Syphon: Guardians of the Fractured Realms (13 page)

“Everything seems to be in working order still. I’m frankly still amazed at how well you’re doing. I’ve seen people pulled out of minor fender-benders have worse injuries than you. You must have had a guardian angel riding shotgun tonight. Anyway, we should have the rest of the results back shortly. Try and get some rest if you can.”

Frank glanced at her when she involuntarily clenched his hand at the mentioned of a guardian angel.

Dr. Greene turned around and headed toward the door. Before he left, he paused and turned back toward her.

“Do you need anything more for the pain?”

Cora though about it for a moment. She realized that, other than the initial pain she had upon waking up, she didn’t hurt anywhere.

“No. Thank you. I think I’ll be fine for now.”

“Really…?” he trailed off. Turning around, he headed out the door while mumbling to himself.

“Remarkable…”

Cora watched Frank stare at the door before getting up. He walked over to the door, looked both ways, then shut it behind him as he came back over to the bedside.

“Okay, spill it. What the hell happened out there?”

“Huh?” she asked, confusion spreading across her face.

“The good doctor there might believe you passed out at the wheel, but I’m not buying it. I was only a few blocks away when the call came in, so I was the first one on the scene. Your car looked like it was ripped open by the hulk or something. I could actually make out the hand prints on the driver side door where someone had grabbed the door and pulled it back like a sardine can while pressing their other hand against the side for leverage. I also saw your gun sitting neatly disassembled on the passenger seat and another hand print crushed into the dashboard. It looked like a bomb had gone off in there with all the damage, so don’t give me a ‘Huh?’ when I ask what happened. So talk.”

Cora was taken aback by the anger tinging his voice as he spoke. In all the years he’d been her partner, she’d never heard that level of concern or anger in his voice, especially directed at her. Taking a deep breath, she tried to put the events in order.

“It was her again. She was in the car with me. She’d gotten the drop on me and was holding me at gunpoint, with my own gun.”

Frank dropped down heavily into the chair as she continued.

“How did she get your gun away from you? Where were you?”

“That’s just it. I was sitting in my car. Frank, she moves like he does, possibly faster. I had pulled off the road to look at a map I’ve been plotting everything on. The next thing I knew, the car door had been yanked open and my piece pulled out of its holster. By the time I had turned my head to the left, she was already in the passenger seat with the gun pointed at my face. I heard a slight tap on the roof, so I’m pretty sure she somehow jumped over the car…”

Cora took another sip of water before continuing.

“She started telling me again about how outclassed we were and basically threatened me this time if I didn’t back off. She also mentioned something bad happening soon, something that Samuel was a key part of. That’s about when I rammed the barrels, hoping it’d either kill or at least incapacitate her enough to arrest. Apparently it didn’t turn out so well. The last thing I remember before passing out was being unable to breath, her touching the sided of my face, a burning sensation in my neck, then her telling me to sleep. I vaguely remember seeing my gun and the hand print, but I thought it was just a dream. Next thing I know, I’m waking up here.”

As she finished her story, she glanced over at Frank. He had a really weird expression on his face, but she was at a loss to understand why.

“What’s that look for…?”

“Cora, don’t take this the wrong way, but let me ask you a question… Have you ever broken your neck or back in the past?”

Cora looked at him like he’d grown an extra ear.

“Why on earth would you ask me such a bizarre question? Of course I’ve never broken my neck. Do you think I’d be standing,” she paused to look down at herself, “Okay, laying here if I’d broken my neck sometime in the past? If I’d had, I’d be sucking food through a straw right now. Why?”

Frank rubbed the back of his neck before responding.

“That’s kinda what I thought, but I didn’t want to say anything to the doctors until I had a chance to talk to you first. The crime scene techs stated there was a catastrophic failure of the seatbelt locking mechanism, along with a delayed deployment of the airbags. From the evidence they’ve collected, you had been snapped forward at the waist, which should have dislocated the L4 and L5 vertebrae. As you whipped forward, your neck was slammed against the steering wheel, deforming it by at least five inches. You can actually see the shape of your neck bent into it. That impact should have shattered your C3-C5 vertebrae and crushed your windpipe.”

