“I’ll have Nurse Gröber show you to Thaddeus.”
“Oh,” said the receptionist, disappointment in her voice. She took a very deep breath and sighed, the nipples of her breasts threatening to pop through the fabric of her blouse.
Dr. Stahl gestured at a nurse just then coming down the hall. She was tall and willowy, and had a heart-shaped face, her pouty lips much like those of the It Girl of the twenties. And when she arrived, he said, “Nurse Gröber, please see these beautiful ladies and their bodyguards to Thaddeus Baxter.”
Following Gröber’s sashay down the hall, her hips swaying to a sultry beat, Kane said, “Bodyguards? That bastard, playing up to my wo—”
Just then, a young, dark-haired man dressed in janitorial coveralls stepped from a broom closet, his fingers buttoning his fly. And right after came Nurse Tonkins, settling her ample bosom back into place and smoothing down her high-cut skirt that seemed to accent her long, silky legs. Lissome and yet buxom, and with reddish-blond hair and light blue eyes, she looked at the men and giggled, and hurried past, emanating a musky scent.
Kane whispered, “What kind of place has this become? A house of Eros?”
Trendel said, “I don’t know, but if I ever go bonkers, here’s the place I want to be. I mean, it’s got to be great for both the staff and the patients.”
Rith made a rude sound.
They passed a room where a man shrilly screamed, “I’m John Doe! I’m John Doe! Just ask anyone. Isn’t that right, doctor?”
In a pleasant alto, accented much the same as Dr. Stahl’s, Nurse Gröber said, “We do not really know his name, but he is a man who was insane and living in alleys. Homeless, with no known relatives. Dr. Stahl takes many charity cases like this.”
Past screaming and sobbing and laughing men and women they strode, as well as some in quiet contemplation, or so it seemed. But in one room, a teenage girl danced with an invisible companion to a slow song that only she could hear. In another room, a muscular nude man stood before a full-length mirror and drew circles in scarlet lipstick upon his body, as if readying for some arcane ceremony. In yet another room, a woman in a tight leather skirt beckoned. But at last they reached Thaddeus’s usual quarters—a padded cell with no furniture whatsoever.
When they entered the room, Thaddeus, a sixty-something-year-old grey-haired and slightly rotund man dressed in soft cotton whites turned to face them and said, “Why, hello, Nurse Gröber. . . . Ah, I see you’ve brought me my friends. Hello Rith, Ky, Kane, Trendel, Arik. How pleasant this day has just become. Did you bring the basket from Robere?”
Arik and the others were dumbfounded, for never had they seen Thaddeus be this sane. “We did,” said Rith, holding out to Thaddeus the small hamper with two roast beef sandwiches and an apple and a very small bottle of claret.
“Just set it down, if you please,” said Thaddeus, and that’s when Arik saw that Thaddeus’s hands were clenched behind his back, his knuckles white as if from strain.
Nurse Gröber said, “Well, I’ll leave you to your visit.” She looked at Arik and softly added, “Anytime.”
She left the room and Thaddeus waited a moment then became his usual twitching, trembling, fearful self and said in a quavering whisper, “Is she gone? Is she gone? Look, look and make certain she’s gone.”
Kane sighed and stepped to the door and looked out, then turned and said, “She’s gone, Thaddeus. She’s really gone.”
“Well, keepwatch-keepwatch-keepwatch-keeepwatch,” he stammered, his eyes darting here and there. “They’re in it together, together I say.” Thaddeus crouched down on his haunches and began wolfing down a sandwich.
“Terrible, terrible, only see them in the dark,” he said, and moaned. “Careful, careful, the walls have ears, ears, I say. Ask Tonkins, Tonkins, she knows, knows. But not here, not here. They’ll find out.”
“Here comes Stahl,” said Kane, yet watching the hallway.
“Ask her about Cold Point, Cold Point,” muttered Thaddeus, and then stood, the second sandwich elegantly held in hand, and quietly laughed as if just told a mildly humorous anecdote as Stahl reached the door.
“Why, hello, Dr. Stahl. Have you met my friends?” asked Thaddeus, as sane as any man.
