Heroic Measures (continued)

Walter turned toward Red without moving. Red rolled his eyes upward while shaking his head slowly.

“Doctor Zing?” Walter called out.

The scientist paused just outside the door, looking mildly irritated by the interruption.

“Yes?”

“Um,” Walter hesitated, not quite concern how to address the esteemed, if somewhat bewildering, researcher. “Wouldn’t it be easier to just bring them here?”

“That’s where we’re going,” Zing explained. Annoyance hung heavy in his tone. “”To find and get them.”

Walter swallowed back a sigh. “I mean,” he said, trying to sound firm, “have them come here, rather than us searching for them?”

“Yeah, Doc,” Red piped up. “Rather than waste time we could spend studying the antenna thingy?”

Walter glanced at Red.

Thingy?

Red shrugged with a bemused smile. He started to make a gesture of his forefinger drawing circles in the air around his ear, but Walter turned away before he completed it.

Zing paused in the corridor, giving Red’s suggestion far more consideration that Walter thought was warranted. It seemed a clear choice to him. He knew that Vivian was still in the building somewhere, so would be relatively easy to reach. Isabel, on the other hand, could be anywhere. Not just anywhere within the building, if she was even still inside it, but, knowing her, possibly anywhere in the world.

Okay, maybe not in the world. We haven’t been back that long. But she does have a habit of just appearing and disappearing on a whim.

“That seems very reasonable,” Zing finally concluded and stepped back into the lab. “Do you know how to reach them?”

“Yes,” Walter said.

“No,” Red echoed immediately.

Walter turned to Red in surprise.

Red stared hard back at Walter, but whatever message Red was trying to send him, he was not getting it.

Oh great. Zing’s craziness is rubbing off on him . . .

After watching Red for a moment, he slowly looked away and back at Zing.

“We’ll, um, get them for you,” Walter told Zing, his eyes still darting periodically back toward Red.

“Fine, fine,” Zing assured him. “I’ll take a closer look at this while you’re away.” He returned to the antenna assembly on the workbench and dismissed the two of them from his awareness.

Red headed for the door, followed closely by Walter.

“At least Raynes isn’t a nutcase like that,” Walter remarked drily.

“Are you sure?”

Walter paused and stared at Red. “I’m not so sure about you,” he told his colleague. “What was that all about?”

Red met his gaze with even amusement.

“Did you really want to follow that nut job all over the building looking for those two?”

The image that played quickly through his mind was enough to make Walter shudder.

“No,” he admitted. “Not really.”

Red slapped Walter across the shoulders. “See?” he said with a grin. “”I’m not as crazy as you think.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that . . .” Walter murmured, making absolutely sure it was in a tone low enough not to be overheard.

“C’mon,” Red said, moving once again down the corridor. “Let’s go find your little winged wonder.” As they turned a corner toward a set of elevators, he added, “I’m sure Random’ll show up when she’s good and ready.”

Walter stared at Red’s back as the man approached the elevator doors.

What’s he got against her, anyway?