Chapter Four
It Happens
Bellevue Central DocWagon Hospital
Bellevue, Seattle
April 17, 2059
12:50 pm
"I can't believe that you sneaked this by the nurses." Shard said with a smile on her face. "They would skin you alive if they found out."
"What can I say?" Lenny pull the tray out. He had stopped on his way up to Shard's room to warm the now cool takeout before delivering it. "I heard that hospital food can make a person sick. I couldn't let that happen to you." He removed the cover form the plate, allowing a fresh steam to escape. "I'm sure you would enjoy this more than what you've been having."
"I can guarantee that." Shard scooted the tray closer to her. She picked up a fork and prepared to enjoy her first taste of real food in weeks.
Lenny dropped into a chair. No sooner had he hit the cushions than his phone rang. He pulled it out and answered the call before the second ring.
"Hello? Lenny here." Lenny put one finger in his ear because Shard had the trideo on. His head occasionally nodded as the person on the other end of the line spoke.
Whoever the person on the other end had a lot to say. Shard noticed that it was a solid commercial break before Lenny said anything in return.
"That's it?" Lenny took his finger out of his ear as Shard turned the volume down. "I know that there wasn't much to go on, but..........." There was a long pause.
Shard could hear muffled words from the phone, but it was hard to make any sense of it.
"No, I haven't. Not yet." Lenny answered. "I was about to once I took care of some things....................What things? Finish calling up everyone...............................I've been busy....................rough traffic." The sparse comments continued for a few more minutes. Finally Lenny told the other person goodbye and closed his phone.
"Who was that?"
Lenny put his phone into his coat pocket. "Hector."
"Oh," Shard sounded concerned, yet disappointed at the same time. "He's got another Johnson, doesn't he?"
"Nothing confirmed yet, Shard. Just a fellow who wants a meet. I was suppose to call the Johnson and set things up, but I had Hector do some looking first. He didn't have much to go own, though. The only thing he could tell me was that Mr. Johnson's call originated from downtown somewhere. Mr. J's not giving anything else out until the meet."
"Are you going to give him one?"
"I thought I'd hear him out."
"Now, Lenny, you know that you can't handle anything without me around."
"I know that." Lenny chuckled. "If Mr. Johnson wants anything too heavy, I'll tell him to find another group. We can handle pretty much anything that gets thrown at us, but we'll have to watch ourselves without you around."
"Who's going with you?"
"I called Gideon on the way over here. He said that he was interested and that he could get Riggs to come along. I finally got a hold of Smiley. He said that he would meet us in Tacoma. I haven't been able to get in touch with Nightsky. I've been paging him all afternoon."
"I heard he got a new place." Shard said. "Maybe he has a telecom now."
"I doubt that."
Shard shrugged.
"I haven't been able to get Tart on the phone either. I don't know where she is."
"She came by here this morning."
"She did?" Lenny said. "Did she say where she was going afterwards?"
"I think she was going to visit her mother in the hospital. Seems that she's gotten really sick lately." Shard explained. "Though, I think......." Shard stopped in mid-sentence noticing that Lenny's mouth was hanging open. ".....Lenny? What's wrong?"
"She went to what?" Lenny sounded surprised. "Go visit her mother?"
"Yes, what's wrong with that?"
"Plenty."
"I don't see how, Lenny. If she wants to visit her mother then that's her business. I think it would be good for."
Lenny stood up. "That's not what I'm talking about. There's more involved than just a daughter visiting her mother. Do you know what hospital she went to?"
"No." Shard shook her head. "What's going on?"
"Shard, I'm afraid that Tart might have done something very ignorant."
"I don't know what your talking about. It's her mother, what right-"
"It's not that. A few months ago Hector explained to me how Tart fell into the shadows. Hector faked her death in order to let her escape from some nasty people. If she went out to visit her mother then those people could find out that she's still alive." Lenny was careful not to mention any specific names. Shard recognized this. It would be stupid to call out Fuchi.
"Oh, god" For a moment Shard regretted encouraging Tart. Lenny's face held an expression of concern and fear at the same time. Perhaps things would turn out better if she had kept her mouth shut? She did not know what was going on.
"Do you have any idea where she went?"
"Well, I know if must be somewhere close. When she left this morning she said that she didn't have far to go."
"What time did she leave?"
"About half an hour to twelve."
"Did she say what time she had to be where she was going?"
"Noon, I think."
Lenny cursed silently to himself. At the same time he did not want to upset Shard. "That could put her anywhere in Bellevue."
