Strange Robby (36 page)

"This is all crazy. This can't be happening."

"But it is. Please, Tommy . . . "

"All right, all right, I believe you. It's insane, but I believe you."

"Then you'll do it?"

"I'll do it."

Carrie couldn't remember when Spider had been any more loving than she had been this evening, and when they had made love it had been a truly religious experience. Now Spider was holding her so tightly that it was almost uncomfortable.

"Laura's shooting today . . . It really scared you, didn't it?" Carrie asked.

"It changes everything," Spider said quietly. She released Carrie and got slowly out of bed. She walked towards the bathroom and turned as she got to the door. "You know I love you, don't you?"

"Yes, I do," Carrie said.

"That I never want to be anywhere without you?"

"And I never want to be anywhere without you. What does this have to do with anything, Baby?" Carrie asked.

"You never know what's going to happen, and I just wanted you to know." She went in the bathroom and got in the shower.

"What the hell are you doing?" Carrie asked from the doorway.

"In all the confusion I forgot to tell you that they put me back on line today. I've got to go to work." Spider stepped out of the shower and started to dry off.

"Oh, that really sucks! I mean, I'm glad this shit is over, but this sucks. The middle of the night?"

"Tommy was on stakeout on the docks. He's with Laura now, so . . . " Spider shrugged and started to get dressed.

Carrie looked at her wishing that she could see what Spider was feeling for a change. "Be careful."

"I will be." Spider hugged her tight, kissed her, and then headed out of the house.

Carrie followed her. "It's a little cool," Carrie said. "You sure you're wearing enough clothes?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Spider smiled at her. "Take care of yourself, Carrie."

"You take care of yourself, Honey." Carrie closed the door after her. "Hmmm." She'd almost gotten shot today, so she supposed it would be more peculiar if Spider were just taking it all in stride.

Spider looked down at him lying there helplessly.

This time of night there weren't many people around. There was an eerie quiet to the room—to the whole hospital.

She hadn't turned the light on, really no need to. She could see him well enough in the glow from the streetlights coming in the window.

"Well, Henry, this is it. This is the last time I'll ever see you. I've got to go, and it's not easy to do." She wiped a tear from her eye. "To go, to leave everybody you care about behind, to step into God only knows what. All I really know is that it's not going to be good. I hope . . . no, I pray I'm doing the right thing, because I'm not sure I know what that is anymore . . . Goodbye, Henry."

She put her hand over his mouth and held his nose closed with her thumb and forefinger. He convulsed once, twice, and then he lay still. She put her head to his chest; there was no heartbeat. He was gone. Right or wrong, it was over.

"Good luck, Henry, old man."

He had been bound to one place for so long. Now he was finally moving, moving from this warm, welcome place out there into the unknown. Yet he wasn't afraid. He was ready for a change, no matter what that change was.

It was tight and uncomfortable and more than a little scary, and then, just as he was about to panic, he pushed out the other side into the light. Strong firm hands grasped him and pulled him into the world. They wiped him off with towels. It felt good to be touched. Felt good to feel. Then they wrapped him up and handed him to the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She was crying.

"He's the most perfect baby I've ever seen." She held him close to her bosom, and he felt her warmth. "I love you more than anything in the world, Albert."

A man bent over him then and took his hand. "Do you realize how long we've been waiting for you, little guy?"

Not as long as I have been waiting for you.

It was twelve fifteen. Where the fuck was she? Kirk looked around; she was nowhere in sight. He could see his men all around him. They kept contacting him through his link, letting him know constantly that she had not even entered the park yet.

"She's not going to bite." That was Jason for the thirteenth time that night.

"Shut up! Shut the fuck up!" Kirk hissed.

"I see her!" That was Ted at position one. "She's alone, she's coming your way."

Spider got slowly out of the car. She took a deep breath, let it out and headed for the meeting place at an even pace.

She saw the slimy So-what-if guy and snarled. He was the embodiment of all that she hated. A lazy, deceitful, disloyal, backstabbing monster whose only ambition was to get higher and higher up the food chain so that he could devour all those below him.

Tonight he felt bloated with power. Tonight he looked at her and saw a battle he was about to win. He was smug and without compassion.

Spider smiled smugly as she walked on. She got about ten feet from him before he put his hands up.

"That's close enough, Webb," Kirk announced. When she started to move forward anyway, she could hear the cocking of weapons all around her. Damn! There was a shit pot load of them. Still, she had expected nothing less. She looked at him closely and smiled. His nose was taped, and from the way he was standing she must have really done a job on those ribs.

"You're a frightened, evil, wicked little piece of shit, aren't ya?"

He laughed at her, which wasn't a good idea. She didn't like to be laughed at.

"Just tell us who he is and we can dispose of all this unpleasantness and both go back to our lives."

She laughed at him then. When she stopped it was obvious that she was not pleased. "We all know that when I tell you what you want to know I become expendable. But I can promise you this. Neither one of us will be going back to our lives."

"No more games, Webb. You give us this guy or we take everybody else."

"Did it ever occur to you that I might be willing to die to keep my secret? To protect the people I love." She pulled her gun then and stuck it to her head.

Kirk backed up, seeing any chances for advancement going up in smoke if this crazy woman pulled the trigger.

"All you have to do is give us the Fry Guy. Give him to us and you can have your life back. That's a promise."

