conceivably have limped his way to one of the parked mom vans and gotten away, but had made no effort to do so. Tim, Wendy, and Luke found him sitting on the curb in front of the Gem. His cheeks gleamed with tears. He had managed to work his shoe off, and was now staring at a bloody sock covering what looked like a badly deformed foot. How much of that was bone damage and how much swelling that would eventually go down, Tim neither knew nor cared.
“What is your name, sir?” Tim asked.
“Never mind my name. I want a lawyer. And I want a doctor. A woman shot me. I want her arrested.”
“His name is James Evans,” Luke said. “And he’s a doctor. Just like Josef Mengele was.”
Evans seemed to notice Luke for the first time. He pointed at the boy with a trembling finger. “This is all your fault.”
Luke lunged at Evans, but this time Tim held him back and pushed him gently but firmly to Wendy, who took him by the shoulders.
Tim squatted on his hunkers so he could look the pallid, frightened man dead in the eye. “Listen to me, Dr. Evans. Listen closely. You and your friends came high-riding into town to get this boy and killed five people. All police officers. Now, you might not know it, but South Carolina has the death penalty, and if you think they won’t use it, and double-quick, for killing a county sheriff and four deputies—”
“I had nothing to do with it!” Evans squawked. “I was here under protest! I—”
“Shut up!” Wendy said. She still had the late Tag Faraday’s Glock, and now she pointed it at the foot that was still shod. “Those officers were also my friends. If you think I’m going to read you your rights or something, you’re out your goddam mind. What I’m going to do if you don’t tell Luke what he wants is put a bullet in your other—”
“All right! All right! Yes!” Evans reached down and put protective hands over his good foot, which almost made Tim feel sorry for him. Almost. “What is it? What do you want to know?”
“I need to talk to Stackhouse,” Luke said. “How do I do that?”
“Her phone,” Evans said. “She has a special phone. She called him before they attempted . . . you know . . . the extraction. I saw her put it in her coat pocket.”
“I’ll get it,” Wendy said, and turned back toward the sheriff’s station.
“Don’t just bring the phone,” Luke said. “Bring her.”
“Luke . . . she’s been shot.”
“We might need her,” Luke said. His eyes were stony.
“Why?”
Because it was chess now, and in chess you never lived in the move you were about to make, or even the next one. Three moves ahead, that was the rule. And three alternates to each of those, depending on what your opponent did.
She looked at Tim, who nodded. “Bring her. Cuff her if you need to. You’re the law, after all.”
“Jesus, what a thought,” she said, and left.
Now, at last, Tim heard a siren. Maybe even two of them. Still faint, though.
Luke grabbed his wrist. Tim thought the boy looked totally focused, totally aware, and also tired to death. “I can’t get caught in this. They have my friends. They’re trapped and there’s nobody to help them but me.”
“Trapped in this Institute.”
“Yes. You believe me now, don’t you.”
“It’d be hard not to after what was on the flash drive, and all this. What about that drive? Do you still have it?”
Luke patted his pocket.
“Mrs. Sigsby and the people she works with mean to do something to these friends of yours so they end up like the kids in that ward?”
“They were already doing it, but then they got out. Mostly because of Avery, and Avery was there because he helped me get out. I guess you’d call that irony. But I’m pretty sure they’re trapped again. I’m afraid Stackhouse will kill them if I can’t make a deal.”
Wendy was coming back. She had a boxy device that Tim supposed was a phone. There were three bleeding scratches across the back of the hand that held it.
“She didn’t want to give it up. And she’s surprisingly strong, even after taking a bullet.” She handed Tim the gadget and looked back over her shoulder. Orphan Annie and Drummer Denton were supporting Mrs. Sigsby across the street. Although she was pale and in pain, she was resisting them as much as she could.