"Oh, me and my slippery old silver tongue. But you were bound to find out sooner or later anyway." Hezekiah leaned closer. It was clear from the expression on his face that he was dying to share a secret with Ryan. "Do you ever wonder how you ended up in the hospital in the first place?"
"Of course I do. I wonder about a lot of things. Mostly what I think about are those poor people who died of the BODS virus."
Hezekiah narrowed his eyes and said, "No one actually died."
"Say what?"
"We sort of placed you in that whole situation. Kaylee was in on it as well. So was everyone else you met there. As a matter of fact, Kaylee is one of the newest members of the Society of Legal Eagles. She's going to be a real firecracker."
Ryan could barely speak. "Why would you do that to me? Is that how you get your kicks?"
"Look at me," said Hezekiah. "I'm very old. It's time for me to retire. In order to retire from the Society of Legal Eagles, a member must find a younger replacement. I've chosen you as my replacement."
"So you decided to torture me?"
"Not torture you. Test you. I had to make sure you have what it takes to be a loophole closer. As a matter of fact, you were in a leaphole from the minute you were knocked off your bicycle and hit the pavement."
"You mean the whole fire at the hospital-that was from an actual legal case?"
"Stacy versus Truman Medical Center. Missouri Supreme Court, 1992. We brought you out of the leaphole when you were swinging through the elevator shaft at the end of that rope you and Kaylee made."
"Is that why all that wind was blowing up through the shaft and into the hallway?"
"That's right. There was no leaphole to the Infectious Disease Control Center. The Society had to stage that part of the test on its own."
"And the trip to the prison, the night in the dungeon?"
"We staged that, too. Sorry about leaving you and Kaylee in those dark cells all night. With our latest budget cuts, an old fort with no electricity was all we could afford to rent."
"You could have afforded a stinking candle."
"You're right. All I can say is that the Society takes its tests very seriously. Sometimes our members go a little overboard."
"What were you testing?"
"Character, of course. And courage. Each step presented a different question. First: would you run out of the hospital when you saw Kaylee running the wrong way, or would you go back to save her? You went back. Second: would you share the vaccine with others, putting your own life at risk in the hope of saving all? You did. Third: were you willing to travel back to the William Brown to discover bad precedent? You were. Finally: did you learn how to abandon bad precedents, to make the jury see through the eyes of the victim? You did."
"I don't like being tested," said Ryan.
"But you passed, boy. You have what it takes to become a Legal Eagle."
"Who says I want to be one?"
Hezekiah was taken aback. "What did you say?"
"You think this is all a big joke, the way you tricked me?"
"It wasn't a trick, Ryan."
"Of course it was. It was you and Kaylee and the judge and probably even all those jurors who made themselves look like the passengers on the William Brown. You all got together and decided to make me run through this maze like a rat after cheese."
"Don't be angry."
"I have a right to be angry. Sure, it's nice to know that no one actually died in the hospital because of a lack of vaccine. It was all just a test. But that doesn't excuse what you did. You just jerked me around."
"I did nothing of the sort. This is an honor. I chose you."
"Well, maybe I choose not to be chosen."
"You must accept, Ryan. Not everyone is given the opportunity to become a Legal Eagle."
"Maybe you should rethink the way you deliver your invitations."
"Please, Ryan. I'm old, and my skills are fading. I don't have the time or the energy to scout out a new candidate. Don't do this to me."
"So, it's all about you. Is that it?"
"No. It's about the future of our Society. It's about the battle against Legal Evil."
His repeated mention of the battle against Legal Evil set Ryan to thinking. From the day his father was taken away to jail, Ryan had thought his father was nothing but a liar. He'd lied to Ryan's mother when he said everything was going to be all right. He'd lied to Ryan and his sister when he said they had nothing to be ashamed of. He'd lied again when he said he was innocent. Ryan wasn't so sure anymore. Maybe those weren't lies. But he was dead certain of one thing: Hezekiah had lied to him. Ryan didn't like being tricked. He didn't like being lied to or deceived. The fact that Hezekiah said it was all for a good cause didn't make Ryan feel any better.
