“Yes, and soup. Why?” I asked her.
“Curiosity mostly. Your strength is remarkable. The fact that you’re up here instead of at the wrong end of a kill-zapper is impressive. I want to know why you’re here. And, I wanted to get to know the person Riley would risk his life for.”
“You wanted to hear my heart-beat?”
She smiled. “You’re going to overuse that analogy, aren’t you?”
“It works, though.”
“Yes it does and yes, you’re right.”
I drew in a breath. “If I ask you for more help, would you be willing?”
She considered. “It depends on what you need.”
“We need a meeting place and we think the infirmary would be ideal.”
The doctor stiffened as a guarded expression blanketed her face. “What for?”
Time to slide down the chute. The scrubs needed Broken Man to rally around, and in order to be successful, the uppers would need someone, too.
Locking gazes with her, I said, “So we can coordinate our efforts in opening Gateway.”
She gasped as all color flew from her face.
Riley elbowed me. “The whole heart beating thing—does it work in reverse? Cause I think the doctor’s heart has stopped.”
“You…found it?” The doctor gripped the edge of her desk.
“I know where it is, but opening it is going to be difficult hence the help. Are you willing?”
“Of course,” she said without hesitating.
A meeting time was set and Riley planned to contact the uppers with the details. Before he left the infirmary, he gave me a narrow metal box as long as my hand. The number ninety-eight was on the digital readout.
“So you can listen to the bug in Karla’s office,” he explained. Then he paused as if struck by a notion. “It works the same as the receiver Anne-Jade made. With the batteries, that’s the smallest space I could cram everything in.” He touched my earring. “That’s some serious tech. We have nothing like that up here. The Travas don’t encourage invention”
“Then we have an advantage.” I hoped it would be enough.
I kept Riley’s device close by, but no sound emanated. Karla must be off-shift or elsewhere. Feeling stronger, I paced around the infirmary.
Finally, Doctor Lamont said, “If you’re going to be in the way, you might as well help me.” She showed me the supply cabinet behind the high counter, and asked me to organize the contents. “In an emergency, it saves precious time.”
The shelves bulged with various sizes of bandages, packages of sutures, tape, splints, and packs of gauze all heaped together.As I worked to put order to chaos, uppers stopped in seeking medical treatment or advice. Most ignored me. But on occasion, Doctor Lamont would ask me to help with a patient. If they asked, she introduced me as her new intern, Ella.
At one point, Lamont placed a bin full of clean bandages next to me. “Can you roll those when you have time?”
“Sure. With such exciting tasks as these, I’m surprised you don’t have a ton of students volunteering to be your intern.” I teased.
“Watch it or I’ll have you scrubbing bed pans.”
“Rolling bandages right now, Doctor.” I saluted her, and exaggerated my enthusiasm for the task.
She laughed. I liked the sound of her laughter. Light and carefree and warm. She wasn’t quick to laugh; grief clung to her skin like perfume but hadn’t doused her empathy for others.
Around hour forty-five, my energy level dropped. A nap was more appealing than the last three shelves. I sat on the floor, resting my back when a shrill voice broke through my drowsiness.
“Doctor?” A woman’s panicked voice.