50
Five months Before the Hearing
(Coburn Facility)
Pacing back and forth in the dimness of the emergency lights, Toni irritatedly snapped shut her holocom, “While you were making those calls,” said Sheila Baxter at her comptech console, “Avery downloaded more data into the ID crystals.”
Toni glanced up at the central holo. “Oh, bloody hell,” she said, for there she was, her alter, Nurse Tonkins, giggling and passing by the Black Foxes in a corridor. Beyond the Foxes and walking away was Travis, one of the young janitors at the asylum, and in spite of herself, Toni felt her nipples spring to hardness at the sight of him. She groaned and said, “It’s my adventure.”
“The erotic horror?” asked Alvin Johnson, smiling.
“As I said before, someone had to do it,” snapped Toni.
“I know, Ms. Adkins, I know,” said Alvin, holding out his hands as if in supplication.
Toni’s comband beeped, but she continued to watch Travis move down the hall even as she said, “Yes?”
“Drew here,” said Meyer. “I’ve found a way to stretch our power out a bit longer.”
Travis turned a corner and was gone, and Toni glanced at the doomsday clock: 3:24:14 . . . “How much?”
“Well, depending on the H2 supply, maybe instead of six hours, total, maybe ten, twelve instead.”
“Great,” said Toni. “perhaps that tanker will be here from Denver by then.”
“Oh, and this too, Toni: Mikey says that we need to shut down all but the most critical control-room consoles and especially the main holo. It’ll save power.”
Toni nodded and said, “All right. Anything else?”
“Nah. That’s it.”
“Toni out.” She turned to Sheila. “Can we transfer the signals from the main holo to, say, Greyson’s display, and shut down the main? Oh, and shut down one of the tech and one of the med holos as well, reassigning all functions to the remaining two?”
“We can,” said Sheila. “You want me to do it now?”
“Yes.” Toni then turned to Henry Stein. “What about the cradles? Can we let the medtech console handle everything?”
Stein shook his head. “No, those displays need to be active, else the ID crystals shut down as well.”
“As I thought,” said Toni.
Stein glanced at the entryway to the nearby medlab. “You know, Toni, I’m certain my modified cephaloruptor will reactivate their brains.”
Toni pushed out a hand of negation. “No, Henry, I promised.”
“It was a stupid promise.”
Toni flared. “I said no!”
As Stein stormed away into the medlab, Alvin leaned over to Grace Willoby and whispered, “I think it’ll work.”
“What’ll work?” asked Grace.
“Stein’s modified ’ruptor. I believe that with it he can reactivate their brains.”
Grace frowned. “But Greyson says that if the alpha team’s brains are reactivated while their mentalities are still in Avery’s VR, the reactivated brains will be soulless, that those people will then be dreadful monsters. Don’t get me wrong, Alvin, I know that the cephaloruptor does a fine job on depressed patients. Regardless, the fact that it is an instrument that grew out of the terrible cortical disruptors used by the Kazakhstanis to torture and even scramble the brains of dissidents during the oil wars, well, it just gives me the willies.”
Michael Phelan found Kat Lawrence and Al Hawkins out by the substation on the Coburn Industries property and told them of Drew Meyer’s recommendation.
“Jesus,” said Al, “why didn’t we think of that.”
“Yeah, but can we isolate the output of the Astro to the rechargers alone?” asked Kat.
“Let’s look at
the schematics and see,” said Al.
As they headed for the second subbasement, Kat said, “If this works I’ll jump the bones of that baldheaded geek, in spite of the fact that he’s married.”
Al and Mikey and Kat were still laughing as they entered the building again.
51
United States
(Risk, Ltd.)
“I just came by to say that visiting hours are nearly over,” said Dr. Stahl, “and to remind these lovely ladies that we are to share a cup of coffee. But I’m afraid it’ll have to wait, as I am discharging one of my patients if he can make a successful walk-through of Arkham. Shall we say tomorrow instead?”
Thaddeus gently smiled, but behind his back his hand clenched even tighter, his knuckles whitening to alabaster. “I’m certain, Doctor, that they will be more than happy to join you then.”
“Good. Well, I’ll be running along,” said Stahl. He turned and, striding with assurance, went back down the hall toward the front desk.
