"Did you get the captain out? I can't remember-"
"He'll be coming by to see you as soon as he gets out from under the paperwork. He's fine."
"Halloway."
"He didn't make it."
"Jesus. Jesus." McNab closed his eyes again. "What the hell happened?"
"You tell me."
"I… I can't get it clear."
"Take it easy for a while, then we'll talk about it."
"You laying off me that fast? I must be in pretty bad shape. Peabody, if I croak, you get my vid collection."
"That's not funny."
"Okay, okay, you can have all the earrings, too. But my cousin Sheila's going to be pretty pissed. Can somebody help me sit up some here?"
"The doctor said you were supposed to rest." But Peabody was already bringing the bed up to a reclined sitting position.
"If I croak-"
"Will youstop saying that."
He managed a grin while Peabody scowled with her face close to his. "How about you lay one on me?"
"I'll lay one on you." She muttered it, then pressed her mouth gently to his.
When she glanced over, she noted Eve was staring fixedly at the ceiling. "Sorry," Peabody murmured. "Just indulging the dying guy."
"No problem." She looked around when she heard Roarke come in. He nodded, then walked to the foot of the bed. "There seems to be an inordinate amount of attractive female medical personnel on this level, Ian. But I don't suppose you've noticed."
"Blast didn't screw up my vision."
"That being the case, you may not want to change locations. Summerset, while efficient, isn't quite so pretty."
"Sorry. Huh?"
"The lieutenant thought you'd be happier recovering elsewhere. We've a room for you at home, but it lacks attractive female medical personnel."
"You'd spring me?" The faintest hint of color crept into his cheeks. "To your place?"
"Your doctor wants another look at you first, but we should be able to transport you in an hour or two. If that suits you."
"I don't know what to say. That's so solid. Lieutenant-"
"Yeah, yeah." Eve shifted her feet. "Let's see how grateful you are once Summerset's poking at you. I've got stuff to do."
"He looked sick," McNab said and stopped Eve before she turned for the door.
"Halloway?"
"Yeah, I was coming in from a field assignment, and he was by the cooler. He got really pissy. Mean and aggressive. Not like him. He could be a pain time to time. Full of himself, but we got along. We were in the squad together two years."
He closed his eyes again. "Jesus. I don't get it. He came down on me like he wanted to taste some blood. Wasn't just what he said-you ride each other just for kicks half the time. You know how it is."
"Sure." Eve moved back to the bed. "But this wasn't just riding."
"No. It was how he said it, how he looked at me when he did. Got me hot enough to suggest we go down to the gym and pound on each other, but the captain came in and broke it up. He didn't look good. Halloway. All sweaty and his eyes were blown. Your eyes get fucked sometimes with all the data, but his were bad. I went back to my cube, he went to his. I forgot about it."
"Did you speak with him again? See him speak or have an altercation with anyone else?"
"No. I had to get this report out. And there was a search and scan on a couple 'links I'd been putting off because they promised to bore my brains out. I got some coffee, bullshitted with Gates. Got stuck with a transmission from some woman who thinks her computer's possessed by aliens. We get those all the time. We've got this routine we walk them through to… Doesn't matter. I'm just off that call, and I hear somebody yell. Somebody's yelling in EDD half the time, but this was different. This was trouble. I swung around to see what the hell was going on."
He stopped there. Eve could hear the monitor's rapid beeps. His heart rate was up, she thought. Time to back off.
"Okay, we'll get the rest tomorrow."
"No. No, I remember how it went. I saw him coming at me. It didn't click through all the circuits at once. I mean, jeez, why would Halloway be charging at me with his weapon out? Doesn't compute. His face… He looked crazy, and he was already sweeping out streams like some combat cop laying down suppressive fire. Somebody screamed. I jumped up… started to jump up. I didn't have my weapon on. Hardly any of us wear it when we're working. I think maybe I was going to dive for cover. I think maybe I started to. Then bam-a couple of elephants plowed into my chest, and I was gone. How many of us did he take out?"
"Three others took jolts, and were treated and released on-scene. You got the worst of it."
"Just my luck. Halloway, he was okay before this. We'd rag on each other now and again, but just the way you do. We didn't have bad blood between us. He liked his work, and there's this skirt he was gone enough over that they were going to get married. He bitched about Feeney sometimes. Thought the captain was old-fashioned or something, but everybody bitches about the ranks off and on. It doesn't make sense he'd come at me that way. Something's wrong about this."
"Something's wrong about it," she agreed.
"I need to be in on the investigation."
Yeah, she thought, he did. In his place, she'd have needed it. "There'll be a full briefing tomorrow, nine hundred, my home office. Meanwhile, you'd better get back in shape because I don't have time to carry you around."
"Yes, sir. Thanks."
"We've got to go stock the AutoChef with gruel and other tasty invalid food. See you around."
"The gruel was a nice touch," Roarke told her as they walked down the hall.
"I thought so."
"Put a nice happy glow on his face."
"Lieutenant! Dallas!"
She turned to see Peabody hustling down the hallway, then took a staggering step back when her aide caught her in a fierce embrace. "Thanks. Thank you."
"Oh, jeez." Mortified, Eve lifted a hand, patted Peabody awkwardly on the back. "Okay."
"His heart stopped. During the transpo. They had to zap him. It was only a few seconds, but I thought: What'll I do? What'll I do? He's such an asshole," Peabody said and burst into tears.
"Man. God. Roarke."
"An interesting and flattering lineup," Roarke said to his wife's strangled call for help. "Here now, darling." Gently, he eased Peabody's death grip on Eve and with his arm around her led her into a small waiting area. He sat her down and dabbed at her cheeks with a handkerchief.
Eve shuffled her feet, then sat. Then rubbed a hand over Peabody's thigh. "You're just going to puff up his ego if he finds out you're crying over him. He's already hard to live with."
"I know. Sorry. It was, I guess it was hearing him say how it went down. It's got my brain all scrambled up."
"There's a lot of that going around."
Peabody managed a watery laugh and laid her head on Roarke's shoulder. Such was her state of mind that the physical contact didn't cause her to experience the usual sexual tingle. "You guys are the ult. Seriously. Taking him in for a few days while his system levels out."
"Well." Eve sighed. Friendship, she thought, could be so damn inconvenient. "He's bound to be pretty demanding. I'm sure as hell not going to be his private nurse. You're going to have to come along and take that duty."
Peabody's lips trembled. Her eyes filled again.
"Don't! Don't do that again. That's an order."
"Yes, sir." She let out an enormous sigh. "I'm going to go stick my head under a faucet before I go back in with him. I'll keep him out of your hair, Dallas."
"See that you do."
Eve sat where she was a moment after Peabody walked out. "Don't make any smart comments about me being a soft touch," Eve warned. "Or you'll be glad we happen to be in a medical facility when you regain full consciousness."