The frog didn’t flinch when I glared at it, but it hopped under the desk to slurp more particles while I tested the pulse in Andre’s strong wrist. He was still alive. Grasping at this one straw, I punched in Cora’s number. This was Zone business. Outsiders not allowed.
26
Paddy staggered in holding a white cloth to his head. He glanced down at Andre and wearily slumped into a chair. “What happened?”
“Einstein gassed him.” I put away my phone and waited for the troops to arrive. I still wasn’t certain if Paddy was any saner than Einstein or Ferguson had been. Maybe magic gas had polluted their brains and the whole plant was crazy.
Paddy glanced worriedly at Andre, rubbed his head, and asked with puzzlement, “Einstein?”
“Oh, stop that,” I said grouchily. “I’m tired of the crazy act. The troll with the white hair who had the cloud canister. He sprayed both of us. Andre dropped like a stone. The troll went berserk.” With a little help from a raging Saturnian lunatic.
“Bergdorff?” he asked in bewilderment at my rant. His attention was more on Andre than me. “Andre got gassed? Julius will kill me.” Paddy winced and pressed the cloth tighter to his head. “We’ve got to get him out of here before we call the cops to report Ferguson. I’ve already called the fire chief and told him we had a false alarm.”
“Why was Ferguson trying to kill you?” I asked, trying to determine how much he actually understood.
“He turned on the magic machine again. I had to stop him.” He studied Andre with puzzlement and listened to the silence. “Did Andre stop him?”
“He stopped the machine, I guess.”
Paddy looked pretty pale and sweaty, so I didn’t see any sense in explaining too much, especially if he hadn’t seen Ferguson morph into a bullfrog.
“I want Bill and the others in a proper hospital,” I continued, mournfully stroking Andre’s glossy hair. I was all out of rage. I just felt hollow inside. Andre didn’t stir.
Paddy slumped silently into a chair. I was afraid he’d gone out on me too.
In response to my frantic call, Cora arrived with Frank and Leo in record time. I hugged Cora in relief, and she tucked her snakes back to their own dimension. We all stared solemnly at Andre’s sprawled form. He seemed even bigger on the floor than he did standing up. I’d seen him in action. He was all solid muscle, and a whiff of gas had taken him out. My pulse pounded anxiously, but it would be uncool of me to reveal my fear for him.
While Frank checked Paddy’s bruised head, our perceptive cop wrinkled his brow. “What’s with the frog?” He pointed under the desk.
I accepted the distraction and glanced around. The stupid amphibian was probably poisoning himself on pink particles. Maybe he thought he was still a six-foot thug with a sweet tooth. Heck if I knew.
“Not important,” I said, going into impartial lawyer mode. “We have to remove Paddy and Andre and the zombies before anyone discovers they have a mad scientist impaled on the fence.”
Everyone raised their eyebrows in shock except Paddy, who was rocking back and forth like a dementee. Leo took the lead and strode across to the smashed blinds.
I shivered as he examined the broken window frame and wished this had all been a nightmare I could wake from.
“We won’t find Andre’s bullets in the guy down there, will we?” Studly Do-Right asked, reasonably enough.
If they wanted to check frogs, they’d find a bullet there. I didn’t tell Leo that. I’d added Andre’s gun to my bag before the troops arrived. “No, I gassed him,” I confessed, “and he went berserk and leaped out.”
No mentioning damning the bastard to hell. Leo wouldn’t have believed that anyway. If we got out of this without a life term in prison, Leo was our Zone cop like I was the Zone lawyer. A regular clan, we were. Right now, my teeth were chattering in sheer terror. I didn’t much like killing people, and I didn’t want to lose Andre.
“That was some leap,” was all Leo said, testing the splintered frame. “Frank, you and Cora better check on Bill and the other patients. I’ll find something to carry Andre on. At this rate, we probably ought to keep a supply of stretchers on hand for Tina’s victims.”
I hugged my elbows and glared. Cora snorted. And Frank did as he was told. Still not looking good, Paddy lumbered out of his chair to lead the way. No one tried to stop him. I hoped he had the authority to order the scientists to back off when they reached Bill.
Once they were all gone, I kneeled beside Andre and gently brushed the hair off his forehead. He was cool to the touch and didn’t stir so much as an eyelid to acknowledge my presence, which left me feeling empty.
He was a handsome man when he wasn’t leering or being snarky. I’d just sent Satan a soul. Saturn or Satan or Someone owed me for that. I’d already asked the Great Whatever to return my friends from comas, but rather than rely on the fickle finger of fate, I was hoping Paddy had more magic formulas. We needed Andre too much to lose him.
Except the troll had said they didn’t have a solution yet.
“What the devil is that racket?” was the only other question Leo asked when he returned with a gurney just as the bullfrog roared his protests through the vents.
“Demon,” I joked. “You want to see Acme’s demon-transport system? It’s fiendish in its simplicity.” Although I supposed I’d need a definition of
Leo glared and heaved Andre onto the wheeled table.
I had no way of knowing if the boiler machine did anything more than thunder and smoke. I didn’t know how to blow it up without blowing up Acme. I had to hope Paddy would take care of it now that the villains were gone.
Mostly, I was worried that we weren’t dealing with normal chemicals. Given the amount of damage done, the new
Or had Ferguson and Bergdorff really been demons and not just corrupt men?
My wicked imagination conjured gates to hell in Acme’s basement, but I was reeling from exhaustion and despair and not thinking straight. How did one go about scientifically studying the underworld? If we proved it existed, could I write laws against demons?
I was thinking hard about resigning my Saturn duties. I was pretty certain it wasn’t possible, but watching Andre lying lifeless on that cart, I considered it anyway.
Unless there was more than one, Paddy was the only answer. Paddy must have retrieved the canister from Tim and not told us. We still didn’t know if Paddy was sane. Of course, at this point, I needed a definition of
I wanted to cling to Andre’s hand and reassure myself that he lived as Leo wheeled him out, but I was afraid Leo would slam him into walls if I expressed my concern. Men are territorial for the stupidest reasons.
Ignoring the frogs hopping about in the puddles, we met the rest of the crew rolling Bill out of the elevator. My fear of losing friends was deeply ingrained. I touched Bill’s forehead, but he didn’t stir.
“We’ll have to come back for the others,” Frank said gruffly.
The security cameras would have had a field day, except Leo said he’d turned them off and wiped them out. Let them believe the sprinkler system had short-circuited the wiring.
