of his gaze. “I'm going to grasp the handle of the knife and draw it out. If it's not caught on one of her ribs—and judging from its position, I don't think it is—the blade should come out in one slow, smooth pull. The moment it's out, I will draw back, giving you clear access to the girl's chest area. You will place one of your pads over the wound and press. Press
hard.
You're not to worry about hurting her, or compressing her chest so much she can't breathe. She's got at least one perforation in her lung, and I'm betting there's a pair of them. Those are what we've got to worry about. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“When you've placed the pad, I'm going to lift her against the pressure you're putting on. Mr. Warwick here will then slip the other pad beneath her if we see blood on the back of her dress. Then we're going to tie the compresses in place with Mr. Warwick's belt.” He glanced up at Rudy. “When I call for it, my friend, give it to me. Don't make me ask you twice.”

“I won't.”

“Can you see well enough to do this, Nick?” Laurel asked.

“I think so,” Nick replied. “I hope so.” He looked at Dinah again. “Ready?”

Dinah muttered something.

“All right,” Nick said. He drew in a long breath and then let it out. “Jesus help me.”

He wrapped his slim, long-fingered hands around the handle of the knife like a man gripping a baseball bat. He pulled. Dinah shrieked. A great gout of blood spewed from her mouth. Laurel had been leaning tensely forward, and her face was suddenly bathed in Dinah's blood. She recoiled.

“No!” Nick spat at her without looking around. “Don't you
dare
go weak-sister on me! Don't you
dare
!”

Laurel leaned forward again, gagging and shuddering. The blade, a dully gleaming triangle of silver in the deep gloom, emerged from Dinah's chest and glimmered in the air. The little blind girl's chest heaved and there was a high, unearthly whistling sound as the wound sucked inward.

“
Now!
” Nick grunted. “Press down! Hard as you can!”

Laurel leaned forward. For just a moment she saw blood pouring out of the hole in Dinah's chest, and then the wound was covered. The tablecloth pad grew warm and wet under her hands almost immediately.

“Harder!” Nick snarled at her. “Press harder! Seal it! Seal the wound!”

Laurel now understood what people meant when they talked about coming completely unstrung, because she felt on the verge of it herself. “I can‘t! I'll break her ribs if—”

“
Fuck her ribs!
You
have
to make a seal!”

Laurel rocked forward on her knees and brought her entire weight down on her hands. Now she could feel liquid seeping slowly between her fingers, although she had folded the tablecloth thick.

The Englishman tossed the knife aside and leaned forward until his face was almost touching Dinah's. Her eyes were closed. He rolled one of the lids. “I think she's finally out,” he said. “Can't tell for sure because her eyes are so odd, but I hope to heaven she is.” Hair had fallen over his brow. He tossed it back impatiently with a jerk of his head and looked at Laurel. “You're doing well. Stay with it, all right? I'm rolling her now. Keep the pressure on as I do.”

“There's so much blood,” Laurel groaned. “Will she drown?”

“I don't know. Keep the pressure on. Ready, Mr. Warwick?”

“Oh Christ I guess so,” Rudy Warwick croaked.

“Right. Here we go.” Nick slipped his hands beneath Dinah's right shoulderblade and grimaced. “It's worse than I thought,” he muttered. “Far worse. She's
soaked.
” He began to pull Dinah slowly upward against the pressure Laurel was putting on. Dinah uttered a thick, croaking moan. A gout of half-congealed blood flew from her mouth and spattered across the floor. And now Laurel could hear a rain of blood pattering down on the carpet from beneath the girl.

Suddenly the world began to swim away from her.

“Keep that pressure
on
!” Nick cried. “Don't let up!”

But she was fainting.

It was her understanding of what Nick Hopewell would think of her if she
did
faint which caused her to do what she did next. Laurel stuck her tongue out between her teeth like a child making a face and bit down on it as hard as she could. The pain was bright and exquisite, the salty taste of her own blood immediately filled her mouth ... but that sensation that the world was swimming away from her like a big lazy fish in an aquarium passed. She was
here
again.

Downstairs, there was a sudden shriek of pain and surprise. It was followed by a hoarse shout. On the heels of the shout came a loud, drilling scream.

Rudy and Laurel both turned in that direction. “The boy!” Rudy said. “Him and Gaffney! They—”

“They've found Mr. Toomy after all,” Nick said. His face was a complicated mask of effort. The tendons on his neck stood out like steel pulleys. “We'll just have to hope—”

There was a thud from downstairs, followed by a terrible howl of agony. Then a whole series of muffled thumps.

