Sixteen hours of sleep have proved a sufficient tonic for Nigel, and a shower, hot to the point of being nearly scalding, along with liberal and repeated applications of soap and shampoo, have proven up to the task of removing most of the unpleasant reminders of his previous incarceration from his rather battered form. In fact, as he stares into the mirror while going at his teeth and gums with great vigor, Nigel has practically managed to convince himself that things are looking up at the moment, when there is a loud *THUD* from outside the bathroom door.
Cracking open the bathroom door and glancing outside, Nigel notes wearily, and with absolutely no sense of surprise whatsoever, that a black-clad form has somehow appeared in a heap in the middle of the hotel room, and seems intent on staring at the ceiling. As a great wave of weary resignation flows over him Nigel recognizes the form as none other than Sam Dart.
* * *
Sam picks himself up off the floor. Very irritated that he was just shown a great act of selflessness and sacrifice. He attempts to try to get back through the hole before it disappears -- but it is already too late. No hole in sight. He kicks at the air and blurts out some incomprehensible obsenities. Looking at the Whammo gun, he tosses it on the bed in disgust and sits down next to it. After a few moments of self-pity and self-analysis, he begins to look around the room for any clues as to why he is in this particular room.
As he moves about the room, cursing up a storm, Sam notices that the bathroom door is open, and someone appears to be peeking out. Upon closer inspection that someone appears to be none other than Nigel Timmons.
Sam instintively reaches for his silly weapon which (he realizes after an awkward second) is laying on the bed. Tata throws up his hands, and then realizes that it is Nigel and says, "Got me with my pants clear down to my ankles, Nigel. Hey, Man... Never thought I'd see your tweety bird ass again. What's up?"
Nigel rolls his eyes in a "Not this again" expression. "Well well, if it isn't Mr. Sam Dart. Now what brings you into MY room again? This is getting to be rather a habit with us..."
"Hey Nigel, don't get any funny ideas, I'm just happy do be out of that zoo." Sam finally gets his weapon turned around the right way then remembers he shouldnt point it a people. It's hard to be serious about a ping pong gun. "By the way you havn't seen a fuzzy little kitten crawl past here, did you?"
As Sam and Nigel regard one another for what seems like an eternity, both slowly become aware of a ringing sound, muffled through the wall.
It's the sound of a telephone ringing in the next room.
Sam grabs his little pingpong gun off of the bed and goes in search of' the phone. "C'mon, prissy boy," he says over his shoulder to Nigel. "Maybe it's room service."
Nigel raises an eyebrow. "Prissy boy? Well, do lead on, my brave and wonderful comrade. Whatever did I do without your manliness leading the way." Nigel gives a little harumph as he shoulders Sam out of the way and enters the room next door.
Sam and Nigel stride into the hallway, and although there is a moment of confusion as Sam fumbles for his key, they both get into the room with no trouble and Sam snatches up the telephone.
"Hello?" says a masculine voice with an american accent on the other end. "Is this Sam Dart?"
Both Sam and Nigel notice that the room looks nothing like it did the last time they saw it. The intercom has been replaced, the telephone works (obviously) and the television has not been disassembled. There are not electronic parts lying all over the floor or bits of circus performer gear lying about either.
Sam also notes that there is no police tape over the door anymore, and all his stuff is gone, gone, GONE!
"Who wants to know?" is Sam's intellectual reply to the question.
There is a moment's pause.
"My name is Clyde Throckmorton," replies the voice on the other end of the line. "I'm over here in Science and I just found your daughter Martha and her dog over here in an alley. She seems to be holding up OK, but her dog's been hurt. I can't really get much out of her - she seems to be in a state of shock or something."
Sam whips open the little end-table drawer looking for the complementary hotel pen and paper. "Ok Clyde, where are you?... We'll be there in a minute. Don't let anyone touch Marda or the ummm... dog."
"Hey, I can bring her to you - I got my van here. That would be faster anyway. And Martha wants to talk to you. Hold on...."
