Cassandra shook her head. “I doubt anybody pays much attention to this place, including Dr. Avila. But we’re here to find out, right?”
Fabi examined the latch on a window. “That’s right,” she said, reaching into her pocket and producing a nail file.
“Seriously, girl?” Cassandra sounded concerned.
“Just look around, make sure no one’s coming. I’ll have us in in a… got it!”
“Already?”
“Yeah, that was even easier than I thought.” She pulled the window open, noting the lack of a screen. “Now I need a boost.”
Cassandra held her hands together and interlaced her fingers so that Fabi could step on them. She boosted her up onto the window sill until Fabi could swing a leg over. A minute later, Fabi opened the front door and stuck her head out. “Come on in.”
Cassandra entered the clinic and they closed and locked the door behind them. Not wanting the room lights to draw attention from outside, Fabi again relied upon her keychain flashlight. Cassandra led Fabi on a tour of the facility based on what she knew of the layout from previous visits, but it didn’t take long.
“That’s it?” Fabi asked, playing her beam along the walls.
“Told you this place isn’t much, Fabi. Still not exactly sure what we’re hoping to find, but…”
“Wait, hold on.”
“Somebody coming?” Cassandra looked around.
“No, no. I mean, something’s not right with this building — the building itself.”
“Well yeah, it’s old, dirty, falling apart in places, you can pick the windows open with a nail file…”
“No, that’s not it, I mean look at this.” She shone the flashlight on the far wall of the patient room in which they stood. “See how this wall ends here…”
“Uh, yeah?”
“Well, there’s no way this wall corresponds to the outer wall of the building. When we were standing outside, we weren’t just on the other side of this wall right here, we had to be at least another ten feet away.”
Cassandra shook her head. “Fabi, building codes here are not what they are in the states. It’s anything goes. No permits, no licensing, nothing.”
“No way this wall here matches up with the outer dimensions. So what’s in the space in between?”
Cassandra threw her arms up. “Wild animals, probably. Spiders. Who cares?”
Fabi paused the flashlight beam on a bookshelf containing procedural manuals against the wall, and now she walked to it. She shone the beam behind the case, up to the ceiling and back down. Then, while Cassandra continued to question her sanity, she pulled on one end of the bookcase. The bookcase swung toward her, eliciting a gasp from Cassandra.
“Told ya.” Behind the bookcase was a door.
“That door is locked, though, and this one doesn’t look like your nail file is going to do it.”
They examined the door lock. An electronic, alphanumeric keypad was embedded in the metal door. A green LED in one corner of the keypad indicated it had power. Fabi traced the outline of the door with her light and saw that her coworker was right. This was a serious piece of construction; the only way in was through that keypad. She put the light beam on it while considering the possibilities.
Cassandra shook her head. “Oh no. I see your wheels turning, girl. Don’t even think about it. If you get the code wrong too many times, an alarm could go off.”
“One try. Just give me one try…” She was staring intently at the keypad, the keys labeled 1, with ABC, 2, DEF…
“What, you’re just going to put in some random numbers?”
“Definitely not. This thing is letters and numbers. Let’s go with some kind of code word that would be easy to remember. That’s how most people set up passwords.”
“Okay, so what’s the password?”
“Well, unless you have a better idea, I can only think of one that makes any sense: the project name.”
Cassandra’s eyes widened. “HAITI?”
Fabi moved her finger carefully across the keypad, depressing the key corresponding to each letter of the name. An LED flashed red each time she pressed a button. “… T… I… Enter.”
The keypad LED flashed yellow and then went to a steady green. They heard no sound of any kind, but Fabi pushed on the door and sucked in her breath as it swung inward, into a new room.
Deciding that since it was contained within the outer and inner walls of the building, it was safe to turn overhead lights on, Fabi flipped up the light switch she found next to the door. Racks of fluorescent tube lighting flickered to life on the ceiling.
Cassandra could not stifle a gasp. “Oh my God.”
Clearly, they were now in a laboratory of some sophistication. Lab benches supporting modern instruments such as computers, stereomicroscopes, centrifuges and spectrophotometers ran wall-to-wall. Fabi turned to look at her friend.
“Looks like this little clinic isn’t so small after all. Now you tell me… why would Dr. Avila want to hide all this?”
Cassandra looked around the room. “I have no idea just by looking at this stuff what he’s up to in here.”
But Fabi was already in motion, heading toward one end of the lab. “I have a feeling this lab isn’t the only hidden room. I’m betting this concealed space follows the entire perimeter of the building, between the outer building wall and the inner room wall. Let’s check it out.”
“Sure, why not? That attitude hasn’t gotten us into any trouble so far…” Cassandra followed Fabi to the end of the lab. Sure enough, Fabi turned the corner and walked into another space hidden between walls.
Although the overhead lights weren’t on in this section yet, there was light emanating from a series of plant grow lights suspended from the ceiling but hanging low over a bed of fern-like plants.
“Now this is just plain weird.” Fabi made eye contact with Cassandra. “Tell me, what does growing plants have to do with running a health clinic?”
Cassandra shrugged and shook her head. “Certain kinds of plants might have some purpose, if you get my drift, but ferns? I have no idea. Fabi, listen, maybe we should go. We’ve seen more than enough to know something is going on. We can think about how to bring it up with Dr. Avila on Monday.”
“Let me just see what’s around this corner here and then we’ll go, all right?”
Reluctantly, Cassandra followed Fabi into the new area. This one was dimly lit with nightlight-style bulbs, but it was enough to see that they had entered a patient care area. Two rows of cots were lined up in the center of the room, with people dozing on each of them.
“What is this? This is not an area suitable for housing patients.” Cassandra sounded livid. She moved about the cots. “And look: these people are restrained!”
“These over here, too. They all are,” Fabi confirmed.
“Oh my God! I recognize this one. This is a former patient of mine.” She went to the cot and stooped to get a better look at the woman, a local Haitian of middle age. Fabi joined her friend at the cot as she attempted to wake the patient.
“Mrs. Rameau? It’s me, Cassandra Damas. Wake up, please.”
The woman stirred against her restraints — both wrists and ankles secured with thick leather cuffs to the frame of the bed.
“Why do you think they have her restrained?” Fabi wondered.
“Sometimes it’s done to protect the patient from themselves, but I’ve never known Mrs. Rameau to be that way. Plus, all of the patients here are restrained.”
Suddenly Mrs. Rameau bent at the waist and sat bolt upright. Her eyes opened wide and she leaned in to Cassandra.
“It’s okay, Mrs. Rameau, I’m here to help you.”
The patient thrust her head at Cassandra’s arm. She pulled away just as Rameau’s teeth snapped hard shut.