Flashback

Leonard smiled. “I’ve always enjoyed being in the bland majority. Actually, I feel sort of good for a doomed old fart who’s just had a near-death experience. Mellow. Did you give me something in this IV, Dr. Tak?”

“A mild tranquilizer.”

“Please give me a few hundred of those pills in a doggie bag when I leave,” said Leonard. He squeezed Nick’s hand. “And we will be leaving soon, won’t we?”

“I think we have to,” said Nick.

“Did Val return?” asked Leonard and his grip intensified.

Nick shook his head. “I have trouble believing he got out of the building.”

As if just remembering something, Leonard whispered, “The phone,” and released Nick’s hand, beckoning him to lean closer.

Nick put his ear almost to the old man’s mouth.

“Dara’s phone, Nick. It’s in your cubie. It’s double-password-protected. The first password is ‘dream’—d… r… e… a… m. The second-level password is ‘Kildare,’ the name of her pet parakeet. I just figured out that second-level password. ‘Kildare.’ That opens text files from the months before she died, Nick. The text I understand. It’s important. Very important. More important than finding Val. You need to go read it… see the videos. Her diary… or notes she made for you, I think… it changes everything.”

Nick blinked in response. More important than finding Val? What could be more important than that to Val’s grandfather? Or to Nick?

“Go now,” whispered Leonard. “Go look at the phone now.” More loudly, he said, “Dr. Tak will help me get dressed and ready to travel, won’t you, sir?”

Tak frowned again. “You should not travel for some time, Professor Fox. You need to rest. Days of rest.”

“Yes, yes,” said Leonard. “But you’ll help me get dressed, won’t you? While Nick goes to tend to some things? Not being part of the Really Surprised Four Percent, I need to get on with what’s left of my life.”

Dr. Tak continued frowning but nodded.

“I’ll be back for you in a few minutes, Leonard,” said Nick. He took Dr. Tak aside and squeezed all the remaining big bills he had from the Nakamura old-bucks advance into the old Thai doctor’s gnarled hand. It left him with about thirty bucks in small bills with none left on his NICC card, but that didn’t matter.

“This is too much money,” said Dr. Tak.

Nick shook his head. “You’ve helped me before when I couldn’t pay enough. And you can put it toward whatever pills Leonard needs for the immediate future. Anyway, if I keep this cash, I’ll just blow it on wine, women, and song.” He again squeezed the old medic’s hands shut around the little wad of bills.

“Thank you, Dr. Tak.”

Gunny G. was waiting in the hall and eager to show Nick Val’s escape route. Since it appeared to be on the way to his cubie, more or less, Nick followed along as the stocky ex-marine sprinted up the unmoving escalator like a boot at Parris Island. Nick followed more stiffly, favoring his tightly taped ribs.

“My kid did that?” said Nick as he stood on the mezzanine and looked out at the cable—beyond his own reach or jumping ability, he was sure—and then up at the shattered skylight glass forty feet above.

“He did,” said Gunny G., not hiding his own admiration. “With about twenty pounds of climbing rope, pitons, and carabiners hitched over his shoulder. When I showed him and the old man into the place earlier, I sorta thought that the boy was a bit of a runt for the sixteen-year-old described on the DHS all-points-bulletin.”

Nick was going to let that pass but heard himself saying, “Not a bad jump and climb for a runt.”

Gunny G. keyed in the access code and they went up the stairs to the roof. Once at the skylight, Nick paused for a second to look down through the missing glass pane at the long drop to the glass-shard-littered soil of the dirt-filled fountain far below. Then he followed spatters of blood to the southwest corner of the roof.

“I pulled the rope up and coiled it,” said Gunny, “but left it anchored here.”

Nick was disturbed by the amount of blood. It was obvious that his son had slashed himself pretty badly during the climb.

Gunny was pointing down the south wall of the parking garage. “The video cam down there caught just a blur when your son shinnied down past it, then picked him up when he walked over to the bridge there.”

“What did he do there?”

The security man shrugged. “My guess is that he had a weapon hidden there, but he was wearing a jacket so it was hard to say for sure. Your boy stayed over there on the other side of the bridge for a while and then walked off—limped off, really—to the west. I was busy getting your father-in-law to Dr. Tak, but when I had time later I went out and checked the bridge and saw where the kid had bled quite a bit.”

“Bad?” said Nick. He heard the concerned edge in his own voice. A little late to play the concerned daddy, isn’t it, asshole? demanded a more honest voice in his head.