Jo-jo roared loud enough to bring down the roof. His face turned purple. And booted feet raced down the corridor in their direction.
“Better find that computer, Mr T,” she told the geek. “Ugly has arrived.”
The geek looked startled at the odd sobriquet, but he did as told and ran for the main office.
The guard and nurse arriving in the doorway carried automatics.
Thirty
In his ear clip, Magnus could hear the general’s roars but not his words. Nadine still seemed calm. He wondered if he could nail his boots to the ground to keep from running up to the entrance and bullying his way inside. She’d told him to stay back. He trusted her knowledge of Adams, but he was struggling with his Zorro complex.
A black BMW and a battered Chevy pulled up to the broken gate. When the gate didn’t open, a neatly-suited tall Asian gentleman stepped out of the BMW. There was an exchange of words with the gate guard. A couple of uniformed security men stepped out of the Chevy. The exchange became heated.
The Oriental gentleman shook the gate, found the manual mechanism, and shoved it open. Magnus recognized his profile from his research—the general’s one almost normal son, the former marine. Here was a man he might relate to and chalk into Plan A and B.
Sirens screamed further down the road. All the newcomers looked startled, then rushed for their vehicles as the gate swung open.
In his ear clip, Magnus heard Nadine addressing the Dick-guy with their emergency code word of Mr. T, with no urgency at all. She was going to be the death of him. What in hell was happening in there?
“Going in,” was all he said to his mic. It was almost a relief to finally be in action. He hit send to Conan with the prepared text. He almost had Plan A ready—but it was damned hard planning without knowledge.
Straightening from his crouch, he sauntered around the corner of the building as if he belonged there. The day-shift guards went for their radios. Magnus ignored them and turned to the suit opening the door.
“Feng Chang Adams, I presume?” Magnus asked. At the former marine’s wary nod, he added, “I believe we have a situation.”
Fire trucks and police cars roared up the highway.
“A mild understatement from the report I received,” Chang said gravely. “And you are?”
“Excellent question. I’ll get back to you on that later.”
The rattle of automatic fire inside propelled Magnus through the open doorway at a full run, terror speeding his action. Chang and the guards followed on his heels.
He raced at quarterback speed smack into a lobby milling with night-shirted patients, nearly bowling over a frail elderly woman tugging at her thinning hair. How the devil was he supposed to plan madness?
Adjusting his speed and trajectory, Magnus dodged a gaunt man in a hospital gown ambling into his path. He leapt over magazines flung by a young female cowering in a corner. Bearing toward the west wing, Magnus nearly knocked over a very large woman in a sweat suit carrying a rolling pin and bedpan. For all he knew, she was the cook. She swung. He ducked and ran on. From a cry behind him, one of the guards didn’t duck fast enough.
The fire alarm continued screaming but no water sprinklers were in operation. Yet.
Reaching Nadine at the end of the corridor was at the top of Plan A—not easily accomplished in a hall packed with half-dressed, terrified mental patients. The shouting and gunfire on the far end had produced panic in the staff as well. The ones not having hysterics tried to round up the frightened patients and shoo them down side halls. It was difficult telling the difference between inmates and staff.
Considering his mental state at the moment, Magnus figured he fit right in. Where the devil was Nadine?
He skirted around a young boy curled in a ball and a wiry middle-aged woman shoving anyone who approached her. A uniformed nurse sent him a glare, but she had her hands full trying to persuade an elderly man not to punch another patient who simply stood there alternately wailing and cackling. Magnus sympathized with the old man. He wanted to cold cock the screamer too.
He was in an indefensible situation, surrounded by innocents. Plan A called for his canister of tear gas. If he could come in close, he could hold his breath long enough to grab Nadine and run.
The mob scene at the end of the corridor prevented that scenario. Fuck.
Magnus halted abruptly and held out his arm to stop the men racing behind him. Chang resisted but Magnus didn’t budge. “Nadine’s in there with your father. I don’t know who has the guns. It could be the crazies.”
That warning forced the guards to a halt along with Chang.
