The Edge

"Hit me if I try to take you down again. Please, I'd much prefer that to being kicked."

    She took the club and hefted it. Then she smiled at me. "Give me a bad guy instead."

    It was such an excellent weapon that I took off another leg for myself and swung it around a bit, liking the solid weight of it in my hand. I smiled at Laura, standing not six feet away. She still had that old threadbare sheet wrapped around her, her hair was in tangles, and she looked ready for anything. The woman was tough. I realized then that she wasn't looking at my face. I picked up my blanket and wrapped it around me again.

    "You're the best, Laura," I said. "I can't imagine having a better partner. Now we wait again."

    We waited.

    We dozed. Since there were no windows, we had no clue if it was night or day. There was a lamp in the room and it gave off a sluggish sixty-watt light.

    The sound of at least three pairs of boots thudding on the wooden floor snapped me alert. I couldn't wait to get a shot at the bastards.

    I raised a finger to Laura. She nodded. I could see she was ready. I wondered if she was as angry as I was, and imagined that she was.

    The door handle turned. There wasn't a sound. Both Laura and I were staring at that turning knob.

    A woman wearing a white lab coat stepped in. She had a small silver tray in her right hand. I moaned loudly and clutched my throat.

    She came down to her knees beside me, and I moaned again. But I was looking behind her at the same two men who'd accompanied the breakfast or lunch or whatever meal it had been. When the first man came through the door, his gun was down because he was staring down at me and the woman. I grabbed her under the arms and threw her at him. She yelled as she hit him squarely in his AK-47.

    He screamed out the other man's name: "Carlos!"

    Carlos was through the door in an instant, the weapon raised to mow me down. Laura rose up behind him, and the club came down in a hard, graceful arc against the side of his head. His eyes bulged. Blood poured out of his mouth, then he fell against the door. The other man had gotten his AK-47 free of the woman and was swinging it up. I wasn't in a good position. I managed to roll to my left side and kick up as I moved. My foot struck the weapon but didn't knock it from his hands. He fired two rounds, a loud, obscene sound. One bullet smashed into the floor beside my head, spewing splinters of wood into my arm and chest. The other bullet struck the woman. I heard her cry out as I gained the leverage I needed. I kicked him solidly beneath his chin at the same time Laura clubbed him in his kidneys.

    His eyes rolled back in his head and he went down like a stone. I slowly rose. "These guys were serious." I knelt beside the woman. The bullet had struck her forearm. She'd be all right. I told her in Spanish to be still. As for the two men, all I wanted from them were their clothes.

    Laura went right to the smaller man and stripped him. We both tucked the legs of our fatigues into the boots at about the same time. I saw Laura lean down next to the woman. "What is it?"

    "Look," she said, raising a pistol, a Bren Ten, a 10mm automatic that held eleven rounds.

    "The woman had it on her tray along with some needles and bottles. I haven't seen one of these guys for a long time. It's a good combat weapon."

    I grabbed the two small vials on the tray.

    "Good idea," she said, smiling at me. "You ready?"

    I turned left and stopped cold.

    "What's wrong, Mac?"

    "Just an attack of deja vu," I said, and slithered out the door. We left the men completely naked and tied up as best we could with strips of the bed sheet Laura had been wearing. Laura had tied the woman up with her underwear.

    "Let's go to Molinas's office," I said. "If there's someone there, we can force them to take us to Sherlock and Savich."

    We passed a window. It was dark outside, and that was good. How much time had passed?

    The office was empty. They'd boarded up the glass windows behind the desk. "Maybe they've hidden a phone," I said, and began opening drawers.

    Suddenly I felt dizzy and unfocused. I just stood there, waiting to see what would happen. Was this death coming? A numbing cold overwhelmed me. I felt it chewing at the edges of my brain. My heart pounded. Laura was staring at me, her hand out. I knew she was talking but I couldn't make out her words. To die like this, I thought, as I went to my knees.

    I wasn't dying. It was the drug again. I fell back