Tales of the Scarlet Knight Collection: The Wrath of Isis

by P. T. Dilloway

  “No one’s allowed upstairs without permission of the owner.”

  “Get her on the phone then.”

  “I can’t do that, ma’am. You’ll have to come back later.”

  “I can’t wait until later! This is an emergency.”

  “Be that as it may, ma’am, if I go waking up the doctor at three-thirty and it’s not really an emergency, I could lose my job.”

  Becky stifled a curse and then reached into her purse. She rifled through the bag until she came up with her city ID badge. “I’m with Councilwoman Napier’s office. The councilwoman’s niece is a patient of Dr. Pavelski and she needs to see the doctor now.”

  The guard studied the badge for a moment and then nodded. He picked up the phone and punched in a few numbers. Becky began to sweat as time dragged on without anyone seeming to pick up the phone on the other end. What if the doctor didn’t answer? What if she wasn’t home?

  Finally the guard spoke into the receiver. “Yes, Dr. Pavelski, I’m sorry to wake you up so early. There’s a Miss Beech from Councilwoman Napier’s office here—”

  Becky snatched the phone away and turned her back so the guard would have to come around the desk to take it back. “Dr. Pavelski, I’m a friend of Dr. Earl, your patient. There’s been an accident.”

  “An accident?” came back a woman’s sleepy voice.

  “Someone stabbed her.”

  “Stabbed her?”

  “Yes. A mugger.”

  “Did you take her to a hospital?”

  “Well, no, not yet.”

  “That might be a good idea.”

  “No, look, she’s fine. I mean not fine, but she’s stable. It’s just that we aren’t sure about the baby. I thought if you could come over and take a look—”

  “You want me to go to her house and check on her baby without any instruments?” Dr. Pavelski sounded fully alert now—and none too pleased. Becky supposed on the surface it did seem pretty half-baked, so long as you didn’t know the full truth about Emma.

  “We can take her to a hospital, but I think she’d rather have you there than some stranger.” When the doctor didn’t say anything right away, Becky said, “I’m worried about her. You know how stressed she’s been. And now this on top of it. I think she needs someone she can trust.”

  “I’ll be down in three minutes.”

  Becky handed the phone back to the guard and stammered an apology. He glared at her and then turned to his security monitors, to pretend to be too busy to notice her. She checked her watch; the hands didn’t seem to move as the three minutes dragged into an eternity.

  Then the elevator doors opened and a trim woman of about thirty appeared, dressed in a Harvard sweatshirt and sweatpants. She also carried the standard black bag in one hand. “You must be Becky,” the doctor said.

  “Yes. You’re Dr. Pavelski?”

  “The one and only. Let’s get going.”

  On her cell phone, Becky called Aggie, who agreed to take Emma to St. Joseph’s downtown. Aggie didn’t have a car, but she still had Sylvia’s truck. She didn’t know how to drive, but insisted that Akako did, though she hadn’t been able to pass the test for her driver’s license, still used to the rules of her world, where they drove on the left, red meant go, and stop signs were green. “They’ll meet us at St. Joe’s,” Becky told the doctor.

  “Good. I interned there so I know a few of the doctors. They shouldn’t give us too much trouble about letting me borrow their equipment.”

  “Are we going to have to fill out any official reports?”

  Dr. Pavelski turned her head to stare at Becky, who focused straight ahead on the road. “Is there a reason you don’t want to fill out any official reports?” When Becky didn’t say anything, the doctor asked, “Is she in trouble? I get the feeling there’s something going on that she won’t talk to me about. Is it the father? Did he stab her?”

  “Jim? God, no, he’d never hurt her. He worships her.”

  “Then why isn’t he ever at the appointments?”

  “Because he doesn’t know. She hasn’t told him.”

  “I thought as much.” Dr. Pavelski shook her head. “She certainly is mysterious, this friend of yours.”

  “I’m sorry I got you up so early. If you don’t want to help—”

  “Of course I want to help. I just wish I knew what the hell was going on.” The doctor shook her head again. “My patients who only speak Spanish are more forthcoming.”