“Situation?” Magnus asked into the mic.
“Nurse Wretched and her minion have the guns,” Nadine reported cheerfully, obviously working on her lunatic persona. “They’re not very adept. I think they’ve shot Jo-jo’s foot attempting to remove his handcuffs. The crazies aren’t as obvious as they appear.”
Despite his pounding pulse, Magnus rolled his eyes at her mocking repetition of his term crazies. She’d been listening to at least part of what he’d said. Handcuffs? He remembered that she’d asked for them. The woman had plotting down to a science.
She’d trapped and frustrated her stepfather, literally binding his hands and rendering him helpless—as he’d done to her for years. Magnus would cheer if he didn’t have to be terrified enough for both of them.
“Plan B, then,” he told her. “You gas ’em.”
“Protect Dick first. He’s in the main office, dismantling the war games, I hope. Oops, sorry,” she continued with forced jollity. “I just reminded the crazies about the computers. They’re heading your way.”
“Guard the main office,” Magnus ordered Chang. “Don’t let them mess with the guy at the computer. I’m going in down there.” Nodding at the end of the corridor, he didn’t wait for argument.
He went for Plan C, D, and E. He drew the can of Mace from his belt—a woman’s weapon but the safest one in his arsenal under current circumstances.
A hatchet-faced female rushed at him carrying a long-barreled automatic at her side as if it were a baseball bat. Nurse Wretched, he surmised. Magnus raised his arm and gassed her. She screamed, grabbed her eyes, and brought up the assault weapon one-handed.
The crazies weren’t obvious, indeed. She could spray bullets through half the hospital’s inhabitants.
Magnus kicked the gun from her grip while Macing the two non-uniformed suits rushing up to her side. Too blind to see his kick coming, the woman let the weapon fly.
It hit the wall and went off, tearing a hole in the acoustic ceiling tile.
Magnus grabbed one startled goon by the throat and held him in a headlock, forcing him to drop his hand-held semi-automatic. The other guard staggered from the effect of the gas. Magnus kneed him and grabbed his similar weapon. These guys were armed for war, not mental patients.
Behind him, Chang had already ripped the nurse’s abandoned weapon from a wily patient. The general’s son barked curt orders at the rightfully confused day-shift security that had come in with him.
Magnus didn’t have time to mind his back. He’d have to trust the ex-marine to restore what order he could.
Dropping the guard he held, leaving him to wipe his eyes and curse, Magnus shoved one automatic into his belt and broke down the other as he ran. Using his shoulders and elbows, he bullied his way past the milling staff and patients at the end of the corridor, and burst into the office.
He skidded to halt and his heart plunged to his feet.
The general held a knife at Nadine’s throat. The grizzled, half-dressed old guy didn’t seem fazed by his entrance. Apparently the earlier gunfire had succeeded in severing the handcuffs. The chain was broken but the shackles still hung from his wrists.
“Hi, hon,” Nadine said brightly, smiling at the dismantled semi that Magnus still held. “I take it Nurse Wretched has been disarmed?”
Swallowing hard, he froze. No amount of planning could fix this. Neither could act
ion. But Nadine was wearing her crazy face and was capable of detonation at any instant. Well, so was the general.
How the hell did he handle an entire building full of unbalanced minds?
“Just stand back and let me get to the computers,” the general warned, shoving Nadine toward the door. “This is a family affair. We can resolve it peacefully.”
Mad as a hatter, Nadine mouthed, rolling her eyes to get her point across.
Magnus got it. He didn’t like it.
The general was taller than Nadine. Magnus had a working weapon and good aim. Trained for action, his finger found the trigger. He could blow off the bastard’s head and end this right now.
Except the brain that Nadine had called formidable kicked in, and he didn’t raise the gun.
That was Nadine’s dad, a man she had admired, a man who may once have been a valuable military mind. Even though Magnus had spent these past weeks bent on taking out the general, he had to resist the urge to act first and think later. He couldn’t cold-bloodedly spill her father’s life onto Nadine’s shoulders. He wrapped both hands around the semi and held his fire.
