The Babylonian Mask

Chapter 16 — Merry Meet/ Un-Merry Part

“Just got a call from an old colleague of mine at the Edinburgh Post, Margaret Crosby,” Sam shared, still staring at his phone a little nostalgically just after he got into the rental car with Purdue. “She’s on her way here to offer me a co-authorship on the investigation concerning the German Air Force’s involvement in some sort of scandal.”

“Sounds like a good story. You should do it, old chum. I smell an international conspiracy here, but I’m no news hound,” said Purdue as they made their way to Nina’s temporary sanctuary.

When Sam and Purdue pulled up in front of the house they were directed to, the place looked ghastly. Although the modest little house had been recently painted, the garden was wild. The contrast between the two made the house stand out. Bushes with thorns hugged the beige exterior walls under a black roof. The chimney’s pale, pink paint chips showed the decay from before the paint job. Smoke slithered upward from it like a lazy, grey dragon, blending in with the cold, monochrome clouds of the overcast day.

The house stood at the end of a small street near a lake, which only added to the desolate loneliness of the place. As the two men stepped out of the car, Sam could see a twitch in one of the windows as the curtains were being disturbed.

“We’ve been detected,” Sam announced to his companion. Purdue nodded, his tall body towering above the frame of the car door. His fair hair fluffed in the moderate wind as he watched the front door crack open. A podgy, kind face peered from behind the door.

“Frau Bauer?” asked Purdue from the other side of the vehicle.

“Herr Cleave?” she smiled.

Purdue pointed to Sam and smiled.

“Go, Sam. I don’t think Nina should see me right off the bat, you know?” Sam understood. His friend had a fair point. After all, he and Nina did not part on the best of terms on account of Purdue hunting her in the dark, threatening to kill her and all that.

When Sam skipped up the front steps to where the lady was holding the door open, he could not help but wish he could stay a while. The interior of the house smelled divine with the blended scent of flowers, coffee and a faint reminiscence of what could have been French toast a few hours ago.

“Thank you,” he told Frau Bauer.

“She is through here. She’s been sleeping since you and I spoke on the phone,” she informed Sam, shamelessly staring at his rugged good looks. It gave him an uncomfortable, prison-rape feeling, but Sam pinned his attention on Nina. Her small frame was curled up under a pile of blankets, some of which turned into cats when he pulled them away to see Nina’s face.

Sam did not show it, but he was shocked to see how bad she looked. Her lips were blue upon her pasty face, hair clinging to her temples as she breathed hoarsely.

“Is she a smoker?” Frau Bauer asked. “Her lungs sound terrible. She refused to let me call the hospital before you’d seen her. Should I call them now?”

“Not yet,” Sam said quickly. On the phone Frau Bauer had told him about the man who had accompanied Nina, and Sam reckoned it was the other missing person from the hospital. “Nina,” he said softly, running his fingertips along her crown and repeating her name a little louder each time. Eventually her eyes opened and she smiled, “Sam.”Jesus! What’s wrong with her eyes? he thought with a jolt of dread at the light sheet of cataracts that had made cobwebs all over her eyes.

“Hey beautiful,” he answered, kissing her forehead. “How did you know it was me?”

“Are you kidding me?” she said slowly. “Your voice is burned into my mind…just like your scent.”

“My scent?” he asked.

“Marlboro and attitude,” she jested. “Christ, I’d kill for a fag right now.”

Frau Bauer choked on her tea. Sam chuckled. Nina coughed.

“We were worried sick, love,” Sam said. “Let us take you to the hospital. Please.”

Nina’s damaged eyes bolted open. “No.”

“Things have calmed down there now.” He was trying to dupe her, but Nina would have none of it.

“I’m not stupid, Sam. I’ve been following the news from here. They haven’t caught that son of a bitch yet, and the last time we spoke he made it clear that I was playing on the wrong side of the fence,” she wheezed hastily.

“Alright, alright. Calm down a little and tell me exactly what that means, because to me it sounds as if you had direct contact with the killer,” Sam replied, trying to keep his voice void of the true terror he felt for what she was insinuating.

“Tea or coffee, Herr Cleave?” the kind hostess asked quickly.

“Doro makes a mean cinnamon tea, Sam. Try it,” Nina suggested wearily.

Sam nodded amicably, sending the eager German woman into the kitchen. He was concerned about Purdue sitting in the car during the time it would take to get to the bottom of Nina’s current situation. Nina faded into semi-sleep again, lulled by the Bundesliga war on television. Concerned for her life in the midst of her juvenile tantrum, Sam sent Purdue a text.

She is stubborn, as we thought.

Deathly ill. Any ideas?

