"Uh, Suzy." I twitched. "Are you…are you in labor?"
She nodded proudly. "Started this morning about four o'clock."
I gulped. "You went into labor at four o'clock this morning and you are sitting in my office now?" My voice rose to a near shriek.
She looked to be in pain again and started to breathe funny. "Don't--worry! It took thirty hours last time, remember?" A few more pants and a pitiful groan. "I…didn't…want to go…too early!"
"Did your water break?"
She nodded, quite unable to talk. I reached for the phone. It took me a moment to remember the emergency number. We couldn't use nine-one-one from inside the complex. With shaking fingers I dialed and then yelled into the phone, "I need an ambulance. My friend is in labor." And from the look on her face, it didn't look like she had thirty hours to go.
The guy on the phone started asking all kinds of questions. I interrupted. "Can you get me a doctor, a real doctor on the phone?" I eyed Suzy. She didn't look good. In fact, she leaned back and started to gasp harder. Then, she screamed.
I thought the wall was going to cave in. The phone fell from my lifeless grasp, and I clutched my ears. "Suzy!" I made shushing motions.
It was too late. The entire hallway erupted as people poured out of their offices to see what was going on. Even if the entire floor hadn't heard the first shout, the next three screams that ripped from her throat would have done the trick.
Warily, I edged around the desk, trying to stay away from her flailing arms. I remembered her doctor's missing beard with a clarity that lent me the caution of a trainer handling a wild tiger. "I think you should lay on the floor."
I reached to close my office door just as Turbo burst in. He brandished a long piece of bent metal that looked as if it had been ripped off one of the server racks--not an easy feat considering the things were generally strong enough to hold about eight hundred pounds.
Before I could say a word, Suzy let out another screech. Bruce came in behind Turbo, knocking him sideways into me. "Omph." I went down hard. Turbo crashed on top of me and nearly took my head off with the rack pipe.
Bruce had his firearm pointed at the window above Suzy's head. Luckily her pain had taken her to the floor where she lay panting and groaning.
Bruce stared wildly at the scene.
"What is going on?" Turbo demanded, rolling awkwardly to his feet.
"She's in labor!"
I could hear other voices in the hallway and feet running. The stairwell door opened and slammed twice.
"What?!?" Bruce blinked rapidly and then, like a shadow, his gun was gone. "Labor?" he repeated stupidly. "You're not being attacked?"
"In a manner of speaking. We are about to be assaulted by a baby." To bring the point home, Suzy screamed again. The phone squawked.
"Ambulance," I shouted at it. "Turbo, I called one. Can you organize people to direct the help when it gets here?"
He stared down at me and blinked. He nodded but didn't move.
"Bruce do you know first aid?" He was an agent. I was hoping they taught him something about saving lives.
Turbo finally got the message to his brain. He whirled around and, still carrying the metal rail, he tripped over Bruce and disappeared. I heard him shouting that everything was okay, it was just a birthing.
I closed my eyes for a moment. Just a birthing. No problem.
When I opened my eyes again, Bruce was backing out of the room. "Bruce," I threatened. "I need help in here. I need towels and lots of them. The guy that sits next to me works out at lunch." I pointed in the right direction. "He'll know who else might have towels.
Bruce shook his head mutely.
Bruce," I warned as he looked around wildly for a place to run or hide, "Get me towels or I'll blow your cover!"
As if it wasn't totally gone. The man had run down the hall, probably with his gun drawn and acting as if he was ready to stop a war. He better get himself together and help me with this baby because I sure wasn't going to deliver it on my own.
I picked up the phone and worked my way around the desk again. "Did you find a doctor yet?" I asked the phone.
"We, yeah. What is going on there?"
"Just a little bit of excitement what with the labor and all." Suzy wasn't acting any better than she had the first time. She screamed for her husband, trailing off around another contraction.
"Yeah sure," I told the voice when it suggested I try to keep things calm. "Suzy, we need to get you undressed." At least the bottom half. Thankfully she must have been expecting to go to the hospital sometime today because she had worn a tent dress.