"OK, Clyde, since you know where I am, I guess that's the best plan. I will meet you outside in front of the building. Marda will recognize me. See you in a few... Marda, are you there....?"
There is a squeal from the other end that reminds Sam in some obscure, and yet profoundly disturbing way of the sound of the melting phone in that old movie "Fail-safe".
"Tata," says Marda on the other end, "are you all right?"
Sam changes ears on the phone to allow the damaged one a bit of a respite. "Ya honey, I'm OK and guess what?" he glances over at Nigel, "Mr. Nigel is here with me, too. Yep... and handsomely dressed as well, I might add." He grins. "Say... Why don't you come to see me with that nice man Clyde? He's going to bring you here. I'll see you in a few... Ok, bye for now."
Tata looks at the back of the door for his room (413) and reads the fire escape plan. Looking over at Nigel, he says: "Look, ol' bean, we've got to get out of here and get to Marda. This guy is going to bring her over in his van, I suggest we meet them downstairs."
"Lead on my friend..." Nigel does his best to keep his disdain out of
his voice. He lets Sam lead the way before following.
During the twenty minutes or so of waiting, Marda's words echo in Sams little cranium. "Teddy?"... "Yes, and how did Nigel escape if what Marda said was true? Definitely something wrong here."
Sam pulls out the Ping Pong gun and motions to Nigel to go first. "This could be a trap, ol' boy. You go first and I'll cover you."
Immediately upon locating Sam, Marda runs towards Tata at greatest possible speed. Run, actually, isn't the operative term. It's more like a rapid-fire ka-thump, ka-thump sort of pace as she attempts to navigate the burn on her left foot. All the same, she barrels into Sam with sufficient momentum to knock him off balance for the moment.
Her pace of speech, however, is unimpaired. "Tata! I'm so glad to see you! I fell into this dumpster, and there were these really big rats, but Mr. Bugkiller found me and killed all the rats and took me home!" She seems totally oblivious to the irony of Marda Ordilescu being saved by pest control.
"Oh yeah, I made another new friend today!" She makes a few loud Tsch! Tsch! sort of sounds towards the van and calls, "Ciine! Ciine! C'mere!"
After the bug-guy puts the 100 lb dog gently upon the ground, the dog looks around like he's trying to get his bearings. After Marda has called for a couple of moments, he looks over at the young girl in a sudden "who me?" look. Wearing a sort of "oh yeah" expression the dog limps over to where the young girl seems to be scaling the man. The dog sits down and says, "Woof". He looks over the strangers carefully.
Marda bends down and throws her arms around the dog's neck. Looking up with her best big-pleading-eyes expression, she introduces the animal to her guardian & Co. "This is Ciine. He followed me home. Can I keep him?"
The big dog's curled tail sweeps the ground a couple of times, and he
adds politely "Woof." He actually seems to not mind being throttled by
Marda. His mouth opens in a typical doggie grin.
"Hi," he says in the general direction of Sam and Nigel, waving one hand. "One of you Sam, Marsha's father? Mind if I have a word with you?"
Sam nods at the mention of his name and moves a bit to the side. From a vantage point in the alley, he keeps an eye on Nigel and says "Yeah What?" in the general direction of the exterminnator.
The exterminator sidles up to Sam and Nigel, eying the ping pong ball gun with more skepticism than interest. He pauses for a moment until Marda is fully involves with Woofard.
"Just what the hell are you thinking of, letting your daughter run around alone like that?" he says in a low voice.
Sam looks sidelong at the guy and says, "Oh... that. Well, we got separated and it could''t be helped... so... uh... thanks for your concern and all... I'm quite busy now... goodbye."
As soon as the exterminator can be coerced into leaving, Sam looks over at Nigel and says "Hey, fancy pants, come here and explain to Lil' Orphan Annie and me how you got out of that place. I hope you have a damn good explanation, too." Tata folds his arms and gets a 'this is going to be good' look on his face.
At mention of this, Marda moves closer to Tata, more or less dragging Woofard behind her as she tries but fails to act nonchalantly about the whole ditch-her-in-the-Pit-of-Despair thing.
