“Patrick?” she whispered.
“Yeah?”
“Where did you learn all this rock climbing stuff?”
“Something called experience.”
“Oh yeah,” she said with a faint smile. “I’ve heard of that.”
“Now,” I murmured, “I need to say good-bye.”
“Good-bye? Why?”
“I think I’m about to pass out.”
“Really?”
And before I could answer, I did.
90
22 hours later
I heard voices all around me speaking in hushed tones, respectful tones, and for a moment I wondered if I was dead.
“Looks like he’s coming out of it,” said a voice from somewhere nearby. A husky voice. “’Bout time.”
When I opened my eyes and saw Ralph’s massive form next to me, I mumbled, “If I’m dead and this is heaven, what are you doing here?” I mumbled.
“Who ever said we’re in heaven?”
I blinked my eyes and then squinched them shut, overwhelmed by the sharp white glare of the room. I grimaced. “We better not be in a hospital. I hate hospitals.”
“At least this time, no one’s dying,” said Tessa.
I turned. She sat beside the window, her face outlined by daylight. She might have been an angel sitting there-a beautiful black-haired angel wearing a T-shirt with a cobra slithering through the eye socket of a human skull.
It was a beautiful sight, slightly twisted and macabre, but adorable nonetheless.
“I knew you’d wake up.” It was Ralph again. “I told the docs not to worry.” Then he added proudly, “While you were asleep I made it past the crypt.”
“Beheaded the ogre, huh?”
“Yup. Fast and clean.”
“I showed him how,” added Tessa.
“Well, that’s nice,” I said in a fatherly sort of way. I noticed that Tessa’s arm was thickly bandaged in the place the Illusionist had cut her. She didn’t seem to be in too much pain, maybe the cut wasn’t as deep as I thought. I’d ask her about it in a minute.
I rubbed my head. “So, how long have I been out?”
“A whole day,” said Ralph. “I guess you really needed your beauty sleep.”
“Wow, I guess I did.”
“They gave you some pretty nasty stuff, Pat.” I looked toward the voice. Lien-hua was the third and last visitor in the room. She was seated in the corner in one of the prerequisite ugly chairs.
“Phencyclidine, aka PCP,” piped in Tessa. “It’s a disassociative hallucinogenic analgesic, kinda like its cousin-the ever popular but not as potent club drug Ketamine. A dose as low as 20 milligrams can kill you, and doses as high as 150–200 milligrams are considered not compatible with life.”
“Let me guess, the Internet?”
“Do you even have to ask?”
“So how much was in the capsule Kincaid tried to stuff down my throat?”
Lien-hua answered, “250 millgrams. If that capsule had dissolved any more in your mouth you wouldn’t be here talking to us.”
“Which reminds me,” said Ralph soberly.
“Yeah.” She lowered her eyes.
“What is it?” I asked.
Ralph’s voice stiffened. “Pat, I don’t think you heard about Tucker… He didn’t make it.”
The news took the air out of my lungs, the moment out of my heart.
“He died trying to protect Tessa.”
We were all quiet for a few minutes. It seemed like forever but still not long enough.
“How’s his wife?” I asked.
“Taking it pretty hard. They didn’t have any kids. He was all she had.”
I hated hearing all this. Brent Tucker had been a decent man. A good man. Annoying at times, overly enthusiastic, but dedicated. I couldn’t have found Sevren without his ideas. I didn’t know what to say.
“We’re going to see her this afternoon,” said Lien-hua. I don’t know how long we sat in silence before a nurse came in to check my heart rate, and life eased forward again.
“Did you find Sevren’s body?” I asked Ralph at last.
“Not yet.”
“What?” I gasped. “He was in the ambulance when it fell!”
“Those things are built like tanks,” said Ralph. “If he slipped inside it, it’s possible-”
“No,” I said. “He couldn’t have survived.”
“We’ll find him.”
The nurse finished up and disappeared again.
“Any word on the governor then?” I asked.
I saw Tessa smirking. “The tape,” she said.
“What?”
“From the mic patch.”
Ralph grinned. “Yup, it’s made quite a splash on the Internet.” Tessa tapped her chest. “I posted it for him.”
“In one day Sebastian Taylor went from being a presidential hopeful to the top of the FBI’s most wanted list. I think that’s a record. You should see the cable news coverage.”
“No thanks.”
“His wife returned from Barbados last night only to find out her husband used to be a CIA assassin. She’s been thrown right into the middle of the international media spotlight.”
“I’ll bet she’s right at home.” Then I had a sobering thought. “Sebastian will be tough to find. He’ll know how to drop off the grid.”
“Yeah,” said Ralph, “but he likes the media too. I have a feeling we’ll be hearing from Sebastian Taylor again.”
“Enough about all that,” said Lien-hua. “Are you OK, Pat? Seriously? You were in pretty bad shape.”
“I’m all right, but I could use some coffee.”
She reached behind her and then handed me a cup of the good stuff: shade-grown Yrigacheffe from Ethiopia’s Sidamo region. I could almost smell the bananas growing above the beans.
Now I was in heaven.
“Cream and honey, no sugar,” she added. “It’s a little cold, though. I didn’t know when you’d be waking up.”
I tried to sit up, cringed, fell back.
“You sure you’re OK?”
“You want me to be honest?”
“Always.”
“Come here, then.”
She leaned closer. The scent of vanilla.
“Yes?” she said.
I spoke quietly, so no one else would hear. “I’m sorry about that stakeout.”
A pause. “Let’s not be sorry, let’s just be careful.”
“OK.”
“I was really worried about you, Pat. I was afraid we might lose you. And, well…” She was searching for the right words to say. Never found them. “One more thing. When I was talking about motives and I mentioned fear, you could see it, couldn’t you?”
“See what?”
“The history. In my face.”
I lowered my voice. “Something happened to you, didn’t it?”
She was quiet.
“When you’re ready,” I said, “if you want to tell me, I’ll listen. You can trust me, Lien-hua.”
“I know I can.”
“What are you two whispering about?” asked Tessa.
“Nothing,” I said.
“Yeah, right,” she said in her wonderfully sarcastic teenage way. Lien-hua returned to her chair. “Hey, come here, Tessa,” I said. I patted the bed next to me and, somewhat reluctantly, she joined me. “There’s something your mother wanted me to tell you, but I never did. I’m sorry, I just didn’t know if I believed it before.”
“What is it?”
“‘Our choices decide who we are,’” I said, “‘but our loves define who we’ll become.’ She wanted you to know that.” I paused for a second and then said, “I’m sure she would have told you herself if only.. ”
“She did.”
“What?”
“She did tell me. And she said you would too, someday. When you finally understood what it meant.”
Tessa waited for you, Pat. She’s been waiting for you this whole time.
I took a deep breath. “Thanks for sticking with me until I got the chance to say it.”
“Like I had a choice,” she grumbled. But she let the wisp of a smile flicker across her face as she did.
Over the next couple minutes Agent Jiang told me that Alice and her children were doing fine and that Alice was even getting some reward money for helping us corner the killer. “She’ll be able to cut back on her hours at work to spend more time with her kids. She seemed thrilled by the deal.”