“Infirmary,” she said, and listened. “One moment.”
She held out the receiver to him.
Teterya took one more breath, accepted the phone, and put it to his ear. “This is Dr. Teterya.”
“Doctor, this is Captain Balanchuk, Isolation.”
Teterya swallowed. “Yes, Captain?”
“We have an inmate in need of medical attention.”
The doctor tried to calm himself. “Her name?”
The guard gave him the name the prison had for El-Hashim.
Teterya waited several seconds to give the impression he was consulting the prisoner log. “Oh, yes,” he said. “What’s the complaint?”
“It seems to be stomach related. She appears to be in a lot of pain.”
Teterya did his best to feign annoyance. “Appears? Or is?”
He didn’t want it to look too easy. This wouldn’t be the first time an inmate had pretended to be sick in hopes of getting special treatment, and Teterya’s skepticism would further sell their ruse.
“That’s why I’m calling,” Balanchuk said. “I thought you might be able to advise me before we take this any further.”
Teterya had to play this very carefully.
“I can’t diagnose a patient over the phone, Captain, but if she has an upset stomach, you have medicine for that. Give her a dose and send her back to her cell.”
“It isn’t nausea,” Balanchuk said. “She’s claiming outright pain, a severe tenderness in the abdomen.”
“Oh? And where is it located?”
“On the right.”
Teterya paused, mentally counting to three. “I see,” he said, now feigning a touch of concern. “If this is legitimate, it could be serious. Perhaps I should come take a look.”
He waited, half expecting Balanchuk to dismiss the idea, but Balanchuk said, “Very good, Doctor. Please make it a priority.”
“I’m on my way.”
Teterya moved to the wall, hung up, and turned to Irina. Now that the game was on, he felt focused and alert, no longer distracted by his fears.
“You’d better get Powell,” he said. “And make doubly sure she looks the part.”
Irina nodded, walked over, and hurriedly kissed him. “Be careful.”
Alex followed Teterya down the stairs to the first floor, but instead of using the underground passage to the isolation unit, the doctor moved toward the exit that led to the yard.
“Where are you going?” she whispered. “What about the tunnel?”
“Look strange, we try take now. We use when prisoners in yard only.”
She put a hand on his arm, stopping him. “But won’t the guards at the security check be the same ones who were there when I was brought in tonight?”
“Yes.”
“Hello?” she said, pointing at her face. “This isn’t a mask.”
She had her file folder and was wearing the glasses again, with the hat topping Irina’s expertly rendered hairstyle. But she felt far from confident that it was enough to fool someone who had seen her only an hour earlier.
“They not expect prisoner to be dressed like nurse,” Teterya told her. “Last thing on mind. I go first, keep attention on me. You come through quickly, keep eyes on file, not them.”
In other words, the same drill as before, but a lot riskier this time. “And if they look at me?”
“They bored and lazy men. They see glasses, not face.”
Teterya couldn’t guarantee this, of course, but what choice did Alex have?
She nodded and felt a knot taking shape in her intestines as they started walking again.
When they neared the security gate, she fell a few steps behind Teterya and opened the file folder, keeping her head down as she flipped through the pages. The doctor said something to the two guards manning the station, then laughed. They chuckled in return. A reply by one of them was followed by loud laughter from all three, and somewhere in the middle of it all, a buzzer sounded and the gate swung open.
The doctor kept talking, turning to face the guards as Alex slipped past behind him and went through the gate, not stopping until she was several feet beyond.
There were a few more laughs, then the doctor stepped through and joined her on the other side. He touched her arm, and they continued to the exit.
They had nearly reached it when one of the guards called out to them — sharp and abrupt.
Alex froze, but Teterya squeezed her arm and turned. He and the guard had a quick exchange, then he turned back to Alex, looking relieved.
“What did he want?” she asked quietly.
“He ask me play cards tonight.” Teterya paused with a slight grimace on his face. “He tell me bring pretty nurse, too.”
As the knot in Alex’s stomach hardened, the exit door buzzed open without incident, and they stepped into the yard.
Floodlights lit the grounds, leaving no corner of darkness, and making it impossible for anyone to cross without being seen from one of the towers.
Dirt crunched under their feet as they walked around the east side of Building Three, toward the door in the back wall that led to the isolation section.
Alex couldn’t see any of the guards in the towers, but felt their gazes on her. If any of them was using a scope or binoculars, she could only hope he was concentrating on her body and not her face.
Just before she and Teterya reached the door, it swung open, revealing three guards waiting inside. Teterya shared a few quick words with them before they walked as a group into the isolation building.
When they stepped into El-Hashim’s suite, her two bodyguards were in the living area.
“Where is the sick prisoner?” Teterya asked them.
One of the women pointed toward a bedroom door.
The doctor spoke quietly to the three prison guards, and they stayed back as he and Alex went inside.
El-Hashim, still clad in her hijab, was lying in bed, Marie sitting in a chair beside her. As soon as Alex closed the door, El-Hashim threw her blanket off and stood up.
“You’re late,” Teterya told her.
El-Hashim and Marie shared a look. “Marie is coming with me.”
“That’s not the plan,” Alex said.
El-Hashim held up a hand. “To the infirmary. If everything is as you have said, she’ll stay there. This is not a negotiable point.”
“We have very limited room,” Teterya said.
“Nonnegotiable.”
“Fine,” Alex told her.
She didn’t like it at all, but they didn’t have time to argue. And if Marie was only going as far as the infirmary, then that shouldn’t be a problem.
They gave it a few more minutes before El-Hashim lay back down and started groaning softly as the doctor called in one of the guards. They had a quick conference and the guard made a call on his radio. The back and forth lasted only seconds, then the guard nodded to Teterya.
Looking over at the three women, Teterya said in English, “We go now.” He pointed at Marie. “You will help.”
“Of course,” she said, bowing her head.
Once El-Hashim was propped between Marie and Alex, they headed out. As much as they all wanted the trip to go as quickly as possible, they had to keep up the appearance that El-Hashim was ill, which necessitated a much slower pace.
With known prisoners now in their party, two of the guards stayed with the group as they reentered the general population section and slow-walked their way to the administration building.
Passing through the checkpoint was much easier this time, the attention of the gatekeepers directed at Marie and a groaning El-Hashim.
Rather than take the stairs, the group squeezed into a small, rarely used elevator, and took it up one floor to the infirmary level. As they were exiting the car, the infirmary door opened down the hall, and Irina stepped into the corridor, looking nervous.