Memoria (38 page)

"Don't do it!" Bow shouted. "You
shouldn
't strain yourself! It'll kill you!
"

"And they will kill you," Frank's lips curved in disdain.
"Oh yes
,
they will! You've already betrayed Kathleen and her cause. Once a traitor,
al
ways a traitor
.
You-
"

"
Stop it
!" Bow clenched his fists.

"You're a
nerd and a
woos,
you wire-fucker!"

Bow grabbed the scalpel and hissed, his eyes glistening,

"You'd better shut up
—
now."

"Or
what? Come on now, show me how you do it!
If you think you can
. The sight of
blood
scares you more
than your employers
do
!"

"Shut up!"
Bow screamed and jumped to
ward
the bed. The blade in his fist glistened under the lamp.

"
What
—
can't you take some tough love? Kathleen was right when she said-"

Bow pressed his elbow
on Frank's
chest and brought the scalpel
up
to his face. At that time Frank rolled his eyes and shuddered
, his mouth wide open and drooling.

"Shit!" Bow recoiled. "Didn't I tell
you!"

Frank
hissed and rattled
,
foaming at the
mouth
,
acting out a fit. Bow's thin fingers grabbed his chin. The researcher turned the scalpel's blade toward himself and pushed
the handle into his captive's
mouth
trying to unlock his jaw and release the tongue. Frank clenched his teeth and headbutted him
. The scalpel cut Bow's eyebrow open.

When Bow's fingers
snapp
ed in Frank's teeth, the researcher went white. His eyes bulging, he tried to pull his fingers free.
The scalpel now clenched in his teeth, Frank headbutted him again.
The blade brushed Bow's cheek and fell onto the bed.

Bow recoiled, groaning
. He
stumbled to the table and, clut
ching
at the cuts with one hand, groped
for a weapon with the
other. The tools and steel boxes clanged onto the floor.

Frank squinted to
look at
his chest. The scalpel lay on his stomach. He jerked, leaning to the left,
and pushed it off into his
outstretched
hand. He had to hold
it by
the blade in order to turn the end toward the strap.

Disregarding
pain from the cuts, he concentrated on
keeping the blade in his hand slippery with blood. He
flexed his wrist until he managed to make a
n incision
in
the strap. His hand could move more freely now. Twice more the blade slid across the leather until only a thin strip remained intact.

By that time, Bow
had
stopped groaning and picked up one of the syringes filled with the greenish liquid.

The strap snapped.
Frank's fist
holding the scalpel
shot forward
. At the same time, he jerked his head
to one side. The syringe
pierced the headrest
. T
he scalpel
,
Bow's chest.

William Bow's eyes opened wide. He hiccupped, let go of the s
yringe and collapsed to
the floor.

Frank was
already unstrapping himself, hurrying to get up and lock the door. He sat up, dangling his feet. The room swayed and swam before his eyes.
His body refusing to obey, he couldn't grab at the armrest
. Nauseous and feverish,
Frank
started shaking
...

When he came to he was ly
ing on the floor. T
he wounded Bow
whimper
ed next to him
. Frank managed to get on all fours and forced his limbs to carry him to the door.
Locking it was almost beyond him. His
head
spun
;
his
fingers kept sliding off the
thumb lock. H
e tr
ied and failed to scramble to
his feet
. This had to be the painkiller
's
side effects Bow had warned
Claney
about.

He
finally locked the door and stretched out under it, breathing deeply.
It was essential he got some rest.
Getting himself into an adrenaline-powered fren
zy wouldn't do him any good. He had to hurry, though:
somebo
dy could walk in any minute,
ei
ther
a
tech or
Dickens
himself.

He crawled
over
to Bow. Grabbing his shoulders, he sat the researcher up and leaned his back
against
the
equipment
stand.
Bow's head fell onto his chest. Blood
ooz
ed
over
the lab coat, the scalpel
's thin
handle showing in its folds.
Frank took a couple of deep breaths and patted the man's cheek.
His hands didn't obey him, but it was enough for Bow to perk up. He groaned and moved his hand trying to reach for the scalpel.

"Where's Maggie?" Frank
croaked, grabbing his wrist. "Where do you keep her father?"

Nausea overcame him. He couldn't suppress it any more and opened his mouth almost instinctively throwing up onto Bow's lab coat. Frank wiped his mouth and felt much better.
Leaning
against
Bow's shoulder, he got up and repeated his question.

Bow grinned and snorted.

