“Oh dear, a coma, that would be terrible.” Portia’s voice dripped with sarcasm. She moved her hand away from the nurse’s.
Killian cut her a sharp look. She ignored him and kept staring at the nurses’ screen.
“I’m sure you don’t have to worry about that.” The nurse patted Portia’s hand, clearly no longer wary of her. “Betty said your sister was a bit weak after her accident, but doing fine. I’m sure she’s not in a coma. It’s just a bit unusual.”
“Why?” He couldn’t hold back any longer.
Both Portia and the nurse looked him. He tensed, waiting to be sent away. Instead, neither did more than glare.
“I’m not sure,” the nurse said slowly. “I think she might be on a different floor. The coma floor.”
“There’s a coma floor?” He and Portia spoke at the same time.
The nurse looked around, then leaned over the counter. “You didn’t hear that from me.”
An entire floor of coma patients? Who did that? And why? And why was it a secret?
As intriguing as that puzzle was, he couldn’t afford to get derailed. “We need to find her first. Is there a way we can track her?”
“Maybe you aren’t useless after all,” Portia said. She stared at the nurses. “Is there?”
The nurse looked scandalized that they would ask. “Well, yes,” she admitted. “We only use them in rare cases.”
“I think this qualifies, don’t you?”
“I suppose.” One of the nurses swiped her badge over a drawer and pulled out a small object that looked like a tiny tablet. She pressed the power button and it flickered to life. She handed it to the second nurse, who typed something into the computer record. “It’s set up for her tracker. The unit should have enough battery to find her.”
Killian reached for the device, but Portia grabbed it first. “I am her family, after all. The little green dot is her?”
“Yes, it will get larger the closer you get to her.”
“Sounds simple enough,” Portia said. She looked over her shoulder at Killian. “You can go. I don’t need your help.”
He smirked at her. “Tough,” he said. “I’m not leaving until we find her.”
“You can’t save her, Killian.”
Not from Portia. That was his greatest fear. Though he wouldn’t admit that to Portia. Instead, he addressed one more question to the first nurse. “Will it tell us which floor the signal is on?”
She shook her head. “Unfortunately not. But unless you’re on the floor directly above her, the dot will stay small until you’re close.”
“Thank you for your help,” he said when it became clear that Portia wasn’t going to say anything.
He wished he could ask for a second tracker, but given his lack of familial relationship, the odds of him getting one were slim. Instead, he needed to stay with Portia. “Shall we?”
“Eager to find your little bomber, aren’t you?”
He gritted his teeth. It wasn’t worth having this argument again. Plus, he didn’t need her to know that, yes, he was eager to find Dizzie.
“Let’s go.” Ignoring the dig, Killian pushed away from the station and strode toward the elevator. He’d only gone about five feet before Portia laughed.
“Forget something?”
What could he have forgotten? Oh, right. They needed to know which floor the coma patients were kept on. “I thought you had it.”
“Lucky for you, I do.” She swept past him with a sniff.
“Great.” Killian followed Portia to the elevator. When she picked up her pace, he did the same.
