Strange Robby

by Selina Rosen

  Robby sighed. She hadn't made it. Damn it! That changed everything. Move to plan two. He stopped frying people as soon as he saw her go down. He watched helplessly as the men who had been all over the park now ran to her side. Two vans pulled up, and men in lab coats got out of one. They put Spider Webb into a straightjacket, then they put a bucket-looking thing over her head. He knew instantly what the helmet was for, because his mental link to Spider was severed immediately. They hauled her back into one of the vans with them, then the SWTF men loaded their dead into the other van, got in themselves and roared off.

  When Robby was sure they were all gone he crawled down out of the tree he'd been in for hours. He took only a second to stretch his tired limbs, then he ran to the car, jumped in the driver's seat and took off. He turned the switch on the box next to him and it started to blip. Now he wouldn't lose Spider.

  Of course, he might not find her, either.

  Tommy didn't leave the hospital. Nothing at home was important enough to risk the fact that it might be bugged. All that mattered now was survival.

  He wasn't waiting till tomorrow. Wasn't taking any chances.

  He watched Laura sleeping. She hadn't protested his staying, and he hadn't had too much trouble talking a nurse into loaning him some scrubs to wear to sleep in. They'd brought him a cot, but he wouldn't be using it.

  He looked at the clock. It was one in the morning. Things were quiet on this floor. Not too many people around. He looked out into the hallway—not a soul in sight. He stepped out and headed for the ER. As luck would have it, there had been a four-car pileup and the joint was jumping. In the excitement no one took notice of one more person in scrubs running around doing things.

  Back in Laura's room he checked on her. She was still sleeping soundly. He went into the bathroom and locked the door. Then he pulled the pillowcase from the top of his pants and took his stolen stash from inside it, stacking it along the top of the sink.

  He pulled his hair up and, using surgical tape, taped it away from his implant. He gave himself a shot of Lydocaine to deaden the area, and then he took the scalpel and cut a single line across the top of the small lump. Using tweezers he pulled the implant from his skin. He ran it under the water, holding it in his hand all the time. He made sure it was in the on position, and then he taped it to his arm. Only then did he see to the wound. He used surgical glue to close it, smeared it with antibiotic ointment, and dressed it. His hair barely covered his haphazard bandaging job. He quickly cleaned up the mess he had made, making use of the biohazards bin he had filled earlier with the clothes he'd been wearing. This done, he headed down the hall towards the extended care ward.

  The name on the door said that his name was Brian Green. According to his chart, he had just received a heart transplant and was doing well. He was due to be in the hospital at least two more weeks. That made him the perfect candidate.

  He opened Mr. Green's robe, and the guy woke up. He looked straight at Tommy, and Tommy smiled.

  "What the hell?" Brian Green asked.

  "I'm sorry, Sir, I tried not to wake you. Dr. Parker asked me to put a monitoring device on your back . . . Just in case."

  "In case of what?" the man asked in a panic.

  Tommy smiled in a concerned fashion. "You know, just in case. Could you roll onto your side?"

  The man did so without another question, and Tommy quickly taped his link securely on the man's back.

  "That was it. You can go back to sleep now. I'm sorry." Tommy left, shutting off the light. He sighed with relief and headed back down the hall, grabbing a wheelchair on the way.

  Well, so far so good.

  Back in Laura's room he shook her gently till she woke up. She smiled at him in a way that let him know that she was still druggy. "We playing doctor, Honey?"

  "Yes." He picked her up and put her into the wheelchair he'd brought back with him. "We're going for a ride." He covered her with one of the blankets off her bed.

  "What's going on, Tommy?" Laura asked. She wasn't so out of it that she couldn't tell there was something wrong.

  "You were right and I was wrong. That should make you very happy, so just shut up and sit still."

  He looked both ways before he rolled her out into the hall, so he jumped more than a little when someone called out.

  "You there!"

  Tommy looked over his shoulder and saw a short, fat nurse with a face that looked like it had been hit with a shovel, heading towards them.

  "What's that, Sir?" he asked.

  She caught up with them. "What in God's name are you doing? It's one thirty in the morning. Patients are supposed to be in their rooms."

  "Where are we going, Tommy?" Laura asked.

  Tommy shot the nurse a half smile. "Escaped from the psych ward. She thinks I'm her husband," he whispered.

  "You are my husband," Laura said.

  "You'd think they could keep these damn whackos locked up. Should have known you were from Psych when I didn't recognize your face. Sorry to bother you."

  "No problem."

  She went on her way, and Tommy all but ran to the service elevator.

  It opened right next to the rear exit, and they were out of the building. He started to breathe again when he saw the car. He rolled Laura over to it. Bud opened the door and helped Tommy put Laura into the car.

  "Can you tell me what the hell is going on?" Bud asked.