  “Maybe you should try talking to her in Spanish then. She might give you better answers.”

  “Any answers would be nice. Let’s start with how she got stabbed.”

  “You know how this place is. Walk down the wrong street at the wrong time and you can wind up in deep shit.” Becky knew all about this; she had once walked down the wrong street only to be saved by Emma in the nick of time.

  “So she was walking around alone? After midnight?”

  “As you said, she’s mysterious.”

  “It does at least explain why she always looks so tired when she comes into my office.”

  “Emma’s never been one to sleep a lot.”

  “Me neither—apparently.”

  “I’m sorry about that.”

  “Then you can at least be straight with me. What really happened?”

  “I don’t know. You’d have to ask Agnes.”

  “Who’s that?”

  “A friend. She’s a dressmaker.”

  “And she’s the one who found Emma?”

  “Emma came to her.”

  “Instead of going to a hospital?”

  “Well—”

  “You really expect me to believe that someone as smart as her is out walking around by herself after midnight, six months pregnant, gets mugged, and goes to her friend the dressmaker for medical attention?”

  “Aggie’s kind of a new age doctor on the side.”

  “Crystals and chants and all that?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “But apparently her skills don’t extend to prenatal care.”

  “No, not really.”

  “For someone who works for a politician, you aren’t very good at lying.”

  “That’s why I work behind the scenes.”

  “Would you like to hear my theory about what happened? I think your friend is the Scarlet Knight.”

  Becky stomped on the brakes to stop in the middle of an intersection, which thankfully was deserted at the moment. “What? That’s crazy.”

  “It explains most everything: the secrecy, the lack of sleep, and the scars I’ve seen on her shoulder. And it explains why you and your friend are trying to hush this up.”

  Becky willed her mind to work to come up with some way to refute this. No one had ever figured out Emma’s secret before, not like this. “No, it’s like you said the first time,” she said, “it’s the father. He’s abusive to her, but you know even smart women don’t always leave.”

  “So this Jim doesn’t really worship her, like you said?”

  “He does when he’s sober. He’s just not always sober.” Dr. Pavelski stared at Becky, who tried to hold the doctor’s gaze. She forced a smile to her face to add, “You really think Emma could be a superhero? She’s too nice to go around beating people up.”

  “You’re probably right.” Dr. Pavelski looked away and Becky tried not to breathe a sigh of relief. She pulled into the emergency room parking lot but didn’t see the Ram pickup anywhere.

  “They must not be here yet,” she said.

  “I’ll go in and get things set up. You stay here and wait for them.” The doctor got out of the car but then leaned down to wag a finger at Becky. “Just be careful getting her in here. We don’t want to aggravate the wounds.”

  “Yes ma’am,” Becky said. After Dr. Pavelski left, she finally blew out that sigh of relief.

  ***

  When she came to, the last person Emma expected to see was Dr. Pavelski. The doctor put a hand on Emma’s chest so she wouldn�
�t sit up. “Easy does it. You’re in the hospital. Everything is going to be fine.”

  “Hospital?”

  “Your friends brought you here. Do you remember what happened?”

  Emma thought for a moment and then nodded. She had gone to the Plastic Hippo to test out the FLI robotic spy. Then some woman dressed in black had slaughtered Don Vendetta’s lieutenants and guards with the ease of reading the newspaper. Emma went in to confront the woman, who’d managed to stab her in the leg and side with knives.

  Poisoned knives. Her memory became hazy about the ride to Aggie’s house on her motorcycle. She remembered her body had gone numb and she’d flown through the air. Aggie had smiled over her, and said something to reassure her. Then Emma passed out after she told Aggie to save the baby.

  “My baby,” Emma said and put a hand to her stomach. It felt as swollen as before. “Is she all right?”

  “The initial tests are positive. The knife didn’t hit anything vital—for you or the baby. I want to run a few more tests to be on the safe side.”

  “OK.”

  “In the meantime, you can tell me who did this.”

