Sparkman’s braid grazed her back as she nodded.“We need Aubrey,” she said, her gaze intent and unwavering.
Whiskey grunted.“You said she was dead.”
“But she’ll be in Cold Storage.”Zulu spoke for the first time.“If I can get her to my lab, I can work backward.Figure out what Normandy’s been developing while the Key has had its head turned.”
There was silence, all members instinctively awaiting Echo’s response.
“Sparkman, you have a plan.”Echo didn’t phrase it as a question.She didn’t need to.Sparkman was always prepared before she reported in to Eos.“I assume you’ll need access to theEnd-of-Life Unit.We have someone who can get you in.Someone young and eager who won’t be suspected.”
Eos blanketed the globe with eleven total board members, soldiers in every unit of each MediCenter around the globe, and operatives within different careers.Sparkman had only ever spoken with Echo, Zulu, Whiskey, and Delta, the heads of the North and Central American factions of Eos.And those four were the only people out of the eleven to know Sparkman’s identity.Layers of protection.That way it was more difficult for one person to bring down the entire resistance organization.
Once again Sparkman nodded and clenched her fists, cracking her knuckles.“As always, I will work with anyone you trust.”
“Good,” Echo said.“Let’s get started.”
XXI
Elodie drummed her fingers along the hard cover of the nursing textbook that hid her deepest, darkest secret.She’d pulled it out to catch up with Vi, but the bright empty space of PatientNinety-Two’s former room drew her attention like a flower to sunlight.
Elodie’s toes tapped feverishly against the tile.Since she’d arrived that morning, she’d waited for one of the doctors to come tell her what had happened with Aubrey.Through Holly, she’d submitted four status update requests.It wasn’t odd to follow up on transferred patients.Elodie had done it many times.Currently, she had update requests pending for each of her patients that had been transferred to different units in the blur of activity that had filled the previous day.It was comforting to know that some of her patients would eventually leave the MediCenter healthy and alive.It made her job worth doing.
But each time Elodie had checked Aubrey’s status update in the queue, Holly informed her that it had been deleted.It wouldn’t have been that big of a deal if they’d also been read before being deleted, but if that was the case, why hadn’t Elodie been contacted?
She’d have to go about it a different way.“Holly, has there been any activity on PatientNinety-Two’sfile?”
“Let me check.”Holly’s disembodied voice paused for a moment before continuing.“Yours is the final entry on PatientNinety-Two’s chart.Would you like me to read you the entry?”
With a groan, Elodie massaged the tightness in her neck.“How is it possible that mine is the last entry?”She chewed her bottom lip.“Holly, can you take down an email for me?”
“I’d be happy to.”Holly’s crisp voice rang out over the steady clicking and whirring of the LTCU bots.“Who would you like me to send it to?”
“The director of the MediCenter.”Elodie held her breath.She was doing it.She was really doing it.She was going to jump over everyone and go straight to the one person in the entire city whose words could affect real change and get her real answers.
“While Director Holbrook still holds the title of MediCenter Director, he will soon be inactive, and therefore is no longer able to respond to any messages.”Holly regurgitated the facts, hercomputer-generatedemotions unable to harness the finality of the statement.“I can send it to his assistant; although, I cannot be certain that it’ll be answered by or forwarded to the new director.”
“Crap.I completely forgot about Holbrook.How could I forget something as huge as that?”Elodie dropped her chin against her palm.“Because I’m stuck in my own little bubble, so wrapped up in my own feelings that I’m oblivious to the outside world.”Her cheeks heated.Had she really intended to send the director an email?She would have been demoted for sure, bringing something so trivial as incomplete paperwork to the attention of the leader of the city.Jeez, she was being unreasonable.
“Never mind, Holly.I’m going to get back to my job.”Elodie leaned back in her chair, swiped PatientNinety-Two’s files clear from the holoscreen, and pulled up the care chart for her only current patient.
The elevator chimed its arrival as the doors slowly hissed open.All of thewhat ifsElodie was only beginning to tamp down roared back to the surface.They were finally here to tell her what had happened to Aubrey.Elodie calmly pushed her chair away from the control panel and stood.She wasn’t the emotional young nurse who had almost made a spectacle of herself by calling in the director of the MediCenter.No, she was the cool and collected, mature lead nurse who cared about her patients and wanted to make sure they were doing well after leaving hercare.
As she completed her about-face, Elodie took a deep breath, flipped her hair, and smiled.The elevator doors had closed, and no one was there waiting to speak withher.
“Hello?”She whirled around a little more frantically than she’d meant to.Her calm facade was cracking.
Still, no one answered.No lab coat–clad doctor or holopadwielding assistant caught the corner of her eye.There was...no one.
Elodie gingerly lowered herself back into her chair.Her gaze remained fixed on the shiny elevator doors.
I’m losing mymind.
But elevators didn’t travel to whichever floor they felt the urge to visit.A floor had to be requested by a personor a—
“Ouch!”Elodie jerked backward and grabbed the toe of her sneaker.She blinked down at the bot clicking and whirring and repeatedly ramming into the leg of her chair.
The familiar bot stilled, let out a hiss, and then resumed knocking its stumpy square body against the chair.The glass tubes in the bin attached to its front clanked with each repeated run in.
With a grunt, Elodie hefted the motorized cube.“You’re from themedi-pumplab.You’re not supposed to be uphere.”