“Is he gone, gone?” The words jerked out from Thaddeus’s throat.
“Who in the hell were you to promise—?” began Kane, but Thaddeus interrupted him:
“He’s one of them, one of them, I’m certain.” Thaddeus ripped a bite out of his sandwich, and as he chewed he looked at Rith and Ky. “You’ll have to find out where he lives. And you have to see Nurse Tonkins. She knows the story, the story. Find a place where there are no ears, no ears. Are you certain he’s gone?”
“Yes, yes,” said Kane, standing at the door and looking down the hallway.
Starting and twitching and jerking his eyes this way and that, and whirling about to look behind, Thaddeus said, “Tonkins will tell you everything everything everything. Only see them in the dark, the dark. In the light they look normal, normal.”
“Here comes Gröber,” said Kane.
“Oh, oh, remember, see Tonkins.”
Thaddeus then straightened up and smiled gently, and as Nurse Gröber came to the doorway, Thaddeus said, “Oh, my, but I do believe visiting hours have come to an end.”
“Indeed,” said Gröber. “Oh, you must take the basket with you, though leaving the food is fine.”
“Here, let me,” said Rith.
She spread out the cloth cover, and she put the apple on it. Then she used a small corkscrew and opened the split of claret. “I assume the wine is all right.”
Gröber frowned, but Arik said, “We’ve left it before. Thaddeus knows to call for a janitor to take the bottle away when he’s finished.”
“I suppose,” said the nurse. “But, really, it’s time to go.”
Ky hugged Thaddeus, and then Rith, and she slipped the corkscrew into his waistband and whispered, “It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing.”
Kane, Trendel, and Arik said good bye, and all then followed Gröber’s swaying hips down the hall.
As they passed an empty room, Trendel said, “I say, isn’t that the room John Doe was in?”
Nurse Gröber said, “Oh, yes. Dr. Stahl has declared him sane and is taking him on a walking tour of Arkham, and if Mr. Doe successfully copes with the lights and traffic and does well in the stores, well then, he will be discharged.”
“Wha—?” Kane started to say, but Arik threw up a hand and signaled,
Nurse Gröber dropped them off at the reception desk and then went on about her business.
As he signed out, Arik asked the platinum blond, “By the way, Nurse, uh, Nurse . . .”
“Delilah, handsome. You can call me Delilah.” Once again she leaned over the counter to give Arik a good look at her bosom.
“Um, well, then, uh, Delilah, I’d like to have a word with Nurse Tonkins. Do you know where she might—”
Delilah straightened up and huffed. “What could you get from her that you couldn’t get from—?”
“Nothing, nothing,” said Arik. “But Thaddeus asked us to simply say hello.”
“Thaddeus. A sweet man, but a bit ’round the bend. Ah, well, for Thaddeus, um . . . Tonkins: she’s down at the university, cradle robbing, I would imagine.”
“Miskatonic U?”
“Yes. She takes her meals there. Says she’s going to the library. I bet I know what she’s doing in the stacks.”
“Thank you, Delilah.”
As they left the asylum, Rith laughed and said, “I thought she was going to leap over the counter and do you right there on the floor.”
Kane, his gaze sweeping the street, said, “Huh?”
“What are you looking for, lover?” asked Ky.
“I was hoping to see Stahl and his patient, John Doe. I mean, there’s no way Doe can be sane.”
“You’re right,” said Arik.
“I wonder just what in blue blazes is going on,” said Trendel.
“That’s why we need to see Tonkins.”
“You think Thaddeus isn’t sending us on one of his snipe hunts?” asked Rith.
“He may be nuts,” said Arik, “but he’s not stupid. I suspect that there’s something behind these babblings of his.”
“He said to ask about Cold Point. What do you think that’s all about?” asked Kane.
“I don’t know, but Tonkins might,” said Arik.
They hopped into Thaddeus’s Pierce Arrow, and drove to the library at Miskatonic U. As they got out, “Wait a minute,” said Trendel. “It just occurred to me that I can find both Tonkins and John Doe. You see, I know what they look like.”
After casting two spells, Trendel said, “Doe is north about a mile from here, but Tonkins is fifty yards that way.” Trendel pointed at the library building.
