The Trouble With Heroes.... Read Online Free PDF Page B

away.
    Sex helps, he'd said that night. There must
be a hundred women ready to have sex with Dan Fixer, especially
now, and she couldn't. Especially now.
    Spontaneous combustion.
     
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
     
    Then Polly's baby was born sick. Jenny was
at the hospital with a group of Polly’s friends, just being there
and waiting for news, so she caught a glimpse of the baby being
rushed from delivery room to intensive care in a red pod incubator.
It looked tired of life already.
    All she could think was, blighters.
    I tight-lipped nurse came out of Polly’s
room. Jenny stepped in her way. “Has the fixer been called?”
    “ It’s not a problem that can be fixed.”
The nurse hurried on.
    Jenny looked at the others. “There must be
something Dan can do!”
    Yas gave her a look. “This isn’t a broken
bone or a bad cut, Jenny. You think he walks on water.”
    The sharpness of it took Jenny back. "It
wouldn't hurt to ask, would it?"
    "If you want to chase after him…”
    Jenny controlled an angry retort. "Right,
then. I will."
    She strode to a wall phone and punched in his
code. Auto-respond. She left a message, then tried Ozzy. Dan wasn't
at the Merrie. She tried three other possible places. Nothing,
nothing, nothing.
    If only she had his buzzer code, but that was
for official business.
    On Earth and most other worlds everyone had a
buzzer. They could phone and be phoned anywhere, anytime. She'd
always thought it would drive her mad, but right now she wanted
it.
    She should give up, but Yas was smirking, so
she went out to search. She hopped a tram and rode it around Low
Wall, then took another in to Market Square.
    Where the hell was he?
    He might be at the hospital by now. She
leaped off the tram at the next stop and ran to a phonepost. He
wasn't, and the baby was fading fast. She turned from the post --
and found Dan there, behind her. She knew from his face, but asked
anyway. "You heard?"
    "Yes."
    "So what are you going to do?"
    "There's nothing I can do."
    "What do you mean? You're a fixer."
    She had to move then because an elderly man
wanted to use the phone. She saw then how worn Dan looked. Not
tired, but fined down, burned down.
    "I can't do anything, Jen. Do you think Assam
and Polly want me there to toss out platitudinous comforts?"
    "No, they want you there to do something, no
matter how small."
    "Think!"
    She jerked back, feeling for a moment as if
he might shake her.
    "My father died last year. I'd have fixed
that if I could do miracles, wouldn't I?" He sucked in a breath and
ran a hand through his hair. "This is why they recommend that
fixers don't settle in their homes. Too many personal
pressures."
    His resistance was like a hand pushing her
away, but she said, "Since you do live here, can't you at least
try? Come on." She took his hand and tugged. After a moment he went
along with her, but she felt his reluctance like a weight.
    She pulled him onto the West Street tram, but
stayed standing by the doors. "Are you all right?"
    "Of course."
    But he looked almost as weary as the sick
baby, and she was going over his words. He'd said he couldn't do
anything. Had he lost his powers? Had he blasted them away?
    They got off at the hospital stop and she
steered him toward the main entrance. But then he balked and turned
aside.
    "Dan!" she hurried after. "Dan, stop.
Please!"
    He turned down a side street and she caught
him at a small door. "What are you doing?"
    He'd pressed a lock. Hand print not code. He
used this door often.
    He took a set of hospital grays off a shelf
and pulled them on over his uniform. "Jen, think. What happens if
Dan Fixer walks around the hospital?"
    "Everyone wants you to heal them."
    "Right."
    He added a stretchy helmet that only left his
eyes uncovered. He looked strange -- older, harder. Or perhaps he
was.
    "Why don't you, then? Heal everything."
    "I told you. I can't. For a start, there's
not enough of me to go round. But as well, I can only fix things to
make them right, which means