by Trudi Jaye
Viktor had even joked about having broken Henry out of far worse places. Fee frowned, remembering the old man’s comments about Henry being purer than virgin snow when they first met. She suspected she’d been played.
They’d only just gone inside when multiple police cars started screaming down the street, pulling to a halt outside the hospital doors. Fee counted seven police cars before giving up counting. Her heart was beating wildly as she wrapped sweaty hands around the steering wheel. She leaned forward, squinting into the distance. What the hell was happening?
Did they know what Rilla was planning to do?
The next minute a small blast rocked the bottom floor of the hospital. Glass rattled, but didn’t break, which meant it wasn’t a massive explosion. Almost immediately, smoke started billowing out the main entrance. Fee squinted, trying to figure out what was happening. The policemen started scurrying around like ants in a disturbed nest. If it hadn’t been so serious, Fee might have laughed. As it was, she just sat there worrying about where Rilla, Garth, and Viktor might have been when it went off. Or was this part of their plan?
People started streaming out the doors, coughing, and struggling with the smoke. The more she thought about it, the more she was certain this wasn’t supposed to happen. Rilla had talked about something much more subtle than another explosion. Which meant that they were too late. The Witch Hunters were making their move.
Fee spotted Rilla and then Viktor coming out of the building. They were both grabbed and herded to one side by police officers, along with every single other person leaving the building. At first, it seemed like it was because they were checking them for injuries. Then Fee saw them delaying anyone who tried to leave. They were all being detained for questioning. At first, she thought Garth had escaped, but eventually she saw him being directed to the same area. Her breath caught. All of Henry’s rescuers were now immobilized.
Except her.
She licked her lips. She’d wanted to help rescue Henry. She just hadn’t realized she’d end up being the only person able to do it. Climbing out of the truck, she slammed the door shut. She walked slowly toward the hospital building, trying to figure out where she should go. In front of her, a hospital worker dressed in blue turned briskly down the side of the main building, away from the turmoil at the front. Fee followed the man down a footpath, trying to stay far enough back that he wouldn’t notice her.
He strode past the first building then down past another connected building and turned into an entrance at the back that was clearly toward the kitchens. Fee carefully peered through the door. Inside was a busy food preparation area, filled with people in the same blue coats.
She opened the door, and walked in, trying to seem like she belonged there. She needn’t have worried. The noise in the room from several large extractor fans, the people talking, and the banging of pots and pans more than covered the sounds of her entry. She saw someone down the far end opening a closet full of the blue tunics. A plan started to form in her head. Walking over, Fee grabbed a tunic, and then hurried through a door on the other side of the room. It led out into a corridor, with doors down each side. Up ahead, she saw a couple of staff pushing delivery carts toward the elevators.
She pulled on the tunic, and walked into the room the others had just left.
“About time. I swear, you guys are hired because of your snail’s pace ability rather than your speed,” said a large man standing beside a row of metal carts.
“Sorry,” mumbled Fee, trying not to look the man in the eyes.
“Here, take this to the third floor. The room numbers are on the sheet. And hurry about it.”
Fee nodded, and grabbed the handle of the trolley, pushing it out the door before the man realized there was an alarm going off on the other side of the building.
She pushed it to the elevators, and pressed the button. Her hands were sweaty and she was convinced someone was going to put a hand on her shoulder at any moment and ask who the hell she thought she was.
The elevator pinged to say it was arriving, and she was so wound up, she jumped.
Taking a deep breath, she pushed the trolley into the elevator car, and pressed the button for level four. In the small space of the elevator, Fee felt like her heart was trying to escape from her body. The walls of the elevator car towered over her, and the camera recording the lift’s occupants seemed designed to catch her in the act. They’d see her face and know she wasn’t a hospital worker.
She didn’t know how she’d made it this far.
The elevator pinged for the fourth floor, and Fee steeled her shoulders. She could do this. Henry needed her help, and she was going to give it. It was her fault he was in this mess.
The trolley made a crashing noise as it bumped its way over the exit to the elevator, and several eyes turned in her direction as she walked out into the corridor. But as soon as they saw her blue tunic and the food trolley, everyone went back to what they’d been doing. The nurses at the nurses’ station ignored her, and the patients wandering the corridor didn’t even seem to notice her.
She wiped one sweaty palm down the side of her borrowed tunic. Rilla had said he was on the fourth floor, but she’d never mentioned the room number. Her heart still racing, Fee tried to make herself walk slowly down the corridor, back toward the main building. There was a connecting tunnel, and she pushed the trolley down it, not looking left or right.
She was just about to turn into the patient’s wing, when a large woman in a nurse’s uniform stepped in front of her trolley. “Where do you think you’re going?” she said.
***
A chittering sound woke Henry. It was late afternoon, and the sun was glaring through the window next to his bed. His little thieving critter was bouncing around on the pillow beside his face.
“What is your problem?” grumbled Henry and he rubbed his eyes.
It’s chittering increased and he looked again. A series of maps lay on the bed just down from his pillow. Another police badge and a gun were on top of it.