  “I didn’t see his face.”

  “Right. Because you were walking around at night, alone, six months pregnant.” Dr. Pavelski shook her head. “Emma, I know you love your baby too much to be that irresponsible.”

  Emma hung her head. If it was irresponsible to walk around alone, then she supposed to run around in magic armor and beat up criminals was many times worse to Dr. Pavelski. She supposed it was irresponsible to jeopardize her baby like that. Still, she had a responsibility to the rest of the city as well. “Maybe I am.”

  “You’re not like that.”

  “Maybe you don’t know me as well as you think you do.”

  Dr. Pavelski sat on the bed and tried to look Emma in the eye. The doctor smiled gravely as she said, “I’m going to write this up as a false labor for now. You decide you want to come clean about what really happened, I’ll get some officers in here to take your statement. All right?”

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” Dr. Pavelski stood up again. “I’m going to get some more tests ready to run. In the meantime, I know some people who are anxious to see you.”

  The doctor hadn’t cleared the doorway yet before Becky pushed her way into the room. She wrapped her arms around Emma’s shoulders, careful not to press herself against Emma’s stomach. “Oh my God, kid, I was so worried about you.” Becky pushed hair out of Emma’s face to look her in the eye. “Are you all right? Both of you?”

  “I guess so. She’s going to run a few more tests to make sure.”

  Then Becky’s smile of relief faded and her voice took on its paternal, mother hen note. “What the hell were you thinking? You could have been killed. You and the baby.”

  “I didn’t mean to. I was just doing some reconnaissance. Then someone appeared and she started killing people. What was I supposed to do?”

  “Run like hell the other way.”

  Emma couldn’t help but smile a little bit, though she knew it would only infuriate Becky even more. “That’s what I did—eventually.”

  “You think this is funny?”

  “No.”

  “You’re just lucky Aggie could find an antidote—and that the knife didn’t hit anything in your womb.”

  Emma turned her head to see Aggie against the back wall with Akako, both of whom looked far shier than usual. They probably felt they had intruded on a private moment. “Thank you,” she said.

  “Not at all, dear. You’re very lucky the armor kept you alive long enough for me to find the antidote.”

  Emma nodded. She supposed she had been very lucky in a lot of ways—except for running into that assassin in the first place. An assassin who was still out there and would almost certainly try to kill her again. Kill her and the baby if Emma didn’t surrender the armor, which she could never do.

  “I can’t do this anymore,” she finally said.

  “What? You don’t mean you’re going to give up the baby, do you?” Becky said. “It’s a little late—”

  “No. I mean I think it’s time I took some maternity leave.”

  Right on cue, Marlin stuck his head through the wall. “I should have known. You’re going to let this one incident keep you from doing your duty?”

  Emma put her hand to her stomach. “My duty is to my baby first. I can’t risk her life anymore.” She fixed Marlin with what she hoped was a cold stare. “Next time that knife might hit me another inch lower and she might die.”

  The ghost looked back at her for a moment and then shook his head. “I suppose it was inevitable, wasn’t it? Just didn’t think it would happen so soon.”

  “Do you think it will search for someone else to fill in for me?”

  “I don’t have any bloody idea.”

  “As long as it’s not me,” Becky said.

  “As if you could even fit into it,” Marlin grumbled.

  “I hope it doesn’t,” Emma said. “Whoever has it is going to be the next target. This woman isn’t going to stop until she gets the armor. She’s so quick, against someone who isn’t properly trained—”

  Though she couldn’t exactly say why, the face of Megan Putnam came to her mind. She supposed it was because Becky had mentioned a few times before how alike Megan and Emma seemed, which was ironic since Emma had thought she was Megan while under the influence of a potion. Jim had broken that spell and inadvertently produced the daughter Emma carried within her. Sometimes the world worked in such strange ways.

  “It wouldn’t be the first time that happened,” Marlin said. “I remember—”

  “Not now,” Emma snapped.

  “Fine. I’ll just go back to the Sanctuary and wait for your replacement.”