“—that they're on top of the situation. We can't do anything about it now. If we stop in the middle of what we're doing, this little girl is going to die for sure.”

“But that sounded like the
kid
!”

“Can't be helped, can it? Slide the pad under her, Warwick. Do it right now, or I'll kick your bloody arse square.”

Don led the way down the escalator, then stopped briefly at the bottom to fumble in his pocket. He brought out a square object that gleamed faintly in the dark. “It's my Zippo,” he said. “Do you think it'll still work?”

“I don't know,” Albert said. “It might ... for awhile. You better not try it until you have to. I sure hope it does. We won't be able to see a thing without it.”

“Where's this Airport Services place?”

Albert pointed to the door Craig Toomy had gone through less than five minutes before. “Right over there.”

“Do you think it's unlocked?”

“Well,” Albert said, “there's only one way to find out.”

They crossed the terminal, Don still leading the way with his lighter in his right hand.

Craig heard them coming—more servants of the langoliers, no doubt. But he wasn't worried. He had taken care of the thing which had been masquerading as a little girl, and he would take care of these other things, as well. He curled his hand around the letter-opener, got up, and sidled back around the desk.

“Do you think it's unlocked?”

“Well, there's only one way to find out.”

You're going to find out
something,
anyway
, Craig thought. He reached the wall beside the door. It was lined with paper-stacked shelves. He reached out and felt doorhinges. Good. The opening door would block him off from them ... not that they were likely to see him, anyway. It was as black as an elephant's asshole in here. He raised the letter-opener to shoulder height.

“The knob doesn't move.” Craig relaxed ... but only for a moment.

“Try pushing it.” That was the smart-ass kid.

The door began to open.

Don stepped in, blinking at the gloom. He thumbed the cover of his lighter back, held it up, and flicked the wheel. There was a spark and the wick caught at once, producing a low flame. They saw what was apparently a combined office and storeroom. There was an untidy stack of luggage in one corner and a Xerox machine in another. The back wall was lined with shelves and the shelves were stacked with what looked like forms of various kinds.

Don stepped further into the office, lifting his lighter like a spelunker holding up a guttering candle in a dark cave. He pointed to the right wall. “Hey, kid! Ace! Look!”

A poster mounted there showed a tipsy guy in a business suit staggering out of a bar and looking at his watch. WORK IS THE CURSE OF THE DRINKING CLASS, the poster advised. Mounted on the wall beside it was a white plastic box with a large red cross on it. And leaning below it was a folded stretcher ... the kind with wheels.

Albert wasn't looking at the poster or the first-aid kit or the stretcher, however. His eyes were fixed on the desk in the center of the room.

On it he saw a heaped tangle of paper strips.

“
Look out!
” he shouted. “
Look out
,
he's in h—
”

Craig Toomy stepped out from behind the door and struck.

“Belt,” Nick said.

Rudy didn't move or reply. His head was turned toward the door of the restaurant. The sounds from downstairs had ceased. There was only the rattling noise and the steady, throbbing rumble of the jet engine in the dark outside.

Nick kicked backward like a mule, connecting with Rudy's shin.

“
Ow!
”

“Belt!
Now!
”

Rudy dropped clumsily to his knees and moved next to Nick, who was holding Dinah up with one hand and pressing a second tablecloth pad against her back with the other.

“Slip it under the pad,” Nick said. He was panting, and sweat was running down his face in wide streams. “Quick! I can't hold her up forever!”

Rudy slid the belt under the pad. Nick lowered Dinah, reached across the girl's small body, and lifted her left shoulder long enough to pull the belt out the other side. Then he looped it over her chest and cinched it tight. He put the belt's free end in Laurel's hand. “Keep the pressure on,” he said, standing up. “You can't use the buckte—she's much too small.”

“Are you going downstairs?” Laurel asked.

“Yes. That seems indicated.”

“Be careful. Please be careful.”

He grinned at her, and all those white teeth suddenly shining out in the gloom were startling ... but not frightening, she discovered. Quite the opposite.

“Of course. It's how I get along.” He reached down and squeezed her shoulder. His hand was warm, and at his touch a little shiver chased through her. “You did very well, Laurel. Thank you.”

He began to turn away, and then a small hand groped out and caught the cuff of his blue-jeans. He looked down and saw that Dinah's blind eyes were open again.

“Don't ...” she began, and then a choked sneezing fit shook her. Blood flew from her nose in a spray of fine droplets.

“Dinah, you mustn't—”

“Don't ... you ... kill him!” she said, and even in the dark Laurel could sense the fantastic effort she was making to speak at all.