Dark Zone

115

Karr knew there was someone in the room with him, but it seemed to take forever to open his eyes. When he finally did, he saw not a person but an angel floating at the side of the bed: Deidre Clancy.

“Hey,” he said.

“Hey yourself.”

“Hey,” he said again, sliding up on his elbows. “Whoa, that hurts.”

“It shouldn’t. Your blood’s fifty percent Demerol.”

“See, that’s where the doctors always get it wrong,” said Karr, easing back down. “Give me a good pint of Guinness stout and nothing would bother me.”

“Take more than a pint.”

“Probably.”

“You’re a national hero, you know. The French are calling you the American Golden Bear.”

“Yeah?”

“You and your friends in the Chunnel.”

“Which?”

Karr listened as Deidre told him about Lia and Dean, who had been pulled out after foiling a plot to explode a nuclear device in the Chunnel.

“The French President claims it wouldn’t have exploded anyway,” added Deidre. “But that sounds pretty political. And French. Want me to move the bed? You have a lift thing in the back.”

He grimaced as the bed moved, but it did feel better.

“They have guards on your door to keep the media away,” she told him.

“Really?”

“I’m not kidding. I think they have orders to shoot to kill.”

“So how’d you get in? Your dad?”

“I tried that, but it didn’t work. So I told a little white lie.”

“Like?”

“I said I was your fiancée.”

Karr started to laugh. His ribs had been broken and he started to wheeze and cough — and laugh even harder.

“You don’t have one, do you?” she asked.

“Well, maybe now.”