Harrington nodded. “Okay then, if your health insurance or your bank account is willing to pay for it, I can reasonably write that you stay here for another two weeks. If not, you’re going to need to drive back to Portland, air travel is a big no-no for you with those stitches in. Your lungs don’t need the stress of the change in air pressure.”
“When can I fly?” I asked. “And would it be cheaper to just get a hotel room at the Beverly Hilton?”
“Yes, and in a week, in reverse order” Harrington said. “If you want, and are willing to come back for follow-ups, I can get you out of here as quickly as possible.”
I thought about it, but before I could answer, Rita came in, carrying a bag from an electronics store. “I know a guy who knows a guy who had it all set up for me to pick up,” she said simply. “Hi, Doc. How’s your patient?”
Rita’s forward attitude and perky demeanor never failed to stun people the first time they met her, and Dr. Harrington was no exception. He stuttered for a moment before smiling. “Mister Prescott is going to be in good health in no time. I was just telling him that if he wants, we might be able to get him out of here soon, as long as he stays in the LA area.”
“Great. You can crash at my place,” Rita said, unpacking the bag. When I’d told her to get a laptop, I’d expected something pretty standard-looking. Instead, what she pulled out seemed thick as a brick, wide as hell, and had what looked like racing stripes on the cover. Seeing me and Harrington look at it, she grinned. “Ain’t it great? Dual Intel i7 Quad Core CPUs, sixty-four gigs of DDR4 RAM, and a five twelve gig, SSD hard drive. I’d have gotten a bigger drive, but I have a memory backup at home that’s nearly twelve terabytes. I can download to that without an issue. Only drawback is the damn thing weighs ten pounds.”
“Does it play Donkey Kong?” Harrington asked. “I don’t know half of what you just said.”
I shook my head. “You and me both. Rita’s a friend and knows more about computers than I ever will. Just let her go, what she’s saying is she could probably hack the Pentagon with that thing.”
“Pentagon’s easy,” Rita grinned. “Now hacking the Googleplex, that’s hard.”
Harrington looked at Rita out of the corner of his eyes, then turned to me. “Is she serious?”
“Better not to ask,” I said. “Safer that way.”
Harrington nodded and left, leaving me and Rita alone in the room. She left to snag another table from one of the other patient rooms and came back, setting up her station. “I know the price tag might hit you as exorbitant, but I figured you needed the best to work with. Your eyes said that you want me to do some stuff that I haven’t done in a long time.”
“You know it,” I replied. A nurse came in and changed out my mask for the nasal tubes, leaving me feeling much better. I wiped my dry lips with an ice cube and wished I could take a drink, and watched Rita finish. “Your data link?”
“Best I could get on short notice. I’m sure you could catch up on Game of Thrones on it if you wanted, but I’ve got a feeling this will be for another purpose,” Rita said, and I couldn’t help but laugh a little, despite the circumstances.
“Well, when you’ve got Frankenstein’s monster there up and running, we’ll get to work. I want you to use your skills to find Sydney Hale for me. In the meantime, I’m going to do what I’ve found to be very, very painful.”
“What’s that?”
I groaned getting out of bed and steadied myself on the edge of the bed, grabbing the ventilator pole. “Using the toilet. Never knew how much you use your damn diaphragm when you have to go.”
“Entirely too much information.”
Chapter 25
Alix
My house was strangely normal when Vince and I entered along with a member of the LAPD. Technically, my house was the scene of a crime, and they didn’t want anything disturbed.
“The detective says that I can let you take clothes out of your bedroom area, but that’s it,” he said, trying not to stare at me. Considering he’d probably seen the unedited video on any of the dozen or so websites it was posted on, I thought he did a decent job of acting professionally. “I’m also supposed to stay with you in the room the whole time. Mister . . . sorry, I didn’t get your name.”
“Bowman,” Vince said. “Vince Bowman.”
“Mister Bowman, I’m supposed to not let you in the house at all. You’re not Miss Nova’s attorney, correct?”
“I work for Kade Prescott, who is an attorney,” Vince said. “I haven’t passed the bar yet, though.”
The cop sighed and reached for his radio. “I hate these types of calls.”
Vince held up his hands in a peacemaking gesture. “I’m not here to be a pain in your ass, officer. Can we make a deal? I’ll stay outside, but by the window of the bedroom. I can look in and talk with Alix. You can keep your bosses happy and follow orders.”
The cop nodded in relief and dropped his hand. “I can do that. Miss Nova, where’s the bedroom, anyway?”
“My bedroom is in the back, on the corner,” I said. “I’ll open the window as soon as we go in.”