Amberville - By Tim Davys Page 0,51

breathing again, like a fish on land gasping for air, and Eric became irritated.

Too many sounds were coming from the crow.

At the same time Eric didn’t want to close the door completely. Not knowing what was going on was, he decided, a greater risk than staying completely hidden.

Then all four of them heard it. The crackling sound of a walkie-talkie far away, and a voice that said, “On nine now, read?”

“On nine, yes.”

Eric turned around in surprise and encountered Snake’s piercing gaze.

“Never leaves reception, huh?” Snake hissed.

Eric hushed him with a hand gesture. “Into the stall,” he hissed, gently shoving the crow so that he would understand.

Snake was the quickest to move, but instead of wriggling over toward the toilets he slithered lightning-fast across the floor and glided down into a small wastebasket by the wash basin, where he hid himself under a crumpled paper towel. There were two stalls in the men’s restroom, and it was by chance that the crow took the innermost one while Sam and Eric had to share the stall closest to the door.

“You and me in a restroom stall. A fantasy fulfilled,” sighed Sam without even trying to speak especially softly, “and then the circumstances are so…rotten.”

The gazelle giggled, closing the door and sitting down on the lowered toilet seat while Eric positioned himself to peer through the gap in the door.

“Shh,” hissed Eric.

“Honestly speaking,” said Sam without whispering, “what can happen? Is the guard going to throw us out?”

The gazelle was not afraid of being discovered. Of all the violations of the law he had committed over the years, a break-in at the Environmental Ministry men’s room was hardly anything to write home about. Snake had surely come up with an excuse for himself that would make the situation worse for the others, and Tom-Tom was too stupid to even think of lying. In addition, the crow would neither allow himself to be arrested or questioned; in tight situations he lost control and it’s the guard you’d be feeling sorry for. The only one who really couldn’t be discovered was Eric.

The restroom door opened and the guard came in.

Eric shut his eyes. When he’d played hide-and-seek with Teddy when he was really little, he’d thought he became invisible if he closed his eyes. He waited. Without a single idea of how he might handle the situation. Here I stand, hiding, he thought, inside a stall in a men’s restroom along with a drug-intoxicated homosexual prostitute gazelle who is particularly popular with the masochists of the city.

And Eric Bear smiled a weak smile, for the condition of things could hardly get much worse.

The guard’s few footsteps across the floor over to the stall were determined. And Eric was imagining the paw on the handle on the other side when there was an unexpected crackling from the walkie-talkie. The sound echoed inside the half-tiled room.

“Yes? Over,” answered the guard.

His paw was still on the door handle.

“Food’s ready now,” said his colleague from down in reception.

“Already? Read.”

“I’m not waiting, you can come when you want.”

Then the crackling ceased, and for a few, endless seconds the guard hesitated before he made his decision. With rapid steps he left the restroom. The door slammed shut.

Eric didn’t open his eyes. He didn’t know how long he held his breath, but he felt quite ready to faint. His shoulders sank, he opened the door and stepped out of the stall.

“Damn, I’d almost started hoping for a little action,” said Tom-Tom Crow, who was coming out of the neighboring stall.

They felt strangely exhilarated, even Snake, who came winding out of the wastebasket. Eric crossly muttered a reply to the crow that no one heard, and retook his position by the door out to the corridor and the Order Room.

The full moon was old when the courier finally arrived.

Tom-Tom had fallen asleep inside one of the restroom stalls, Sam and Snake were carrying on a low-voiced conversation about nothing in particular over by the wash basin. When the elevator announced its arrival in the south corridor with a mournful ping, Eric was standing at his post by the door, but all three of them heard the sound.

The gazelle and Snake fell silent.

It was certainly not the guard taking the elevator, and it wasn’t more than a few moments later that they saw him; it was some kind of feline creature. A well-pressed gray suit and the steel-rimmed eyeglasses concealed his particular features, making him anonymous. He took the direct route to the