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CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Kat and Gila moved quickly down the empty, dingy, poorly lit hallway, which led to a second, more conventional, wooden door.
They paused there briefly to catch their breath. In the brief lull, Kat had a flash of Mitch down on one knee in her office, asking her to marry him. She couldn’t believe thatthiswas how she was celebrating the day after her engagement.
"Are you ready?" Gila asked urgently, reminding her that this was no time for daydreams.
Kat nodded. Once Gila opened the door, they were greeted by chaos. The space, which seemed to have genuinely been a nightclub of some kind in the past, was full of people.
Most were sitting or lying on makeshift cots on what used to be a dance floor. Some of them looked to be unconscious. Others were seated at small cocktail tables or banquettes lining the walls, looking hollow-eyed and defeated.
It reminded Kat of the field hospitals she’d encountered during her tours as an Army Ranger in Afghanistan, down to the little children running everywhere, playing tag amid the carnage around them. The memory was a bad one. It was a field hospital where she was first treated after an IED explosion that left herface pockmarked from shrapnel burns and gave her a long scar that started just below her left eye and ran vertically down the side of her cheek.
“Let’s keep moving,” she muttered to Gila.
She scanned the clinic for medical personnel and saw a pale, young brunette applying a bandage to the head of an older woman sitting at a cocktail table. She walked that way.
“I need to know who’s in charge,” she said abruptly.
The young woman looked up, startled.
“Who are you?” she asked apprehensively.
“I’m the person who needs to know who has answers when it comes to this clinic,” Kat told her. “I have to get some info on a possible patient.”
“You realize we don’t do that here,” the young woman said defiantly. “The whole point of this place is to care for people who don’t want their information passed out to random women who come in making demands.”
“I get that, but this is a special case,” Kat informed her. “I think that once I share what this is about, your boss might accommodate us.”
“Let’s find out,” someone said from behind her.
Kat turned around to find herself face to face with a statuesque blonde in a white coat, likely not more than thirty. The woman was attractive, though worn down-looking for her age. Her eyes were blue and steely. She was definitely the boss.
“Can we talk somewhere private?” Kat asked.
“I’m not usually into chatting up strangers about mysterious topics in private,” she said.
“We must be okay if Harvey vetted us,” Kat countered.
“Why do I suspect that Harvey didn’t give you two a pass?” she asked rhetorically. “Maybe it’s because your friend there is holding his gun. You can understand my apprehension.”
Kat looked over at Gila, who was indeed holding Harvey’s weapon. She sighed. This wasn’t going to be easy, and time was not on their side. For all she knew, Harvey had already sent another bouncer their way.
“I can,” she said. “This may not sound convincing, but we really needed to talk with you, and Harvey was being difficult. But we don't mean any harm. We just need help."
“You’re not winning me over here,” the doctor said coldly.
Kat nodded. The dynamic had to change, and fast.
“Gila, give her the gun,” she said.
The bodyguard’s eyes went wide.
“That would be…unwise,” she replied.
“The doctor isn’t going to shoot us,” Kat insisted. “She’s supposed to do no harm, isn’t that right, Doctor…?”
“Poole,” the woman said. “Dr. Nadia Poole.”
