He shoved a second pani puri into his mouth and pushed himself to his feet, knowing to delay any longer would just make the next day worse. But instead of starting down the street, he remained where he was, frozen in place.
Getting out of a cab fifty feet away was Mr. Dettling. Sanjay watched as the man approached the building and walked up to an unmarked door between two of the shops. As soon as he was sure Mr. Dettling couldn’t see him, Sanjay followed.
The manager pulled out a set of keys, unlocked the door, and went inside. Since it had worked one time already this evening, Sanjay raced forward to grab the door before it completely closed. Unfortunately, this time the distance was too great and the door clicked shut.
Sanjay sprinted around the building, looking for an alternate entrance. Everything was locked. Frustrated, he scanned the building again, looking for any possibility, and spotted one. At the back of the building, one floor above ground level, was a wide terrace. If he could get up there, it might lead to another way in.
Using a large bush and the rough surface of the building itself, he climbed the wall, and was soon high enough to pull himself onto the terrace.
The space was not part of an apartment like the balconies on the floors above, but rather an extension of a restaurant that had apparently just closed for the night. While there were no customers around, there were still a few employees inside cleaning up.
Sanjay waited until they had stepped into another room-the kitchen perhaps-then entered through the back door and cut across the dining area. There was another door at the far end that led to the interior of the building, a lobby with access to a staircase and elevator.
Sanjay chose the staircase and raced down to the ground floor. He took a moment to get his bearings, and tried to find the entrance he’d seen Mr. Dettling go through. He finally discovered it through a narrow hallway that seemed to be used by the people who took care of the building. It snaked around the elevator shaft, and around to the front of the building where the door was.
But all it really told him was that Mr. Dettling could have used it to get to the lobby and then taken the elevator to any floor. Sanjay headed back toward the lobby, thinking he might be able to figure out which floor the man had been on when he came back down, only he didn’t make it all the way. There was a door he had missed when he came through the first time. It was on the same side as the elevator shaft. Sanjay turned the knob and the door opened.
Just inside, stairs led down to a basement level. If there hadn’t been a light on at the bottom, he would have closed the door and moved on, but there was, so he knew he had to check.
Quietly, he descended the concrete steps into a long corridor that ran off to the left and right. He listened, not knowing which way to go.
Voices. Faint, and…from the right.
He went toward them, making his way past several doors until he reached the one where he could hear two distinct voices behind. Like at the managers’ office, they were speaking a language he didn’t understand. The door had two different locks. He carefully tried the knob, but it didn’t budge.
Sanjay was trying to figure out how he was going to get on the other side when one of the voices-Mr. Dettling’s, he realized-suddenly increased in volume.
Sanjay knew he’d never make it to the stairs in time. There was, however, a doorless entryway only ten feet back that opened onto a dark room.
He ducked inside, and had just moved into the shadows when the locks on the other door turned, and Mr. Dettling and a second person entered the main hallway. As they passed his hiding place, he tensed, sure he would be discovered, but the two walked by without stopping. When they reached the staircase, Mr. Dettling continued to talk for several minutes, then the other person said something. A woman’s voice.
Sanjay peeked out, and saw that the woman had her back to him. Mr. Dettling was completely out of sight on the staircase. If Sanjay wanted to see what was on the other side of the locked doors, this was his only chance.
He moved into the hallway and crept quickly to the door with the locks. Behind him it sounded like the conversation was ending. He put his hand on the knob, hoping they hadn’t locked it again when they exited. It turned. He pushed it open, slipped inside, and closed it again.
He was in a short hallway. There were three doors that led off it. Out of the farthest one, he could hear a low, rhythmic beeping noise. Not just one pattern, he realized, but several, at slightly different speeds.
In the hallway behind him, he could hear footsteps approaching the door. Having little choice, he stepped over to the nearest room and opened the door. It was dark inside so he went in, but left the door open just a crack so he could keep an eye on the woman when she walked by.
He heard the outer door swing open and shut. Locks were turned, then the woman’s footsteps passed his doorway and continued down the hall. He watched her through the crack. Not surprisingly, she entered the room the noise had been coming from. What did surprise him was that she was wearing a nurse’s outfit.
As soon as she disappeared, he reentered the hallway and followed her. When he reached the doorway the noise was coming from, he paused at the jamb and leaned forward just enough to get a look inside.
It took him a moment to process what he was seeing. There seemed to be a plastic wall about a third of the way into the room, cutting the space into two. On the larger, enclosed side were five beds-hospital beds-each occupied.
No longer thinking about being seen or not, he stepped inside so he could get a better look. Yes, definitely hospital beds, and the beeping was coming from equipment set up next to each of the patients.
Though they all had tubes taped across their faces and looked in pretty bad shape, Sanjay recognized them. He’d seen four of them on and off around the Pishon Chem compound. The fifth he’d seen almost every day of his life.
Ayush.
“What are you doing here? Who are you?”
The sound of the voice knocked him out of his trance, and for the first time he looked at the front half of the room. There was more medical equipment here, most set up on tables that lined the plastic wall. There were also several chairs, two of which had been occupied until a moment before by female nurses. Both women were now on their feet.
“What’s wrong with them?” he demanded. “What have you done to them?”
“You can’t be here,” the closest nurse said. “These people are very sick. You need to leave.”
He looked at her, still trying to comprehend the situation. “Sick? How? From what?”
The other nurse grabbed something off a back table, and seemed to be fiddling with it.
“You need to get out now!” the first said.
Sanjay pointed at the plastic wall. “That’s my cousin! What’s wrong with him?”
His words seemed to startle the women. They looked at each other, and back at him.
“Where did you come from?” the second nurse asked.
“What do you mean, where did I come from?”
“How did you know to come here?” the first asked.
“I saw Mr. Dettling. He was down here a few minutes ago.”
“You know Mr.-” The first nurse paused. “You work on the Project?”
“Of course.” He pointed at his cousin again. “Ayush and I both do, and so do the others you have there. What happened to them?”