Alexander had felt like an imbecile; a worthless, stupid, greedy shit when he left his father's hospital room that afternoon, but now he knew what to do to get them all out of the terrible predicament his actions had precipitated.
Obeying Ferd's instructions, Alexander and Stephan waited until 9:00 p.m. that night. Then they maneuvered the wheelchair, with Stephan inside, into a special van they had rented. Alexander struggled into the drivers seat with his crutches. Driving was a bitch with his plastered leg jammed sideways under the dash.
Alexander knew that they were probably being followed, and he kept an eye on the rear-view mirror, but he could not discern any one car obviously tailing them. Maybe he was paranoid. He said as much to Stephan, who told him it just indicated the spies were professionals; FBI, or even CIA.
Alexander parked in the yellow loading zone in front of Ferd's Tanning Salon and cursed his own clumsy body when he painfully caught his plastered leg on the accelerator. He tumbled halfway outside the door, sideways. He must present a cute picture, Alexander thought, A big man almost falls out of his van. If a car had passed at that moment he would have been dead meat.
The plan was to have Stephan stay in the van and honk the horn if anyone went inside after Alexander, but Stephan could not reach the horn from the back of the van. Alexander climbed back in again and turned the van around so that it was pointed in the wrong direction at the curb. Then he got Stephan out of the van and positioned his chair beside the open door on the driver's side. The whole procedure was time consuming, with one man set in position in a wheel chair by another man on crutches.
Stephan was whining that anyone who wanted to do them serious harm could see how helpless they were. Alexander countered that he still had his gun. He would not hesitate to use it. Stephan said that that was fine for him, but he was in a goddamn wheel chair, for Christ's sake. When Alexander was inside Ferd's apartment, he would have no protection. Disgusted with all the whining, Alexander gave Stephan the gun to shut him up.
Alexander felt a little uneasy when he entered the place because it was so dark. Maybe someone was inside. He found the light switch and looked around suspiciously. No one. The machinery Ferd wanted him to dismantle was upstairs. It would be a bitch getting up there on crutches.
Halfway up he was sweating and shaking. He had almost fallen backwards a couple of times. The stairs were narrow and steep and he couldn't hold the hand rail and both of his crutches at the same time. Then he realized that he could go up without losing his balance on one knee. It was demoralizing, but much easier to crawl. He kept painfully banging his plaster cast on the stairs behind him as he dragged himself up.
Alexander went into the second bedroom, Ferd's laboratory, and took the camera from around his neck. He took pictures of all the machinery. He was almost finished when he heard the van's horn. One honk meant that Stephan had seen a pursuer. Two signified danger.
The second honk galvanized Alexander. He lurched out of the laboratory and started full speed down the stairs at a fast crawl.