“Instead, everything is fine. The odd thing is, the X-rays show that those same areas appear to have sustained extensive damage in the past. The doctor is guessing, based on the level of fusion, that it happened around six to ten years ago. He’s at a loss as to how those vertebrae fused back together so perfectly. As far as he could tell, those vertebrae were shattered into chunks the size of marbles at one point, but there’s no signs of pins or surgical fusion to account for the repairs and healing. There’s even less explanation as to how they were able to hold together after the significant trauma you exerted on them again today during the accident. So my question to you is, if you never broke your neck or back, then how do you account for injuries that appear to have been healed nearly a decade ago?”

“I… I can’t. Or at least I can’t explain it without getting myself locked up for a seventy-two hour psych hold. The only thing I can come up with, no matter how implausible, is that Sybil somehow healed me. As for the rest of it, I’m at a complete loss.”

“That’s about what I suspected. It’s why I told the Chief that we wanted off this case. It’s just getting too dangerous, and after your accident tonight, he agreed.”

Frank paused to take a deep breath.

“As of right now, we’re officially off this nightmare.”

“LIKE HELL WE ARE!” she yelled, bolting up in bed before vertigo forced her to flop back, the throbbing behind her eyes from the sudden movement accentuating the point.

“Yes, we are. Even though your body doesn’t bear out the evidence, you should have died tonight. There’s no other way to look at it. It’s either lottery-winning level of luck, cosmic intervention, or some other form of miracle that you’re still able to suck air, let alone being able to get up under your own power without any injuries to show for it.”

“Well, you can tuck tail and run, but I’m not giving up on this case. Even if I have to work it in my off-time, or do the Hollywood cop cliché of taking vacation days to investigate, I’m not going to stop. I’m so—”

“Damn it Cora! I lost way too many friends fighting over there. I’ll be damned if I’m going to lose another one right here if I can help it!”

Cora stared at Frank. She was at a loss for words. Before she could open her mouth, she saw him wipe a tear away.

“Cora,” he said in a softer tone, “I care for you. A lot. It’s kinda scary, actually. The thought of you getting killed trying to find this Samuel guy is more than I can take. For the first time in a long time, when I saw you unconscious in a nearly shredded car, I was at a complete loss for what to do. I don’t like that feeling. I’ve spent a long time, and a lot of effort, trying to build up routines that’ll let me have some semblance of order no matter how hairy the situation becomes.”

Frank paused as he raggedly sucked in a breath.

“This case though… This case is so far outside of anything that makes sense, I feel like I’m trying to swim through quicksand. No matter how hard I struggle, I just feel like I’m sinking deeper and deeper into a mess that I’m not going to be able to survive. And, by all rights, you didn’t survive tonight. But something intervened and brought you back to me. I’m not going to let that gift be in vain. So yeah, we’re off the case. If you want to continue chasing it down, then you’re going to have to do it without me. I’ll put in a request for a new partner if I have to, but I done with this. You should think strongly about leaving it alone as well. I’m sorry if you feel like I’m letting you down, but I’ve hit my limit.”

Cora stared at him as he got up and walked out of the room, closing the door softly behind him. If he’d looked back, he would have seen the tears that started streaming down her face as well.

§§§§§§§§§§§§

As she thought about it, Cora got angry.

How dare he do this to me? Behind my back even! He did it without even asking me! For that matter, where does he get off trying to guilt me into dropping this case?

She stewed for a bit before buzzing the nurse. A few minutes later, a nurse came in.

“What can I get for you? Do you need something for pain?”

“No, I’m good. What I’d really like is a notebook and a pen if you have one?”

“Sure, no problem. I’ll be back shortly.”

As she waited, she alternated between being pissed at Frank, going over in her head everything they’d learned, and everything that’d happened to them over the past few days. One thing she was sure of now was, the library was important. It was no coincidence that, shortly after her visit and run-in with that guy, Sybil should pop up and hop in her car. Her thoughts were interrupted by the nurse coming back into the room.

