part0006

“ G ood. You are willing to play along,” Dr. Jack said with a puff on his cigar. “That might make all of the difference. You see, I’m not a man known for endless patience. I demand results.”

“This might go better if I was in a more comfortable position.” Abraham flexed his hands. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I missed your office. Being strapped to a table—well, it’s weird. Even talking from behind steel bars would be better. Besides, I have to pee.”

“Go ahead. My orderlies will clean you up,” Dr. Jack said. “They just love that stuff, dontcha, boys?”

Otis and Haymaker didn’t utter a word. They glared at Abraham with their usual dull, heavy stares.

“I think I can hold it a bit longer,” he said.

“Tell me, Mr. Jenkins, what happens right before your essence moves from one world to another?” Dr. Jack asked.

He didn’t see the harm in answering and said, “Usually, I start to get a headache, you know, like a migraine, right between the eyes. I see those rings too.” That was the truth but only part of the truth. The last time it happened, back at the Wound, he hadn’t felt anything at all. He was talking with Sticks, and the world became a black swirl. “A big part of me still has trouble believing that this is real. For all I know, I might be strapped to a table elsewhere, in a coma.”

“Does anything trigger these migraines?” Dr. Jack asked.

Abraham managed a shrug and said, “Stress. Normally, I’m in a lot of danger when it happens.”

“What sort of danger?”

“You know, the usual fantasy fare. I’m killing monsters with my magic sword, and they are trying to kill me. Just before I arrived here, I finished butchering a ten-foot-tall monster that looked like a man and walked like a dog. They are called Wild Men. The carnage I left would fill this room from one side to the other.” He noticed Otis and Haymaker exchange a glance. “It wasn’t long after that I fell back here.”

“Wild Men, huh? And a magic sword. Interesting. What does this magic sword do? Can you fly with it? Heh heh.”

“No. It has strange properties.” Abraham figured he might as well lay it on thick while playing a little dumb at the same time. “It’s razor sharp, can talk in my head, and sometimes it will shoot a bolt of lightning.”

“A sword that shoots fire.” Dr. Jack smiled at his orderlies. “Man, this world has it all. Are there flying rugs too?”

“I think you mean carpets, and no, at least, not that I’ve seen. There are dragons.” He swallowed. “Look, my throat is dry, and I’d like a drink, and I’d like to not pee all over myself either. How long have I been laying here? I feel like I haven’t gone in days.”

“That’s about right,” Dr. Jack said. “At the moment, you are in a very secure location. No doubt, your friends will try to rescue you. You’ve picked up some very interesting allies, it seems. It surprised even me.”

“Mandi is okay?” he asked sheepishly.

“Since you are attempting to be forthcoming, I’ll lend you that branch. Your girlfriend, or whatever she is to you, is on the loose with her peculiar cousin and her husband.”

“How’d you get me?”

“Huh, funny that you don’t remember.” Dr. Jack puffed out a smoke ring. “You took off in that helicopter you stole. You landed in a field behind a truck stop in the dead of night. Believe it or not, we got kind of lucky. As it turns out, someone called the cops because four strange people walked out of the woods without a car or truck. They ordered a table full of pancakes and milkshakes. Not that that was the oddest thing for a trucker, but the descriptions paid off. We picked up on it right away. The government has eyes and ears everywhere.”

Abraham’s belly gurgled. “Those pancakes and milkshakes sure sound good about now.” He rolled his head toward the orderlies. “Do you think you fellas could whip us something up while we are talking? I like my milkshakes cold and my syrup warm.” He turned his attention back to Dr. Jack. “Not a fan of cold syrup. You?”

“I’m an oatmeal-for-breakfast kind of guy.” Dr. Jack took another draw on his cigar and said, “It didn’t take long for us to close in on you. We managed to be discreet. It seemed that you and your cohorts were planning to roll out with a friendly trucker. It might have worked too if we didn’t sniff you out. Lucky for us, Dirty Lyle made that call. No one was going anywhere. We blocked the truck stop and closed in. Colonel Dexter led the charge. He was hungry to get you.”

Me or Mandi. “So, did the trucker rally behind us? Did they crash your gates doing ninety-eight? Man, I would have loved to have seen them drop the hammer down.”

“Sorry, Rubber Duck, but you gave yourself up.”

If Abraham could have sat up straight in an instant, he would have. “Are you serious?” It was a fair question. For all he knew, Dr. Jack was lying to him. It was best to assume that.

Dr. Jack nodded. “In terms for your surrender, we let your cohorts go. But we’re keeping an eye on them. You wish you could scratch your head, don’t you?”