by Sydnie MacElroy
[Castle Rock Memorial Hospital]
>Zenya couldn't help but smile at the look that crossed Leo's >face as he heard this. "I'm sure you'll be fine, Leo. I'll be >here when you get back." she said, barely suppressing a >laugh when the nurse wheeled Leo out of the room, a look >of worry overriding the stoic face he was trying to put on. >If there was anything that Leo hated more than anything, it >was needles. It was a carryover from his youth when he >needed to get booster shots, and Leo always equated tests >with needles.
While she was waiting for Leo, Zenya went next door to look in on Martin. He was awake and flipping between the two available channels on the television.
"A soap opera or a talk show. Not much of a choice," he said. "Is Leo awake yet?"
Zenya nodded. "Yes. They've taken him for some tests. He'll be fine. What about you?"
"Lost a little too much blood is all." He started to smile, but frowned instead. "It was being around that satellite dish. Had to be. I was fine until we got there."
"You never got to the Laughton place," Zenya asked.
Martin shook his head. "Come to think of it, though, I think it must have been on their land. We couldn't have been more than a couple hundred yards from their driveway according to the directions the sheriff gave us."
"Seems strange, doesn't it. Chris Laughton came after Leo yesterday. The deputy tried to get his parents on the phone and there was no answer. No one ever went out there to inform them that their son was in the hospital and then when you tried to go see them�"
*****
Chris Laughton had been held in the hospital overnight for observation. Zenya and Martin - who probably shouldn't have been roaming around the hospital yet - found him still in his room, alone and reading a book. He looked up when they came in, but then turned back to his reading. "You're the FBI people, aren't you," he said, looking at them with not-quite-recognition.
Zenya pulled the chair up next to the bed and motioned Martin to sit down. "That's right. My name is Zenya Gorky. This is Martin Reed."
"I don't remember anything. I mean, they told me what I did, but I don't remember it."
"Who told you," Martin asked.
"Mom and Dad."
"They've been here to see you?"
Chris made a sound something like a snort and looked at her like Zenya like it was the dumbest question he'd ever heard. He still didn't look up from his book. "Of course."
"When was that?"
"Last night. They haven't been here yet today." He shrugged. "But I'm getting out pretty soon, so I guess they'll be here then."
"We'd like to talk to them. Could you ask them to�"
"Because of the game?" Chris asked the question before Zenya had finished speaking. "Is that why� He didn't know what it would do." The boy was struggling to hold something back - either tears or anger, Zenya couldn't tell which. He dropped the book in his lap and Zenya saw the cover, illustrated with a generic western scene and the title 'Buffalo Hunt' and she thought of the scene in front of the sheriff's office. She glanced at Martin to see if he'd registered it, too and he nodded.
"Who are you talking about, Chris," Zenya asked. "Your father?"
The boy nodded.
Martin frowned. "How is he connected to the game?"
"He's the president of the school board. He said� He's not going to get in trouble, is he?"
Zenya weighed the options of truth versus a comforting lie, decided Chris was probably old enough to face the truth, then realized that she had no idea what the truth was in this instance. "I don't know. But a lot of other people could unless this is stopped."
"Last night, when they were here, he told me that it was all his fault. That he was responsible for the using it. He said he was going to do something about it."
"Did he say what he was going to do?"
Chris Laughton shook his head and Zenya finally recognized the look on his face and knew what he was fighting not to show. He was worried about his father. And with good reason.
*****
>Leo and Zenya both looked at Martin with a deadpan >expression on their face, before they both broke out >into grins. "Don't make me laugh, Martin. My back >still hurts." Leo said with a chuckle. After a moment, >his face became dead serious once again. "If this failed, >whoever sent the signal sent another final image of >everything going black. They're going to shut down >shop here. Their job is finished."
>Martin nodded, "We'd better gather as much evidence >as we possibly can. There won't be anything left. I >have a feeling, there's going to be a lot of reformatted >computers out in Castle Rock tonight."
Zenya turned to look out the window as if the view might hold some answers. It didn't. "We have the file from the school. For what that's worth. It would be nice to have a copy of the program to have analyzed."
Martin and Leo exchanged a glance at that idea. "Too dangerous," Leo said. "We only worked with it for a few minutes and look what happened."
Martin nodded. "But you wouldn't have to run the program to back it up."
Zenya smiled. "Unfortunately, I don't think they're ready to let either of you out of here, and I can barely run a word processor without tech support. But if I got back to the Colquitt house and just take the whole computer as evidence before anyone can mess with it� I won't even have to turn it on."
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NRPG -
Jeff, Krister: I left it there 'cause I wasn't sure if Leo or Martin would want to escape the hospital and go along. :)
Jeff: Question. How did we leave it? Were you gonna rewrite some of the ending of our story, or was I supposed to be working on it? ;) ;)