George Martin - Busted flush

"You think I did that on purpose somehow?"

"Perhaps your mental state during copulation determined Yectli's power."

"Jesus, Doc! If I had any control over their abilities, don't you think not dying would come first?" Niobe threw up her arms. "God!"

He raised his hands, palm out. "Fair enough." As he closed the cabinet, he said, almost as an aside, "Has Yvette demonstrated her power to you yet? We're still unclear on whether she's an ace or a deuce."

"Nope. She's a quiet one." Aren't you, sweetheart?

Better to be thought a fool, Mom.

After a happy but bittersweet lunch with Yectli, Yvette, and Yves, Niobe loaded up one of the kitchen carts with books, magazines, and a cooler of ice cream. She promised to rejoin the children for a movie night as soon as she finished her rounds.

Mick absorbed ice cream through his fingertips while Niobe read another chapter of The Catcher in the Rye to him. She always let him have a little extra. His body contained the cure for cystic fibrosis; the wild card had cured him even as it rendered him a joker at age eight. By studying Mick, BICC researchers would one day save thousands of kids.

When she tugged the empty bowl from his fingers, he grabbed Niobe's wrist. He tapped the book with his free hand while bobbing his head at her. Tap, tap. Nod, nod.

"Mick, I don't understand. What? What's wrong?"

He's saying you're like that catcher in the field of rye, said Yvette.

Because I remind him of Holden Caulfield?

No. Because you care so much.

Oh.

Niobe smiled. "Thank you, Mick. I like you, too."

He let go. Plaster dust rained down on his sheets once again as he went back to knocking his head against the wall, just as he'd been doing when Niobe arrived.

"See ya tomorrow, Mick."

In addition to voluntary residents like Niobe and Mick, the low-security wing housed a library, cafeteria, gym, and television lounge. The lounge also contained a computer with Internet access. Niobe swung through during her rounds to check her e-mail. She watched a few minutes of a football game, socializing with the patients and off-duty orderlies, while waiting for a turn at the computer.

Nothing from her parents, of course, but she did find a new e-mail from Bubbles, who was in New York. Another city on Niobe's list of places to visit someday. Niobe decided to respond with a note about Xerxes's death-Bubbles had met him and would want to know.

Moans went up around the lounge. The game had disappeared, to be replaced with the words "Special Report." Niobe kept one ear on the TV while she typed. Several people threw things at the screen when President Kennedy announced a new gasoline rationing program. Niobe finished up the e-mail to Bubbles and resumed her rounds.

The earth-toned medium-security wing (brown, taupe) housed patients moderately dangerous to themselves and others. Some were here voluntarily; others at the behest of family, or the courts. Niobe's first room had been in this wing. There were no voluntary committals in the yellow high-security wing.

Powder blue Q Sector, BICC's maximum security wing, housed the worst of the worst. It was also the reason Niobe never let her children accompany her on the rounds.

The wing had been built into one of the spurs off the outer ring. Each cell required special construction tailored to the particular occupant, and the old salt caverns offered the space to do so. If you wanted to lock somebody up and lose the key, this was the place to do it.

Niobe hurried past the cell housing the joker woman covered in dozens of baby mouths. The active soundproofing never completely nullified their combined wailing. She also passed a lead-lined cell that housed a glowing, mummylike figure, and a watertight cell filled floor to ceiling with glycerin to prevent its occupant's skin from igniting.

One denizen of Q Sector she didn't skip, though she might have liked to, was known as the Racist. She tapped on the Plexiglas window of his cell. She never met his eyes when he looked at her; their darkness, their intensity, unsettled her. Prison gang tattoos covered most of his skin not covered by his jumpsuit.

"Bookmobile."

"You still here, kike?" At some point in the past, he'd decided she was Jewish.

She slid his requested book-a dog-eared copy of The Turner Diaries -through the lazy Susan. It was originally his own copy, found on him when he was captured.

"How many times are you going to read this crap?" she asked. "Why don't you read something educational instead?"

"How long until Uncle Shylock takes you back to Jew York City so I don't have to see your ugly face no more?"

"I've told you," she said, wheeling the cart away, "I'm not from New York." She left the Racist to his solitude.

"Nibble they toes, nibble they fingers… "

Her last stop was outside the cell of Terrence Wayne Cottle, aka Sharky, in reference to his gray skin and the serrated, triangular teeth that filled a mouth extending halfway around his head. Cottle embraced the identity enthusiastically. He'd eaten his victims to death.

"… chew they skin, chew they guts…" Featureless black eyes popped open when Niobe pushed her squeaking cart to a halt outside his cell.

"… chomp they tail and all them kiddies!"

"Something to read, Terrence?"

"Not bored. Hungry." Thin lips pulled back from his teeth as he said this. "So hungry." He licked his lips.

A single scoop of butter brickle sat at the bottom of her cooler, but of course she couldn't give it to him. Pendergast and the security techs were adamant that Cottle could never receive any utensil. Even a plastic spork.

"Can't help you there, Terrence." Niobe held up a few magazines. "How 'bout a National Geographic?" Even staple-bound magazines were off-limits.

"What I'd really like, Genetrix, is a copy of Modern Gourmet."

"Sorry, Sharky, no such luck."

Cottle shook his head. "Shame. Been looking for a good recipe for roast joker tail." He laughed. "Something that'll tell me how to debone that thing."

His shouts followed her back up the hallway. "… or a marinade for fat little kiddies?"

Yves, Yvette, and Yectli were extra quiet. But she knew how to cheer them up.

Hey, you kids ever been to Disneyland?

Yectli clapped. Of course not! said Yves.

Well, let's fix that, thought Niobe. And this time, no putting the trip off until it was too late.

All they needed was a few days. She'd let Pendergast know they'd be gone, and then find some tickets online. The oil crisis guaranteed that she'd have to pay a king's ransom to get all four of them to California and back, but she hadn't touched her trust fund in a long time. It might have taken a hit, thanks to market craziness brought on by the crisis, but odds were that her parents' goodbye-and-go-away-forever gift was still pretty hefty.

You guys are gonna love Space Mountain.

Returning through the medium-security wing, Niobe found one of the cells open. The cot had been stripped, and a pile of new linens rested at the foot of the mattress.

"Get a move on, Genetrix."

She turned to find Tom, one of the BICC orderlies, standing next to her.

"Oh, hiya, Tom. What's going on? New guest?"

"I'm not kidding. Beat it."

"What? I'm just asking."

Tom shrugged. "I got my orders." He pointed down the corridor. "Scram." He glared until she turned the corner.

She waited a moment before peeking back.

Justice-the head of BICC security-escorted a boy down the corridor and into the cell. Young, based on his height, and a little pudgy.

The boy turned just as Justice slammed the cell door behind him.

He looked terrified.

The interrogation room was cramped and dim. Drake was sitting on one side of a metal table; facing him from the other side were a doctor, or so he guessed from the man's white coat, and another BICC guy. Justice was behind Drake, but he was letting the others ask the questions.