Ponife said, “We will bring the doctor?—”
“No. She’ll need access to her medicines and equipment.” I pulled the slight female Outsider upright and managed to get her weight over my shoulders.
Bubba Boom followed my example and swept one of the Outsiders up in his arms. Without waiting to see if the others followed, I bolted for the lift between Quad A5 and Sector B5.
We carried them down to the infirmary.
Lamont pushed a gurney over to me. “What’s wrong?”
I rattled off what I had learned as I laid the Outsider on it. Without hesitation, Lamont took control, shouting orders and checking vitals. I filled syringes and fetched instruments.
Bubba Boom and Hank helped as well. Ponife and the two others who had carried the Outsiders stood to the side, keeping out of the way until Lamont ordered them to bring canisters of the Outsider’s air mixture down from level five.
We worked for hours and saved three of them. The other two never recovered. I closed their eyes, arranged their arms and covered them with a sheet. When I looked up, I met Bubba Boom’s gaze. He had been watching me.
“I’m sorry,” Lamont said to Ponife. “We did everything we could. They were just too far gone. Do you need me to prep them to be recycled?”
“No. We send our dead out into Outer Space.” Ponife didn’t act too upset. “Come, Trella we must return.”
“No.” Lamont stepped in his way. “I need her help.”
“I will send you plenty of helpers.”
“She knows what to do. You saw for yourself. I don’t have the time to train another.”
He hesitated.
“Where do you think she’ll go that you can’t find her?” Lamont asked.
“Do not leave the infirmary,” Ponife said to me.
Hank, Bubba Boom and the other maintenance workers followed Ponife. Before he left, Bubba Boom once again met my gaze. He gave me a slight nod. Hope touched my heart for the first time in weeks.
Lamont grilled me as soon as the others were out of hearing range. She already knew quite a bit about the Outsiders and the command collar. Riley had explained much of it to her before he had disappeared. Her questions focused on me.
And after I assured her, I was at least healthy, she asked, “Okay what’s the plan?”
“I’ve no idea. I don’t even know what week this is.”
“It’s week 147,027, hour fourteen.”
“Thanks.”
“And you don’t have to worry about being overheard. Riley found the listening devices planted in the infirmary and removed them.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’ve got nothing. Everyone’s been arrested. Level five is filled with Outsiders and everyone thinks they’re the long lost Controllers who are going to make life better.”
“Thinks?”
I explained our soon-to-be change in location.
“Then we need to stop them.”
I laughed, but the sound lacked mirth. “How?”
“You tell me.” She stared at me as if daring me.
“I told you?—”