Nigel folds nods to Sam. "Yes, let's do compare notes, I'm sure it will prove fruitful to both of us. If your story is half as interesting as mine, it will make for fine listening indeed..."
"Listen," says the exterminator, "You better come up with a better answer than that or I'm going to call the Peace Force. You can't just be letting your kid wander around Al Amarja - it's dangerous and irresponsible!" He continues to eye the ping pong ball gun.
Sam, still waiting for Nigel's reply, reaches into his wallet and gives the guy $20.00 and says, keeping his eyes on Nigel, "...look, man, I really can't talk right now. To be honest, man, I'm just trying to take care of this kid until we can find her parents. How can I help it if she decides to run off on me? Here's twenty bucks. I hope it will cover your time and trouble. I'm sorry that we have been a bother to you."
The exterminator eyes Sam, and the money, coldly. "You think you can just buy me off and do what you like?" he asks. "Well that may fly with some folks here on Al Amarja, but not with me! Look! Somebody SHOT her dog! With a gun! And now you're telling me that you are NOT this child's father? What the hell is going on here? Who are you anyway? Who is this other guy, and why are you pointing a ping pong ball gun at him? Are you insane or something?"
Nigel nudges Sam out of the way. "My good man, we thank you most heartily for your return of the little lady. Now that you've "done your duty," so to speak, you may continue on your way, confident that the girl is in the capable hands of Mr. Dart." Nigel gives a snide glance over his shoulder, " - or is that... tata?"
While speaking, Nigel good naturedly puts his arm around the exterminator's shoulder and walks him back to his truck. "Now you mentioned the Peace Force. This little girl is under P.F. protection, and if you decide to cause a 'rukus'... Well, I don't have to explain to you the consequences of pissing off the Peace Force do I? Of course I could be full of shit, but can you really afford to take that chance? Now be a good lad and run along..."
Nigel gives the man a "mental nudge" to get into his truck and leave.
The exterminator gets into his truck, waves a friendly "goodbye" to Marda, and drives off. Marda enthusiastically waves goodbye to her savior and then turns her attention to Sam and Nigel.
"Good job, fancy pants," Sam comments drily. "Did you use those Jedi tricks to get out of jail? Now that we are all alone... why don't you tell Marda here what was so important for you to leave her there to rot?"
Nigel raised his eyebrows incredulously. "That's rich, considering it's coming from a man who abandoned this child first. If not for myself, she would have been captured alone. Now perhaps you'll tell me how you came to be free of our erstwhile captors?"
"Oh... how cavalier of you, my good chap," Sam smirks. "Ha... I think I would rather be captured alone rather than left to rot... alone. I, for one, was never captured. YOU, however, were. And now my friend, it's me who's asking the questions to you. For all we know you could have been let out of your cage just long enough to tell your keepers where we are. I suggest you start talking before my 'little betsy' here starts barkin'. " He waves the pingpong ball gun menacingly - if that is possible.
Nigel tries to contain his snort of derision, but fails. "Oh please, not the big bad whammo gun..."
He turns to Marda. "Now dear, can you tell me how you and your, ahem, tata escaped the bad place? You saw how they removed me, they didn't treat me very well either. I'd love to give them a good spanking, but I need some more information. Do you think you can tell me what happened to you after I was taken away?"
Marda looks up at the two men fiercely debating who is the nobler individual. In fact, she is doing most of her looking at Tata, inadvertently indicating which of the two she trusts more. "Tata came through this, uh, er," fiddling as she tries to translate her linguistic conception of 'transdimensional rupture through the time-space continuum' into English, "big space hole. He also had a door-unlocker thingy so we got out of the cell, rescued a couple of fuzzy people like Mr. Mitsy, and went back through the space hole. I landed in a garbage can. Tata must have ended up here. I wonder where Mr. Mitsy and that furry lady went?
"Not that it matters. We've gotta go back to get Teddy anyway."
