Something was wrong.
While Alex, El-Hashim, and Marie maintained their slow pace, Teterya rushed ahead. Irina started speaking to him before he reached her. Teterya looked past her into the infirmary, and glanced back at Alex and the others.
There was concern in his eyes, but he was trying to hide it.
Alex hoped the guards didn’t notice.
Addressing El-Hashim, he cleared his throat and said, “Another inmate is sick and come here while we getting you. Is okay. Not problem. We still have room for you.”
Alex glanced at El-Hashim and Marie, and saw the questioning looks on their faces. She smiled, trying to put them at ease.
As they entered the infirmary, Alex saw that a curtain had been drawn around one of the examination stations, and sitting on a chair in front of it was another guard, reading a newspaper.
But it wasn’t just any guard.
It was the one with the birthmark. Who knew her by name.
Wonderful.
Teterya spoke to her in Ukrainian and gestured. Alex nodded, and she and Marie guided El-Hashim toward the back room.
The problem was, they couldn’t get there without passing the guard. And the way they were positioned — with El-Hashim between them — Alex was on the guard’s side of the aisle. There was no way she could switch sides without calling attention to herself.
The knot in her stomach returned.
As they neared the guard, Alex moved half a step in front of the others and twisted her body slightly, so that her back was partially toward him. They were only a few feet away when the guard peeked over his paper, then jumped to his feet to give them room as he said something to Alex, sounding annoyed.
Keeping her back to him as much as possible, she made a grunting sound that she hoped would convey her thanks, but he repeated himself as if expecting an answer.
Fuck.
Alex had no earthly idea how to reply to him. But before she could grunt again, she heard Teterya call out and the guard suddenly turned away from her, his footsteps clacking on the tile.
Relieved but still tense, Alex picked up her pace, forcing the other two to also speed up. The moment they stepped into the back room, she swung the door shut.
“Off to the side,” she whispered, motioning them away from the door’s window.
Once out of the line of sight, El-Hashim scowled at Alex. “What is going on? Who is this other pri—”
“Shh,” Alex said, raising a finger to her lips.
Without explaining, she tiptoed over to the room Frida was in and peeked inside. The girl was still asleep. Alex shut the door and turned back to the others.
“Another one?” El-Hashim said incredulously. “Who is in that room?”
Alex held up a hand. “Relax, it’s just a patient. No one who will be a problem.”
El-Hashim didn’t look reassured.
“And the one behind the curtain?” Marie said. “Who is she?”
“I don’t know,” Alex whispered. “But again, not an issue. The doctor will take care of her, send her back to her cell, and then we’ll be out of here.”
She moved over to the main door and peeked through the window. While the guard with the newspaper had returned to his chair, the ones who had been part of their group seemed to have left.
She wanted to go out there and find out what was going on, but she knew the minute she stepped through the doorway, the guard would recognize her for sure. So she was stuck in here until he left.
Glancing around, her gaze landed on the two small stacks of clothes on a shelf just outside the isolation room she’d been using earlier.
No sense in wasting time.
She grabbed the clothes and gave one set to El-Hashim. “Put these on.”
“Why?”
“That gray dress marks you,” Alex said. “When we get out, that’s the last thing you want to be wearing.” She gestured toward the empty isolation cell at the far end. “You can change in there.”
With a brief hesitation, El-Hashim carried the clothes into the cell. Alex went into her temporary cell, shucked her nurse’s garb, and changed into the pair of dark pants and black, long-sleeve T-shirt that Irina had provided. When she stepped out again, El-Hashim was waiting for her, dressed in a similar outfit.
There was one problem, however.
“You’re gonna have to lose the scarf,” Alex said.
Involuntarily, El-Hashim put a hand to her cheek. “No. Impossible.”
“Do you want this to work or not?” Alex said. “You wear that thing, you’ll be a neon target. You’ll be spotted and taken back in before you even get a chance to breathe free air. Besides, I’m told the route we’re taking gets pretty tight. I can’t have you choking to death if that thing gets hung up on something.”
“It stays on,” El-Hashim told her.
They locked gazes. “It comes off, or you’re not going.”
El-Hashim was the first to blink. “A compromise. It stays on until it needs to come off.”
“It needs to come off now.”
“No, it doesn’t. You know that.”
Alex pressed her lips tightly together, then said, “Fine. But when I say it’s time, it’s time.”
“Very well.”
Alex was about to check the window again, when she heard footsteps heading their way. “Get in the cell,” she said. “Both of you.”
The two women moved hurriedly into the isolation cell that El-Hashim had used to change clothes, Alex right behind them. Making sure the door’s observation window was open, Alex pulled the door shut behind her, stopping short of engaging the latch.
She looked through the narrow window. Across the room, Teterya entered and looked around, confused. “Powell?”
“Wait here,” Alex told El-Hashim and Marie.
She exited the cell, and met Teterya near the center of the room.
“We have problem,” he said.
“What now?”
He tilted his head in the direction of the examination area. “Prisoner having pain in head and chest.”
“Well, give her something for it and send her back to her cell.”
“She complain very strong, you know? It not look good I send her back. Guard will think something wrong. Better she stay here.”
Alex thought for a moment. This was more a nuisance than anything else.
“Okay, okay,” she said. “Put her in the room I was using. I’ll stay with the others.”
He looked relieved.
As he turned away, Alex said, “And make it fast. I don’t want us to be here any longer than we have to be.”
“Not worry,” he said. “I feel same.”
Chapter Thirty
Teterya pulled the curtain back and smiled.
“You stay tonight so can keep check on you,” he said, and handed her two pills. “For sleep, will make less your pain, too.” He gestured. “Water and glass on table beside you. One moment, take you to room, okay?”
The prisoner nodded, her voice strained. “Thank you, Doctor.”
He closed the curtain again as he left. To the guard he said, “The prisoner will be staying here. Please put it in the log to have someone check with us in the morning. She should be fine by then.”
The guard stood up. “Yes, sir. I will. Would you like me to wait until she’s in one of your cells?”
“Does she have any history of violence?”
“None that I’m aware of.”
“In that case, I think we’ll be fine. You can go.”
The guard left, and for a second, Teterya let his shoulders sag, belying the confident front he’d been projecting. The game may have been on, but it wasn’t going as smoothly as it should be, and his focus was wavering.
Irina approached and touched his arm. Keeping her voice low so that the prisoner wouldn’t overhear, she said, “Are you okay?”