The supervising nurse knocked gently and stepped in as David was pulling on his socks. She was a bottle blonde, tall and thin, about twice his age. He had to straighten up to breathe and let the pain subside every few seconds.
"Let me help you," she said, clearly Scandinavian, kneeling and putting on his socks and shoes and tying them. David was so overwhelmed he nearly wept. Could she be a Christian? He wanted to ask. Anyone with a servant spirit like that was either a believer or a candidate. "Ma'am," he said, trying to remember to talk softly. She looked up at him and he studied her forehead, searching, hoping for the mark of the believer. None. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," she said quickly. "Happy to help and wish I could help more. If I had my way, you would be with us a couple more days at least, maybe more." "I'd just as soon leave. I-"
"Oh, I'm sure you would. No one wants to stay, and who can blame them? All the excitement, the resurrection, and all. But the potentate has called a meeting of directors and above, his office, at 2200 hours. You are expected." "I am?"
"When his office was told you had succumbed to the heat and had been injured and operated on, we were informed that if you were alive and ambulatory, you were to be there." "I see."
"I'm glad someone does. You, sir, should be a patient. I wouldn't be running around so soon-"
"I was told this was superficial, minor surgery."
"Minor surgery is an operation on someone else. You've heard that, I'm sure. You know a nurse did the procedure, and good as she was, she was pressed into duty-"
"Do you know who that was? I'm pretty sure she was Native-"
"Hannah Palemoon," she said.
"I wonder if she's got my phone. It was in my-"
"I doubt it, Director. You'll find your wallet and keys and ID unmolested. We know better than to confiscate things from someone at your level."
"I appreciate that, but-"
"No one took your phone, sir. Could you have dropped it where you fell, left it in your vehicle?"
David cocked his head. Possible, but unlikely. He had not been talking on the phone when he fell, best he could remember, so it would have been in his pocket. "Where would I find Nurse Palem-"
"I told you, Director. She would not have your phone, and I'm not going to tell you where she is. We're working twenty-four on and twenty-four off here, and she's off. If she's like me, she sleeps the first twelve of those twenty-four hours off, and she ought to be allowed to."
David nodded, but he couldn't wait to get back to his computer and look her up in the personnel directory. "Ma'am, I have to find an employee I'm worried about. Name's Annie Christopher. Cargo chief of the Phoenix but assigned crowd control at sector 53 today."
"That's not good."
"So I've heard. Lightning there?"
"Bad. Several deaths and injuries. I can check to see if she's in our system. You might check the morgue." David flinched. "I'd appreciate it if you'd check your system."
"I will, sir. Then you had better get to your quarters and relax before your meeting. You know as well as I do you're in no condition to be sitting at a table, thrilling as it may be to meet with a man who was dead this morning and is alive tonight. Follow me." She led him to the nurses' station, where she searched the computer. "No Christopher," she said, "but our entries have been hopelessly delayed."
"She would have had an employee badge," David said. "And it should have been swiped by a wand." "So the morgue?" he said, again trying to cover his emotion.
"Look on the bright side," she said. "Maybe she wasn't a victim at all."
That would almost be worse, David decided. Why could he not reach her, and why would she not have tried to reach him? Well, maybe she had. He had to find his phone before the meeting.
"Nothing," Rayford said. "David hasn't accessed his computer for hours, and I'm getting no answer on his phone. Now it's not even letting me leave a message, as it he's turned it off."
"Strange," Albie said. "So Pueblo doesn't even know we're coming."
"And we're not going if we don't know where it is."
"We'll find out."
"You're a resourceful guy, Albie, but-"
"I love the impossible. But you're the boss. I need your permission."
"What's your plan?"
"To find out if your new look and ID work."
"Oh, boy."
"C'mon, man. Confidence."
"The plan, Albie."
"I'll be the ranking officer down there. I blame the computer delay on all the excitement or the incompetence in New Babylon. Who can argue that? You're with me. If they demand ID, you've got it. You're no longer just a civilian helping out, though. You're a recruit, a trainee."
"Uh-huh."
"Not only do I insist on a car, but I'll get out of them the location of the bunker."
"This I've got to see."
"I love showing off."
Rayford slapped Albie's computer shut. "Tell me about it."
Kenny Bruce tried to tug Buck toward the barrier, as if knowing his dad could get him past it. But Buck was anchored to the bed. He felt as if he'd survived a plane crash. Or hadn't. It was as if his spine were compacted, every muscle, bone, joint, and tendon tender. He sat there trying to muster the strength to rise and stretch and make his way to his wife and the others.
Kenny, apparently resigned to patience, climbed onto his father's lap and put a hand on each side of his face. He looked into Buck's eyes and said, "Mama?"
"We'll see Mama in a minute, hon," Buck said. Kenny traced Buck's deep facial scars with his stubby fingers. "They don't bother you, do they, bud." "Da-da," Kenny said. "Mama."
Presently Buck rose, lifting Kenny as he went. The boy spread his legs and settled in over Buck's hip, his arms around him, head on Buck's chest. "Wish I could take you with me everywhere I go," Buck said, limping, stiff legged, and gimpy. "Mama, Da-da." "Yep. We're goin', bud."
Buck prepared himself for the always embarrassing welcome saved for the last person to rise, but when he came into view of everyone else in the safe house, he was virtually ignored. Leah sat bundled in a robe, leaning back against a wall, dozing, her bleached-blonde hair with red roots wrapped in a towel. Chaim stared at the tabletop before him, his head in his hands, a straw in his coffee cup. Tsion stood beside a window, out of view from the outside just in case, head bowed, softly praying.
Chloe paced, phone pressed to her ear, tears streaming. She looked directly into Buck's eyes as if to let him know she was aware he was there, and when Kenny tried to wriggle down to get to her, Buck whispered, "Stay with Daddy a minute, hmm?"
Chloe was saying, "I understand, Zeke… I know, sweetie, I know. God knows… It'll be all right. We'll come get you, don't you worry… Zeke, God knows…, It'll be after dark, but you stay strong, hear?"
She finally rang off, and everyone looked to her. "Big Zeke was busted," she said.
"Zeke Sr.?" Tsion asked. Zeke Jr. was much bigger than his father, but still they were known as Big Zeke and Little Zeke.
She nodded. "GC goons got him this morning, cuffed him, charged him with subversion, took him away."
"How'd they miss Zeke Jr.?" Buck asked, finally letting Kenny down.
"Zeke!" Kenny said, giggling.
Chloe shrugged. "Their underground was better hidden than ours, and I don't think Little Zeke ever showed his face outside." "Zeke! "Kenny said. "Little Zeke coming here?" Leah said. "Where else would he go? He says GC is staking out the place, picking up people who stop for gas." "How's he know?"