"MARDA DON'T TELL HIM ANYTHING!!! HE COULD BE WORKING FOR THE ONES WHO HAVE TEDDY. WAIT UNTIL HE TELLS US HIS STORY FIRST." Sam, quite interested in how the 'big whammo gun' works, is about to let one go in Nigels direction. He is quite obviously more paranoid and nervous than Mr. Timmons is giving him credit for.
Nigel eyes the toy coldly. "Well as a matter of fact, I have been recruited by the Peace Force, although recruited might not be the actual word to use. They offered me the two unpleasant choices of help them or swing from the hangman's noose. What they want from me isn't connected to you, in fact they didn't question me about either of you at all. I'm being monitored, and if I leak any of the information I'm holding, it'll be the end of me.
"But let me say this, I would like to personally fillet the bitch that is responsible for this, as well as take down the entire peace force bit by bit, and I will be happy to help you do so, if you help me take care of my little errand. We can actualy help each other instead of standing here engaging in a monumental pissing contest.
"If you plan on firing that thing, you may fire when ready, but I assure you, I'LL TAKE YOU WITH ME YOU SNIVELING LITTLE DIPSHIT!! And if you don't trust me, take the child and go, I certainly won't stop you... But believe it or not, I have started to feel some affection for the child. I would have saved her if I could. In this matter, much like my distaste for you Mr. Dart, I can assure you."
Nigel turns to Marda. "I know you didn't much trust me dear, but I did try not to let the bad men have you, I do hope you believe me, and I'm very interested in helping you get teddy." Nigel folds his arms across his chest...
"Well, hot damn," Sam smiles broadly, "that wasn't so hard, now, was it?" He's obviously happy and tussling Mardas stringy hair. "I'd like to help you out, bud, but if they're monitoring you, what about us? Maybe we should part ways for a while unless you have something else in mind."
Nigel gave a thoughtful pause. "No, I think they just have a lookout for anything I might do that could be construed as selling them out. If we take care of my 'business', I might even be able to use my connection to them to help you get Teddy."
Tata bends down to 'lil' Orphan (from hell) Annie's height and says: "How about it, sweetie? Let's help Uncle Nigel here and maybe he can help us get Teddy back. Okee dokee?"
Marda looks up at Nigel and Sam, still somewhat skeptical. It's a good thing for Nigel that she had been unconcious during his Ode to Self-Preservation. "Well, if he can get Teddy back, we better help him." Come to think of it, Marda met a few people in the CPC that might richly deserve to suffer.
Woofard watches both of these newcomers with a look of obvious suspicion. He sees Marda is accepting of all this. He slowly gets to his feet, his wounded leg still stiff and very sore. He wags his tail slowly a couple of times, but he's still keeping an eye on these men.
While waiting for Nigel to describe what kind of assistance he requires, Sam, moving out of the middle of the alley, takes a closer look at Marda and Woofard to evaluate their injuries (based on his military first aid training) and deem an appropriate course of action.
Marda is suffering from shock, mild dehydration, and has small second degree electrical burns on her upper left arm and her right foot. In sum, she is suffering from the cumulative effect of getting a very nasty, high-voltage electrical shock. Her burns have been cleaned and dressed, however (though by now, after her trip through the garbage, the dressings likely need to be changed).
Woofard has been shot in the hind leg by a high-velocity bullet, probably from a high powered rifle. The bullet missed all the bony portions of the leg (good thing!) and made a neat, round entry and exit hole. Someone has cleaned these wounds, though they look likely to start bleeding again if the Akita does anything strenuous.
Occassionaly Sam looks up at Mr. Timmons and nods at the appropriate times.
Nigel tried not to let his... ahem... glee... show too much as he pondered their first move. "Well, I must say I'm at a little bit of a loss as to where to start, I guess we should try to find whatever passes for a Library here in this backwater excuse for a city. I've got some research to do. Shall we grab a taxi my newfound comrades in arms?"
Just down the street from Cesars is a rather attractive looking family
restaurant with the relatively unprepossessing name "Wilmas Cafe".
It looks like a nice place to eat, and Sam, Marda, Nigel, head in that
direction (with Woofard trailing behind).
To Be Continued...