"Do you think she'll be okay?"
Lenny nodded his head. "Don't worry about it, Shard. I'll take care of this." He hurried to the door. "Enjoy your food and I'll be back as soon as I can."
"Bye, Lenny." Shard called. "Be careful."
"I will." Lenny said as the door closed shut.
He walked briskly down the hallway and stopped at a payphone. He flipped to the Bellevue directory. There were only two major public hospitals in Bellevue. There were four total, but the rest were DocWagon owned like the one Shard was in. Lenny took out a pen and scribbled the numbers to the other hospitals on a corner of the directory. Then he tore off the corner and stuffed it in his shirt pocket.
As Lenny was in the elevator on the way to his car he felt an uneasy tension. The long ride to the ground floor made him restless. Eventually he decided to cut off his wires completely. This made it easier for him to stand still without appearing to shake.
Lenny's phone beeped in his pocket. He quietly took it out and answered the called.
"Lenny here."
"Lenny?" A voice replied through the encrypted line. "You've been trying to get a hold of me today?"
Lenny sighed heavily. "Yeah, 'Sky."
"What's going on?" Nightsky asked.
"A lot of things right now. First off, do you know anything about Tart?"
"Not really."
"I showed you where she lives, right?"
"Yeah, I know where she lives."
"I need a favor." Lenny explained. He felt uncomfortable about talking on the phone because there were two other people with him in the elevator. "I need you to go there and wait for Tart to come home."
"What do you want me to do when she gets there?"
"Get her to pack whatever that she needs and take her to your place."
"What's the deal?"
"I think that she might be needing some help."
Nightsky did not ask any more questions. He assumed that Lenny was in a position that he could not tell everything. "Okay, I'll take care of it. Anything else?"
Lenny shook his head. "Call me when you get her to your place. I'll explain the rest then."
"Where are you going?"
"There's some things that I've got to take care of. Call Gideon if you want some more information about a job opportunity."
"Tart got anything to do with the job?" Nightsky sounded concerned, like he didn't want Tart to be involved.
"No, this is on the side. Just get her."
"Will do." He added and hung up.
Lenny closed his phone just as the elevator stopped on the ground floor. He stepped out into the lobby and headed for the parking lot. By the time he got to his car he had programed the two hospital numbers into the speed dial on his phone.
The white Ford AmeriCar that Lenny drove pulled out into traffic. Lenny wasn't driving the car. Instead he was letting it run on Auto-Pilot while he made some calls.
Each of the hospitals has a switchboard operator. Lenny did not know the name of Lori's mother. So he had to improvise. Lori's sister's name was Samantha. With a little deduction Lenny figured that Samantha would have been the one to put her mother in the hospital. With this in mind Lenny had the operator to page Samantha Collins. If Samantha picked up the phone Lenny would know which hospital to go to. The first hospital he tried, Overlake Medical, there was no answer. Lenny hung up and tried his second choice, Cougar Mountain. When he paged for Samantha he got an answer. Instead of talking to the girl, Lenny hung up. He knew where he had to go and set his Autopilot.
It would be a fairly lengthy drive in mid-day traffic. With his phone in hand Lenny pulled out Mr. Johnson's number. It would be hard for him to be traced while the car was moving, so he decided to give the man a call. He punched in the number and waited for three rings.
"Yes?"
"You wished to get in touch with me." Lenny said in monotone.
"I don't know what your talking about. Who are you?"
"My friends tell me that you wish to see me." Lenny replied. "My name is Lenny."
"Lenny?" The voice was surprised, but he covered it up well. "My apologies. I was expecting you to call."
"I'm sure." Lenny leaned back in his car seat. He turned off his radio so he would have some peace and quiet while he conversed. "What do you want?"
"You'll have to excuse me, but I'm very worried. My name is Gabriel Frost. Who I work for is not of your concern at the moment. You have no need to know any names. However, I do have a situation that I need your help with."
"That's my job. What did you have in mind?"
"Not over the phone." Gabriel said. "A meeting."
"Where?"
"Noon tomorrow at Lo Changs Eatery. Do you know where that is? It's in downtown at the corner of Spring and 13th."
"I'll find it. Tell me the type of job you need help with."
Gabriel was hesitant to answer at first. "Missing person." He said flatly.
Lenny chewed his lower lip. "Very well. I will meet you tomorrow." He hung up before Gabriel could say anything more.
"All the same." Lenny said to himself as he folded the phone up and put it back in his pocket. He liked to keep phone calls like that as short as possible.
