“I’ll wait for you.”
“Around the next turning, sister?”
“Yes.”
Trader stood by Ryan’s shoulder, silently watching. Buford had recovered consciousness and was making muffled grunting noises through the gag.
The eyes on the dominant head became still, fixed on the bright lights above. But the other head didn’t seem to have noticed what had happened.
“Sister? We paid them back some. For what they did to us. Didn’t we?”
“She’s gone,” Trader said.
Ryan nodded. “I know.”
Now they could see that the wound was mortal for both Edna and Evangelina. The blood still seeped out, more slowly, but the life was fast draining away from the surviving head. The cheeks had grown even more pale, the eyes losing focus.
“Can’t feel you anymore, sister.”
The fingers were opening and closing, the legs, in their borrowed uniform, not moving.
“Sorry fought so sister loved you loved”
The room was quiet.
Even the helpless Ladrow Buford had stopped his futile struggling, aware of the moment of death for the poor, bedeviled creature that he and his colleagues had given such a tormented and distorted life.
Ryan lowered both heads to the tiles very gently, then straightened. “Know what I hope, partner?” he said to Trader. “I hope that little fuck on the operating table refuses to tell us what’s happening so we can work on him awhile. I swear that I would like that.”
But Ryan was disappointed.
Trader held his knife to the throbbing artery beneath the little scientist’s ear, while Ryan carefully removed the inflatable gag.
“Just d-don’t h-hurt me,” Buford stuttered. “I’ll tell you anything and every single thing you need to know. Just don’t hurt me, I beg you.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
“If Ryan’s dead, then we have no choice. If he’s alive, out in the snow, we still have to make our own break.”
“What about Krysty, John?” Mildred asked. “I’m seriously frightened for her. For what those so-called scientist bastards might be doing to her.”
Jak nodded. “Agree. Morning’s much gone. Time get out of this place.”
Dean had been crying in a corner of the room where they were all imprisoned. But everyone had been tactful about it and pretended not to notice. Now, red-eyed and sniffling, he’d rejoined the council of war.
“I reckon Dad’ll try and break into this shitter’s hole as soon as he gets through the snow,” he said. “He and Trader’ll need help. We can give it.”
Abe nodded. “Ace on the fucking line, young’un,” he declared. “Anything we can do’ll help.”
Doc cleared his throat portentously. “If I may express my opinion?” he began.
“Sure you can, Doc,” Mildred told him. “Just so long as you keep it short.”
“I was merely proposing that if Ryan were here with us he could carefully formulate a proper plan, taking in true military fashion the enemy dispositions as well as calculating our own strengths or weaknesses. He would not be the man to simply leap, winking, into the great unknown. If it is to be done, then it will be well if it can be done quickly. As the justly famous bard of Avon so succinctly put it.”
“Doc!” Mildred protested. “By the time you get to the end of this, we’ll all have passed away of old age. And I hope and pray you’ll be the first to go.”
“Temper, temper, my dearest lady.” Doc waved a reproving finger at the woman. “Hope, charity and patience, there abideth these three, Dr. Wyeth. And the greatest of all of these is patience.”
“So, get on with what you have to say, you pompous old fart.”
He beamed at Mildred, showing his fine set of perfect teeth. “Then I shall” Doubt clouded his eyes. “If it were not for the sad fact that I have momentarily disremembered what it was. If you allow me a moment or two?”
J.B. shook his head. “Enough wooly talk, Doc. Time for a combat plan. I’ve been thinking about it since they locked us up in here. They got our blasters, but some of us still have weapons. Your sword stick, Doc. Your throwing knives, Jak. So, here’s what I suggest we do”
THE SEC FORCES at the institute had all been well trained, skilled at patrolling the perimeter, scouring the isolated valley in the heart of Acadia National Park, picking off any stragglers who had wandered there, though the numbers had decreased over the years.