Sally stuck her head rather timidly around the corner of my door. "Is it really just a pregnancy?"
Just a pregnancy? What was wrong with these people? "Yup. No cause for alarm." What was I going to do? I couldn't deliver a baby!
Sally crept in the room. "What can I do to help?"
"Can you get behind her and support her head or something? Sort of give her something to rest against?"
Sally started towards Suzy. I yelled, "Watch her hands!" Sally leapt backwards and hit the desk. She tried to get her balance, but tripped over my leg and landed on her butt with a loud, "Ow!" Papers floated down around her head.
I groaned and tried to explain. "She's got this problem with tearing things apart when she is in labor."
Sally looked like she was going to faint. Gingerly she stood back up and edged around Suzy. "There, there," she tried, wiggling down between the wall and behind Suzy.
My friend was weakening and grateful for Sally's folded legs under her shoulders. There were tears in her eyes. "I want my husband to be here!"
I didn't think I'd earn any brownie points by telling her that she could have arranged that had she gone to the hospital like a normal person.
Bruce showed up and shoved a handful of towels in my general direction. He immediately turned away. "Bruce, her husband's name is Robert. Get him either here or tell him to make his way to the hospital."
It was time. I could tell. I had seen this before. The contractions were fast and heavy. I relayed the information into the phone and when I could hear, I did as I was told and measured her diameter and looked for the head and tried to remember to breathe through my mouth.
Birthing is a messy and smelly business. It is not a process that I recommend at all. When I get to heaven I have a few questions about the whole design process. In fact, leaving to ask some questions right now sounded like a pleasant alternative to telling my best friend to "push!"
"I am," she screeched back at me. "Aaaaagh!"
Sally used one of the towels to wipe up the sweat, and I used another to wipe off the other stuff.
When the baby finally made its entrance, I was panting nearly as hard as Suzy. "Turbo, if you don't get that ambulance here pronto I'm going to--" I couldn't think of a vile enough threat. "Turbo!"
The baby was breathing. I followed the doctor's orders, orders I could now hear since Suzy had stopped screaming.
God must have heard my prayers or the combined screeching, because the ambulance attendants arrived. One of them stood over me and helped with the baby. There were two others with a gurney in the hallway, waiting for me to get out of the way. I gladly gave up my bundle and backed around the side of the desk where I could do no harm.
Efficiently, the attendants helped finish the process, got Suzy loaded and moving. Turbo peeked around the corner. He took one look at me, and his eyes widened. I shut mine and reminded myself to breathe through my mouth. I smelled. The room smelled. Sally looked disheveled, but she had been on the other end of the mess. She was crying.
"Isn't it just wonderful? A miracle. An absolute miracle," she boo-hooed into the one remaining clean towel.
"Try it from my side next time," I muttered, a tear or two coursing down my own cheeks. Okay, it was kind of special. Even if it was messy.
"Uh…" Turbo cleared his throat nervously. He leaned over and handed me a handkerchief. "You
okay?"
I looked down. I looked almost as injured as when the thugs had attacked me. "Yeah." Getting cleaned up was going to be a chore. For once, Turbo didn't offer advice. In fact, he scooted out rather quickly, as if he was afraid I might get goop on him. I didn't blame him.
"Didn't you see your own kid's birthing?" I called after him, moving his way, my hands out.
He realized he had been retreating and stoutly stopped. "Yes. It was…interesting. I'll call a cleanup crew." Abruptly he turned down the hall. He didn't run, but it was close.
Sally and I made it to the ladies room, but my clothes were ruined. I cleaned up as best I could and told her I was going home. She was still teary-eyed. "I've never seen anything like it. Wasn't it wonderful? Makes you want to have some of your own, doesn't it? Well not at first, not when she was screaming, but then that little helpless ball just came out and it was real and breathing and--" she sobbed some more. Normally I would have put my arms around her and let her cry it out, but once she calmed enough to see all the resulting smears of gore, she wouldn't appreciate my comforting gesture.
