KnockOut

faked.”
    “If not, then he’s quite something, isn’t he?” There was admiration in her deep voice. Not good.
    Ox said, “I’ll go in with you. What do you need to do?”
    “Check his vitals, see that he’s not in pain, the usual.”
    Ox nodded and pushed the door open.
    It was the last thing he remembered.
    WHEN OX WOKE UP he was lying on his back, strapped down to Blessed Backman’s hospital bed, his eyes covered, his wrists strapped to the bed railings. He opened his mouth and yelled.
    An orderly burst through the door, stood stock-still, and stared down at him.
    “Whoever you are, get this blindfold off me and the straps.”
    “I can’t, sir. I saw that film; I saw what you do to a person. I’m not even coming close.”
    Ox managed to still his panic. He forced calm and reason into his voice. “Listen to me. Blessed Backman is in his mid-fifties, a skinny little guy. I’m not. Somehow he got me. That nurse—”
    “What nurse?”
    “Nurse Eleanor Lapley, she said her name was.”
    “Okay, there isn’t a nurse Eleanor Lapley, not unless she started thirty minutes ago and nobody told me.”
    “For God’s sake, look at me. Do I look like Blessed Backman?”
    “Well, no, sir, but—”
    “Get me loose, now! Blessed Backman’s escaped. We’ve got to get him back.”
    “But—”
    “You idiot! I’m thirty-three years old and I weigh two hundred pounds! Look at me!”
    The orderly freed him.
    Ox looked up at Savich’s video camera. Where was Dr. Hicks? He pushed past the orderly and looked into the next room. Dr. Hicks was unconscious but alive, the video equipment mangled.
    He knew the only official security in the small hospital was at the front entrance, so he didn’t bother alerting hospital staff. He got hold of Ethan three seconds later.
    “... This nurse, Ethan, I swear to you she had a five-o’clock shadow, I know Agent Savich told you Grace was probably here. I know it sounds weird, but do you think Nurse Lapley was somehow Grace?”
    Ethan thought his brains were going to scramble. “I suppose it had to be Grace. He got in through hospital security disguised as a nurse only I guess he couldn’t quite make it realistic enough ... A bad disguise? I sure hope so, because if it wasn’t a disguise ... no I don’t want to think about that. Another couple of minutes and you would have suspected, but Grace was fast, got into the room and pulled off Blessed’s blindfold, and that’s why you don’t remember what hap-pened. . . . Get all our people out to my place. That’s where Joanna and Autumn are. He’ll head there, you know it. I’m on my way right now.” A moment later, Ethan was back on his cell phone, and Joanna’s phone was ringing.
    “Hello?”
    “Joanna, this is Ethan. Blessed’s escaped, with the help of his brother Grace. Get Autumn out of there right now. Drive back toward town. I’ll meet you halfway.”
    She didn’t say a word, punched off.
    Five minutes later when he saw her rental car barreling toward him he honked and pulled his Rubicon over on the shoulder.
    Joanna’s first words were “I should have killed him. Dammit, I should have killed him.”
    Autumn was white-faced and silent, plastered to her mother’s side. “Get in.” He threw the passenger door open and Joanna lifted Autunm inside, jumped in beside her. “I don’t have a gun. We just ran.”
    “I do; don’t worry.” That was about the stupidest thing he’d ever said. “There’s a rifle in the box under the front seat. I’ll take that; you can have my Beretta.”
    He patted Autumn’s shoulder. “It’ll be all right, kiddo.”
    If Autumn didn’t believe him, he didn’t blame her. He pulled his Beretta off his waist clip, handed it butt-first to Joanna.
    “Where are we going?”
    He saw an ancient Ford Escort in his rearview mirror, closing fast. He didn’t have to see for sure who was in the car. It was Blessed and Grace. Had to be.
    “Hang on,” he said, and pressed down hard on the accelerator.
    The Rubicon pulled away smoothly on the windy two-lane highway, and soon they were far enough ahead so Blessed couldn’t see them around the turns. Ethan pulled off fast onto a potholed fire road that led straight into Titus Hitch Wilderness, not the front entrance with the ranger kiosk but a narrow dirty path barely wide enough for the Rubicon. It came to an abrupt stop at the Sweet Onion River. If they were lucky, it would take Blessed and Grace a good long time to find out