"I want to go home," said Ryan.
"But you're so close to becoming a member. Just a few more-"
"I don't want to be a member. My mom must be really worried about me. I just want to go home."
Ryan pushed away from the table and started toward the cafeteria exit. Hezekiah hurried after him. "You're making a terrible mistake, Ryan."
Ryan kept walking down a long corridor that led to the main lobby of the courthouse. On either side of him were two rows of towering columns, each one easily four stories in height. They made him feel so small, like a tiny ant among a forest of redwoods.
"Do you hear me, Ryan? I say, you're making a mistake!"
"I can live with it," said Ryan. He was headed toward a set of massive wood doors. His heels clicked against the polished marble with each footfall. As he neared the exit, it suddenly occurred to him that he didn't know where the courthouse was located. He didn't know the street, the city, the state. He didn't even know what country he was in. But it didn't matter. He'd had enough of this legal fantasy land. He wanted out. He wanted to go home.
"Ryan, don't open that door!"
Ryan ignored him and pushed on the handle.
"Ryan, don't!"
He pushed once more, but to no avail. Then he pulled- and it was as if he'd unleashed a hurricane. The door flew open with so much force that it was nearly ripped from its hinges. It slammed against the wall, and a tremendous wind rushed in. Ryan was swept from his feet and thrown back into the lobby. Somewhere in the background he heard Hezekiah calling to him, but it sounded as if he were a mile underwater. Ryan tried to move forward, toward the door, but the screaming wind was too strong. He turned to find another way out of the building, and what he saw stunned him.
The columns were moving.
Massive pillars of stone were on the verge of teetering back and forth. It was just a few inches of movement, but they were indeed moving, he was sure of it. It was a side-to-side motion, like that finger wagging in his face when that man with the flat face had carried him to his ambulance. The courthouse lobby was a wind tunnel, and the only things in it were Ryan and two rows of columns. Everything was a blur. The courthouse itself had seemed to fade from existence. Back and forth, back and forth the columns swayed.
Then Ryan left his feet, and everything went black.
Chapter 18
Ryan woke to the sound of his own heartbeat. He was lying on his back in a hospital bed, but the mattress was angled upward so that he was nearly in a sitting position. A tangle of wires and tubes connected him to some kind of machine that made his pulse audible.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
His gaze swept the room. Slats of sunshine were streaming through the blinds on the window. The shadows made a funky zebra-like pattern on the floor. There was a television, but it was turned off. A woman was seated in a chair at the end of the bed. She was slouching, and her chin was resting on her chest. She appeared to be asleep. Finally, Ryan's vision came into focus.
"Mom?" he said.
Her eyelids fluttered. She seemed dazed at first. Then her gaze met Ryan's, and her face lit up. "Ryan, are you awake?"
It was a simple question, but it still confused him. He was feeling a bit disoriente
d. "I think so."
His mother rushed to his side. She threw her arms around him and hugged him so tightly that the heart monitor actually did a beep, beep-beep, blip. She switched off the volume on the machine and said, "I can't believe you're back."
"Where am I?"
"Mercy Hospital. They brought you into the emergency room yesterday afternoon."
"You mean I've been gone less than a day?"
"No, no. You were missing for three days. Teddy Armstrong and his friends told the police that you tried to race your bike against their car. They saw you get hit by a station wagon. The driver stopped, and the boys thought he was taking you to the hospital. But you never made it to a hospital. You never showed up anywhere." Her eyes welled with tears. "Oh, Ryan. I'm just so glad you're back."
Ryan hated to see his mother cry. He'd seen her cry too often since his father went to prison. "It's okay, Mom. I think I'm okay."
"Thank God."
She wiped away her tears, and they shared a little smile. It actually felt good to be back. But this was all so confusing. "So, how did I get here yesterday?" he asked.