He sighed, waiting for any ideas of how to get Nina to a hospital before her obstinacy signed off on her mortality. Naturally, non-violent coercion was the only way with someone delirious and pissed at the world, but he feared that would alienate Nina further, especially from Purdue. His phone’s tone shattered the monotony of the commentator on TV, waking Nina. Sam looked down to where he was concealing his phone.

Offer a different hospital?

Otherwise knock her out with loaded sherry.

On the latter Sam knew Purdue was being facetious. The former, however, was an excellent thought. Immediately after the first message came the next.

Universitätsklinikum Mannheim.

Theresienkrankenhaus.

A deep scowl fell into Nina’s clammy forehead. “What the fuck is that constant ruckus?” she murmured through the spinning funhouse of her fever. “Make it stop! Geezusss…”

Sam muted his phone to appease the vexed woman he was trying to save. Frau Bauer came in with a tray. “I’m sorry, Frau Bauer,” Sam apologized very quietly. “We will be out of your hair in just a few minutes.”

“Don’t be crazy,” she rasped in her hefty accent. “Take your time. Just make sure Nina gets to the hospital soon. She looks bad to me.”

“Danke,” Sam replied. He took a sip of the tea, trying not to scald his mouth. Nina was right. The hot beverage was as close to ambrosia as he could imagine.

“Nina?” Sam dared again. “We have to get out of here. Your pal from the hospital deserted you, so I don’t exactly trust him. If he comes back with a few friends we’re in trouble.”

Nina opened her eyes. Sam felt a bolt of sorrow cripple him as she looked past his face into the space behind him. “I’m not going back.”

“No, no, you don’t have to,” he soothed. “We will take you to a local hospital here in Mannheim, love.”

“No, Sam!” she pleaded. Her chest was heaving alarmingly as her hands tried to find the hair on her face that bothered her. Nina’s thin fingers folded against her skull as she tried to remove the clingy tresses repeatedly, getting more annoyed every time she failed. Sam did it for her while she looked at what she thought was his face. “Why can’t I go back home? Why can’t I be treated in a hospital in Edinburgh?”

Nina suddenly gasped and held her breath, her nostrils wagging slightly. Frau Bauer was standing at the door with a guest she had gone to fetch.

“You can.”

“Purdue!” Nina gagged, trying to swallow with her dry throat.

“You can be transported to the medical facility of your choice in Edinburgh, Nina. Just allow us to get you to an ER nearby to stabilize you. As soon as they do, Sam and I will fly you home immediately. I promise you,” said Purdue informed her.

He kept his voice soft and even, so as not to excite her nerves. His words were bathed in positive tones of resolution. Purdue knew he had to give her what she desired without any talk of Heidelberg as a whole.

“What do you say, love?” Sam smiled, stroking her hair. “You don’t want to die in Germany, do you?” He looked up apologetically to the German hostess, but she only smiled and waved it away.

“You tried to kill me!” Nina growled into somewhere all around her. She could hear where he was standing at first, but Purdue’s voice moved as he spoke, so she lashed out anyway.

“He was programmed, Nina, to follow the commands of that Black Sun twat. Come on, you know Purdue would never hurt you intentionally,” Sam tried, but she was panting wildly. They could not tell if Nina was furious or terrified, but her hands felt around madly until she found Sam’s arm. She clutched onto him as her milky eyes shot from side to side.

“Please, God, don’t let this be Purdue,” she said.

Sam shook his head in disappointment as Purdue walked out of the house. There was no doubt that Nina’s remark had hit him very hard this time. Frau Bauer looked sympathetic as she watched the tall, fair-haired man leave. Finally, Sam decided to get Nina up.

“Come,” he said, gently handling her frail body.

“Keep the blankets. I can knit more,” Frau Bauer smiled.

“Thank you so much. You’ve been a great, great help,” Sam told the hostess as he lifted Nina into his arms and carried her out to the car. Purdue’s face was plain and expressionless while Sam loaded the sleeping Nina into the car.

“Right, she’s in,” Sam announced light heartedly, trying to comfort Purdue without getting soppy. “I think we’ll need to go back to Heidelberg to get her file from her previous doctor after she is admitted in Mannheim.”

“You can go. I’m returning to Edinburgh as soon as we sort Nina out.” Purdue’s words left a hole in Sam.

Sam frowned, dumbfounded. “But you said you would fly her to a hospital there.” He understood Purdue’s frustration, but it was not worth playing with Nina’s life.

“I know what I said, Sam,” he said harshly. The empty look was back; that same look he had had at Sinclair, when he told Sam that he was beyond help. Purdue started the car. “I also know what she said.”