“They wouldn’t!” said Odiferous Tentacle. “Not to us.”
“Don’t bet on it,” said the Fluiquosm. “Stranger things have happened.”
“Time to reach out to the general again,” said Mrrgrowr, reversing his head to examine a steeple clock.
Odiferous Tentacle grunted and went off toward the phone, returning almost immediately.
“I have reached,” sighed the Wulivery. “The general is very upset. He has tried to find the senator, but the senator does not answer his phone, and there is no one at his office. The general thinks we had better take the woman anyhow, even if we must break in to do so. He feels the senator will probably want her, so it will be best to have her on hand.”
Chad arrived at Benita’s apartment and immediately took a handgun from his pocket. He pointed out the safety, thrust the gun at Benita, and watched her drop it into the deep flapped pocket of her checked lumberman’s jacket before gathering several scattered belongings into an open bag. Sasquatch moved anxiously back and forth between the living room and the bedroom like a caged wolf.
“Hurry up,” Chad urged her. “We need to get away from here.”
“I’m just getting the clothes I’ll need to wear on Monday. I don’t want to have to come back here.”
She moved into the living room with the open bag, set it on the couch and was suddenly conscious of a heaviness in her head and chest. Allergies. They always hit her when she was nervous. The medicine was on the TV, next to Chiddy’s translator. She picked it up, wondering what it was, breaking the silence with a heartfelt, “Damn!”
“What is it?”
“Chiddy’s translator. He left it here, I was supposed to turn it on so it could assimilate spoken Spanish. I forgot!”
“Bring it with you,” he said impatiently. “We’ll speak Spanish to it, wherever we go.”
“You speak Spanish?”
“Spanish, German, Arabic, Urdu, Swahili. No Oriental languages yet.”
“Yet? You’re going to learn what? Chinese?”
“Come on, Benita. Move it.” Then, as she went back into the bedroom, he called, “I lust for a job over at State. Besides, I like learning languages. Hurry up, will you!” He dropped to a chair and put his head in his hands, trying to remember when he’d last had some sleep.
She turned on the device and dropped it in the left-hand pocket, along with the nail file and the gun, leaving the right-hand pocket empty for her wallet, her checkbook, and her reading glasses snatched up from the bedside table. She picked up her bag and started for the elevator, calling over her shoulder, “Okay, I’m ready, let’s go.”
There was no warning of the attack. Two of the huge windows along the living room wall burst against the curtains that had been pulled across them. Something very large came through the curtains. Chad ran for the bedroom where he thought Benita was. Benita, who had been summoning the elevator on the landing, Sasquatch sniffing at her heels, heard the crash, dropped her suitcase, turned and dashed down the fire stairs, slamming the door shut behind her and barely missing Sasquatch’s tail. She was on the second floor. The second floor had windows. Without stopping to think about it, she went on down another flight, dragged the dog into the supply room, and then checked both the supply room doors to be sure they were locked. The doors were steel. According to Simon, they were set in masonry walls, which might mean they’d be difficult to get through, though she wouldn’t bet on it. She leaned against the heavy table in the middle of the room, panting. They must have taken Chad. There was no place to hide up there. Though, of course, maybe they didn’t want him and would just let him go. Maybe. Or take him and eat him.
She gagged.
Outside the burglar alarm was ringing itself silly, a clangor one could hear blocks away. Supposedly the alarm was wired to the police department, and they should come looking.
There were sounds in the stairwell outside the door. Banging on the door itself.
“We’ve got your friend,” said a mechanical voice from outside. “We’re not going to hurt either of you, though we might hurt him in order to get you out of there. Either that or go get your son. He’s not far off. We could take him apart. Like a lobster.”