Page 105 of Random in Death
“Fine. The bruise on her arm. I bet if you tried to stick a needle there without a numbing agent, it would hurt like the fires of hell.”
“You’d be right. I can only assume that’s why he didn’t succeed in getting a fatal dose into her.”
“How much did he get in?”
“Enough to make her sick. The MTs administered an antidote quickly, and as medicals have been alerted, gave her a dose of antibiotics to, we hope, counteract the bacteria. The kid doesn’t need a bout of syphilis. We’ve regulated her arrhythmia.
“She’s strong and healthy,” Myler added. “Young, strong, healthy, and while she wouldn’t have considered it lucky at the time, she was very lucky the sick fucking bastard son of a bitch tried to inject on that bruise, and through two layers—shirtsleeve and jacket.
“And that’s twenty bucks. Worth it.” Myler blew out a breath. “It’s twenty bucks every time I swear in multiples on shift.”
“I’d need a beggar’s license in under a week.”
Myler shot out a smile as perky as her shiny blond ponytail. “I really liked the vid. I like even better finding out you’re like that in reality. I’m going to go reassure her brother and friends. Don’t overtire her, okay? She’s a little high, but her system took a beating.”
“I’ll be as quick as possible. Then I want to talk to the rest of them.”
“I’ll be back to check on her. You can tell Nurse Cabot to take a break.” Now she beamed the smile at Roarke. “I have to say you’re even yummier than vid Roarke.”
While she mentally rolled her eyes, Eve signaled to him. “With me.”
Eve stepped back in. “Nurse Cabot, Dr. Myler said you could take a break while I speak with Kiki and her moms.”
“You need me, you just press that button. Remember?”
“Check it. She’s so nice,” Kiki said when Cabot left. “Oooh, it’s the other one of him. You’re even prettier.”
“How are you, Kiki?”
“Feel really… whoosh! I threw up a lot, and I think maybe I passed out. We were going to see Return of the Three, and we didn’t. That’s so bogus. David came with Pres, and I’ve got kind of a thing—maybe—for David, and Lola came with me, and she’s abso got a thing for Pres. It was kind of a double, but that jerk stabbed me. It hurt really, really bad.”
When Eve gave him a look that said keep going, Roarke stepped closer. “Where your arm’s bruised there?”
“I guess. It hurt mega more than when I fell off my airboard this afternoon and rapped it. Mega more. I think I screamed and everything, and Pres is all ‘What the hell, Keek?’ And I screamed some more and tried to take off my jacket, and even that hurt. I didn’t see blood, but he stabbed me all right.
“Then the lights came on, and way, way bright, and everyone’s yelling, and I started feeling like whoa. And everybody looked funny with their faces all…” She circled and twisted her hands in the air. “And I booted, right in front of David, who’s got to think I’m a wheeze now.”
“I bet he doesn’t.”
Hope slid into her glassy eyes. “Really?”
“Not a bit of it.”
“Your voice is pretty, too. Aamon of Thrune sort of talks like you.”
“He’s one of the Defenders,” Andrea told Roarke.
“I’m aware, yes, and very flattered. Kiki, did you see who stabbed you?”
“It was all dark. My eyes feel funny. Do my eyes look funny?”
“You have lovely green eyes.”
Obvious, to Eve, from Kiki’s sigh, the girl was developing another thing.
“Golly. Maybe sort of saw him.” She closed her eyes now. “Maybe sort of saw him, for a second. He wasn’t tall like David. Not really tall like you. I think wearing a trench. Mostly flakers wear the trench in the summer anyway. So I guess a flaker. But he was running away, so I saw the trench.”
“Not his face then?”