A gun.
“Oh, jeez! Now we’re in for it. You can’t steal a policeman’s gun and have him take it calmly,” said Henry, exasperation in his voice. “Now I have to figure out how I’m going to get it back to him without him noticing.”
The creature seemed to wilt in front of him. It dropped to the pillow like a dog being told off.
Henry sighed. “You did very well to find the maps. I’m sure that can’t have been easy.” He didn’t have the heart to hurt the feelings of the tiny robot.
It perked up again and started gesturing toward the maps and outside the room.
Henry frowned. It almost seemed like the little critter was telling him to get out.
Now that he noticed it, there was some extra noise going on outside his window. He lifted his arm, and saw that the critter had already unlocked his handcuffs. Henry stood and pushed aside his bedcovers, walking cautiously over to the windows. Directly below were more than a dozen police cars, smoke billowing out the main doors, and police officers running around, herding people, and trying to calm the general mayhem. A news helicopter was flying overhead.
“What’s happening out there, little fella?” he asked. “I think I’m going to get dressed, just in case.”
Henry grabbed his jeans and shirt from the chair next to his bed. He picked up the map, and hesitated over the badge and gun. But in the end, figured they might be useful if he was about to try an escape. He sighed, put the badge in his pocket, and tucked the gun in the back of his jeans. It wasn’t comfortable, but it kept it hidden.
His little critter was now gesturing at the ceiling. Henry looked up and saw a tiny manhole above his bed. “You want me to get out through there?” he said. The critter nodded.
“Is it really necessary?”
The critter nodded again, jumping up and down on the bed.
A crash from outside his room galvanized Henry into action. He climbed on his bed, reached up, pushed aside the door to
the ceiling vent, and attempted to pull himself up. Something crawled up his leg at the speed of light, and he almost let go, but it was just the critter making its way ahead of him. It strained his weakened muscles, but he managed to haul himself up, and replace the cover. Sometimes a carnival upbringing had its uses.
He was just about to crawl along the tight air vent tunnel, when the door to his room crashed open. Henry stilled, wondering if he’d made the right decision. He was now on the run—albeit for a crime he didn’t commit—from the police. It was going to be hard to live that one down.
“He’s not here!” said an agitated voice.
“Of course he is. Look under the bed.” The second voice chilled Henry’s blood. David. There was only one reason Fee’s amenable co-worker would be here.
“I have! He’s gone. He must have been warned by all the damn sirens.” The first voice was now accusatory. “I told you that was too much.”
“I didn’t know they’d get here so fast. Who the hell knew they were so damn efficient around here,” said David. He sounded ruffled, as if he was barely keeping it together.
Henry held himself rock still, not even breathing. The pumping of his blood was so noisy they must hear it.
“What do we do?” asked the other man.
“We search this room, and then we search every damn room on this floor. He has to be around here somewhere. I’m not going to let him or Fee get away from me after all this time.”
They searched the room and, finding nothing, they stormed out again.
“Thanks, little buddy. I owe you one,” whispered Henry.
His critter chattered in response, although much quieter than usual Henry noted. At least it had a sense of self-preservation.
Henry began to crawl along the vent shaft, wondering which way he should go. Away from his room was his only thought for the moment. He was sure it would occur to them eventually to search the ceiling and ductwork. Henry soon found a rhythm in the dark vents; it wasn’t so different from climbing in and out of awkward places to fix carnival rides.
“We’re going to have to get out of here sometime,” he whispered to his critter. It bounced against his hip, and paper rustled in his pocket. The maps, of course.
Henry pulled them out, and flicked through them until he found one with both the vent system overlaid over the room schematics for the fourth floor. He whistled under his breath and glanced down at his buddy. “Man, you’re a lot smarter than I gave you credit for,” he whispered.
It bounced and chittered.
He saw a supply room up ahead. “I need something to wear so I’m a bit more anonymous,” he whispered. “I’m thinking I’ll find it there.”
He crawled laboriously along the tunnel, taking his time to ensure he didn’t make too much noise, and eventually found the vent hole he wanted. He put his head through and checked out the storeroom. Medical supplies lined the shelves, but in one corner was what he was really looking for, replacement scrubs for the orderlies and nurses. He flipped himself down, using a nearby shelf to make it to the ground then pulled a set of scrubs over his own clothes. They were a little tight, but it would do to get him out of the building.
He peered out around the corridor, but it was clear. Either the Witch Hunters had left, or they were staying out of the way because of the police. Either way was fine with him.
He strode down the corridor toward the exit he’d noticed on the map. He was heading toward the back of the building. No good going out the front entrance and being recognized by a sharp-eyed police officer.
He slowed as he heard voices arguing up ahead.
“I just do what I’m told, and I was told to come here, deliver this food. I’m not arguing. I’m just doing my job.”
“Well, I’m telling you this ward isn’t due for meals for another hour. Let alone the fact we’re supposed to be locked down because of the scare in the waiting room downstairs. I’m telling you, you’ve gone to the wrong floor first.”
“I don’t think so,” said the other voice stubbornly.