"Sally, I have to go home and change and then to the hospital to see how she is doing. Can you make sure Bruce called her husband?"
That thought gave her pause. "Oh my! He'll want to know right away!" Like a little bullet, she sped away, intent on bringing the wonderful news to the father.
I slunk through the hallways, trying not to be seen in my latest condition. Turbo must have hidden in his office because he wasn't anywhere around. Neither was Bruce.
Chapter 33
Friday, the day of the party, I woke up fat and ugly. This, as any female can tell you, was a very bad thing. These days happen and they are not controllable, but you should avoid any woman having one of these days.
I showered and decided that I had a headache. To make up for my fatness, I wore a skirt instead of the usual pantsuit, and for the ugliness, I wore extra makeup.
It didn't help.
Marilyn was awake and up before I left for work.
"You'll make sure the caterers get in and setup?"
She nodded.
"I think you dusted that already," I told her.
She ignored me and kept at the furniture.
I did my best not to ram into anyone on the way to work, but started wishing I had by the time I read my fourth email. Today of all days, the new equipment had arrived. Usually, receiving logged it all and then sent notification for us to come and get it as we needed it. Since the order was for my new group, it was too large to leave piled downstairs in receiving.
I called Tam and Jerry and asked them to help cart the stuff upstairs. "Can you get it into the lab and unpacked?"
"Racking it will take days," Tam pointed out.
"I know. Just get it in the lab or hallways for now. We'll set it up later."
Turbo showed up and handed me a clipboard. "So that you can track it," he offered helpfully.
If it had been any other day than an ugly day, I would have happily done as he suggested. Instead, I handed the clipboard back to him. "You track it. It will take every one of us helping to get this done before the end of the day." I led the way with my ugly little nose in a twist.
Downstairs, I started signing for boxes. Turbo checked items off of the list. There were two delivery trucks still in the docks so I went outside to see how that was progressing. The deliveries came from various companies into a hub run by Strandfrost. Since our company handled setting up equipment for various locations, once orders arrived in the hub, it was delivered by local movers to businesses or in this case, to Strandfrost. One of the trucks was from Pilgrim's Moving and the other, much smaller truck was from Three Boxes and a Man.
Pilgrim's moving truck was an almost empty eighteen-wheeler. Two guys were sliding things onto dollies and moving things back and forth. They were moving very, very slowly.
There were so many people walking around, I almost didn't notice the extra guy sulking about the corner of one of the trucks, coming towards me.
I took a few extra steps in his direction, assuming he wanted to waste time by asking a question or otherwise stall in getting the trucks emptied. I was halfway between the truck and the building when I got a good look at his face. "Ohboy."
Even with the cap on I finally recognized the enemy. The movers probably assumed he was part of the other trucking crew. There was no reason for anyone to know better, but I did.
I spun back for the building so fast, I nearly lost a shoe.
With Marilyn not showing up at home, Ted had come looking again and stupid me, I had completely forgotten to make sure I wasn't being followed. Maybe the hotel had told him where I worked. Or maybe he had followed Marilyn to my condo and then followed me here. For that matter maybe he caught up with Marilyn, and she had given him the information in order to save herself.
However he had managed it, Ted had just gotten lucky and found me without even having to break into the building.
I backpedaled up the dock, but it was too late. I was the only woman near the loading docks, and he spotted me just as I dodged behind the larger truck. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him whip his baseball cap around and exchange the slinking walk for a run.
I stepped up the pace, not paying any attention to the hooting catcall when I lifted my skirt and jumped up onto the ramp. The moving guy could see me stark naked for all I cared. I was pretty sure that standing out in the parking lot and getting beaten to a pulp by Ted was not a good alternative.
Turbo smiled at me as I rounded the corner.
"I have to leave!" I shouted on my way past.
