“No, Inez, I’m not all right. I have a knife in my back. Unlock the door, please. I can’t reach into my back pocket to get my card key.”
“Oh.” Realizing it would probably cause him excruciating pain to even attempt to retrieve the card key, Inez quickly dug hers out of her purse and unlocked the door, then rushed in and held it open for him, her concern deepening as he lurched through the door. She pushed the door closed and slid the chain on so they wouldn’t be disturbed, and then turned in time to see Thomas sink to his knees and then fall flat on his face.
“Thomas!” she cried, hurrying to his side and dropping to her knees to peer at his face. He was as white as a sheet and unconscious.
Inez sat back on her heels, her gaze sliding reluctantly to his back and the knife protruding there. He had said that the nanos repaired all injuries, but supposed they couldn’t do that while the knife was still in him. She’d have to remove it. The very idea made her groan and close her eyes, but they popped open again when a muffled chirping sound caught her ear.
In the state she was in, it took Inez a moment to realize that it was his cell phone. She glanced at the back pockets of Thomas’s jeans, but while his wallet was in one and the map was in the other, there was no sign of the phone. The fact that the sound was muffled and very faint told her that Thomas must have put it in his front pocket since the last time she’d seen him use it.
There was no way she was going to turn him over to answer it, the man had a knife in his back. Obviously, she had to get it out. Ignoring the constant buzz of his phone, she considered the knife, noting now that his T-shirt was glistening with blood and that it had made a large, dark patch starting at his waist directly below the wound and spreading out and down to almost his knees. He’d lost a lot of blood.
She had to get the knife out, and then fetch the blood from the cooler and somehow feed it to him. Inez didn’t know how she was going to do that, but she could only handle one problem at a time.
She leaned forward and reached for the handle of the knife, then suddenly straightened and launched to her feet instead. Towels. She had to have towels. She couldn’t have him bleeding all over the floor. She was in the bathroom, grabbing up every towel there was in the room when her own phone began to ring.
Inez glanced down at her purse with surprise, only now realizing she still had it slung over her shoulder. Dropping the towels, she dug out her phone, and flipped it open.
“Is this Inez?”
She frowned at the clipped voice, not recognizing it. “I…er…yes. Who is—?”
“This is Herb Longford,” the man answered, his English accent very thick. “Thomas gave me your number when he last called. He said his battery on his cell phone was running low and if I couldn’t reach him to try your mobile.”
“Oh,” she murmured with a little sigh, thinking that at least she knew who the caller had been.#p#分页标题#e#
There was a moment of silence, and then a pointed, “I’m calling to give Thomas the new coordinates.”
“New coordinates?” Inez stalled, wondering what to do. She had a feeling Thomas wouldn’t want anyone knowing about the incident at the restaurants, feared he might even be in trouble if anyone found out about it. She suspected flashing his teeth in public and then exhibiting his incredible speed might be big no-nos among his people.
“Yes,” Herb said impatiently. “He said he was checking the bars in the area of the last coordinates but there was no sign of his aunt. He wanted me to track her cell again. I have and if you’ll put him on the phone I’ll give them to him.”
“Oh, I—he’s…er…in the bathroom,” she lied finally. “If you give them to me, I’ll pass them along.”
“Right. Do you have a pen and paper?”
“Yes.” Inez dug in her purse one-handed in search of the small notepad and pen she always carried with her, and then lifted the phone back to her ear. “Okay, go ahead.”
Herb rattled off the information, and then said, “Give those to Thomas and I’ll go ahead and track her again in case she’s still on the move. I’ll call back if she’s at a different location.”
“Yes, thank you,” Inez finished the last word on a sigh as he hung up. Shaking her head, she put the phone away and then knelt to scoop up the towels. She had to remove the knife from Thomas’s back, feed him blood, and then go out and find the latest location and search for Marguerite on her own. It was what she was here for, to help find Thomas’s aunt, and it was what she would do, just as soon as she’d made sure that he was all right.