Henry grinned. Fee was standing her ground, but she was going to lose against a head nurse. He turned the corner, and winked at a startled Fee.
“Look, she’s obviously new. Shall I turn her around and take her back downstairs?” he said blithely, already turning Fee around and pointing her in the direction she’d obviously just came from. He pushed out a little persuasion magic at the nurse, hoping it would be enough to confuse her. All they needed was a couple of minutes.
The nurse puffed out her chest. “Just make sure you don’t take too long. We have rounds shortly, and I don’t want to be down a staff member.”
“Absolutely. I’ll be back.”
Henry strode off, pulling a bemused Fee—and her trolley—beside him.
“How—”
“Shhh,” said Henry. “She’s probably got super-hearing. Those kinds of women always do. Amazingly organized, hugely efficient, won’t bend the rules an inch, and can hear you a mile away.”
Fee gave him an amused glance, but otherwise allowed him to lead her back to the bank of elevators.
She was wearing a blue tunic that she’d obviously scavenged from somewhere, and her face was a little flushed from her run in with the nurse, but she’d never looked more beautiful to Henry. He punched the button for the lifts, and managed to avoid the temptation to turn his head and see if the nurse could still see them. The doors opened, and they both entered the elevator, pushing the trolley ahead. He turned and winced when he saw the nurse standing at the end of the corridor still watching them, a frown on her face.
“How did you get into the hospital?” he asked as soon as the doors shut.
“I’m allowed to speak now?” she raised one eyebrow in his direction.
Henry didn’t reply, he just pulled her toward him, and kissed her full on the lips. The usual electricity zinged between them, igniting into a fierce passion that pushed Henry over the edge. He hungrily devoured her lips, their tongues clashing desperately against each other. He wrapped her tight against his body, and would have pulled her to the ground and taken her then and there, if a little chittering noise hadn’t brought him back to reality. The accompanying pinch on his ear by sharp little metal fingers didn’t hurt either.
“Ow!” he said, pulling back and rubbing his ear.
Fee blinked owlishly up at him. “What happened?”
“Your little critter is being bossy. Unfortunately, he’s probably right. We have to figure out where we’re going. What level did you come in on? Where are the others?”
“Ground floor. Kitchens.” Fee paused, and avoided his eyes for a moment.
“What’s happened, Fee?” Henry said with a sense of foreboding.
“I think they’re okay, but everyone else got caught up in the explosion out the front.”
“Explosion!”
“It was only a small one, mostly just smoke I think. A distraction to let the Witch Hunters in.”
Henry nodded. “Who’s here?”
“Rilla, Viktor, and Garth. How come you’re out of your room?”
“I had a hunch I needed to escape.” A chittering noise on his shoulder made him smile. “And it was the right thing to do. You were right, Fee. David is here. He’s a Witch Hunter.”
Fee took a step back and put her hand over her mouth. “He’s here? He’s really one of them?”
Henry nodded his head grimly. “That’s why we need to get out of here as soon as we can.”
Fee nodded. “Where do we get out?” She glanced around the elevator as if she was going to find an exit right there.
“First we need to ditch the cart.” Henry glanced down at the bulky thing next to them.
Fee glanced down at it. “I don’t want them to know I didn’t deliver the food. We can’t take it back to the kitchen level.”
“We can leave it in the elevator. No one will know it was us.”
“But not on the ground level. Too many possible people to see us l
eave it there.”
Henry nodded. “We can stop on the first floor, dump the cart, and take the stairs the rest of the way down. Then go out the way you came in.”
They still had their uniforms on, so that might also give them a little bit of protection. “I just hope there isn’t some kind of rule against fraternization between nurses and kitchen staff.”
Fee glanced at him. “There’s bound to be. You had better have some kind of excuse ready in case someone questions you. I’ll be okay; I’m wearing the kitchen staff uniform.”
The door pinged and started to open on the first floor, and Henry moved forward.
The doors spread apart, revealing two police officers in the doorway. Henry cleared his throat, prepared to give some kind of excuse, but they stepped aside, and waved him past. He nodded at them and, heart pounding, walked out of the elevator. Behind him, he could hear the rattling of the trolley as Fee pushed it out of the elevator. He walked a little way down the corridor, not daring to turn around in case it gave them away. He could hear the cart clattering down the hallway behind him. The door of the elevator pinged shut, and he let out an explosive breath, turning to Fee. “Are you okay?” he said.
“That was too close,” she replied, her face pale in the fluorescent hospital lighting.
“Come on, let’s ditch this thing, and get out of here,” said Henry, grabbing one side of the cumbersome contraption.
“Where’s the best place?” she said, glancing around. “Maybe a supply closet?”
Henry opened a door along the corridor. Three patients looked up from their beds. “Anyone hungry?” he asked.
“About time,” muttered a grumpy voice from the far end of the room. “They said it was all being held up because of some commotion out front. But that doesn’t stop us from being hungry back here.”
Henry motioned to Fee, and she pushed the cart into the room. He glanced at her, and then at the three older men, and together they handed out the food.
