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"I know"

"Then why didn&039;t you try to stop lanced over her shoulder as she flipped through the communication book she&039;d taken fro in the hall next to the operating roo "I had to trust what I&039;d taught you, or there wasn&039;t h to see his face, "You ought to lay off the reruns of Kung Fu, Henry You&039;re sounding like a poood because we&039;re friends" Before he could respond, before he&039;d figured out what to re?spond, she added, "Maybe you should&039;ve trusted your teaching all along"

"All along?"

Her lip curled "All along-from the ht you we couldn&039;t share a territory"

"Which just proves what you know," she announced triumphantly and turned her attention back to the communication book "Ah Here it is" She tapped an entry with one finger "5:09 AM, two cops show up, so does a Dr Mui-apparently one of her patients was dying-she shows the cops around, they leave They must&039;ve moved him before the cops arrived Son of a bitch"

"I don&039;t see how "

"Does itroom-let them wonder-and started down the hall "I doubt there&039;s a forwarding address, but theyin that roo scent of threeherself to recognize other lives but Mike Celluci&039;s "Dr Mui"

Henry frowned, recognizing Death beneath the re?cent patina of life "What about her?"

"She&039;s in on it This " Vicki waved a hand in the air, scooping it toward her nose "This is the woave Celluci that shot"

"Are you sure?"

"Trust me I make it a point to remember the other woy, Henry mused as he stepped back out of Vicki&039;s way He was definitely better acquainted with territorial imperatives than I assumed "Nohere?"

"Dr Mui&039;s office"

" and he&039;s safe at second! Can you believe that speed Frole!"

His attention on the television in the other roo and shoved the IV stand aside It hung, suspended for an instant at forty-five degrees and then crashed to the floor, the noise all but drowning out the enthusias the stainless steel pieces out of his way, Sullivan stomped out of the rooan to distort

"What are you looking so happy about," he snarled as he returned to the bed "You an Oakland fan?"

"Not likely" Unaware that he&039;d been looking any?thing but pained-the needle had been roughly yanked fro pressure-Celluci winced as the crowd at the Kingdome responded to a double play and the television speakers squealed

"Then what?" Sullivan&039;s eyes narrowed as a second of silence led into a co in co under his breath, he went back to the TV and turned the voluht someone&039;d notice that, didn&039;t you? Maybe coers closed on the end of Celluci&039;s nose and twisted Carti?lage cracked "Don&039;t ever think I&039; away involuntary tears, Celluci snorted, "Hadn&039;t occurred toht&039;ve been the blood loss, it ht&039;ve been the residual effect of the sedatives but coherent thought took more effort than he seemed capable of

"So why&039;re you smilin&039;, shit for brains?"

Except that he had to make the effort and he only had one source of infor else, he needed to find out more about his jailer Celluci jerked his head toward the bowl of broth on the bedside table "The doctor says you&039;ve got to feed entle eyes narrowed "Yeah, so?"

"You&039;re either going to have to turn up the TV and risk attracting attention, or ame Either way, I win"

"Maybe I just won&039;t feed you"

"Andto happen The bowl all but dwarfed in the curve of a huge hand, Sullivan grinned unpleasantly "Open your mouth or I&039;ll open it for you"

Confronted with violent death day after day, police officers coped by either ignoring the inevitability of their own death or by thinking about it so constantly it lost itson broth, Celluci realized he&039;d never considered drowning in consoasping for breath when Sullivan left the roo, "You can piss later," as he sla-if he didn&039;t choke on it and die, he&039;d have to lie in it, and the second option thrilled hiained control of his body Panting, each breath a little deeper than the last, he sed hard to discourage one last spas

When it was all over, he lay lione ten rounds with Mike Tyson But he had a better idea of Sullivan&039;s te?"

"Vicki, I&039;aat the screen, Henry tapped his nails gently against the edge of the keyboard "This is ressive search of the filing cabinet and peered across the roorowled

"The whole thing&039;s encrypted I can&039;t access any?thing without Dr Mui&039;s password"

"I don&039;t see why the paranoid bitch can&039;t keep a rolodex like everyone else," Vicki snarled, sla another All she wanted were a couple of addresses, preferably oneMichael Celluci, but failing that she&039;d settle for this is where the people in charge live and you can rip the location of Michael Celluci out of theainst him in heated waves, Henry decided it would be safest not to re?spond-besides, she had a point, a rolodex would&039;ve beenthis But it wasn&039;t breaking into Dr Mui&039;s office that he was having difficulty with

As much as he shared Vicki&039;s concern over the de?tective&039;s safety, he found himself continually distracted by the circuether Not, certainly, as they had before the change, but co?operating in close contact nevertheless It was such an a experience that he desperately wanted to tell someone about it Unfortunately, only two people could fully appreciate the ramifications-Vicki wasn&039;t interested, and there wasn&039;tto hi but patients&039; records You getting anywhere?"

He dragged his attention back to the task at hand "Dr Mui has a et into those other systems from here?"

"Back in Toronto, I could et half a dozen people who could do it in their sleep So the short answer is yes, but that doesn&039;t help usHa!" Straightening, Vicki lifted a file folder out of the botto the pulp and paper industry According to the BC Departht a new car Must be nice" Her voice trailed off as she flipped through the legal doculanced up at Henry "Did you know you two are neighbors?"

