Caomhnóir – Manny - 5

“You’re one lucky young man. By rights you should be in the morgue, not here,” a man’s voice said.

Warily, Manny opened his eyes then closed them again to shut out the light. “Where’s ‘here’?” he asked hoarsely.

“General Hospital, and not the one on television, the real thing,” a second man said from the other side of the bed.

“Figures. Where’s Rick Springfield when I need eye candy.”

There was a low chuckle. “Guess he’ll live if his mind’s going in that direction. If you need me, I’ll be right outside.”

Manny heard a door open then close and opened his eyes again, expecting to see a cop or a doctor, he wasn’t certain which, still in the room. Instead he saw a man with a mane of tawny gold hair sitting at the side of his bed. “Let me guess, you’re a friend of Sofietje’s.”

“Associate. I’ve never actually met her. She asked me to come rescue you from the jaws of whatever trouble you seem to have attracted. My name is Alasdair.”

“Heard of you, of course. You gonna get me out of here?”

“I am. Officially, as far as they’re concerned, I’m your private physician, sent by your parents to whisk you away from the big bad city before someone else tries to mug you.”

“That’s the story, that I was mugged on the fourth floor of a hotel?” Manny snorted softly.

“Since another person saw most of what happened, yes. They heard shots and strangely enough actually looked into the hallway to see if someone was in trouble. They saw a man bending over you. Then he ran to the fire stairs with your bag and laptop case in hand. Is he going to find anything we should worry about when he turns the laptop on?”

“Naw. Just a wiped hard drive unless he knows the password, and believe me no one could figure it out on the first try.”

“Good. What I don’t understand is how they found you.”

“What says someone found me? It really could have been a mugging.”

Alasdair reached into his pocket, pulling out an envelope. “This was found on you,” he told Manny, handing it to him.

“Ouch,” Manny said when he’d read the brief message. “Looks like I’ve made another enemy. Lucky me.”

“At least he doesn’t know your real name or, I would say, what you are.”

“The name, probably not, but he’d be real stupid not to know who targeted him and why. So,” Manny pushed himself erect, wincing in pain for a moment before tamping it down, “let’s get me gone before he starts checking hospitals for gunshot victims.”

“And before the doctors realize you are healing much too quickly.”