[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
international pictograph indicating there was a phone inside. Was that the
phone he wanted me to use?
Page 112
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
I shook the doors, which were old and wooden and rattled loudly. Inside, I
could hear monkeys starting to scream and act out. First the smaller primates:
spider monkeys, chimpanzees, gibbons. Then the deeper grunt of a gorilla.
I caught sight of a dim red glow across the cobble-stoned circle. Another pay
phone was over there.
I hurried across the square. Checked my watch. It was two minutes past nine.
He kept me waiting the last time.
I thought about his game-playing. Was this all a role-playing game to
him? How did he win? Lose?
I worried that I wasn t at the right phone. I didn t see any others, but
there was always the one locked inside the old Monkey House.
Was that the phone he wanted me to use? I felt frantic and hyper. So many
dangerous emotions were building up inside me.
I heard a long, sustained aaaaahhhh , like the sound of a football crowd at
the opening kickoff. It startled me until I realized it was the apes in the
Monkey House.
Was something wrong in there? An intruder? Something or someone near the
phone?
I waited another five minutes, and then it dragged on to ten minutes. It was
driving me crazy. I almost couldn t bear it any longer, and I thought about
beeping Patsy.
Then my beeper went off, and I jumped!
It was Patsy. It had to be an emergency.
I stared at the silent pay phone; I waited a half-minute or so. Then I
snatched it up.
I called the beeper number and left the number of the pay phone. I waited
some more.
Patsy didn t call me back.
Neither did the mystery caller.
I was in a sweat.
I had to make a decision now. I was caught in a very bad place. My head was
starting to reel.
Suddenly the phone rang. I grabbed at it, almost dropped the receiver. My
heart was pounding like a bass drum.
We have her.
Where? I yelled into the receiver.
She s at the Farragut, of course.
Page 113
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
The Weasel hung up. He never said she was safe.
Chapter Seventy-One
I couldn t imagine why Christine would be at the Farragut in Washington, but
he d said she was there. Why would he do that if she wasn t? What was he doing
to me? To her?
I ran toward where I thought Cathedral Avenue was located. But it was very
dark in the zoo, almost pitch-black. My vision was tunneling, maybe because I
was close to being in shock. I couldn t think straight.
My mind in a haze, I tripped over a dark slab of rock, went down on one
knee. I cut my hands, tore my pants. Then I was up again, running through
thick high bushes that grabbed and ripped at my face and arms.
Animals all around the zoo howled, moaned, bellowed insanely. They sensed
something was wrong. I could make out the sounds of grizzlies and elephant
seals. I realized that I had to be approaching Arctic Circle, but I couldn t
remember where it was in relation to the rest of the zoo or the city streets.
Up ahead was a high Gibraltar-like rock. I clambered up the rock to try and
get my bearings.
Down below I saw a cluster of cages, shuttered gift stores and snack bars,
two large veldts. I knew where I was now. I hurriedly climbed back down the
rock and started to run again. Christine was at the Farragut. Would I finally
find her? Could it actually be happening?
I passed African Alley, then the Cheetah Conservation Station. I came to a
vast field and what looked like large haystacks scattered everywhere. I
realized that they were bison. I was somewhere near the Great Plains Way.
The beeper in my pocket went off again.
Patsy! An emergency! Where was she? Why hadn t she called back at the
pay-phone number I d given her?
I was soaked in sweat and almost hyperventilating. Thank God I could finally
see Cathedral Avenue, then Woodley Road up ahead.
I was a long way from where I d parked my car, but I was close to the
Farragut apartment building.
I ran another hundred yards in the dark, then climbed the stone wall
separating the zoo from the city streets. There was blood smeared on my hands,
and I didn t know where it had come from. The knee I d scraped? Scratches from
swinging branches? I could hear the loud wail of sirens in the near
distance. Was it coming from the Farragut?
I headed there in a sprint. It was a little past ten o clock. Over an hour
and a half had already gone by since the call to my house.
The beeper was buzzing inside my shirt pocket.
Page 114
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Chapter Seventy-Two
Something bad had happened at the Farragut. The burping screams of
approaching sirens were getting louder as I raced down Woodley. I was reeling,
feeling dizzy. I couldn t focus my mind. I realized that, for one of the few
times in recent years, I was close to panic.
Neither the police nor the EMS had arrived at the apartment building yet. I
was going to be the first on the scene.
Two doormen and several tenants in bathrobes were clustered in front of the
underground garage entrance. It couldn t be Christine. It just couldn t be. I
raced across a quadrant of lawn toward them. Was the Weasel here at the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl rafalstec.xlx.pl
international pictograph indicating there was a phone inside. Was that the
phone he wanted me to use?
