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“If I can’t help the guys find out what’s going on, at least let me fill in for them.” I took out the cell phone and showed it to him. “Can I text someone to come get me?”
Dr. Green glanced at the phone. “Victor got new ones?”
“I don’t know who he gave the others to, but he’s got one, and there’s two more.”
Dr. Green nodded, seeming a little reluctant. I thought perhaps maybe I was asking a bit much, but could I stay in the office while he worked like this? Would he? He seemed to understand and relented. “If it’s safe.”
I tapped at the keyboard on the screen for one of the three cell phone numbers. I wasn’t sure if Victor had enough time to divvy up the cell phones with anyone else, but I crossed my fingers someone was available.
“Wait,” Dr. Green said. “To make sure it’s Victor, say something random.”
“What?”
“Protocol,” he said. “Text him a random word that pops into your head.”
“How is that a protocol?”
“If anyone’s infiltrated or is listening in, they’ll assume you’ve sent a mistake and will ask your meaning. Victor will know you’re trying to make sure it’s him. He’ll send something random back that has nothing to do with the first thing you said. It makes others believe we’ve got a weird code that they can’t crack, and it prevents us from having to make one up all the time.”
Is that how it worked? Random was protocol? I supposed it made sense. Unless I’d known, I never would have thought of it.
I racked my brain for a word.
Sang: Fish.
Unknown: Sequences.
I showed it to Dr. Green. He nodded in approval. “Nothing to do with the original. If he’d said ‘chips’ or another animal like snake, you’d know it wasn’t him. Anyone trying to break the code would probably try something that was associated with the original word. And anyone who had no idea and you sent a message to the wrong person, you’d get someone asking who you were and what that was about.”
“When were you going to tell me how to do this?”
“I just trained you,” he said. “What do you want from me? I can’t insert my brain into yours. Well, I probably could ...”
I groaned and sent another text.
Sang: It’s Sang. Are you busy?
Dr. Green inched closer, hovering over my shoulder.
“Do you need to get going?” I asked, sensing his mood.
“I can put it off a little,” he said.
“Dr.—”
“Sean.”
I sighed, and half smiled. “It’s okay. I can stay here until someone shows up.”
Dr. Green glanced at the clock on the wall. “I don’t want to leave you.”
The phone buzzed in my hands.
Unknown: Are you okay? What’s wrong? You’re still at the hospital?
Sang: With Dr. Green, but he has to go to do other things and I’m going to be by myself down here in the office. I thought I could go help out at the diner. Is this Victor?
Unknown: This is Mr. Blackbourne. Do you want to meet me out front? I can be there in ten minutes.
My heart paused for a moment. It felt like a lifetime since I’d spoken to him and I’d been worried. Getting his was a huge relief. I showed Dr. Green the phone. “Mr. Blackbourne got one of the phones.”
“Well, I guess if he’s on his way.” He glanced at the clock again. “I’m sorry. I don’t want to run.”
“We do what we have to.”
His smile lit up. He patted my cheek. “I suppose our first date had to end sometime.”
I started giggling at his ongoing joke. I felt loads better now that I wasn’t going to be standing still.
His fingers slid from my cheeks to my lips. I stopped instantly, surprised by the touch.
“What did I tell you about that giggling?” He winked at me.
But the wink set me off. I started giggling more, feeling better. “I can’t ...”
He smirked, pressing his fingers harder over my mouth as if he could squash it. “Don’t ... don’t ...”
But his funny eyes, and the way he was grinning was too much. I started giggling against his hand, backing away slightly to tuck my head away in an attempt to hide my face. I pressed my own hands over my face, trying to comply, but giggling behind my hands.
“Don’t do that,” he said, but his voice tripped with laughter. “What did I tell you?”
I snickered.
“Sang,” he said in an attempt at a stern voice. When I glanced over my wall of fingers, his shoulders betrayed his laughter. “I’m telling you to stop.”
I dropped my hands, clutching at my ribs. I gulped in air, but my giggles raked through me like wildfire. “You started it.”
“I did not!”
“You’ve been teasing me all day!”
“Not all day,” he said, snickering.
“Yeah, maybe not during the nap.”
“Oh no, I was teasing you then. You just didn’t hear me.”
I started laughing again, stepping away from him and holding on to my sides.
Dr. Green was laughing. He cupped his hand over his mouth, sucking in a deep breath. He dropped his hand, his face forming a more serious expression, but his eyes betrayed his smothered giggling. “No, stop. I need to stop. I’ve got to go cut open a body and I can’t think about you giggling.”
With the idea of a cut up body and Dr. Green giggling to make a wobbly incision, I started giggling again. It was a sick idea, and a very pitiful one, but I couldn’t erase the image from my head.
“No,” Dr. Green spread his hand out toward me, lunging. “Okay, go. Go before I can’t stop.” He nudged me toward the office door.
“Bye, Dr. Green.” I opened the door, stepping out.
“I said, call me Sean,” he called after me.
“Bye, Dr. Sean.”
“Bye, smart ass.”
I started breaking into another fit, and closed the door behind myself. Though I heard him starting to crack into laughter behind the door.
I dashed down the hallway. I sent a quick text to Mr. Blackbourne that I would meet him by the front entrance and I was heading there now.
TAKEN
I stood by the front door of the hospital wing where I had entered earlier. The sun was low, dropping toward the tree line. Somehow it made me think of my bedroom. It had been a while since I’d been home. I thought I should go there soon. I should check up on Marie. Was she alone? I was sure the boys were keeping an eye on her like they promised, but not seeing her or the house felt surreal in the moment. I couldn’t help thinking about how my life had changed. Maybe I was starting to trust them more. I trusted them now to look out over the house and Marie while I was gone.
Only, now that I thought about it, they didn’t have their phones. Like mine, they didn’t have the apps, so I couldn’t check in on her, either.
I tapped at the screen of the iPhone, wondering if I should text Mr. Blackbourne back or try the other phones to see who Victor might have given them to, but I stopped when a familiar gray BMW approached the sidewalk.
When the BMW stopped in front of the door, I paused, expecting Mr. Blackbourne to jump out and open the door for me like he and the other guys did. Instead, the side door was opened from the inside. I smiled. Mr. Blackbourne wasn’t going to treat me like a dainty snowflake all the time.
I approached, aimed to wedge myself into the passenger seat.
The car zoomed forward the moment I picked my feet off the ground, before I was even fully settled into the car.
“Whoa!” I said, closing the door quickly. “Are we in a hurry?”
“Yes,” said an unfamiliar voice as the car doors automatically locked.
I slowly turned, sure that what I was hearing was only Mr. Blackbourne but with a sore throat or some sort of frog he needed to clear out.
But instead I met face to face with a white mask.
The rest of his outfit was black: shirt, shoe
s, gloves. Not one inch of space was left to reveal who he was or why he was here.
