“Nonsense. There is no Dr. Keaky. Please step into this room with no more trouble.” He looked toward the hallway, where Sklodovich had disappeared, and motioned with his gun toward the door before which he was standing. I stepped in, leaving moist footprints on the tile floor.
He followed and closed the door. The room was much like the one that my dubious friend and I occupied, except that it seemed much more permanent and held only one bed in the corner. There was a simple, unpainted wood table and chair, a reproduction of a van Gogh sunflower on one wall, and a big trunk in another corner.
“You will sit on the chair, and I will sit on the bed, where it will be quite impossible for you to make a move toward me and live. Very good. You did not know that I could open the door, did you? Of course not. You never see the obvious. In many ways you are clever, but in the end, your overconfidence will trip you up.”
“You’ve got me confused with someone else. To be frank, I’m a patient, like you. My name is Peters. I’m just looking for someone on this floor named Dealer and-”
“Take off your sunglasses, please.”
I took them off and found the man not so dark as I had thought, but the pistol was much larger than I had feared.
“We might be able to arrange some kind of deal,” he said.
“A deal?”
“Perhaps. Remember, I can always kill you, push you outside, and close the door. The others do not know that I’ve got this gun nor that I can open the door. Do not move.”
“I’m not moving.”
“As I was saying,” he continued, “no one would suspect me.”
“Who would they suspect?”
He laughed.
“You don’t trust each other. You fight. I’ve heard you at night when you think I’m sleeping. You have an enemy here, I’m sure. You all have. They’ll blame him. So you see you have no choice but to help me. You understand?” He waved the gun.
“You’re making a-”
“Do you understand?” he repeated in a quiet voice, raising the gun.
“Yes.”
“Good. First we will change clothes. You take yours off first.”
“My clothes are wet,” I protested. “Beside they won’t fit you and what good would they do? They’re not much different from your own.”
“Very clever,” said the man with sincere admiration. “Very clever indeed. For that I give you credit. I advise you not to move another step.”
“I didn’t move.”
“Very good. I should hate to have to shoot you before you’ve served my purpose. Now we must hurry.”
“What the hell is this all about?”
“You persist in this charade, do you?” he said. “I begin to think that you are not so smart. But perhaps you are simply stalling for time. Are you expecting someone?” He moved quickly to the door, looked out, closed it, and walked over to me.
“Mr….”
“Peters.”
“Peters, or whatever your name is, you will walk out of this room in front of me and lead me out of here as if you were taking me someplace. You understand? My gun will not be visible, but it will be in my pocket trained on your abdomen. It has a hair trigger. Do you know anything about guns?”
“I know about guns,” I said.
“I hope you know enough to determine that this is a real gun.” He held it up cautiously and I could see it was a.45.
“It’s real,” I said.
“I’m glad you see that.”
“You’re making a hell of a mistake. We’ll get halfway down the hall and they’ll grab both of us. You don’t seem to understand that I’m a patient too.”
“You would like me to believe that. I know you have been planted here. I can always spot you. Now we have wasted enough time. Would you like a drink before we start to give you a little brace and tighten up your nerves? I knew when the shoe was on the other foot, you’d be cowards.”
“I have no shoes.”
“Pleading will accomplish nothing. Now if you will just do as you are told, you may get through this alive. We will walk slowly, speaking to no one. We will pass the nurse station near the elevators, step into the elevators, and go down to the basement.”
“But you have no clothes.”
He smiled shyly, reached under his bed, and pulled out a small, brown paper bag neatly tied with string.
“My clothes are in here. Nothing fancy, but they will suffice. You think all this will help you to track me down later, but it won’t. I have friends. Now let’s go. Remember that I will not hesitate to use this gun. I have nothing to lose. If you stop me this time, I’m sure you will never give me another opportunity to escape, and I’ll be lucky to live through the day.”
“But-”
“One more word and I’m afraid I’ll have to shoot. I’m not sure how effective this silencer is, but if I have to try it, I will.”
I walked to the door.
“You’re making a mistake.”
“Perhaps,” said the little man, who was now at the door. “It won’t be the first time, and let’s hope for both of our sakes that it will not be the last either. I regret we no longer have time for a last drink of Old Sweat Sox. Be good enough to step into the hall.”
The man, gun carefully pointed at me, opened the door to reveal Sklodovich, hand raised to knock.
“Got the corridors confused,” said Sklodovich, walking in and sitting on the chair. “Well, does he know anything?”
I was not sure to whom the question was addressed, but it seemed senseless in either case and was answered with silence.
“You know this man?” asked the short man, who accepted the new intruder without a blink or word. Again I was not sure who was being asked.
“It’s Toby,” said Sklodovich. “Toby Peters.”
Dealer put his gun in the dark silk packet, sat at the edge of his bed, and began to remove the string from his brown paper package as he chewed on his lower lip. Inside the package was a sandwich, which he began to eat. There was nothing else in the bag, which supposedly contained clothing.
“What can I do for you?” he said through a mouthful of American cheese.
“Toby wants out, the way you got Ressner out.”
Dealer grinned and walked to the window, where he pulled down the shade. Out of the unfurled shade drifted a large sheet of paper. We moved to the bed, where Dealer spread out the paper and Sklodovich assumed an air of rapt attention.
“Our main problem,” said Dealer, earnestly pointing to something on the complex chart before us, “is the moat.”
“Moat?” I asked.
“The drawbridge is down during the day, but is well guarded,” he went on. “At night it is up, but the guard is small because they don’t fear an attack from the rear, a move from within the bowels of their own vile creation of terror. I know the mechanism of the bridge, for I’ve worked on the greasing detail under heavy guard. That mechanism, gentlemen, is the only way. The moat, as you noticed when they brought you in, is not too deep, long, or wide to swim, but it is filled with deadly little fish that can pick a man clean to the bone before he takes three strokes. Therefore one man, you, Ivan, will overpower the drawbridge guard, and you, Toby, will put on the guard’s uniform and answer any calls to the guard station while Ivan and I work on the bridge. You can speak their language, can’t you?”