Just as Lenny took the car off auto-pilot he heard a sharp, screeching sound approaching him from behind. Before he could turn around something slammed into the rear of his car. The impact gave him a good shaking and forced his car off the road. Lenny's first instinct was to speed away. He thought that someone was trying to force him to crash. He changed his mind when he glanced in his rearview mirror. Behind him he could see two people, teenagers really, piling out of a Jackrabbit. The Jackrabbit's bumper was crumbled and the hood and been severely bent.
Lenny applied his brakes. As he stopped he noticed that his hand had reflexively went for the pistol under the dash. The pistol felt warm and comforting in his hands. He quietly slipped the handgun into his coat.
"I god my parents are going to kill me!" A teenager screeched as he looked at the damage on his car. The other teenager with the boy was standing next to him. She looked to be his girlfriend.
Lenny sized the two up. They did not seem much of a threat even though his wires were still switched off. He glanced at his car to find the damage was more cosmetic than anything. Some expensive work would have to be done to fix it, but the car would still go. However, it looked like the fender of the Jackrabbit had caught the rear tire on the AmeriCar. That tire was hissing out air from a gash it received in the collision. The muffler was also severely mangled.
"Oh man oh man oh man." The boy looked like he was going to hyperventilate.
Lenny crossed his arms. "I don't believe this."
When the boy saw Lenny staring at him it looked like he would pass clean out. "Mister, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to."
"Are you two kids alright?"
They both nodded at the same time.
"Okay then, no real damage done." Lenny walked around and looked at his car.
"This is going to cost something bad, isn't it, mister." The boy was still in shock.
Lenny inspected the damage then glanced at his watch. This incident was slowing him down and he had to get to Cougar Mountain Hospital. By the time he got there he might be too late. "Only thing this is costing me is time."
Sadly, the accident costed Lenny more time than he wanted. It took forever to calm the teenager down to the point where he could be reasoned with. The last thing that Lenny wanted was to file a report with Lone Star. The AmeriCar did not have insurance to begin with. Car insurance was something that Lenny found absolutely pointless in his line of work. An otherwise "normal" thing to have was complicated beyond belief because of Lenny's career choice. Fortunately Lenny managed to talk his way out of the situation. The tale he spun explained that the AmeriCar was borrowed from a friend who was out of town. Furthermore, Lenny did not want his so called friend to know about the accident much less turn it in on insurance. The boy argued mainly because he knew that the wreck was his fault. That made it his responsibility to pay for Lenny's damages. The money was of little concern. Lenny could make enough nuyen in a week to buy a new car. Lenny offered that he would fix the AmeriCar himself. He told the boy that this way his friend would never find out about it. However, the boy had to fix his own car. The boy eventually agreed because he would only have to pay for one wrecked car and not both. The boy did worry about how he was going to explain the accident to his parents, but Lenny put his mind at ease by telling him to make up a story about a hit and run driver. Since the boy's girlfriend was present the boy had a witness to back up his story.
With everything finally put to rest Lenny requested the boy's help to change his tire. The boy happily agreed and helped get the spare out of the trunk. Lenny let the teenager do most of the work. The only thing that made him uneasy was that the kid took so long. Maybe it was because he wanted to do a good job or he had never changed a tire before.
As soon as the tire was changed Lenny got on his way. He cursed at the amount of time that he had wasted. The loud rumbling from his ruined muffler added to his discontent.
By the time he got to Cougar Mountain Hospital it was after two o'clock. He left his car in the parking garage. Before leaving he made a quick sweep through the AmeriCar and removed anything of value. This included and numbers he had written down and personal affects. The pistol was left under the seat after Lenny had cleaned his fingerprints off. He knew that bringing the gun would not be a smart move.
Inside the hospital Lenny was hit with another revelation. He had no idea how he was going to find Tart. It would take forever to search the floors. Still, Lenny stiffened himself. The logistical nightmare he faced could be overcome with a few simple keystrokes. Most of the modern hospitals in the Seattle Sprawl had computer terminals at key locations. It was cheaper in the long run for hospitals to put in the terminals than it was for them to pay for an information desk. The terminals were limited in access, but they held a wealth of information. Lenny found one near the lobby. He scanned through the files for a solid ten minutes. It was still much faster than physically searching each floor. First he called up a list of all the "Collins" in the hospital. Then he began eliminating them one at a time based on what Hector had told him about Tart's past. He ended up with three possibilities. Each of them were admitted for different reasons. Lenny did not know what was wrong with Tart's mother. However, he did know that Tart's sister had brought the mother in. That information was not available on the terminal. Still, if he found Samantha he would find the mother and, therefore, Tart.
