Eslar chuckled and shook his head. “Call it intuition, or experience. . . for whatever that’s worth from my lost time. Women can create life. Women can tend the fires of the hearth and fight in the wars to defend them. I never had a doubt in you from the moment I laid eyes onyou.”
It was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her, and Jo couldn’t handle it. “Now you’re just flattering me,” she joked, trying to diffuse the situation. “You already had my help with the bribe. Didn’t need to butter me uptoo.”
“I know I didn’t. And it was more honey than butter.” Jo honestly couldn’t tell if Eslar was trying to be coy. Everything he ever said had that same matter-of-facttone.
“Well, I’m going to go find a computer and see if my scripts are ready.” Jo started for thedoor.
“I’ll wait here until you return. When you do, I’ll heal this man. We’re down to hours left. . . So, hurryback.”
“I will,” Jo said without so much as a second glance. She didn’t need to be reminded of the stakes, even if she didn’t fully understand them. Then again, she never really knew what the stakes were for her jobs. She never grasped how a failure would affect her employers. Or whom a success wouldhurt.
All she ever needed to know was what she had to do next. As long as she knew that, she could keep movingforward.
Jo strode out of the hospital room, pulling the sleeves of her hoodie all the way down, and starting for a nurse’s station she’d seen on the waythere.
Chapter 28
Greentouch
JO BACKTRACKED THROUGH the hospital.She made a right out of the door and started for a central hub. On her way, she passed one particularly frazzled, doe-eyed nurse who lookedfamiliar.
It stopped Jo in her tracks, looking back at the woman clutching a tablet and muttering to herself the list of test results that were displayed in cold black and white. Her head swiveled as she watched the woman fuss with her hair, stopping in front of Mr. Keller’s door, tapping at the screen in frustration. The nurse had no idea that the people who would ensure her wish would come true were standing right next toher.
Jo started movingagain.
She was a member of the Society of Wishes. She did not change the future and she did not own the past. She was a spectator to both and a vessel for the whims of the living. She was beyond reality, given mere moments to touch it, only if she was granted thetime.
Drawing her wrist forward, Jo stopped in front of an office by the nurse’s station. It was certainly the hub of operations and the office must belong to someone important, given the number of letters engraved after the name on the door. Jo looked at hertime.
She had onehour.
Precious little moments to change the Severity of Exchange, to right herwrong.
More than enough, she assured herself.It’ll be more thanenough.
Jo tapped the watch and the world blinked into existence. The sterile smell of ozone mixed with the chemical scent of hand sanitizer layered atop the metallic tang of stainless steel. The bustle of the hospital was palpable to her, but only for a moment. She heard phones ringing and pagers beeping—a bygone technology still clinging to the medical field. She heard the hushed whispers and somber conversations as though they were all right next toher.
But only for amoment.
She pressed the strip of smart fabric on her wrist again, blinking out of existence the moment the door was opened. A nurse had seen her, one who was walking over to the door, but only for a blink. The man poked his head in the room, looking around, but saw noone.
Jo stood before him, an invisible entity, waiting for him to abandon his search. With a shake of his head, the nurse closed thedoor.
“What’s up?” Jo heard someone askoutside.
“Nothing, thought I saw. . . I don’t know. I’ve been at this too long today.” The man laughed softly, returning to his post. “Doesn’tmatter.”
Jo turned to the computer, fumbling with the USB in her pocket. They had hours until Mr. Keller was transferred. She had one hour of time left—seconds less, now that she’d opened the door. She could dothis.
Or. . .not.
Jo crouched down, frantically looking around the small box that served as the main terminal of the computer. She even tapped into time for a whole minute to move it around because she couldn’t believe hereyes.
There wasn’t a USB port. Jo cursed out loud. She should’ve expected this to happen. It was a fairly antiquated technology and most computers came with free cloud storage out of the box. A hospital no doubt backed up all their records to a sharedserver—
A new option clicked in her mind. While still in time, Jo opened the door and then tapped her fabric—down to an hour, even. She’d have to conserve as much time as possible while she found that serverroom.
Jo turned in the hallway, reading all the various signs. Of course, there weren’t any IT-oriented labels. They were all driven to functional areas of thehospital.