She jerked toward him as he snatched the file fro it back

"No, she&039;s in the other tower, phase two It just went on the h it twistedVicki&039;s arm as she started toward the door This wasn&039;t the time to test the li?"

"We knohere Dr Mui is Dr Mui knohere Celluci is" There were now three points of light in the office, the ht even be in that condo We ht&039;ve spent the day a hundred feet fro point for these units is the security systee It would be far too dangerous for her to take hiers dimpled the back of the chair Metal creaked "She&039;s still going to knohere he is!"

"She&039;s probably with hi back down at the paperwork, Henry frowned "She bought the unit fro up," Vicki snarled "On that cable show, regarding transplants, donated coot the idea at the same time, but Vicki made it to the keyboard first

His naot the for?"

"Swanson&039;s ho like a threat "He&039;s not going to be at the scene; he&039;s no doctor, there&039;s no need The puppet s" The need to rescue Celluci fought with curiosity as she raced deeper into the files; this would be her only chance to gather information, and she couldn&039;t just walk away froorized andto financial institu?tions

"Swiss bank accounts," Henry hazarded

"As not quite so old-fashioned The doctor appears to be sending a great deal of reat deal of money"

"Yeah, well this is considerablyeven in BC-and there&039;s still the car and the condo I&039;d say we can safely assuo cheap Hefortune for those kid?neys in order to make a profit on it"

"What price life?" Henry asked her quietly

Vicki turned and uorous beat of an iain, she nodded "Good point"

For a ht be able to touch, without blood, without passion, in friendship The et that Swanson can reinvest the ood point" Lips pressed into a thin, white line

Vicki -shut down the systeo "

They heard the life approaching the office in the sa closer, cutting off their escape

"What about heaving the desk through the ?"

Henry shook his head "It&039;d attract too much atten?tion They&039;d see us leave and trace the plates, so we&039;d do it only if anted to abandon the car, and we don&039;t"

The office door opened into the hall Vicki ht and waved Henry to the left

Sensitive eyes turned away frorabbed the hand that reached in for the light switch and yanked the stranger into the room

Henry closed the door

Dr Wallace believed there was very little he hadn&039;t seen He&039;d joined the Navy at seventeen, gone to Korea, caone to university on hisdoctors, and finally settled into a comfortable family practice in North Vancou?ver He&039;d seen death arrive without warning, and he&039;d seen death settle in for a long, intimate final journey, but he&039;d never seen it wear the face that bent over him in Dr Mui&039;s office

The diffuse illu lot de?fined only shadow features around a pair of silvered eyes Cold silver, like polished ht, and they drew hiic insisted they should have been

He&039;d always hoped he&039;d face death caliven any encouragement at all, he&039;d do whatever he had to to stay alive

"What do you know about Ronald Swanson?"

Not what he&039;d expected Toothe danger "He&039;s rich, very rich, but he&039;s willing to spenda clinical detach free "After his wife died of kidney failure, he began sup-porting transplant prograrams-many doctors haven&039;t a clue of how to deal with the whole donor issue Swanson paid for this hospice"

"That&039;s it?"

I more to tell "I don&039;t actually know him Dr Mui "

"What about Dr Mui?"

Wallace had a sudden vision of coh in a wild race to safety "Swanson handpicked her to run this place Before that she was a transplant surgeon, a good one, too, but there was an allegation of carelessness It turned out to be completely unfounded Hardly any?one even heard about it outside the hospital"

"Would Swanson have heard?"

"I don&039;t know, but it happened around the same time his wife died" Had his heartbeat always been that loud? That fast? It shouldn&039;t be that fast A drib?ble of sweat rolled into one eye and burned "It ht have been why he offered her this job"

"An unjust accusation turned her against the o so far as to say that" He was bab?bling now; he knew it, but he couldn&039;t stop "Dr Mui told me, that is, we spoke after one of ht, to check on a patient-that she wanted to work more with people and less with hospital adal bully boys Hello?"

The eyes were gone, the darkness lifted, and he was sitting alone in an e to hi or too hard on what it had been He was alive He wiped daht switch by the door

The room was full of shadows The shadows, in turn, were full He suspected they&039;d never be eain

"You handled that very well"

"Don&039;t patronize me, Henry"

"I wasn&039;t" He shifted the BMW into reverse and backed carefully out of the parking spot The last thing he wanted was to attract attention, license plates could be traced "You gave hi to remember but fear I was impressed"

"Impressed?"

"Try to re to this life You show a remarkable aptitude"

Vicki snorted "Now you&039;re patronizingto compliment you"

"Do vaainst the rules?"

Henry turned the car onto Mt Sey lane and around two trucks in a maneuver a ht with Michael Celluci to relieve tension," he growled through clenched teeth "I understand that But I&039;ht with rettably different-surely it&039;s becoree beyond mere words"

"I can control ainst the limit of the seat belt, one hand on the dash, the other clenching and unclenching in her lap, her eyes locked on the road between the twin blurs of streetlights "Jesus H Christ, Henry, can&039;t you go any faster?"

He had a sudden uilty relief he&039;d felt when she&039;d finally returned to Toronto after her year of learning to live a new and alien life When she left this tiuilt mixed in with the relief

That is, if they found Michael Celluci alive