And it stung.
So okay, new plan: He’d take this guy, find Kelly White—if she was still among the living. Stick this guy in a closet, wish him well in the afterlife. Tell him to say hi to Mayor McCheese.
If Kelly White was already gone … then yeah, get to a safe house, lawyer up, and prepare for a shitstorm, because CI-6 might be deciding to part ways with one Michael Kowalski.
And he couldn’t let that happen. Not until he’d avenged his sweet Katie at least.
“You ready Jack?”
“For what? Didn’t you hear me? I asked you a question.”
“Yeah, I heard you. I wouldn’t waste time if I were you, though. That luminous toxin’s a nasty bastard. And according to your count, you’ve got less than two hours to live. We need to get you to a hospital.”
It took only a few minutes, and another look at that embossed foil with the holographic eagles, to have Eisley remanded to his custody.
While faking his way through the bullshit paperwork, Kowalski noticed a pair of wanted posters on the wall. One showed a crooked ex-cop believed to be on the run with his almost brother-in-law. Small world. Kowalski wished he could tell the FBI the truth, save them a little worry. Say that the crooked ex-cop was buried under thousands of pounds of concrete in Camden, New Jersey. Kowalski should know. He was the one who’d dumped him down that drainage pipe.
His almost brother-in-law, however, was another matter altogether. Kowalski had wanted to leave him for dead, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He had been a part of Katie. A half brother. But still a part of her. Most likely the only part left.
So maybe Kowalski wasn’t a monster after all. A monster would have let the guy die.
7:32 a.m.
Pennsylvania Hospital, Room 803
A flash of the badge got Kowalski the room number of the Jane Doe who had rolled in during the middle of the night; the spiky-haired blonde at the front desk seemed impressed. Homeland Security. Oooh, ahhhh, keeping America safe. People really dug the holographic eagles. He led Jack up to the eighth floor. Jack, who kept checking his watch nervously. Guy thought he was headed up to a poison-control center to get treated for luminous toxin poisoning. Hilarious. Hadn’t this guy ever watched D.O.A.? He liked Kelly White even more.
Kelly was in bed, hooked up to machines. Her back was arched. Her eyes were fluttering beneath her lids. But she wasn’t alone.
A tall man with thinning hair was leaning over her, syringe in his hand. “Oh,” he said. “You’re here to save Vanessa, aren’t you?”
“Actually,” Kowalski said, “I’m here for the breakfast. The sausage patties are out of this world.”
Vanessa, huh.
The man straightened up and smiled. “You caught me putting her down for the night. We’re getting ready for a long weekend getaway. Just the two of us.”
“Sounds nice,” Kowalski said, edging closer to the bed. His leg brace squeaked. “Somewhere warm?”
“Scorching,” he said.
They were two monsters, sizing each other up. Kowalski saw it in the guy’s eyes, behind the mask of teddy bear features and wispy blond hair. The eyes … yeah, the eyes revealed all. He’d seen some nasty things. Caused them, too.
“Looks like you’re traveling light,” Kowalski said. “Maybe you’d want to borrow my bag.”
“Seems full already.”
“Not much in here, actually. Take a look.” He dropped the gym bag on Kelly’s bed, right between her legs.
The thin-haired man looked behind Kowalski. “Who’s your friend?”
“We’re getting married in April. I always wanted to be a spring bride. Go ahead. Look in the bag.”
“Does he scratch in bed? Your face is an absolute horror.”
“He’s rough, but we’re in love.”
Thinny here wasn’t going to look in the bag. Too smart a monster for that. No chance for a distraction.
Yet, there was.
Kelly’s eyes snapped open. She whipped out her left hand, grasped the Operator’s hand—the one holding the syringe—and forced it down and back. A violent needle jab to the abdomen, many, many inches below the belly button. The man’s mouth made a perfect O shape.
“Fucker!” Kelly hissed.
Kowalski moved quickly. He slapped Thinny across his nose with an open palm. But Thinny didn’t seem all that stunned. So Kowalski hit him again with a backslap. Harder this time.
The guy wrenched his hand out from under Kelly’s, grabbed the heart monitor from the rack, and bashed it across Kowalski’s face. Wires whipped behind it like dreadlocks. Kowalski staggered backward. He smashed into a table of steel instruments, which went flying everywhere. He could feel the blood gushing down the side of his face even before he hit the linoleum. His hands trembled uncontrollably. Oh fuck.
7:34 a.m.
Jack watched the violence in front of him with the detachment of someone watching a violent car crash. I’m not part of that. That’s not me. That’s there. I’m here. And I’m still alive.
I’m still alive.
Jack looked at his watch.
It’s past 7:30 and I’m still alive.
Luminous toxin my ass.
She lied.
About everything?
7:34 a.m. and 10 seconds
Vanessa tried to find the syringe again so she could plunge it in deeper this time. Rip it across his belly. Drive it right back into his fookin’ spine.
But he moved away too quickly. He said, “You have a loose mouth, don’t you, Vanessa?”
The Operator put his palm to her right cheek. Then he pushed her head back into her pillow, pinning her there. Didn’t take much strength at all. He probably could have held her in place with one finger.
“Fun’s over.”
He pulled the security cord behind her bed.
7:34 a.m. and 30 seconds
Kowalski was being dragged across the floor. He could hear his rusty leg brace scraping along the linoleum. The pink-and-purple sutures on his face were popping open. This monster was coming undone. He’d taken too hard a fall this morning. Left him weakened, vulnerable. The bigger monster was in charge. Why had he thought a simple slap could subdue him?
A security alarm was in full roar. Lights flashed in the hall.
The bigger monster was lifting him up now.
The bigger monster was smashing a fist into his face.
The bigger monster vanished when everything went black.
7:34 a.m. and 55 seconds
You.” The man with the thinning hair pointed to the hallway. “Out.”
He followed Jack, who stumbled out into the hallway, and nearly tripped over Kowalski’s bleeding and semiunconscious body. It was bedlam in the hall. Nurses backing away. Worried stares from people in wheelchairs. Two security officers jogging toward them.
The guy who’d decked Kowalski pulled a badge from inside his jacket, barked something about “Defense Department,” and told one of the guards to stand in front of the door. “Do not allow anyone in this room for the next hour. No one. Matter of national security.” He was going to call in backup, he said. No one gets in the room, understood?”