Page 112
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
I shook the doors, which were old and wooden and rattled loudly. Inside, I
could hear monkeys starting to scream and act out. First the smaller primates:
spider monkeys, chimpanzees, gibbons. Then the deeper grunt of a gorilla.
I caught sight of a dim red glow across the cobble-stoned circle. Another pay
phone was over there.
I hurried across the square. Checked my watch. It was two minutes past nine.
He kept me waiting the last time.
I thought about his game-playing. Was this all a role-playing game to
him? How did he win? Lose?
I worried that I wasn t at the right phone. I didn t see any others, but
there was always the one locked inside the old Monkey House.
Was that the phone he wanted me to use? I felt frantic and hyper. So many
dangerous emotions were building up inside me.
I heard a long, sustained aaaaahhhh , like the sound of a football crowd at
the opening kickoff. It startled me until I realized it was the apes in the
Monkey House.
Was something wrong in there? An intruder? Something or someone near the
phone?
I waited another five minutes, and then it dragged on to ten minutes. It was
driving me crazy. I almost couldn t bear it any longer, and I thought about
beeping Patsy.
Then my beeper went off, and I jumped!
It was Patsy. It had to be an emergency.
I stared at the silent pay phone; I waited a half-minute or so. Then I
snatched it up.
I called the beeper number and left the number of the pay phone. I waited
some more.
Patsy didn t call me back.
Neither did the mystery caller.
I was in a sweat.
I had to make a decision now. I was caught in a very bad place. My head was
starting to reel.
Suddenly the phone rang. I grabbed at it, almost dropped the receiver. My
heart was pounding like a bass drum.
We have her.
Where? I yelled into the receiver.
She s at the Farragut, of course.
Page 113
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
The Weasel hung up. He never said she was safe.
Chapter Seventy-One
I couldn t imagine why Christine would be at the Farragut in Washington, but
he d said she was there. Why would he do that if she wasn t? What was he doing
to me? To her?
I ran toward where I thought Cathedral Avenue was located. But it was very
dark in the zoo, almost pitch-black. My vision was tunneling, maybe because I
was close to being in shock. I couldn t think straight.
My mind in a haze, I tripped over a dark slab of rock, went down on one
knee. I cut my hands, tore my pants. Then I was up again, running through
thick high bushes that grabbed and ripped at my face and arms.
Animals all around the zoo howled, moaned, bellowed insanely. They sensed
something was wrong. I could make out the sounds of grizzlies and elephant
seals. I realized that I had to be approaching Arctic Circle, but I couldn t
remember where it was in relation to the rest of the zoo or the city streets.
Up ahead was a high Gibraltar-like rock. I clambered up the rock to try and
get my bearings.
Down below I saw a cluster of cages, shuttered gift stores and snack bars,
two large veldts. I knew where I was now. I hurriedly climbed back down the
rock and started to run again. Christine was at the Farragut. Would I finally
find her? Could it actually be happening?
I passed African Alley, then the Cheetah Conservation Station. I came to a
vast field and what looked like large haystacks scattered everywhere. I
realized that they were bison. I was somewhere near the Great Plains Way.
The beeper in my pocket went off again.
Patsy! An emergency! Where was she? Why hadn t she called back at the
pay-phone number I d given her?
I was soaked in sweat and almost hyperventilating. Thank God I could finally
see Cathedral Avenue, then Woodley Road up ahead.
I was a long way from where I d parked my car, but I was close to the
Farragut apartment building.
I ran another hundred yards in the dark, then climbed the stone wall
separating the zoo from the city streets. There was blood smeared on my hands,
and I didn t know where it had come from. The knee I d scraped? Scratches from
swinging branches? I could hear the loud wail of sirens in the near
distance. Was it coming from the Farragut?
I headed there in a sprint. It was a little past ten o clock. Over an hour
and a half had already gone by since the call to my house.
The beeper was buzzing inside my shirt pocket.
Page 114
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Chapter Seventy-Two
Something bad had happened at the Farragut. The burping screams of
approaching sirens were getting louder as I raced down Woodley. I was reeling,
feeling dizzy. I couldn t focus my mind. I realized that, for one of the few
times in recent years, I was close to panic.
Neither the police nor the EMS had arrived at the apartment building yet. I
was going to be the first on the scene.
Two doormen and several tenants in bathrobes were clustered in front of the
underground garage entrance. It couldn t be Christine. It just couldn t be. I
raced across a quadrant of lawn toward them. Was the Weasel here at the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]