'I don't know what he meant, but that's what he said. So he handed Cruz a knife and said, 'Cut her.' Just like that. And he, well, he did it. He cut her. Thank God Jenny was already mostly unconscious from the choking.'
'Yeah,' Eric said. 'Thank God.'
'I just meant, you know…'
Eric smiled, squeezed her shoulder. 'Thanks for what you did in there. Trying to save Jenny. Brave thing to do.' He turned and marched through the doors.
Tracy ran after him. 'Where are you going now?'
'For answers.'
'What about searching for Annie and Timmy?'
He looked at her, his reddish-brown eyes stabbing into hers. 'I know where they are.'
18.
Dr. Joan Dreiser sat in the chair behind the conference table. She was slumped forward slightly, but the arrow poking out of her chest was wedged against the side of the table keeping her propped upright. Her head hung limply to one side.
Next to her, at the center of the table, Dr. Epson sat stiffly tapping his mallet against his palm. He looked ten years older than the last time Eric had seen him, his eyes vacant, his skin gray and sagging. His mouth kept dropping open and he seemed to have trouble keeping himself from drooling.
'Eric, you're finally back,' he waved happily, rapping the mallet on the table. 'What's your report, son? How'd the trade go? We'll have electricity in no time, eh?'
Eric approached him slowly.
'Dr. Epson?' Tracy said.
'Tracy?' He grinned and winked. 'Did you see? Eric's back. That means a successful mission. He's never let us down yet. Can't wait to install those generator parts. Oversee the whole thing myself. Owe it to the community, I do.' He rapped the table again with his mallet.
Eric continued walking. When he got to the table, he stood directly across from Dr. Epson.
'Well?' the old man said, rubbing his eyes, 'Let's hear your report, Eric. It's getting late, you know.'
Eric lurched across the table, grabbed Dr. Epson by his loosened tie, and jerked him out of his chair until he was half lying on top of the table. He tugged the tie high over Dr. Epson's head until it choked him.
'Listen to me, you crazy son of a bitch, you better snap back to reality within five seconds or I'm going to hang you up like a dead pig. You got that?'
'Eric!' Tracy shouted. 'Can't you see there's something wrong with him?'
'Right. And I'm giving him therapy.'
Dr. Epson clawed at the tie biting into his skin, cutting off his air. His eyes bulged slightly, his tongue protruded between dry lips.
Eric loosened his grip and Dr. Epson sucked in a lungful of air. 'Damn it, Eric, are you insane? I'm Chairman of the University Camp Council. Watch yourself or Dr. Dreiser and I will have to bring charges against you.'
'No you don't, Epson,' Eric growled, leaning his face toward Dr. Epson's. 'Don't retreat into craziness, don't hide in there. You don't get off that easy. Not after what you've done.'
Tracy wedged her body between the two men, trying to pry Eric away. 'What are you talking about, Eric? You're the one who's acting crazy.'
'Betrayal,' the weary voice behind them answered. 'He's talking about betrayal.'
'Trevor,' Dr. Epson said, straightening his tie. 'About time you got here. Joan and I have been waiting for hours. Have you seen Durham anywhere?'
'He's coming, Donald,' Trevor Graumann said, walking unsteadily into the room. 'I saw you at the hospital, Eric. I was just coming out of my unconsciousness. They told me about Jennifer. The rest I could guess.' He stooped down, retrieved his pipe, wiped the stem, and stuck it in his mouth. 'I take it you've guessed it too.'
'Yes.'
Tracy shook her head in confusion. 'What are you two talking about? What betrayal?'
'Would you mind lighting the other lamp, Tracy?' Trevor said, pointing at the far end of the table where the Coleman lay on its side. 'It's a bit too dark in here.'
'Sure,' she said, pulling a Bic lighter from her pocket. The room brightened considerably, though the extra light only made Dr. Epson look worse.
'How much do you know, Eric?'
'Just what I pieced together. The Council decided to go against my advice earlier this evening about trading for the generator parts. Once I left the room, the discussion was reopened and they decided to send me on a wild goose chase in the opposite direction, which would leave them free to make their own deal with these people. So they staged Dr. Dreiser's kidnapping.'
'I wasn't a part of it, Eric. I want you to know that.'
'I know. That's why they decided to drug you until it was all over. I imagine Dr. Dreiser did that.'
Trevor nodded sadly. 'She didn't want to. But she wanted those parts so badly, for her hospital, you know. She just let herself get talked into it.'
'I imagine it was Griff Durham who knocked the guard out to add some authenticity, and Dr. Dreiser who spread some blood from the hospital around the room for special effects. After we left, they sent another delegation out to meet our friends with the generator parts. Somehow they tricked their way inside, and the slaughter began.'
Dr. Epson hammered his mallet on the table. 'You're out of order, young man. This is not parliamentary procedure. Councilman Graumann has the floor.'
Tracy sank into a nearby chair, her body numb. 'You mean it was our own council who let these monsters in?'
'Yes,' Trevor answered, 'They thought they were doing the right thing. They thought they were buying us electricity, light.'
'They thought!' she yelled, jumping out of her chair. 'They thought! They risked all our lives without asking us, without advising us of the risks? What arrogance!' In her rage, Tracy jostled the table, disloding the arrow balancing Dr. Dreiser. Her body toppled off the chair onto the floor.
'Joan? Joan, are you all right,' Dr. Epson said. 'Nasty fall, eh?'
'How did you know, Eric?' Trevor asked. 'I mean about the double cross.'
'The note. They constructed a kidnap note that referred to Joan as 'the doctor.' But after the 'kidnapping' her lab jacket was still hanging on the coat rack, and she wasn't carrying any medical equipment, so how did the kidnappers know she was a doctor? Certainly Joan wouldn't risk telling them.'
'The question now, of course,' Trevor said, 'is why did these savages do it? What was to gain? They didn't stay long enough to steal much of value. It seems all they did was kill. Not very logical.'
Eric's voice was distant. 'It was Dirk Fallows.'
'Oh,' Trevor sighed. 'That explains it. What about Annie and Timmy?'
'He's got them. Jennifer was sick, so he didn't want to bother with her. He just slit her throat. But he has Annie and Timmy.'
'How do you know?' Tracy said. 'We haven't even searched the grounds yet. They might be wounded somewhere, or still hiding.'
'Or dead,' Trevor said.
'No, he didn't kill them. It's me he wants. To make me suffer. He'll drag it out as long as possible. He wants me to think about what he did to Jennifer, what he might do to Annie and Timmy.'
'Sounds like a very sick man.'
'Not a man. A thing. It looks human, but that's the only similarity. But he knows what he wants. Always.'
Trevor sucked on his pipe. 'And he wants you to follow him, right?'
'Right?'
'So what are you going to do?'