“Don’t listen to Daddy, hon,” Nadine said in that unnatural voice she’d used when he’d entered. “I’m prepared to die. Just do what you must to save those little kids.”
Horror swept through him at the image of Nadine valiantly and insanely dying in front of him. No way. Not again. He wasn’t losing another woman through his own incompetence. Instinctively, he raised his gun— and then his head kicked in again.
Little kids?
This was Nadine. She was crazy like a fox. She’d promised she wouldn’t die in front of him, not even for little kids.
Think first. What was she telling him? Was she trying to sound harmless? Was the general ass enough to believe that? Even after she’d handcuffed him?
Warily, Magnus backed out of the room. He raised the working gun to the ceiling as if in surrender and placed his back to the wall, clearing a path for the general and Nadine to pass by.
“Drop the weapon,” the general barked. So he wasn’t totally crazed.
Magnus obediently removed the clip and stuck it in his pocket to prevent anyone else from using it. He lowered the gun to the floor and slid it into the office. He crossed his arms over the hoodie concealing his canister of Mace and itched to use it. Unfortunately, he feared the general would be trained to take his prisoner down with him if attacked.
On the other end of the hall the day-shift guards stood over the still-wailing nurse. With no weapons to wield, the general’s personal security goons stayed down, ineffectively wiping their eyes and cursing.
Chang waited outside the office door, arms crossed, weapon in hand, looking more like a thug than the ones on the floor.
“Oh, look, Chang’s here to help you, Daddy Dearest,” Nadine crooned in her best lunatic mode as the general pushed her past. Her comment distracted the general from Magnus to the activity at the end of the hall.
“Chang, stop that fool at the computer from sending our co-ordinates to the enemy!” the old man shouted.
“The enemy, as in those crazy Oswins?” Nadine asked cheerfully. “Or Po-po’s favorite family?”
Why the devil was she baiting a madman? Magnus bunched his fingers into fists, bit his tongue, and applied his brain to the problem. She was distracting the old guy, and it was working.
Plan Z, then. As Adams dragged Nadine past him and down the corridor, Magnus slid down the wall, sat on the floor, and yanked off his boots.
“They’re unnatural demons, a danger to the fabric of society,” the general shouted.
Who was an unnatural demon? Him? His family? Fascinating insight into dementia but not helpful. Climbing to his stocking feet, Magnus fingered the truncheon on his belt. For Nadine’s safety, he really needed to remove the knife from the general’s hand before taking him down.
With the general focused on the confrontation at the end of the hall, Magnus silently stalked behind him, watching for his opportunity.
The general had slow-going down the crowded hall. The dementos didn’t understand their danger and kept blocking the way with muttered pleas and grasping hands.
“The menaces must be stopped,” Adams shouted at his son over the head of the wailing banshee. “They killed a good woman. I should have learned my lesson then instead of playing with fire.” He pushed Nadine through the mob of weeping, dancing, yelling inmates. “Her mother’s family is too dangerous to live.”
Magnus began to sweat. Nadine’s mother was a Malcolm, as were Pippa and Dorrie, their families, and all the people on the general’s genealogy website. The general meant to eliminate all Malcolms? That’s what the detonators were for?
Rubber-suited firemen arrived at the far end of the corridor, axes and hose in hand, looking for a fire. Chang held up a hand and gestured for them to halt. The growing crowd in the lobby might prevent the general from leaving the corridor, but the computer office was on the general’s side of the blockage.
“The Oswins are demons? Or people like me?” Nadine asked, sounding almost sorrowful.
Magnus began to see her purpose, but it wasn’t helping any. She wanted others to realize that her stepfather had lost it, force them to stop him—even if she died in the process. Nope, not happening on his watch.
“All of you are anarchists!” the madman ranted at her. “I have to restore the natural order that you and your kind have disturbed, that in my arrogance, I allowed you to disturb. It’s all my fault for thinking I could control demons. But once the radicals like you are gone, obedience and respect for authority will be restored, and we can have a country to be proud of again.”
