Continued from Part Seventeen
Captain Justice moved to one side of the room, Commander Justice, Jr. moved to other near the window. “Remember,” said Captain Justice, “make him angry.”
Junior nodded. “Gotcha.”
He screamed a vulgar insult about the Human Muscle’s mother.
The Human Muscle charged at Junior, who jumped out of the way. The Human Muscle went through the window.
Captain Justice stared at Junior. “Where did that come from?”
“You told me to make him mad.”
“Yeah, with witty putdowns. Not with that. That’s not the Justice way.”
“Okay, I’ll work on that.”
Captain Justice peaked out the win-dow, whistled at the sprawled form, and picked up the courtesy phone and dialed the front desk.
A nurse answered. “Hey dere’, what can I do for ya?”
“This is Captain Justice. A 600-pound man is lying unconscious on top of a green H1 Hummer in the hospital parking lot.”
“A green hummer, how ironic’s that?” Junior said. “They’ve got a carbon foot print bigger than bigfoot.”
Captain Justice glared.
The nurse said, “I’ll get somebody right down dere. What happened?”
“Oh, he was trying to kill us and fell out the window.”
“Oh dear. You don’t want to go a-round killing people because that type of thing will happen and that’s just not very good.”
“Thank you. Have a nice day.”
“Oh, you too, Captain. Stay safe out dere.”
Captain Justice hung up. He walked out to the elevator and pressed the down button. The elevator opened, and Captain Justice pressed the button for the lobby.
“So, will the guy live?” Junior asked.
“With Human Muscle, bet on it. Usually, he breaks a few bones, gets a con-cussion and goes into a coma for three months. When he wakes up, he doesn’t re-member anything for about two days before the accident.”
“That’s convenient.”
“It works out that way sometimes. But the guy is nigh indestructible with modern medicine. Sad thing is he’s spent most of his adult life either in jail or the hospital.”
The elevator stopped on the sixteenth floor. An elderly woman and a female orderly got on.
The orderly stared. “Are you really Captain Justice?”
“Yeah.”
Junior said, “I’m his partner, Com-mander Justice, Jr.”
“Oh, I’ve never heard of you before.”
“I’m the new kid.”
“Can I have your autograph?”
“I’m not a celebrity,” Captain Justice said. “And I don’t have a pen.”
The doors opened.
The orderly searched her pockets. “Oh, I thought I had one.”
“Young lady!” said the patient. “This is where we get off.” The old lady coughed.
“Tell you what,” Captain Justice said. “I’ll grab a piece of paper, sign it, and send it up to you.”
“Okay, thanks. I can put it next to my autographed picture of the Sword.”
Captain Justice noted her name from the nametag before the door closed. “It wasn’t like this in my day. You did your job and you didn’t act like a Prima Donna.”
“I take it you don’t care for the Sword.”
“Oh, he inspired more people to get involved in helping others, and that’s a good thing. He did better than anyone else I know there. But his style rubbed me wrong. No hero ought to carry a pouch full of 3” x 5” glossies on his belt.”
“Say, you think I could get some?”
Captain Justice glared. “That reminds me. Why didn’t you obey orders? I told you to get the lady out of there.”
“I wasn’t going to leave you alone to fight that behemoth. We’re partners, Grand-pa. I’m not a little kid.”
“I know, I just thought—”
“You thought you could handle him alone.”
“I’ve done it before.”
“You’re not as young as you used to be.”
“I keep forgetting.” And he wished his family would stop reminding him.
“Grandpa, where is Dad?”
“I wish I knew. But he’s alive some-where, and we’re going to find him.”
The elevator stopped and opened.
Sariah Miller stood outside.
Captain Justice asked, “Mrs. Miller, any news on the Muscle?”
“They just wheeled him up to inten-sive care. He’s got a concussion, broken leg, broken arm, and a broken collarbone. I couldn’t make out the rest.”
“Oh, then he’ll be fine. What was go-ing on, anyway?”
“Yeah,” Junior said. “Why were you in an empty room?”
“Shhh.” Sariah pointed to a hospital conference room. “Let’s go in there, and I’ll explain everything. I need your help.”
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