"You can't get out," he spat out a blood clot. "
No good
trying." He grinned again, glancing at the syringe under the bed, its needle bent.

Frank turned
, taking in
several
round
plastic gates that looked
like
tomography scanners
.
He bent down, grabbed the man's shoulders and jerked him up.

The researcher groaned. Frank pushed him onto the be
d and started strapping him in.

"Once I pull the scalp
el out, you'll bleed to death,"
he spat out the bile. "But if you tell me where they keep Maggie,
I'll leave you here. I won't hurt you any more. I promise."

Bow's eyes glistened under the lamp. Frank bent down to pick up the remaining syringes and showed them to the researcher.

"Something tells me it's not saline.
I can inject both and I'll take my time doing it. I'm sure you'll like it."

Bow was now staring at him, his eyes wide. Looked like Frank found the right tool
.

"Where's the girl and her father?" He shoved one of the syringes into his pocket and removed the needle top off the other.

"The
y're
...
not
far
from here
."

Bow's left arm wasn't strapped in completely as Frank had cut one of the belts.
The researcher bent his elbow
pressing his hand to his chest.

"Don't!"
Frank didn't want him to disturb the scalpel in his chest. Maybe that was what Bow counted on, hoping to terminate his ordeal.
The blade must have gone through the lung close to the heart. Another inch, and he
'd have already been dead. "Whe
re
are they
?"

"The girl's
at
the end of the hallway
...
"
Bow's hand
fell onto the armrest. "Her father next to her. There's," he g
lanced at the wall to his right, "t
here's nobody
in his room
now.
They're busy with the girl." He had trouble speaking. Every
quick breath between phrases brought blood up to his lips.

Frank dropped the syringe.
Without taking his eyes off Bow, he reached inside the only steel box lef
t on the table. He groped inside for a
square of muslin and pulled it out to wipe Bow's face.
Red spots covered the muslin. For a second, he stared at his hand. He'd c
ompletely forgotten he'd cut his
fingers
with
the blade.

He wiped Bow's face, tore a strip of fabric off the hem of his lab coat and wrapped it around his bleeding hand.
The researcher breathed in fits,
his throat seething
.
His eyes were closed. Frank didn't know much about medicine but
he
remembered the coach telling him that
with a perforated lung, you should plug the wound
straight away otherwise the lung would
curl up and collapse.
Apparently the blade didn't
block
it completely allowing for a slight stream of air to seep through. That could alter the
pressure in the chest cavity
and then
...

Frank rummaged through the table looking for something to block the wound with. Nothing. Bow could die at any moment leaving him none the wiser.

"I'll help you, I promise,
" Frank said. "If you can tell me how." Was he really going to save the life of this cowardly
asshole
? After him betraying Ka
thleen and torturing
Barney
? He
who knew what his bosses were about to do to Ma
ggie and thousands of people
...

Bow hissed and open his
tearful
eyes,
glistening with
the
fear of death.

"The medicine cabinet
...
" he managed.
"The first aid kit."

He tried to raise his left hand, pointing.
Frank stepped into the far corner and opened the cabinet. One half of it was a locker with lab coats on hangers. The other
had many shelves. Frank found the first-aid kit on top of the upper one.

He opened a sterile packet
and folded a square of gauze to form a swab. Then he picked up some antiseptic
and a box of
plasters and went back to the bed. There, nausea overcame him. He closed his eyes trying to concentrate and stop his head from spinning
. Then he walked
over
to Bow and ripped open the chest of his shirt. He cut the plaster into strips and
had the
antiseptic bottle
open and
ready. Then he pulled out the scalpel.
Immediately he poured some antiseptic onto the wound, pressed the
compress
down and secured it with plaster strips all around.

Bow
jerked
twice. When Frank had pulled out the scalp
el, his eyes rolled up and he
coughed out a clot of blood
.
W
hen Frank pressed the bandage down
hard securing it
, more blood came out
.

It
had taken
but
a couple seconds. The pale researcher
's
breathing became more even, and
the seething in his throat
calmed down.

"What did
Claney
mean?" Frank asked. "What signal was he talking about?
Tell me
."

He licked his lips, dry with anxiety, and glanced at the door. Did he hear voices?
He waited, then took another gauze square out of the first-aid kit, drenched it in water and wiped Bow's face. He repeated his question.

The researcher opened his eyes and croaked,

"
Dickens
will turn on the transmitter
...
The signal goes to the satellite
...
then back to
the
bracelets
...
"

"What for?"

"To activate
...
the capsules
...
"