  Aggie cleared her throat and nodded to Becky, who took Emma’s hand. “Listen, kid, the three of us were talking while the doctor was running her tests. We think it’s good you’re going on maternity leave, but we think it’d be even better if you took a vacation to someplace safer. You know, someplace without homicidal maniacs trying to kill you.”

  “Where would that be?” Emma asked. There was certainly nowhere in Rampart City that met that description unless she lived underground with Jim and the rats.

  Akako cleared her throat and then said, “We thought you could stay with me. In the archives. No one would be able to find you there.”

  Emma looked around at the faces of her friends, none of whom seemed very confident in this idea. “Doesn’t the archives have dangerous levels of magic that could hurt the baby?”

  “Only if you go into the vault. The first floor is perfectly safe for mortals. Just a little dark and musty and boring.”

  Emma considered this. To live in the archives would only be a step above living in the sewers. Still, as Akako had said, no one would be able to find her there. Only witches knew about the archives; not even Emma really knew how to find it. There was no chance the assassin would be able to find her and finish what she’d started. “What about prenatal care? I don’t suppose you have a doctor down there?”

  “We can find someone nearby,” Aggie said.

  “No, I want Dr. Pavelski.”

  “You should really consider someone else,” Becky said. “She’s too smart for her own good. You know on the way over she said she thinks you’re the Scarlet Knight?”

  “Really? How did she—”

  “She put the pieces together.” Becky patted Emma’s shoulder. “I think you’d be better off with someone who doesn’t know you so well.”

  Emma thought about this for a moment and then shook her head again. “No. She’s gotten me this far.”

  Her friends looked at each other; Aggie finally shrugged. “I can vanish you back here for any appointments. If that’s what you really want.”

  “Yes.”

  “My ears are burning,” Dr. Pavelski said with a perky chirp. She appeared in the doorway a moment later wi
th a tray, on which were syringes and test tubes. “I hope you’re feeling up to a poke or two.”

  “Sure.” Emma tried to smile at her friends to reassure them everything would be fine.

  “We’ll check back with you later, kid,” Becky said.

  “Get some rest, dear,” Aggie said and patted Emma’s arm. Akako only nodded to her and then she was alone with the doctor.

  “So, you give any thought to what I said?” Dr. Pavelski asked.

  “I think I’ll stick with false labor.”

  “Fine, but there’s still time to change your mind. You don’t have to be a victim, Emma. You’re too smart for that.”

  It was the second time the doctor had praised her intelligence, but Emma felt stupid at the moment; she had no idea what the OB/GYN meant. Did Dr. Pavelski really think she was the Scarlet Knight? Did she want Emma to confess and hope the Anti-Vigilante Task Force went easy on her? But what did she mean by being a victim? Maybe the doctor thought of it as a curse, which was partially true. “Don’t worry, I won’t be a victim anymore.”

  “Good. Now this is going to hurt a little bit. Probably a lot less than what you’ve already gone through.”

  They shared a laugh at this and even the baby kicked, as if to join in. This in turn prompted Emma to smile. Her baby was still alive. And soon they would be safe. Or at least so she hoped.

  Chapter 5

  For the last four months, Emma had done her best not to inadvertently run into Jim Rizzard down in the sewers. She knew his little friends could still keep track of her, but not even an intelligent rat like Pepe could differentiate between a pregnant woman and an ordinary one. Or at least if Pepe did notice a difference, he hadn’t said anything.

  She had seen less of the huge rat with the silver stripe down his back in the last six months. In the wake of the RAT Bombings, city workers had gone down into the sewers to make repairs; they sometimes inadvertently and other times intentionally destroyed rat’s nests down in the sewers. This had prompted some unrest among the various rat tribes, some of whom had begun to openly question Jim’s leadership.

  Early on Emma had wanted to offer any help she could as the “queen” of the rats. Jim relayed a message through Pepe that the best thing she could do was to not interfere. Once the city workers left, things would go back to normal—more or less—and everything would settle down.