Magnus winced. Adams might as well have pulled Nadine’s trigger.
“You’re planning on eliminating everyone who doesn’t think like you?” Nadine asked in the same pleasantly dangerous tone.
Uh oh. The bomb was ticking.
“Just the unnatural ones,” the general repeated, sufficiently caught up in his own world not to comprehend his danger. “You and your kind are monitoring their minds. With you gone, the rest of the country will see that we’re right.”
“Chang, are you hearing this?” Nadine called. “Do you understand what I’ve been telling you now?
At the end of the hall, Chang narrowed his eyes and didn’t move. Like Magnus, he waited.
The general jerked Nadine’s head up with the knife. “Don’t turn my own son against me. My boys know what’s right. They know how to obey. They and my grandsons will follow in my footsteps.”
“Jo-jo, you’ve already killed one son and grandson with your obsession,” Nadine argued, not showing a hint of fear. “Another is in prison. A third is heading that way. I don’t think you want Chang following your murky path.”
Disagreeing with a madman wouldn’t end this farce, but Nadine was providing a nice distraction. The general grew red-faced with fury.
Nadine’s calm control gave Magnus permission to do what he had to do. She was letting him be the bomb.
Magnus opened one of the doors to the secure ward and pushed the wailing banshee inside, then lifted the young woman curled in a ball inside with her. When the wiry middle-aged woman came after him, he shoved her past the door, too. A fast-thinking staff member on the other side grabbed her arm and slammed the door. Half the obstacles had been removed from his path.
Detaching the cord from the weapons belt Conan had provided, Magnus grabbed two more confused patients, tied them together, and gestured for the nurse at the next security door to take them.
The general glanced suspiciously over his shoulder at the commotion, but Magnus stuck to the alcove with the patients and nurse, doing his best to look harmless. The general’s madness blinded him as badly as those of the inmates.
“Richard, do you have those computers up and running?” the general shouted, fixated on his targets and not the real world.
Obsessions narrowed the mind, Magnus concluded. Survival required e
yes wide open.
“Fall left,” Magnus said into his mic, not caring if Adams heard. He was already close enough to reach the elbow of the general’s knife-wielding arm.
Bless Nadine’s intelligence, she actually followed orders, even if it sounded like certain decapitation. Nadine stumbled to the left. Simultaneously, Magnus gripped the general’s knife-wielding right arm at the elbow. He pressed front and back, applying pressure to the tendon and nerves, paralyzing the arm. The knife clattered to the floor.
“Handcuffs, anyone?” Magnus shouted at their frozen audience as the enraged general fought him with the strength of two men.
Nadine hastily scooted backward against the wall to safety, blessedly taking the knife with her. Damn, but he loved a woman who could think for herself.
No one immediately came to his assistance. Magnus had to paralyze the old man’s arm again to wrestle him to his knees on the floor. Subdued, the once mighty military man merely looked pathetic, like a homeless, drunken derelict instead of the proud officer he’d been.
A cop emerged from behind the fire brigade, cuffs out. Finally, the knife-wielding episode had convinced the law that the general was dangerous. After a brief struggle, the policeman shackled the old man’s arms behind his back.
Magnus swung to Nadine, hauling her into his arms and squeezing her tight against him until he was certain both their hearts beat in tandem again. “Ten years off my life, woman,” he muttered.
And with a wrench of pain, he knew, once they were done here, he’d have to let her go. The general was no longer a boogey man to haunt her life. She was free now, to be whoever she needed to be. She didn’t need him.
She curled into him, sobbing. For now, he stroked her back, treasuring these last few moments. But this was no time for either of them to melt down if the general really had planted explosives.
“Computers?” he asked.
“Damn!” She shoved away and wiping her eyes, rushed off to the office.
Magnus wanted to breathe easier, but now he had to turn his brain to protecting the school and his family. Physical strength had limitations.
THE RISK OF LOVE AND MAGIC Page 25
