"Only if it is broken." Besides, Stephan was a shapeshifter. His body retained the memory of itself, and it could heal any number of broken bones, no matter how shattered, a whole lot faster than any doctor possibly could. "I have a friend, a physician. Retired, but still willing to keep his hand in. I'll take him there."
Michaels glanced over his shoulder as a string of ambulances came around the corner. "I guess we have no choice. He's obviously lucid, so we can't take him anywhere against his will. He's all yours."
"I'll go get my car. Take care of him until I get back."
Michaels nodded. Gabriel squeezed his brother's shoulder, then rose to fetch Karl's car.
* * * *
Gabriel booked a hotel room in the middle of Saint Kilda, a trendy district that held a dark heart of criminal activity. The manager asked no questions, and he turned a blind eye to Stephan's condition — the main reason he'd chosen to come here.Given the dilapidated state of the place, he had no doubt that if someone came looking for them, it would take only a buck or two for the manager to spill his guts. But it didn't matter, because they wouldn't be here all that long. Just a day or so, until his brother regained his strength.
He lowered Stephan to the bed, then locked the door and crossed to the window. The hotel fronted the esplanade, and their room looked out over the bay. It also had a damn good view of the hotel's front entrance. He checked the street, drew the blinds closed and dragged a chair up close to the bed.
"We safe?" Stephan asked, without opening his eyes.
"Safe as we can be."
Stephan sighed, a soft sound full of relief. His body began to shimmer, to blur, and for an instant resembled play dough being molded by invisible hands.
Then the shimmer died away, and his own image faced him. "You don't know how good that feels."
"I can imagine," he said wryly. "Now tell me why all that was necessary."
Stephan shrugged. "For awhile I've felt that the usefulness of Hanrahan's image was coming to an end. Too many people were beginning to suspect he was my alter identity. Especially since both Hanrahan and I appeared to be suffering the same mysterious ailment."
Gabriel propped his feet on the end of the bed, and leaned back in the chair. "Who, precisely?" Certainly he'd never heard any whispers about it.
"Lys knew, naturally enough. But I think both Mary and Martyn suspected, and I'm sure Byrne knew something was wrong — even if he didn't know what."
"Is that why you've taken his image?"
Stephan nodded. "I needed a new identity, and he fit the criteria. No immediate family, few friends. A loner who loved his work."
"Did you kill him?"
Stephan's smile held a hard edge. "I'd planned to, but my offices were right under where the bomber hit, and we were both caught in the rubble — him more than me. I doubt there'll be much of him left to find — but I left some of Hanrahan's personal effects, just to be sure."
Gabriel nodded. If there was enough left to perform DNA tests, there might be problems — though it was nothing they hadn't handled before. When the real Hanrahan had died in a boating accident, Federation had altered the tests long before the coroner saw them.
"Tell me about the warning you got."
Stephan rubbed his eyes. "Line trace said the caller was female, probably in her mid-thirties. She was calling from a phone booth in the Dandenongs."
Odd. The four men who'd beaten him up had been hightailing it up there before Karl stopped them. Did that mean Sethanon had a hideout up there? "What did she say, exactly?"
"That the SIU building was about to be bombed. I had five minutes to live."
Reynolds said the bomb had gone off three minutes after Hanrahan received the call — obviously, the State boys questioning the driver of the bomb car had disrupted his plans. Then he frowned. "You had five minutes to live? Isn't that a little strange? Why not say you had five minutes to evacuate the building?"
"I have no idea, and at the time, I was too busy trying to trace the call and check authenticity to worry about it."
"Did she say anything else?"
"She told me the make and number of the car. I looked out the window, saw the car, and ordered the evac."
"Were you the reason the State boys investigated the car?"
"No. That was sheer chance. I had some of our own people headed up there, but they arrived far too late to prevent this tragedy."