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He shook his head. “She turns on the machine that hums when she uses the radio so I cannot hear her words.”
I considered what that meant for a moment.
“I need you to do something for me. Can you kneel? You’re too tall for me to demonstrate.” He knelt, and I showed him how to grab the front of a shirt to pick someone up. “The person will feel threatened, but they won’t get hurt. Try it on me really quick.”
His expression was filled with reluctance as he stood and glanced at my chest.
“I wouldn’t ask you to do this if it wasn’t vitally important, Eitri.”
He grunted and had me up in the air before I could blink. I grinned at him.
“Nothing hurts,” I said. “Okay. Put me down.” He did. “If the doctor doesn’t answer my questions and I look at you, I want you to do that to her, but don’t let her down until I say so. No matter what she says, you can’t let her down, okay?”
He nodded slowly.
“I promise you won’t hurt her.”
He followed me down the stairs. The doctor’s usual station was on, but she was absent. The researchers were all present at their stations, though, running various machines. The nearest one noticed me and straightened from her computer. Her under eyes were dark with the need for sleep.
“She’s resting,” the woman said. “She said her eyes wouldn’t focus anymore and she just needed twenty minutes.”
“If she’s trying to rest, shouldn’t you turn that off?” I asked, pointing to the machine humming rather loudly.
The woman shook her head. “That’s her timer. Once the test is done running, she wants to look at the results.”
Either the woman didn’t know about the radio, or she was good at lying because I couldn’t see any tells.
Nodding that I’d heard her, I veered toward the curtained-off area.
“Wait!” the woman called.
I knew then that she knew. Not stopping, I cleared the curtain as the doctor straightened from where she’d been kneeling by the bed.
“Did you need something?” she asked, frowning.
“Yeah. Information. Are the infected and hounds still on the coast, or have they already started back this way?”
The doctor opened her mouth, and I could see by her expression she was going to continue trying to deny it.
I looked at Eitri, who was only a step behind me.
He nodded and had the doctor in the air by the front of her shirt before she knew what was happening.
Her eyes rounded and her mouth opened and closed a few times without sound.
“Think before you speak,” I said, moving around them to reach under her bed. I pulled out the case and found a satellite radio.
Leaving it open, I placed the whole thing on the bed.
“Is Waurlyn still alive? How many did we lose? Are the infected and the hounds still attacking the coast? If not, where are they headed now?”
The doctor looked at Eitri. “I can’t breathe. Please. Let me down.”
“If you couldn’t breathe, you wouldn’t be able to speak. You’re here to help find a cure and a way to stop what’s happening out there. If you’re no longer willing to cooperate with those goals, you have no place here. Put her down, Eitri.” He did. “You have one hour to pack your equipment and leave. Good luck out there. You’re going to need it.”
I turned and started walking away.
“You can’t kick us out,” she said.