"It's the strangest thing. Someone found you lying on the side of the road where you had your accident three days ago. They called for an ambulance, and there you were."
"Who called?"
"Nobody knows. The person didn't leave a name, and when the ambulance arrived there was nobody there but you. Think hard, Ryan. Do you have any idea how you got there?"
He sighed, thinking aloud. "The last thing I remember is opening that courthouse door. All that wind rushed in, and those tall, stone columns started going back and forth, and…" He stopped himself, seeing the incredulous look on his mother's face.
"Courthouse?" she said.
"Yeah. I was in the Court of International Justice."
She laid her hand on his forehead and checked for a fever. "Do you even remember the bike accident?"
"Of course I do. But that seems like such a long time ago. So much has happened since then. When I woke up, I was in the emergency room-a place a lot like this one. Then a fire broke out, and I met a girl named Kaylee and some other people. We tried to escape from the fire, but we ended up in a disease control center that was top secret and…"
The concern on his mother's face stopped him in mid-sentence. "This all sounds crazy, doesn't it?" he said.
"You poor boy. It's just like the doctor said. You must have bumped your head pretty badly in the accident. You couldn't even find your way home. He thinks you may have been wandering around aimlessly for the last few days in some state of temporary amnesia."
"No, Mom, that's not what happened."
"It's all right, darling."
"Mom, I'm telling you the truth."
"Please, just rest, son. The police are going to want to take a statement from you. But I want you to rest until you're able to tell the difference between what's real and what's not real."
He wanted to explain more, but he feared that she would only think that he had really lost his mind. "How's Ainsley?" said Ryan.
"She's fine. Misses her big brother."
"And Sam?"
"If he could talk, he'd say it wasn't very nice the way you left him frozen in the stay position when you bolted out of the house on your way to the bike accident."
Ryan felt bad about that, but it also made him proud to have such an obedient dog. Good boy, Sammy.
They sat in silence for a minute, and then his mother took his hand. "Ryan, why did you leave the house that morning?"
He struggled for the right words, but there was no way to say it without shame. "Because I didn't want to go visit Dad in jail again."
"I wish you would give your father a chance."
"I know."
"Your anger is understandable," she said. "No child wants to have to visit his father in prison. But if your father tells you he's innocent, I wish you would at least consider the possibility that maybe, just maybe, he isn't lying to you."
Ryan took a moment to think about all he'd been through over the past few days. He had seen with his own eyes that bad things can happen to good people. Good people could even find themselves trapped by bad laws, like those passengers thrown overboard on the William Brown. Or like that woman on the bus who was arrested because of her skin color.
Ryan wondered if his father was like them.
"Okay, Mom. As soon as I get out of here, let's go visit him."
"You mean it?"
"Yes. I want to hear what Dad has to say. I really do want to know why an innocent man would confess to a crime he didn't commit."
"I'm sure he'll tell you if you seem willing to accept the truth. But remember. You still may not like what your father has to tell you. The truth is sometimes hard to swallow."
"I understand."
"Good," she said as she squeezed his hand.
Ryan smiled a little, then said, "I'm starving. Would you mind getting me something to eat?"
"Sure. I'll check downstairs in the cafeteria. Why don't you try to get a little more rest while I'm gone?"
"Okay, Mom."
She kissed his forehead and left the room, leaving the door open on her way out. Ryan's head sank back into his pillow. This truly was bizarre. Hit by a car. Gone missing. Found three days later in the exact spot where he'd had his accident. Could he possibly have been wandering around the city all that time, not sure who he was? Could he have imagined the hospital, Kaylee, the casting of lots for a vaccine? He supposed it could have been a dream or some sort of delusion. Except Hezekiah. That lawyer had seemed too real to him. He couldn't have been a dream.
Because Ryan really missed the old geezer.