  Tommy didn't answer; he just ran the wheelchair back inside. He ran back a few minutes later and jumped in the back seat with Laura.

  "What's going on, Tommy?"

  "I can't tell ya, because I really don't know. I just know that someone is trying to kill Laura and I. Now just drive."

  Bud didn't have to be told twice.

  "You get the clothes like I asked ya?" Tommy asked.

  "Yeah. They're in that sack sitting in the floor, but . . . They ain't gonna fit."

  "That doesn't matter." Tommy got in the sack and dug the clothes out. He put them on over what he was wearing.

  "Where the hell you want me to go?" Bud asked.

  Tommy was watching out the rear window to see if they had picked up a tail. So far it looked clear.

  "Tommy?"

  "Take me on into Franklin."

  "Franklin! Tommy that's a two-hour drive one way! I'll never get home on time. She'll make my life a living hell . . . She'll . . . "

  "If you don't help us, Bud, we're going to be dead. Tell her you had to work late . . . "

  "If she calls work and finds out I didn't even come in, my life won't be worth living."

  "And it is now?" Tommy helped Laura dress, not an easy task with her arm in a sling.

  "No . . . "

  "Then what have you got to lose?" Tommy asked.

  "And he scores!" Bud laughed. "OK, Tommy. Franklin it is, then. I tell the bitch I had to work late. If she finds out I didn't go to work, I tell her I'm having a fucking affair. What's the worst she can do, leave?"

  Tommy allowed himself to get some sleep. When Bud shook him awake, the bone behind his ear was throbbing. The wire from the implant had been stuck into the bone—that's how you could hear with the damn thing. Now Tommy was wondering if he'd gotten all of the wire out.

  "What now?" Bud asked.

  Tommy sat up and looked around trying to get his bearings. He rubbed his eyes.

  "You'll drive us to a car rental place where you will rent us a white sedan. You will get the extra insurance. You will rent it for two days. We'll leave in the white sedan, and you'll go home." Tommy handed him some money. "Tomorrow you will drive your car to a parking lot within walking distance of a Wal-Mart. Don't take a cab, and don't let anyone see you walk in. You will shop at Wal-Mart for about forty-five minutes, and when you walk out into the parking lot, go to any empty spot and start screaming that your car has been stolen. Then you call it in. By then I should be long gone, and since they can't find the white sedan, they will have to believe you."

  "Which it has been—by
you!" Bud screamed. "I can't do that! You're a fucking cop, for Christ's sake!"

  "Which is why I know how to commit a crime without getting caught. Now come on, move it. Remember, not till tomorrow."

  "If you say so . . . Am I going to go to jail?" Bud asked.

  "I'm stealing the car, Bud, so don't worry about it," Tommy said. "By the way, Bud, that thing I gave you?"

  "The top secret thing?"

  "Yeah. Now listen close, this is what I want you to do . . . "

  Spider was waking up. Her feet kicked out from the curled position they had been in and hit the side of something cold and metal. It hurt because someone had taken her shoes.

  "Be still or you'll hurt yourself," someone said.

  She could hardly hear them; it was like listening through water, and . . . She couldn't feel anyone. She kicked the cage again to see if he would talk again.

  "Please be still, or we'll have to sedate you," he said.

  "What the fuck have you done to me!" she screamed. She couldn't see anything. There was something on her head. She tried to take it off, and that was when she realized that her hands were bound—and bound good. "Take this fucking thing off my head."

  "Must be horrible for her," another one said, obviously talking to the first one or a whole bunch of them. She didn't know how many. "Imagine going your whole life being able to feel those around you, then to be suddenly cut off. It would be as if we were blind."

  "Well I can't see shit, either, you stupid dick, but I can still hear so you can quit talking about me as if I can't. Take this thing off my head." Her screaming reverberated in her own ears. She could handle being tied up, even caged, but this thing on her head was driving her nuts. It was some kind of psychic screen to stop her from using her "powers." Her stomach grumbled and she remembered the transmitter she had swallowed a few hours ago. Hopefully, Robby hadn't done something stupid and gotten himself caught. Hopefully, he was following and would think of some way to save her ass. Because right now it was real obvious that she couldn't help herself.

  She tried to scrape the helmet off on the floor, but it was connected to her head by some chinstrap that she couldn't get off because she couldn't get her hands on it.

  "Why don't you just kill me!" she screamed, and started banging her head on the floor. They sedated her again.

  They walked into Sears and did something they had never done before. They charged as if there were no tomorrow. Then they hit several other stores, doing the same thing before they hit the open road going back the way they had come.

  The car was loaded to the top of the seats.

  He would use cash from now on. The plastic trail would lead the SWTF to Franklin while he was going in the opposite direction. He had to explain all this to Laura.