Mentally, he marked the locations of the three women and headed for the elevator. The first stop Lenny made was one the second floor in the ICU. The Collins on this floor was a "Tandi Collins" who had suffered a heart attack. This possibility was dismissed when he saw the age of the woman. He left without seeing the her.
The second Collins on his list had a long name, Patricia Stacie Renquest Collins. Quite a mouthful. This woman was on the fifth floor. She was in the section for "Mental Disorders." The title did not inspire Lenny with confidence. As he made his was down the hall he expected to see raving lunatics trying to jump out the windows. Instead he found the floor to be very subdued. Apparently "Mental Disorders" also included eating disorders and people who had lost some abilities from strokes. Lenny passed an entire section of therapists ranging from physical training to speech pathologists.
As Lenny approached his destination he noticed a young woman sitting on a small couch. The scene might not have concerned him, but she was sitting near the room where the second Collins on his list was staying. Lenny's cybernetic eyes, covered by stylish sunglasses, zoomed in on the girl. The electronic magnification and digital enhancement cleared up the girl's face. There was a faint resemblance to Tart in the young woman's features, but it was hard to be sure. This woman could be Tart's sister.
Lenny concluded that the best way to find out was to ask.
2:27 pm
Samantha sat by herself. It felt like heavy weight had been lifted off of her chest. Lori had actually shown up. Just her sister's presence had meant so much to her mother. A special glow came about them during the tearful reunion. Lori did not just stay and run out either. Instead she was around for the better part of two hours. As she left she promised that she would come back. Those words the smile on her mother's face was priceless.
A smile crossed Samantha's face. For the first time in months she felt that everything was going to turn out okay. Things would be right for a change.
"Excuse me?" A male voice said.
Samantha looked to see a tall man standing above her. His hair was long and brown. His eyes were covered by a pair of sunglasses. He was dressed in a suit with an overcoat. The voice he spoke in was rich and warm. Sam felt that there was something funny about the man, but she could not place it.
"Samantha Collins," The man said. "I presume?"
"Yes, that's me." Samantha nodded.
"Samantha do you have a sister by the name of Lori Collins?"
"Yes." Samantha tilted her head. She wanted to know who this man was and why he was asking for her sister. She employed a few casual moves that put an emphasis on certain parts of her physiology. "Why do you want to see my sister?" The movements were carefully timed with her voice. Sort of a combination of a distraction and asking a question.
"I need to speak with her." The man said. He wasn't flattered by Samantha's movements. "It is very important. Could you tell me where she is?"
Samantha felt frustration build up in the back of her mind. This man was not letting anything out that he did not want her to hear. Still determined, Sam redoubled her efforts. "My little sister isn't much. Maybe I can help you out?"
"I doubt that very much." The man replied. "Is your sister still here?"
Samantha sighed. The man was more determined than she. "No, she left a little while ago."
The man seemed to consider her words. Samantha thought that he would explain why he wanted to see Tart, but he did not. Instead he turned and started to walk away.
"Hey." Samantha stopped him by grabbing the man's arm. She immediately felt the unusual hardness in the man's muscles and the coarseness of his overcoat. Those were characteristics not possessed by a wage slave. She faltered for a second, but quickly regained her composer. "Why do you want to see my sister?"
The man regarded Sam. "If your sister had wanted you to know she would have told you." With a gentle twist the man slipped free of Sam's grasp.
Samantha was left standing in the middle of the hallway with her hand still clenched up in a fist.
"Good day to you." He added as he walked off.
2:40 pm
When Lenny got back to his car he had another surprise waiting for him. The other rear tire had gone flat. It must have had a slow leak from the accident. The presence of another flat with no spare prompted Lenny to kick the confounded vehicle. The only thing it earned him was a satisfying thump and part of his muffler fell on the ground.
Before he left the car he removed the pistol that he had put under the seat. Then he left the defunct pile of junk in the garage. He'd take care of moving the thing later. Perhaps he could sell it for scrap or get Riggs to fix it.
Lenny used his phone to call himself a cab. It arrived nearly twenty minutes later. He gave the cab driver directions to a Stuffer Shack near the safehouse that the team would be using in Tacoma. Hopefully he would run into Riggs before the night was done and arrange to have his car picked up. Silently he promised himself that he would buy a Eurocar as soon as he had the money.
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