“Put a little water in it, please, Mickey,” Matt said.
Mickey poured water from the insulated water carafe into the paper cup and handed it to Matt.
“Here’s to you, Matt,” he said, raising his glass.
“Cheers,” Matt said, and took a swallow.
Maybe the booze will make me sleepy, or at least take the edge off the pain in the goddamn leg.
And then: Does he really think I saved his life, or is that bullshit? Blarney.
“How do you feel, Matt?” Mickey asked.
“I’m all right,” Matt said. “I get out of here tomorrow.”
“So soon?” Eleanor asked, surprised.
“Current medical wisdom is that the sooner they get you moving around, the better,” Matt said.
“You going home?” Mickey said.
“If by ‘home,’ you mean my apartment, yes, of course.”
“I was thinking of—where do your parents live, Wallingford?”
“My apartment.”
“You know getting in to see you is like getting to see the gold at Fort Knox?” Mickey asked. Matt nodded. “So you know what these people have been up to?”
Matt nodded again.
“The Molotov cocktail, the press release, the second one? All of it?”
Matt nodded again.
“What do you think, Mickey?” he asked.
“I know a lot of black guys, and a lot of Muslims,” Mickey said. “Ordinarily, I can get what I want to know out of at least a couple of them. So far, all I get is shrugs when I ask about the Islamic Liberation Army. That could mean they really don’t know, or it could mean that they think I’m just one more goddamn honky. I’d watch myself, if I were you.”
“I was thinking—with what they have on television, there’s been a lot of time for that—about what the hell they’re after.”
“And?”
“In the thirties, during the Depression, when Dillinger and Bonnie and Clyde were running around robbing banks, killing people, there was supposed to be some support for them; people thought they were Robin Hood.”
“From what I’ve heard about Bonnie, she was no Maid Marion,” Mickey said.
“What does that mean?” Eleanor asked.
“Not important,” Mickey said. “For that matter, Clyde wasn’t exactly Errol Flynn, either. What is it you’re saying, Matty, that they’re after public support?”
Matt nodded.
“A political agenda?”
“Why else the press releases?”
“That’s pretty sophisticated thinking for a bunch of stickup guys who have to have somebody read the Exit sign to them.”