Up Against It - M. J. Locke [163]
Finally they gave up and headed back to join Amaya and the professor in the way station. The professor was dozing in his hammock. Geoff didn’t like the way he looked: his skin was ashen and his breathing shallow.
Amaya looked up from her lists. “Any luck?” she asked softly, but saw their expressions and slumped back down. A gloomy silence settled over Geoff as he surveyed his companions’ dirty, tired faces. He was out of ideas.
“Are we certain,” the professor asked from his hammock, “that there is no way in?” Geoff looked over, surprised. He hadn’t been aware the older man was listening. “Our lives may ride on the answer,” Professor Xuan said, “so consider carefully.”
Geoff shared a glance with Kam and Amaya.
“We could be missing something,” he said, “but I can’t see any way. Not anytime soon.” The older man looked at the other two, who nodded agreement.
“So,” Kam asked, “what now?”
The professor said, “All right. We have supplies, fuel, and air. Our enemies can’t get in. We have friends and family who will soon miss us. And we are all exhausted. It seems to me our best approach is to rest for a while, and sleep, if we can.”
They settled into the hammocks and tucked blankets around themselves. As distressed as he was, Geoff could not believe he would ever sleep again. But sleep came swiftly.
* * *
As they ran toward the lift, Vivian said, “Commissioner … wait. There is something else you need to know. It’s important!”
Jane quelled her impatience and paused. “What?”
Vivian said, “I think Nathan Glease has commissioned another assassination. We may have time to stop it.”
They both stepped into the lift. The other people there edged away from them, and Jane realized it was because Vivian was a Viridian. She felt a twinge of sympathy for the young woman—man?—and guilt; she had reacted that way herself.
Vivian ignored them. Ze told Jane, “Right before they brought you in, he had another meeting. It was a woman, wearing nurse’s clothes. He gave her a vial of liquid, showed her an image of someone, and told her to destroy the vial when she was done. He gave her a big wad of cash.”
“The hospital. He’s targeted someone at the hospital.” Jane grabbed Vivian’s arm. “Who was he targeting? What else do you remember?”
“I only caught a glimpse. A young man, I think. A big white guy with a spaceburned face. One of his arms was missing.”
Jane remembered Sean telling her about Geoff’s friend—the one whose arm the feral tore out. Ian. Ian Carmichael. He was big, white, and blond, a biker with a spaceburn. And he was still at the hospital. “I know the target.”
The lift doors opened in time for them see a cuffed Glease being hustled into one of the other lifts by the police. He wore a smirk when he spotted her. She knew why.
The hospital was right across the way. Quicker to go herself than to explain. She headed straight for Yamashiro Memorial, trailed by Vivian, clouds of “Stroiders” glamour, and a small army of mites. They barged through the antimote sprays, and went up to an orderly on duty at the information desk. He was talking to a colleague inwave.
“What room is Ian Carmichael in?” Jane demanded. When he did not acknowledge her right away, she reached over the counter, grabbed him, and gave him a shake. “What room?”
The young man stammered the room number. She brought up a map overlay of the hospital, touched “Guide me” inwave, and plugged in the number. Following the golden marquis that appeared, she kicked off down the tube, bounding off walls and people indiscriminately. “Out of my way! Cluster emergency!” She did not bother to check whether Vivian followed. People caromed off the walls and each other to clear a path.
The room was a private suite that smelled of cleaners and chemicals. The lights were dimmed. The young man was snoring, his mouth half open. He was hooked up to a Regrow apparatus. The woman Vivian had described was replacing a vial in the nutrient feed setup by his bed. She looked up at Jane in guilty surprise.
Jane launched herself over the bed, grabbed the bed rail with her foothands