  Laura nodded. She was tired and her shoulder hurt. She'd felt like an idiot shopping for clothes while wearing one of Bud's four hundred pound wife's dresses. Of course she had looked like an idiot, too. Not that Tommy looked much better wearing six foot four inch, two hundred fifty pound Bud's clothes. She looked down at the jeans and sweater that she was wearing now. She looked better, but the little shopping spree had worn her completely out. Not really astonishing considering she'd been shot the day before.

  "I'm sure that I don't want to know, but . . . Just how much money did we spend this morning?" Laura asked, trying to get comfortable.

  "I purposely didn't keep track."

  "Are we . . . I know this is stupid because we're running for our lives, but are we going to lose our house, our cars . . . I mean if we can't make payments . . . I guess none of that matters as long as we're alive and together."

  "It does matter," Tommy said bitterly. "Of course it's more important that we are alive and together, but these bastards have no right to take everything that we have worked for, and Spider . . . God only knows what will happen to her, and for what? No one knows, not even Spider knows. She may be dead already. Well, they haven't seen the end of Tommy Chan. I will run and hide because that is the best thing to do right now, but then I will rise up and strike, and they won't know what hit them."

  Chapter Seventeen

  "Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth,

  before the evil days come, and the years draw near,

  when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them . . . "

  Ecclesiastes 12:1

  The alarm went off. Carrie reached over and slammed the snooze button. She rolled over to find Spider, and found empty air instead. She was about to panic when she remembered that Spider had gone to work. She started to roll over and go back to sleep, but suddenly she was wide-awake. She sat straight up in bed.

  I didn't see her comlink. She thought about Spider's leaving. Replayed it in her head. I didn't see her comlink; she didn't have it when she left—I'm sure of it. In fact, I hadn't seen it all evening.

  She got out of bed and threw on her robe. She grabbed her own comlink and called Lieutenant Toby.

  "Hello, Lieutenant Toby, homicide . . . "

  "Cut the shit, Toby," Carrie said with forced calm. She knew his comlink told him exactly who was calling. "Listen . . . Did you put Spider back on line yesterday?"

  "The hearing is this morning. I'm not expecting any trouble, but . . . No, she can't be put back on line until after she's been cleared. I'm sorry. I know Spider didn't do this. It's just regulations, you understand . . . "

  "Yes, I do. Thank you, Lieutenant."

  As she severed the link, the alarm clock went off for the second time and she jumped. She turned the alarm off.

  She sat down on the bed and ran her hands down her face. That's why she was acting so weird. She's gone off hunting the SWTF. I blew the whole shooting thing yesterday off to a loony, but Spider thought it was them, and now she's gone after them.

  She started to call the hospital and stopped. The phone could be bugged. She'd better get dressed and go down there. If anyone knew what was happening, it would be Tommy.

  Laura's room was empty. She went to the front desk quickly and was told that Laura had not been released yet. A nurse followed her back to Laura's room. She walked in, and seeing no one there checked the bathroom.

  "This is most unusual," the nurse said. "Wait here. I'll just run and see if maybe they haven't taken her to X-ray or something. She shouldn't be up yet. Most unusual."

  She had two cops with her, so she might as well use them. "Check the room."

  "What are we looking for, Sir?" one asked.

  "You'll know if you find it," Carrie said.

  They started searching the room. A few seconds later one of them called out. "Sir!"

  She walked over and looked into the bio-hazard bin. She recognized the clothing Tommy had been wearing the day before as well as his comlink system. In the closet were all Laura's clothes. She got on her comlink and called Lieutenant Toby.

  "Yes, DA Long?" he answered.

  "Toby. Where does Tommy Chan's link say that he is?"

  She could hear him playing with the buttons on his keyboard. "It looks like he's in City General, where you're at, Sir."

  "Well, I don't see him. Put me on line. Give me a locator on his frequency. If he's here I'll find him, but I doubt he's here. I just found his comlink in the trash."

  "I'll stay linked with you while you check. I'm sending extra units to you now," Toby said.

  Carrie opened her comlink to the locator program and started following the signal. She and the two officers wound up in the room of a man named Brain Green, who was in the middle of being catheterized.

  "What in God's name?"

  The nurse finished quickly and covered him.

  "I'm District Attorney Long, officers Grimes and Peterson . . . "

  "I don't care who you are! A man has the right to a little privacy, for God's sake."

  "I'm very sorry, but I believe you have something attached to your body that . . . Well, shouldn't be."

  "You mean like a bomb! Christ almighty . . . "

  "No
t a bomb, Sir, the item is harmless," Carrie said. "Has anyone come in and put anything strange on you?"

  The man looked through all the wires and tubes running in and out of him and shrugged. "Which time?"

  Carrie took a guess. "What about sometime late last night?"

  Brian thought about it for a moment and then nodded adamantly. "Ya! A guy came in here, in the middle of the night. He stuck something on my back. Said it was some sort of monitor."