“My orders are to apprehend him.”
The troops of Enforcers outside had surrounded the medical center. Other men in the second hovertransport stood waiting.
“Are we in danger from this Servant?” She placed a worried tone in her voice. “May I ask what he’s done?”
“No, you may not. Please direct me to him.” The accompanying Enforcer tensed. His hand strayed toward a weapon. “Now.”
“Yes, yes. One moment.” The nurse/tech bustled behind the counter. She rattled her fingers over a keyboard, ostensibly calling up information on Danal, stalling for time, trying to think.
“Ah, yes. He was injured in the shoulder, but he’s recuperating now. Claims his name is Danal—well, of course his name is Danal, since Servants can’t lie.” She let out a little laugh. “Says here that the attending physician suspected your Servant might be violent or something. Here, follow me.”
She strode down one of the corridors with the two armored men marching closely on her heels. “He’s in this one—it’s one of our high-security chambers, designed to restrain the more violent patients and to ensure that they can’t escape.”
“Good.” The Elite Guard pulled out his scatter-stun, and the other Enforcer did the same. They both tensed. “Now let us in.”
The nurse/tech activated the door, and both men leaped into the empty chamber. Just as quickly she reversed the switch and slammed the door back into its closed position, affixing the edges with magnetic seals. Smiling to herself, she illuminated the “CAUTION—VIOLENT PATIENT” designator and turned rapidly to walk away as the two trapped Enforcers began to pound on the door.
For lack of a better idea, the nurse/tech activated the emergency fire alarms as she hurried back to Danal’s room. An urgent ratcheting sound filled the halls. The other people in the medical center milled about, confused.
The nurse/tech slid open the door to Danal’s room and threw him an apron like those worn by the orderly Servants. “Put this on. And come out in just a minute. Trouble. I think this is going to be tough.”
The nurse/tech popped out into the hall again, ushering the people toward the front door. “We all have to evacuate! We’ve got a situation here. The Elite Guard wants us out—come on, let the Enforcers do their job! Everybody out!”
Without their Elite Guard leader, the massed Enforcers outside were completely at a loss when the patients and medical personnel began to crowd out the doors. The Enforcer troops could not retain control, short of stunning the front lines of refugees, and they did not want another mob disturbance so soon after the riot outside Resurrection, Inc. The uncertain chaos outside even exceeded the nurse/tech’s expectations.
As she returned to get Danal, she noticed that the door of the confinement chamber had buckled outward slightly, glowing a dull red as the two trapped Enforcers used their own weapons to blast out.
Danal emerged from his room, uneasily wearing the orderly smock. The stain-killing enzymes in his own gray jumpsuit had by now managed to dissolve much of Nathans’s blood, and the apron made him look more unobtrusive.
The grating evacuation alarm continued to pound through the air, adding to the confusion. The nurse/tech grabbed his arm and propelled him toward the front.
“Everybody out!” she shouted, then lowered her voice to Danal. “Remember what I said. No one can find out about us, especially not the Guild. We’ll take advantage of the confusion and try to get away, but they’ve got two transports of Enforcers out there. Somebody must want you very badly.”
“Nathans is dead. I’m surprised the imposter has that much influence.”
As they reached the lobby, the nurse/tech put on a harried commanding voice. “Servant! Take that box and follow me. Quickly!”
The nurse/tech pointed to a box filled with small vacuum sealed bottles; a label, “BIOLOGICAL SAMPLES—IN STRICT CONFIDENCE,” stood out prominently on the outside of the box. Danal picked up the package, made sure to keep a blank, mechanical expression on his face, and followed her outside. He tried to hide his face behind the box, though Danal doubted any of the Enforcers had a good description of his facial characteristics anyway.
Some of the Enforcers stood rigid, at attention; others ran around, chasing people, trying to look authoritative.
The nurse/tech hopped from one person to another in the crowd, tending the displaced patients. One man squatted on the ground, crying, staring at his knees. The nurse/tech went by, patted him on the back, and went to a woman who was adjusting her own bandages on a burned hand. “You all right? Good.”
She moved on. Danal followed her obediently, like a good Servant. She spoke to him quietly out of the corner of her mouth. “Over there—see it? If we’re careful, I think we might be able to just walk out of here.”
Danal looked where she indicated. A block and a half away, one of the broad KEEP OFF THE GRASS patches glowed threateningly with its lush, vibrant green lawn, fenced off with a knee-high barricade. One Enforcer stood stationed beside it, presumably to make sure no one slipped and fell into the deadly disintegrator patch. The single Enforcer watched the chaos around the medical center, but made no move to help out, refusing to leave his post.
When the two nearest Enforcers moved aside to break up a fight between a medical center tech and a patient, the nurse/tech stepped up her pace and bustled down the street, trying to get away from the crowd.
Behind them, the trapped Elite Guard and his accompanying Enforcer burst out of the medical center entrance, successful in blasting their way through the door of the confinement chamber. Both of them had weapons in each hand. They began shouting, causing a large commotion.
The nurse/tech did not look back, but moved more quickly instead. Danal saw the lone Enforcer ahead of them by the disintegrator patch and prayed that he wouldn’t pay any particular attention to them.
“Hey! Wait! You—” one of the Enforcers behind them bellowed.
The nurse/tech broke into a run. “Follow me! Now!”
Danal dropped the box of samples with a crash at his feet and leaped over it as it fell. Someone else shouted, and a ping! exploded at Danal’s feet.
“No, you idiot! Not projectile weapons!” someone screeched behind them. “We’ve got to take him alive! Scatter-stuns, everyone!”
Danal ran. The Enforcer in front of them stood with his legs spread, intimidating, but not moving from his position. He held one gloved hand out, waggling it slightly in a strange gesture. The nurse/tech ran directly toward him.
“Danal! Command: Follow!”
Unable to resist and suddenly betrayed by the Command phrase, Danal leaped after her. He heard the buzzing hum behind him as scatter-stun fields radiated outward.
He and the nurse/tech had almost reached the lone Enforcer. The gaping deadly maw of the KEEP OFF THE GRASS patch shone a beautiful green, beckoning.
Then Danal’s left leg went completely numb and useless as a scatter-stun field struck it. His own momentum carried him forward, but he tripped and fell directly into the arms of the waiting Enforcer.
The white-armored man grappled with him, wrestling the Servant in a bear hug. Danal tried to struggle, but the Enforcer began to tip backward, stumbling into the low fence surrounding the disintegrator patch.
The nurse/tech let out a wild howl and also leaped to tackle the Enforcer. All three of them toppled over the low barricade toward the deadly shimmering grass.
With the speed of his microprocessor Danal felt himself falling with agonizing slowness, unable to escape. The last thing he saw was the sharp and distinct green blades of grass. As he reached out his arm to try to stop their fall, Danal saw his own hand disappear into nothingness as a brief rush of ozone filled his nostrils. Then the rest of his body fell through the disintegrator field, engulfed completely.