Page 122 of Sky Song
Terrance was holding the door for her, peering anxiously into the blue metallic glow. “Thank God you’re safe.” He abruptly fell silent and took a step back when Ren emerged behind Cricket.
Safe? Cricket nearly laughed. “I’m fine. Ren, what about Lyle?”
“He’ll manage. C’mon, move it.”
Terrance swallowed without taking his eyes off Cricket. “Did Dr. Nura… Is she…”
“I don’t know. Kim’s down there.”
Someone gasped, and turning, Cricket saw Salty and Yanet huddled next to each other a good distance away from the ‘supply room’ door.
“Told you she was alive,” Salty’s wheezed.
“You knew?”
“It’s not my fault. I didn’t ask for it. She made me do it!”
Even Ren slowed down dragging Cricket to the stairwell. He narrowed his eyes at Salty. “What did Kim make you do?”
Salty looked frantically around, her shaking hands in rubber gloves nervously kneading the front of her overcoat. “The key. She wanted the key to her… crate. Before she got put down there, she had told me to prepare or I’d be next. I had no choice but to help her.” Salty began to cry.
Yanet pressed her back more firmly into the wall, separating herself from Salty.
“You’re so stupid,” Terrance said with disgust.
“I’m not stupid. You weren’t here to watch the horror movie of Igor dying like he did. So shut up.”
The sounds of commotion swelled from behind the steel door. Ren eyed the busted wall cabinet that hung open. “We ought to hit that switch.”
“No!” Yanet cried out, a note of desperation in her tone. “It’ll fry everybody. Dr. Nura and everyone, even Kim.” At least, Yanet’s nurse’s conscience wouldn't allow her to end life.
“For the record, this ‘doctor’ Nura is already on her way to frying everybody in there with her mega-zapper.” Ren motioned at the door.
Yanet uttered another breathy, desperate ‘no.’
Terrance, like a knight in shining armor he wasn’t, took one look at Yanet, then at the supply room door, and ran away from the lab.
Salty cried harder, too distraught to run, and Yanet also made no move to escape. Pretty, silly Yanet, with the ever-present tablet clutched to her chest.
“Ren, wait.” Cricket dug her heels into the tiles. Tugging him along, she executed a sharp turn and headed toward Yanet. She stopped two feet away from her without saying a word, armed Ren a silent menace at her back. She was fully prepared to use force once more.
Whatever it was - Cricket’s intense look, Ren’s gun, or the realization that she had been supporting the wrong side - the nurse silently released her death grip on the tablet, and Cricket plucked it from her hands.
The steel door opened with a hiss and more sizzling shots erupted from the blue passageway.
“I got the tablet! Lyle!” Cricket wailed as Ren propelled her out and away, taking stairs and running against the current of hospital staff that dashed chaotically in all directions.
“The guards.” He pointed in the direction of the unmistakable sound of running booted feet. The two of them went around the corner, flattening their backs against the wall. Cricket breathed hard, her thoughts a knot of loose strings as they waited for the guards to pass them on their way to the lab. Toward Lyle. He said he would be right behind.Goddamn, where was he? She clutched the tablet to her chest just like Yanet used to do.
When the coast was relatively clear, Ren peeled her away from the wall and they ran until they were outside. Cricket didn’t know how they managed it. One minute they were running, and the next, they were sitting inside the rider that had been waiting for them in the same handicapped spot. If not for Ren, she’d have never pulled it off.
Her hands shook as she reached for controls. “Where to?”
“Are we not waiting for Lyle?”
“Oh, God.” She dropped her head against the wheel. “Why isn’t he coming?” she whispered, an almost unbearable tension turning her insides into stones.
“He will. Have faith.”
