A Safe House

56

Harley Quince awoke in a hospital room. A man in an adjacent bed seemed to have wakened him merely by staring at him. “Senator?” he guessed.

Wallace Slade’s right shoulder was bandaged, and his arm in a sling. “Asshole,” he said.

Harley shifted in his bed a little to get a better view. “What did you call me?”

“Asshole.”

“Where do you come off...”

“You allowed that... female person to shoot me.”

Harley raised his bed up. “I was pretty busy for a while, you may recall.”

“I saved your life,” Slade said. “I applied a tourniquet to your leg.”

“Thank you very much,” Harley said. “I’m very grateful...”

“Asshole.”

“Senator, if you say that to me again, I’m going to find a sharp instrument and cut your throat.”

“I apologize.”

“That’s better. What do you want me to do?”

“I want the two of us to get out of these beds, go to Barrington’s house, and kill Jenna. You can cut her up, if you like. I’ll hold her down.”

“Why in Barrington’s house? It’s a fortress.”

“Because that’s where she is. If we allow her to leave, we won’t know where she is.”

“You have a point,” Harley said. “What about our injuries? I’ve just had four hours of surgery to repair the artery.”

“I talked with the doctor about that. He says the artery is stronger now than before, because of the kind of repair he made.” This was a lie.

“He said that, really?”

“Ask him yourself.”

“He told me when he examined me that he was leaving today on a three-week vacation to the islands.”

“Take my word for what he said.”

“What about your arm?”

“It’s not my arm, it’s my shoulder. It’s a through-and-through wound, through the fleshy part.”

“Do you feel like going out and killing her right now?”

“Oh, yes. Nothing would heal me faster.”

“Let’s give it until tomorrow, when the painkiller has worn off, and see then.”

“Well, take more painkiller,” Slade replied.

“I’m too tired to do it right now.”

“Okay, we’ll get a few nights’ sleep, then we’ll kill her.” He thought about it a little more. “I want to kill the bitch that shot me, too.”

“We’ll talk about it tomorrow,” Harley said, drifting off.