“Here you go miss. Is there anything else I can get for you?”

Cora could tell that the nurse was either stressed out from work or was just annoyed with her for bothering her for such a simple request, but she really wasn’t in the mood to apologize, not after her blow up with Frank.

“No thanks. This’ll be perfect. Thanks again.”

“No problem. You already know how to use the call button, so if you need anything else, don’t hesitate to buzz me.”

Cora nodded, already lost in thought as the nurse left the room. She started scribbling out notes of what she already knew. Then she scribbled out what she suspected. Her third list was for questions she didn’t have answers for. That list took significantly longer. When she was done with it, it was a lot more confusing than the previous two. The final list was a time-line with locations for all the events leading up to tonight.

She tore the pages out and spread them out over the little table she managed to pull over from the side of the bed. Looking them over, she started to scribble out more notes.

“Why is the warehouse so far outside the area of where everything else happened?”

There just wasn’t enough info to work from. A majority of what she had was from the inferred movements of Samuel, so she wasn’t sure how much weight to give them compared to the overall picture.

“Damn it… I need my map. I know I’m missing something, but what?”

She could feel herself getting tired again as she struggled to keep her eyes open. Stifling a yawn, she looked back at her lists. She kept tapping on the library. Every time she came back to it, the library seemed to become more central to everything that was going on. She had nothing to base the feeling on, but somehow it just felt right. Another yawn forced it’s way out, nearly bringing tears from the intensity of it. Rubbing her eyes, she started to write another list of things she needed to check out once she was discharged from the hospital, regardless of Frank’s threat. The primary thing was to go stake out the library. Maybe she’d get lucky and spot one of her suspects there. Then she’d be able to either call for backup or possibly even get a warrant to investigate the premises.

She kept going over her notes as her eyes started to droop. She tried to follow her hazy thoughts, to make more connections, but against her will, she drifted off to sleep again.

§§§§§§§§§§§§

Cora woke with a start. It took her a minute to identify what had woken her. Glancing to her left, she found Frank sitting in the chair, shuffling through the small stack of notes she had compiled before she passed out. She sat there without speaking, watching him flip back and forth through the papers, his furrowed brow the only indication of how hard he was concentrating. She tried to repress a smile when she noticed he had gotten out his own notebook, comparing his notes to the ones she had made, glancing back and forth between the two sets. Occasionally, he’d shake his head and either jot something else down in his notes, cross something out, or add to the notes Cora had written down earlier. His sudden voice startled her as he glanced up at her.

“I guess it’s safe to assume that, based off all these notes you wrote down, my threat of getting a new partner didn’t change your mind about continuing to work this case. Since you’re going to be so pig-headed about it, I guess I’ll come along for the ride and watch your six. I haven’t ever abandoned a partner before, so I guess it’d be kinda stupid to start now. So tell me, oh seeker of the hidden mysteries, what exactly do you plan to do once you get out of here?”

Cora tried her best to hide her smile, but it suddenly hit her how much she really wanted Frank to be with her on this case. She realized that, in hindsight, she might not have been able to continue following this case if she didn’t have Frank protecting her back. There wasn’t anyone else in the squad she trusted more than him. Meeting his stare, she gave a slight nod.

“I think the first thing is to do a little more digging into that library for starters. There just something off about it, but I can’t put my finger on it other than the guy I cornered there. He pulled the same stunts as Sybil. I also don’t think it’s a coincidence that Sybil found me so soon after my visit, so at the very least, they probably know each other. Either that or the level of luck going on makes me think I should get a lottery ticket or something.”

“Yeah, but I think you mighta used up all that luck surviving your crash, so I think the lottery ticket’ll be a wash.”

Cora chuckled before continuing.

“You’re probably right. Anyway, I also think we should go back to the warehouse and check it out again. If this Sybil chick is to be believed, there’s something more sinister going on than our original suspicion of homeless people being forced to fight to the death. What that might be, I’m at a loss, but it won’t hurt to check again and see if we might have missed something.”