Michael Palmer - Extreme Measures

An independent trucker, Garcia was hauling beef from Flagstaff to Cleveland under contract to Buckeye Packing. He took the run whenever he could, because he liked the distance and the scenery and because he got the chance to visit his mother and sisters in Mexican Hat. The downside of the detour home was that he was now half a day behind and would have to keep at it, without sleeping, until Ohio.

He glanced over at his passenger, who was propped against the window, drifting in and out of sleep. The man had the hollow, gray, sickly look of someone who had done time, and if Eddie hadn't known that there were no prisons in the area, he might have pegged him as an escapee. Even if he had been, it wouldn't have mattered much to Eddie.

"Hey, Bob, you hungry?" he asked.

The man sat up a bit but didn't look over.

"You from these parts?"

"What parts?"

"Utah, Colorado. Hey, are you okay?"

I'm okay."

"WelL you don't look okay. Mind if I ask what your last name is?"

Bob continued staring out at the blackness ahead.

"I don't know," he said.

"Suit yourself," Garcia said. For a time he just drove and rubbed at the stubble along his jaw. "Look," he said finally, "let's get one thing straight. I picked you up because you were twenty miles from nowhere and looked like you were needin' a ride, and because I was wantin' some company. I'm not the type to pry into other people's lives. I don't ' give a shit who you're runnin'from or what you're into. I did some time once myself. If I ask you something', then it's just for conversation or 'cause I want to help you out if you're sick.

You got that?"

The driver looked at him with concern.

"You really don't know your last name, do you?"

North… shollander… Trainer… Mkowski… Enders…

Pullman… Scott Enders's dark eyes narrowed as he tried to sort out the many names that kept swirling through his head.

"No," he heard himself say. "No, I don't."

"Or where you're from?"

Scott shook his head.

"When did you eat last?" Garcia asked.

"I… don't… know."

Scott pictured a crowded dining hall someplace and remembered now that he hadn't eaten for days, fearing the food was drugged. But by whom?

And why? He pictured the man named Pike, and he saw himself hiding the last capsule Pike had given him beneath his tongue. Where did that happen? There were snatches of other images as well, but none that he could sort out well enough to understand what they represented.

"Well, then," the trucker said cheerfully. "At least you know that you don't know when you ate last. Now we're getting' somewhere.

There's a diner about ten miles ahead. Some coffee and a burger will do us both some good. You got any money?"

Scott checked his right-hand pants pocket, but when he tried to reach into his left, the fingers on his left hand, which were bent in a stiff claw, refused to move. Have they always been that way?

"I'm watching you fumble around and I'm worried about you, Bob," Garcia said. "What happened to your hand?"

Scott merely looked at him and shrugged.

"This is crazy. Absolutely crazy," the driver said.

"Are you just puttin' me on, or can you really not remember anything?

How did you get to Route One-sixty-three? Someone leave you there?"

"I crawled under the photoelectric cells," Scott said, realizing the fact only as he spoke the words.

"What?the "I saw the photoelectric cells, and I got down on my belly and crawled under them."

Eddie Garcia shook his head.

"Leave it tool' Eddie to pick up the craziest bird this side of San Francisco," he muttered.

They pulled into the truck stop, which was nearly deserted.

Garcia hopped from the cab and watched as his passenger worked his way to the pavement. It was only then that he noticed the man's limp. It seemed as if he couldn't pick up his left foot properly.

"I know, I know," he said, more to himself than to Bob. "The photoelectric cells paralyzed you."

Garcia ordered coffee regular and cheeseburgers for both of them, and watched as Bob tried, then gave up trying, to use his left hand.

The more he studied the man and the emptiness that seemed to envelop him, the more sadness he felt. He briefly entertained the notion of giving him a twenty and simply taking off. But just as quickly, he discarded the thought.

That wasn't his way.

"You really don't remember anything, do you?"

Scott's lower lip tightened. "Not much," he said.

"I want to remember something, but I just can't."

A memory flashed of kicking open a cactus and scooping out its moisture, and he wondered how he had known to do that. A succession of disconnected scenes-many of them quite violent-flicked through his mind.

None of them brought even a glimmer of recognition or emotion.

Eddie Garcia bought some beef jerky and various other snack foods, paid for their meal, and then eased his semi back onto the interstate.

He felt as if somehow he had stopped on Highway 163 and picked up a child in a man's broken body. Now, he had no idea what to do with him.

"Bob, tell me something," he said as they sped through Glenwood Springs and on toward Denver. "Do you have any family? Anyone you want to call? A place you want me to bring you?"

"Mrs. Gideon's horse," Scott said suddenly.

"What?"

"I need to go to East Boston to find Mrs. Gideon's horse."

"East Boston, Mass?"

"Yes." Scott knew that was true, and important as well, but he had no idea why.

"Bob, who's this Mrs. Gideon? She a relative of yours?"

"I I don't know what I'm talking about." He clenched his good hand in frustration. "Dammit, I just don't know."

"Well, look," Garcia said, "we'll be in Cleveland tomorrow night.

You can hitch from there to Boston. Better yet, you can catch a bus.

I'll front you the money."

Eddie Garcia, relieved to have even the semblance of a plan, shifted into overdrive, and the rig barreled on.

Propped on one — elbow, Laura lay in Eric's bed watching the gray light of the new day filter over the city. It had been a year or more since she had last spent the night with a man. And even though they had not yet made love, she knew that she wanted to. In a short time they had already shared so much.

She reached over, swept Eric's hair from his brow, and kissed him there.

He blinked and squinted up at her. Then, without a word, he drew her over onto him and held her. For nearly half an hour they lay there, her face nestled against his chest.

"Soon?" he asked, reveling in the lines of her body and the smoothness of her skin.

She nodded and kissed him deeply.

"I want it to be perfect, though," she whispered.

He rolled her over and caressed her breasts with his lips. Her nipples hardened to his touch.

"I understand," he said, "and I promise you it will be."

They showered and then shared juice and coffee on the balcony, neither anxious to break the mood by speaking of the day just past.

Finally Laura stood and leaned against the railing, gazing across the rooftops at Cambridge.

"Do you have a plan for the day?" Eric asked.

"Not really. I think it's worth going to the police and at least seeing what they're willing to do about Donald Devine."

"I agree. But after yesterday morning I'm not sure I like the idea of your wandering around the city alone.

I'm off tomorrow if you can wait."

"I'll see."

"At least wait until noon. I'll call before then."

The phone began ringing. Eric hesitated, not anxious to deal with Caduceus again. Finally he pulled himself up and reentered the apartment. A minute later he was back.

"I've got to go," he said. "Something's happened at the hospital-something pretty bad. Reed Marshall's resigned."