Ryan suddenly did a double take as a man passed his room in the hallway. He was eerily familiar. He looked exactly like the driver of that car that had hit Ryan on his bicycle. It was the man with the incredibly flat face. Slowly, Ryan slid out of bed. His bare feet came to rest on the cold tile floor. He felt dizzy for an instant, but he soon got his bearings. He disconnected the wires that tethered him to the heart monitor. Then, one step at a time, he walked toward the door.
He stopped, poked his head out, and peered down the hallway. A nurse got onto the elevator. An old woman was being taken to her room in a wheelchair. No sign of Flat Face anywhere. Maybe Ryan had imagined it. Maybe he'd imagined everything. He closed the door, turned and started toward his bed, then stopped short.
Flat Face was sitting on the edge of his bed.
"How did you get in here?" asked Ryan.
"With ease," he said.
Ryan took a half-step back. "What do you want?
"Don't be afraid. My name's Jarvis. I've come on behalf of Hezekiah."
The mention of Hezekiah caught him off guard. If the last few days had truly been nothing but a dream, how did this Jarvis know about the old lawyer?
"You were not dreaming," said Jarvis.
"How did you know I was wondering about that?"
"I would be happy to elaborate, but I know how you reacted to Hezekiah's explanation of how leapholes really work."
"You mean the computerized virtual legal environments?"
"No. I was referring to his other explanation."
"You mean magic?" said Ryan.
"That would be the one," said Jarvis. "I know you don't believe in legal magic."
Ryan gave it a moment's thought. Talk of magic still seemed like something out of fairy tales. But the computer and virtual legal environments sure did seem to leave many things unexplained. "Let's just say I'm still skeptical."
"No problem. I was too. Before I met Hezekiah, I was just a greedy lawyer headed in the direction of Legal Evil. I was what they refer to in the profession as an ambulance chaser."
"What's that?"
"That's another name for a sleazy lawyer who chases after injured people in ambulances. Before they even got to the hospital, I would convince them to sue the person who hurt them. That's how I used to get my clients. And that's how my fac
e ended up this way."
Ryan had been afraid to ask about his flat face. Now that the man had mentioned it, he felt free to inquire. "It is amazingly flat."
"Never chase a parked ambulance," said Jarvis.
Ryan tried not to laugh, so it came out like a snort. Jarvis didn't seem too offended, and Ryan figured it was because he was just kidding anyway.
Suddenly, the door to Ryan's room flew open. Kaylee rushed inside and shut the door behind her. "You found him!" she said to Jarvis.
"Yes, I told you I would," he said.
Ryan looked at Kaylee and said, "What are you doing here?"
"We need your help. Jarvis didn't want me to come along and ask you any favors, because he thought you might be mad at me. But I thought you might be too frightened by him to agree to anything. So I followed him here on my bicycle."
"Well, I guess you're both right. No offense, Jarvis, but you are a little scary looking. And I suppose I am a little mad at you, Kaylee. You did trick me that night we were in those dark cells next to each other. The way you pretended to be afraid and all that."
Kaylee said, "I'm sorry about that. But we can sort that out later. Right now, Hezekiah needs your help. He's in big trouble."
"Did something happen to him?"
Jarvis said, "Oh, I suppose it was inevitable. Hezekiah wasn't kidding when he told you that he's getting old and needs to retire. He really shouldn't be working on so many cases. Anyway, after you left, he was back in his library doing some research."
"You mean leaphole research?"
"Exactly. He used one of those leapholes to check out an old case. And now…"
"What?" said Ryan.
Jarvis had a lump in his throat, as if all choked up. "He can't get back."
Ryan folded his arms, his skepticism rising. "Wait a minute. You're trying to tell me that Hezekiah got trapped in a virtual legal environment? You can't get trapped in a virtual environment. It isn't real. There's nowhere to go."
"Maybe it isn't as virtual as you think it is."
"So you're trying to tell me that Hezekiah is lost?"
Kaylee said, "He's definitely not lost. No one knows his way in and out of cases better than Hezekiah."
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