who’s even better than I am and Panda’s the best!”
Mikey accepted the compliment without comment. For a long time he sat and
drank his beer, watching the screen and saying nothing while Craig
fidgeted in silence.
Finally he tilted the bottle and drained the last drops. “I want to talk
to your friend.”
Craig hesitated. “She’s kind of hard to talk to.”
Mikey smiled a 1,000-watt smile. All of a sudden he looked about fifteen
and utterly charming. “I think I can get through to her.”
“Hi, Sheila, we’re here to see Judith.”
The young black nurse stood up from the filing cabinet and turned around.
“Hi, Craig. One of you will have to stay here. Rules say only one visitor
at a time.”
“Oh, come on Sheila, it would only be for a couple of minutes.”
“Please,” Mikey said, flashing one of his winning smiles. “We’ll only be a
few minutes and I really think it would do her good to see us both.”
He looked so sincere, so innocent and so vulnerable that Sheila hesitated
and then nodded. “Well, all right. But don’t tire her out. And if the
supervisor comes around, you snuck by me. Okay?”
“Did you catch the ass on that nurse?” Mikey asked in an undervoice as
they headed for Judith’s room.
Judith had a roommate now, an elderly Italian woman who lay spread-eagled
beneath the sheets and breathed in great, wracking gasps. Otherwise
everything was exactly as it had been on Craig’s first visit.
“Hi, Judith,” Craig said brightly. “This is Mikey. He’s a friend.”
There was no response from the bed. Mikey glared at Craig.
“It takes a little bit to get her talking,” he whispered. Then he turned
back to Judith.
“Mikey’s interested in dragons, Judith. Dragons and wizards and magic. You
know, the stuff you saw in the other place.”
The woman’s eyelids fluttered.
“You remember the dragons you saw. The ones you could ride on.”
Judith’s lips moved. Out of the corner of his eye Craig could see Mikey
sitting impassively.
“You remember the flying dragons, don’t you, Judith?” Craig went on with a
tinge of desperation. “The ones you rode?”
” . . . not ride,” Judith mumbled. “Mad at me . . .”
Craig threw a triumphant look at Mikey, but Mikey’s expression didn’t
change.
“Magic, Judith. You did magic there.”
” . . . spell compiler . . . full of spaghetti code. Worked asses off to
fix it.” Her arms twitched restlessly against the soft restraints that
tied them to the bed.
“The magic compiler, how did it work?”
“Weird language . . . hacked together.” She drifted off into
incomprehensibility.
“Have you got a copy of the code?” Mikey put in sharply.
Judith tossed and mumbled. ” . . . secret. All secret . . .”
Mikey leaned closer to the bed.
“Have you got notes?” he demanded. “Where are your notes?”
” . . . notebook . . . projects.”
“Where’s the notebook, Judith?” Mikey persisted. “Where did you put it?”
Judith began to move her whole body against the bed.
“Hey, she’s getting upset. I think we’d better leave her alone.”
Mikey ignored him. “Tell me!” he hissed, grabbing Judith’s hand and
squeezing hard. Judith moaned and tried to pull away from his grip.
“Hey! You’re hurting her.”
Mikey squeezed harder, bearing down on each word. “Where. Are. Your.
Notes?”
“Home,” Judith gasped. “Desk.” She was thrashing from side to side and
breathing hard now.
Mikey released her hand. “That’s fine, Judith,” he said gently. “You did
real good.”
He turned to Craig. “You heard her. She’s got stuff back at her apartment.
Can you get in?”
“Well, yeah but . . .”
“Then come on.” He stood up and headed for the door without another look
at Judith. Craig followed more slowly. At the doorway he looked back.
Judith was still moving restlessly, panting with hard, regular gasps.
It was almost like she was sobbing.
Judith’s apartment was on the ground floor of a two-story complex in a
quiet residential neighborhood. There were maybe fifty apartments grouped
around a big central terrace and pool. They had obviously been built in
the ’60s, before San Jose land values went crazy, but they were