Spider lowered her gun. "A promise from a man like you means nothing." She smiled at him. "But I'll tell you what you want to know. It's me. I'm the Fry Guy."

"You! You had alibis every time someone was killed!"

She laughed. "Not every time. Besides, who alibied me? Carrie, Tommy . . . " She let out a bellow of maniacal laughter. "I just gave them a little push, and they never knew I left."

"This is bull shit! This is bullshit! You're not the Fry Guy."

"Oh, yes. Yes, I am."

Kirk felt a tightness in his brain—a heat. He started running backwards. "Oh God! Oh God noooo!" His brain exploded in his head, and he fell to the earth in a limp pile. A guy she'd seen crouching behind a tree was next, and then the man walking by the dumpster. He was clearing her way, and all she had to do was run. She took off at full tilt boogey. They gave chase. A man barred her way briefly. Then he dropped his weapon, grabbed his head and screamed as his head made a strange popping sound. He staggered and fell, and Spider cleared his body easily. She was almost to the car. If she made it to the car she was practically home free.

Then something hit her in the neck, and suddenly the distance to the car was impossible. As she staggered and then fell she didn't have to wonder what had hit her. Damn! She hadn't counted on tranquilizer darts.

Robby sighed.
She hadn't made it. Damn it! That changed everything. Move to plan two
. He stopped frying people as soon as he saw her go down. He watched helplessly as the men who had been all over the park now ran to her side. Two vans pulled up, and men in lab coats got out of one. They put Spider Webb into a straightjacket, then they put a bucket-looking thing over her head. He knew instantly what the helmet was for, because his mental link to Spider was severed immediately. They hauled her back into one of the vans with them, then the SWTF men loaded their dead into the other van, got in themselves and roared off.

When Robby was sure they were all gone he crawled down out of the tree he'd been in for hours. He took only a second to stretch his tired limbs, then he ran to the car, jumped in the driver's seat and took off. He turned the switch on the box next to him and it started to blip. Now he wouldn't lose Spider.

Of course, he might not find her, either.

Tommy didn't leave the hospital. Nothing at home was important enough to risk the fact that it might be bugged. All that mattered now was survival.

He wasn't waiting till tomorrow. Wasn't taking any chances.

He watched Laura sleeping. She hadn't protested his staying, and he hadn't had too much trouble talking a nurse into loaning him some scrubs to wear to sleep in. They'd brought him a cot, but he wouldn't be using it.

He looked at the clock. It was one in the morning. Things were quiet on this floor. Not too many people around. He looked out into the hallway—not a soul in sight. He stepped out and headed for the ER. As luck would have it, there had been a four-car pileup and the joint was jumping. In the excitement no one took notice of one more person in scrubs running around doing things.

Back in Laura's room he checked on her. She was still sleeping soundly. He went into the bathroom and locked the door. Then he pulled the pillowcase from the top of his pants and took his stolen stash from inside it, stacking it along the top of the sink.

He pulled his hair up and, using surgical tape, taped it away from his implant. He gave himself a shot of Lydocaine to deaden the area, and then he took the scalpel and cut a single line across the top of the small lump. Using tweezers he pulled the implant from his skin. He ran it under the water, holding it in his hand all the time. He made sure it was in the on position, and then he taped it to his arm. Only then did he see to the wound. He used surgical glue to close it, smeared it with antibiotic ointment, and dressed it. His hair barely covered his haphazard bandaging job. He quickly cleaned up the mess he had made, making use of the biohazards bin he had filled earlier with the clothes he'd been wearing. This done, he headed down the hall towards the extended care ward.

The name on the door said that his name was Brian Green. According to his chart, he had just received a heart transplant and was doing well. He was due to be in the hospital at least two more weeks. That made him the perfect candidate.

He opened Mr. Green's robe, and the guy woke up. He looked straight at Tommy, and Tommy smiled.

"What the hell?" Brian Green asked.

"I'm sorry, Sir, I tried not to wake you. Dr. Parker asked me to put a monitoring device on your back . . . Just in case."

"In case of what?" the man asked in a panic.

Tommy smiled in a concerned fashion. "You know, just in case. Could you roll onto your side?"

The man did so without another question, and Tommy quickly taped his link securely on the man's back.

"That was it. You can go back to sleep now. I'm sorry." Tommy left, shutting off the light. He sighed with relief and headed back down the hall, grabbing a wheelchair on the way.

Well, so far so good.

Back in Laura's room he shook her gently till she woke up. She smiled at him in a way that let him know that she was still druggy. "We playing doctor, Honey?"

"Yes." He picked her up and put her into the wheelchair he'd brought back with him. "We're going for a ride." He covered her with one of the blankets off her bed.

"What's going on, Tommy?" Laura asked. She wasn't so out of it that she couldn't tell there was something wrong.

"You were right and I was wrong. That should make you very happy, so just shut up and sit still."

He looked both ways before he rolled her out into the hall, so he jumped more than a little when someone called out.

"You there!"

Tommy looked over his shoulder and saw a short, fat nurse with a face that looked like it had been hit with a shovel, heading towards them.

"What's that, Sir?" he asked.

She caught up with them. "What in God's name are you doing? It's one thirty in the morning. Patients are supposed to be in their rooms."

"Where are we going, Tommy?" Laura asked.

Tommy shot the nurse a half smile. "Escaped from the psych ward. She thinks I'm her husband," he whispered.