“Let’s do her first,” said Arik, and both Ky and Rith broke into laughter, Ky saying, “A fine choice of words, Arik.”
Into the library they went.
They found Tonkins in a clench with a young male beyond a latched gate and at the far side of the permission-only stacks in the library. The student’s hand was inside Tonkins’ blouse, and hers roaming around under his waist band.
“Ahem!” said Kane, his voice low and somewhat threatening.
The young man broke away and saw Kane looming in the shadows, with Arik and Trendel just behind and two women beyond them.
“I’ve got to get to class,” he squeaked, and fled down an adjacent row.
Tonkins buttoned her blouse and smoothed her skirt and said, “That wasn’t very nice.”
“We need to talk to you,” rumbled Kane.
“I don’t think I want to talk to you,” she replied, snatching up her purse and pushing past Kane and Trendel and Arik.
But Rith stopped her and said, “But you will talk to us.”
“Say, just who in bloody hell do you think you are?” began Tonkins, her words carrying a British accent, but Ky stepped in between Rith and the nurse and said, “Hey, hey, calm down. I think we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot. You see, we are here about a patient of yours and a good friend of ours: Thaddeus Baxter. He says it’s a matter of life and death.”
Tonkins looked down at the smiling oriental face, for at five feet five she loomed over Ky’s four feet ten. Then Tonkins giggled and said, “Thaddeus, he’s a sweetie. Bonkers, but a sweetie still.”
“Will you talk to us?” asked Ky.
Tonkins glared at Rith and then back at Arik and Trendel and Kane. “I’ll talk to you, but not to them.”
“All right,” said Ky. “Let’s find a place to sit, somewhere private.”
Tonkin’s eyes lit up. “I know a good spot. Almost no one ever goes there.”
“I’ll bet,” said Kane, whispering.
“We’ll wait for you downstairs,” said Arik.
As the men and Rith went one way, Ky and Tonkins went another, and she led Ky by an unmanned desk sitting before a locked door, with a sign that read “Written permission of the Dean only, and a campus guard must be present at all times.”
“No, no, we don’t want to stop here,” said Tonkins. “That roo
m gives me the creeps. It’s almost like something awful is in there and likely to lurch out at any time, like that dreadful Boris Karloff.”
They hurried onward, and came to a set of stairs, leading up to a small room with a skylight. The chamber was furnished with a couch, an easy chair, and a table with four padded chairs.
“Here we go,” said Tonkins, sitting on one of the couches. “I think this is used for private study groups, but Jason and I use it for other purposes.” She giggled and touched her lower abdomen and added, “He tells me I have the Golden Fleece.” Then she fell silent, and with her lips slightly parted and her breath coming faster, and her gaze lost in memory, Tonkins languorously ran her fingers across the fabric of the couch.
As Ky took a seat in the easy chair, Tonkins said, “I believe I saw you over at the asylum.”
“Yes, my name is Ky, Nurse Tonkins, and we were visiting Thaddeus.”
“What is it you want to know?”
Trying to put Tonkins at ease, Ky asked, “Well, first I want to know why is the staff at the asylum so handsome, so beautiful, and so ready to, um, engage in hanky panky?”
Tonkins giggled and said, “Not only at the asylum, but here at Miskatonic, too. I mean, isn’t it just the cat’s meow? It’s almost as if I had wished it this way. I mean, handsome men and always ready: doesn’t that just blow your wig?” She paused and frowned, then added, “All but Dr. Stahl, who makes dates and then seems to always use work as an excuse to break them.” Then her face lit up and she said, “But he has asked me to go to his house some evening, and I think I’ll take him up on that. Of course, I believe that he and Gröber have something going on between them, and we might all three end up in the bed at the same time. Wouldn’t that be a kick, though?”
“Um, I suppose,” said Ky, as Tonkins wriggled a bit, thinking of a three-way tryst.
Then Ky took a deep breath and said, “Thaddeus seems to believe there are some perilous goings-on at the asylum. He said something about only being able to see ‘them’ in the dark, and something about Cold Point, whatever that might mean.”
Shadowprey: A Black Foxes Adventure Page 24