“I don’t think you should be on your back,” he said. But God, I wish you were. She looked at him and the light in her eyes had been replaced with intensity. A bit of humor crept into them.
“I don’t think you should hold yourself up with your arms,” she said. She rose on tiptoe, sliding her body along his and kissing him again. “I have an idea that might work.”
33
Russell woke up and felt danger. Her nerve endings prickled with it. The hospital room remained dark and the sounds of the city were muted. She shifted and was heartened to note that she felt slightly better, but the feeling of menace was palpable. She glanced around the room, but nothing seemed out of place. The tray holding the cup with the ice cubes remained by her bed, the IV needle still dug into her hand, and the faucet at the bathroom sink still dripped.
She reached out to the cup and shook an ice chip into her mouth. That’s when she heard it. A footfall. Stealthy. In the hall.
“Sir, who are you? This is an isolation floor.” The nurse’s voice rang out. Russell didn’t think. She pulled the needle out of her hand, wincing at the welling blood, flung the bedclothes away and rolled off the bed on the side away from the door. What she didn’t count on was that her legs wouldn’t support her. They collapsed and she hit the linoleum, hard. She lay flat and shifted under the bed. Not hard to do as the bed frame was elevated two feet off the floor. If it wasn’t dark in the room, any intruder would easily have seen her.
A pair of men’s wingtips appeared in the doorway and took one step into the room. Russell held her breath, waiting.
“Sir,” she heard the nurse say again, this time close. Russell watched the shoes turn as the intruder walked out. He paused in the entrance before carefully stepping left, out of Russell’s vision. Russell put her cheek against the linoleum and rested there. She didn’t think she had the energy to move just yet.
She heard the man’s shoes as he went down the hall and the murmuring of voices. After a moment the floor went silent once again. The muted sounds of the city and the dripping bathroom sink returned to her consciousness. There was a pinging sound as the elevator doors opened.
Russell saw a pair of feet encased in women’s running shoes step into the entrance.
“Ms. Russell?” Wendel said. Russell was relieved to hear her voice.
“Under here,” Russell replied. Wendel crouched down and peered under the bed. She wore a mask on her face to filter out bacteria. Russell inhaled deeply and almost instantly regretted it. The floor stank of antiseptic and dust.
“What are you doing under there?” Wendel said.
Russell rolled back the other way and sat up. Her eyes started to go black and dots appeared. She felt rather than saw Wendel brace her.
“I heard someone lurking outside the room and dropped and rolled to hide. Instinct, I guess. Why are you here?” Russell said.
“Thank God for your instincts. We need to get out of here. Now,” Wendel said.
“What’s the matter?”
“Your friend Marty says that the CIA mole is feeding information on Smith and Nolan to a prepaid phone that he then tracked here. He called me at the New York office, and I rushed over as soon as he did.”
Russell wished she could have seen the face of the owner of the wingtips. When she found out who the mole was, she was going to ensure that he or she never saw the outside of a prison again.
“Please go talk to the nurse. Get a description of the man in wingtips. See if he signed in on the floor.”
Wendel nodded. “Can you sit without my help?”
Russell leaned back against the bed frame. “Yes.” Wendel left. After a couple of minutes, she was back.
“There is no nurse. And the last person who signed in was over four hours ago.”
“There was a nurse only a few minutes ago. She confronted the man.”
“Well, there’s no one now. Perhaps she went to the coffee room or to get something.”
Or perhaps the man silenced her. Russell shook off the thought. There would be no reason to bother with the nurse. The man hadn’t signed in, and the hospital didn’t have cameras on the floor. He wouldn’t be at risk of discovery.
“What does Marty have to say about the time delay?”
“The proprietary system is absolutely being tampered with from the inside. He also says that the mole may be onto the fact that you’re suspicious because he tried to counter some of Marty’s probes.” Wendel waved a hand in the air. “I don’t understand the details, but Marty was using your passcode to gain inside access and another person started cyberstalking him.” Wendel inhaled. “And that’s not all.” Russell’s eyes cleared and she was heartened to notice that she felt better once sitting.
“There’s more?” Russell said.
Wendel nodded. “Your tests came back positive for a respiratory virus related to the avian strain.” Russell hated that, but felt a resignation flow over her.
“I can’t say that I’m surprised. Can this one be treated?”
Wendel shook her head.
“What’s the fatality rate?”
Wendel clamped her lips shut.
“That good, huh?” Russell said. “How contagious am I?”
“It’s not easily transmitted human-to-human, but if it is, they say two to five days, depending on the person. Your doctor seems to think that you’re no longer contagious.”
Russell sighed. “How long have I been here?”
“Thirty-six hours.”
“You should leave.”
Wendel shook her head. “I’m not worried about catching it.”
“You should be. The doctor could be wrong. Especially if I have the mutated version.”
“You don’t.”
Russell paused. “What do you mean?”
“You don’t. It’s a variant, but not mutated.”
Russell almost sagged in relief. Misplaced relief, she knew, because traditional bird flu was deadly enough, but she would have felt worse if she knew that she had been Patient Number One for a deadly mutated virus.
“I think it has something to do with Dattar. All of it. I think he had someone infect you. Maybe this mole,” Wendel said.
Russell nodded. Wendel had finally put into words what Russell had feared since the moment she became ill. She gave a weak wave in the general direction of the metal locker across the room that acted as a closet.
“I’ll need my clothes and phone.”
Wendel nodded and glanced at her watch. “If the night nurse had been here, she would be scheduled to take a fifteen-minute break in two minutes. The second nurse will begin her rounds at the same time. That will last twenty and the main desk will be empty.” She left Russell’s line of sight. Seconds later Russell heard the locker door creak open. She clutched the top of the mattress and used it to pull herself upright, turned and sat on the edge of the bed. Wendel handed her the phone and placed the clothes next to her. Russell reached for them, but the idea of putting them on felt overwhelming.
“Can you help? I’m ridiculously weak.”
Wendel braced her as she dressed.
“Are there any medications you want to bring?” Wendel asked.
“They’ve had me on a saline drip. Nothing else.”
Wendel looked at her watch. “Wait here.” She went to the doorway and peered around the corner. She spun and came back to Russell. “It’s clear.” Russell wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “I don’t think the elevators are safe. They all open onto the main floor facing a security station on the lower level.”