Part 20 (1/2)

”Tickles,” said Danny.

”Yeah, well, you're clean enough. You, George, drop trou or I'll feel you up and maybe I'll accidentally hurt your nads for calling me a perv.”

Eric dropped his pants and showed that he didn't have a wire concealed either. ”First time anybody ever asked asked me to moon them,” he said. me to moon them,” he said.

”Pull 'em up, smarta.s.s,” said Rico. ”All right, come on into the office.”

Danny went through the door first and headed for the desk. Eric was right behind him, but then he heard a cry of pain and a thud and he whirled around to see Eric sprawled on the floor, writhing in agony, and Rico just unwinding from a ma.s.sive swing of the bat.

”You little a.s.sholes, didn't I tell you what would happen if you came back here?” said Rico, softly but harshly. ”Didn't I give you fair warning?”

Jose was in the doorway now, holding Eric's s.h.i.+rt with the jewelry inside. ”Ay Dios,” he said. ”Santa Trinidad.”

Danny now had Rico's desk between him and the baseball bat.

”Hold still and take your medicine,” said Rico. ”Or I'll just keep smacking your buddy's head till it pops like a melon.”

”You don't want no bloodstains on the floor,” said Jose.

”Don't start thinking you know what I want and don't want,” said Rico menacingly. Then he lunged forward, swinging the bat as he came. It would have caught Danny at chest level, except that he gated his way back outside.

Man, it was cold out there. He only stayed a couple of seconds before he gated back into the office, but this time right next to Eric. His plan was to get him up and make a run for it, but Eric cried out in pain when Danny tried to pull him.

Rico was off-balance, recovering from his wild swing. He whirled around, looking baffled for a moment as he staggered and leaned on the desk. Jose, for his part, had a sick look on his face. He, at least, seemed to know what he had just seen-Danny disappearing in one place and reappearing a moment later in another.

”Quick little b.a.s.t.a.r.d, aren't you?” said Rico. ”Run all you want, I'll just take it out on your friend. He ain't getting up, not without a stretcher. I cracked half his ribs, if I didn't break his back.” And now the bat was high over Rico's shoulder as he readied the bat to come down on Danny's head.

What choice did Danny have? He got a firm grip on Eric's wrist and then pulled with all his might to drag him through the gate he had just created. He knew as he did it that it couldn't work-even though Danny was through the gate himself almost instantly, it would take time to drag Eric's body through, and who knew what Rico might do-beat him more, or just grab onto his leg and pull back, stronger.

So Danny reflexively did something he didn't know he could do. He moved the gate. Slid the mouth of it right over Eric's limp body.

It worked. Eric was lying in the garden, still unable to get up-but out of Rico's office.

Only Rico was holding onto Eric's leg. Just the man's heavy arms coming through the gate. Maybe Rico could have come through all the rest of the way, if Danny hadn't let go of Eric. Without that connection with Danny, Rico seemed to be unable to pull his arms back or push them farther through. He was stuck.

Danny didn't dare grab Rico's arms or do anything to him at all-if he touched him, Rico might come the rest of the way through or drag Danny back.

So instead, Danny created a new gate into the office.

There was Rico, looking terrified, with his arms reaching down toward the floor but disappearing just below the elbows. ”Let go of me, you little s.h.i.+t!” he shouted when he saw Danny.

”I'm not holding you,” said Danny.

Jose was sitting in the doorway, his back against the frame, looking at Danny wide-eyed. ”I did see you on the wall,” he said. ”I'm not crazy, I saw you.”

”You sure did,” said Danny. ”Where does this a.s.shole keep his money?”

”The store safe is right behind the counter out front.”

”No,” said Danny. ”The real real money.” money.”

”He'll kill me,” said Jose.

”With no arms?” asked Danny.

Rico groaned and wailed. ”Let go of me!”

Danny went behind the desk and opened drawers. Nothing. Then he looked carefully at the jumble of cabinets, shelves, papers, and salable goods against the wall. He started gating his hands into every cabinet and feeling around. Finally he brought his hands out clutching several stacks of bills. Some were stacks of hundreds, some of twenties.

He reached back into the same cabinet and came out with a pistol and a box of bullets. He slapped those down on the desk and said, ”Time for you to shut up, Rico.”

Rico shut up.

Danny counted out ten hundreds. ”Here's what I expected to get for the stuff I brought. A thousand.” He counted out twenty more hundreds. ”I'm betting this will cover George's medical bills.” Then Danny picked up the rest of the money and carried it to Jose.

”No, man, I don't want none of that.”

”Think again,” said Danny. ”You just saw this a.s.shole get humiliated. You think he's not going to kill you first chance he gets? Take this money, get yourself out of DC, out of this part of the country, out of the United States. You get it? This is unemployment here. Severance pay.”

”I got to stay here, I got family to support.”

”This isn't enough to take care of them for a while?”

”Eight kids,” said Jose. ”It takes that much to get me back into the States. I can't go.”

”Tell you what,” said Danny. ”There's the gun. There's a box of ammo. You want to be safe from him, you get some of those rubber gloves from the janitorial closet, you do what you got to do. I'm not going to kill him, but I don't care if you do.”

”No, man, no,” said Rico. ”Come on, Jose, I've got your back, man, I'm not going to hurt you, just put the money back, take that gun, shoot this kid. You save my life, see? I know how to treat my friends.”

”We brought him a bunch of jewelry and electronics to sell,” said Danny, ”and you saw how he treated us.”

”We're friends, Jose!” insisted Rico. ”Pull me back into the room, kid. I mean it, you can have all that money, you can take back the stuff, just get me my arms back.”

Then Rico's eyes grew wide. ”Who's got my hands!” he demanded. ”Something's grabbing my hands!” Then he screamed.

Danny had no idea what was happening to Rico's hands. Was Eric doing something? Or was there a dog out there? Or a racc.o.o.n? Or was Rico just faking it? Danny needed to get back to Eric in case there was something hurting him outside.

”I'm going now,” said Danny. ”I'm taking only the fair price for the goods and George's medical bills. I'm leaving the goods. I didn't cheat Rico, I didn't steal from him. When I get out there I'm going to count to ten, then I'll push his arms back into this room. You can take the money here and get out. Or you can shoot his a.s.s. Or both. I recommend both.”

Jose stood up and walked out of the room.

”I guess he doesn't want the money or or you dead, you lucky b.a.s.t.a.r.d,” said Danny to Rico. you dead, you lucky b.a.s.t.a.r.d,” said Danny to Rico.

Then Jose came back into the room, pulling on a rubber glove.

”No! Oh, no, no, man!” cried Rico.

Danny gated back out to the garden.

Eric had twisted himself into position to gnaw on Rico's right thumb. It was spouting blood, which was pouring out of Eric's mouth. He had a feral look in his eyes, like one of Zog's hawks, hyper-alert but utterly soulless.