He stopped smiling and looked outside. "They giving you--"
I dropped my share of the paperwork onto one of the boxes. "You sign for the stuff."
Ted moved into view, clearing the ramp like a greyhound let loose to catch the rabbit.
Without further ado, I pelted into the hallway and hit the stairs at a full run. Where was Bruce? I needed to borrow his gun.
It didn't take me long to find him since most of the group was downstairs, and he and Paul were the only ones in the lab. "I want your gun," I demanded around heaving breaths.
"What?" He looked around the lab rather worriedly, his hand unconsciously moving towards his lower back before he caught himself.
"Do you remember the day I came in looking like hell?"
He stared at me and then coughed nervously.
"Besides this one," I clarified. Loose strands of hair floated across my face. My skirt was askance. I couldn't see myself, but the extra makeup was bound to be worse for the wear since I had just completed a run up fourteen flights of stairs. I wiped at the sweat.
Bruce must not have understood what I was trying to say because he just mumbled, "Well, uh…"
I waved aside his uneasiness. "Let's cut to the chase, here. You talked to my friend Derrick and found out I had been with him on a stakeout the night before I came in looking like hell. Remember?"
Bruce rolled his eyes. "Derrick mentioned you blew his cover," he said pointedly, eyeing Tam, who was just coming back into the lab. Tam stared at us with obvious interest.
"Yeah well, if idiots in wet suits try to be alligators don't expect the alligators to be fooled."
"What?"
Apparently, Bruce had conveniently forgotten about running through the hallway with his gun out, or maybe he figured that his own mistakes didn't count. I moved on. "Look, the guy that I went to talk to, well actually, the guy that Derrick was trying to get a confession from or actually it was his wife." I stopped talking. On days that I am fat and ugly, I am also mean and incoherent. In frustration, I stomped my foot, yanked my skirt halfway straight and started over. "Okay, what I mean is, the guy is downstairs now. He has followed me once before."
Bruce stood up, understanding the urgency at last. Then, in a cowardly move, he sat back down. He moved his hands up and then back onto his knees. Finally he managed, "Let me get this straight. Derrick, your cop frie
nd, is following you?"
I didn't have time for this. "Could I just have your gun?"
His eyes bulged. "Uh, no."
"No?" I was feeling really mean now. "Fine. Just remember that I was forced to kill him with my bare hands because of you." With each word, my finger dented his shirt above his cold heart.
I spun on my heels. Ted wasn't going to intimidate me. That was Marilyn's role, not mine. And if Bruce wouldn't let me shoot him, well I'd just tell old Ted to get off Strandfrost property.
I took the elevator down to save my strength. By the time I made it to receiving, some of my anger had deflated, replaced by caution. I opened the door and peeked into the dock area.
Turbo looked around the ends of his longish hair without taking the pen from the clipboard. He sidled up to me and whispered, "He's gone."
I tried to see around him. "Are you sure?"
Turbo jerked his head towards the wider, outer doors. "That the same guy that whistled at you?" He puffed out his chest. "I told him to get lost. I told him he wasn't going get away with anything around here, not with me around. He'd have to go through me before I'd let him get to you."
"And he just left?" Unbelievable. I peered around carefully. Sure enough, no Ted.
"Oh." I smoothed my skirt again and tugged at my hair. There was no help for it. I sighed. "Sorry I ran off. And, uh, thanks."
I turned around to find that Turbo wasn't paying attention to me anymore. He was busy frowning over the rest of the boxes. The eighteen-wheeler backing away made conversation impossible for a minute.
Before I could thank Turbo properly, he beckoned me over and pointed to an empty space. "They are gone. An entire crate of hard drives, an analyzer and a load of ten high-end laptops."
I looked at the list. "You have them checked off as received."
He nodded. "Exactly. One of the movers brought me the paperwork for the laptops. I signed off. They were right here. The hard drives hadn't been unloaded, but the loader was getting them off the truck. I personally watched one of the movers carry the analyzer over."
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