Rod nodded and opened the door to the patient floor. “Okay. Let’s be very quiet and sneak a quick peek.”
“Not that I’d be much help, anyway,” Mike muttered. “Especially if Omar’s has these strange supernatural powers and decides to kill us both.”
Rod surprised him by laughing. “Two birds with one stone. How could he resist? Except he has nothing against you, Mike. Maybe he’ll let you survive.”
“Very funny,” Mike said under his breath, but he realized he really liked Rod. The guy hijacked his company’s Lear Jet all the way from Japan to rescue his girlfriend in Mexico. He’d risked his job with a big corporation. It was an audacious and hazardous undertaking, to free the woman he loved from a madman.
When they got on the patient floor Rod indicated to the left. Mike understood that he’d be checking all the rooms on that side. Rod would do the other side.
It didn’t take long.
“Did you see her?” Rod asked Mike.
He shook his head. “I think I saw Leilanie, the little Hawaiian girl who was implanted with three embryos. The room next to hers was empty, so I believe that’s where Michelle was.”
They snuck by the nursing station in the middle of the hallway. When the nurse asked crossly who they were and where they were going, they didn’t answer.
“Michelle’s probably trying to run away from Omar,” Rod whispered, when they got past the nurse. “Taking advantage of the dark, like we are.”
They nodded at each other and ran for the stairs. “She’ll have to be somewhere in here,” Rod said.
If Omar didn’t get to her already, Mike thought, but he didn’t say anything.
They started down again. Abruptly, all the lights went on, almost blinding them with brilliance, since their eyes had adjusted to darkness. They were both blinking and squinting as they jogged down.
Mike tentatively touched the stair railing with one finger. It was vaguely warm, but felt soft, like the metal had lost its firmness. He didn’t feel it was safe to hold onto.
When they got to where Heather and Vincent were sitting, Rod told them that Michelle wasn’t in her room on the tenth floor, and Lucifer was still missing.
“Maybe she got past us down stairs while we freed Mike from the elevator,” Heather said.
They went down fast, hoping to encounter Michelle, but when they got to the bottom and came out into the Lobby they hadn’t found her.
There were quite a few people in the lobby now. Several maintenance men, by the look of their outfits, hospital staff workers, and people carrying in electrical equipment with long electrical cords dangling all over the place. Electricians were on ladders, checking the light fixtures. There were two policemen in the lobby as well.
Rod immediately went to the front desk and asked Julie if she’d seen Michelle.
She gave him a brilliant smile. “No. No patients came down here. But Mr. Satinov went upstairs to find you all.” When she mentioned Omar’s name her lips drew up in a dreamy smile and her cheeks got hot pink.
Yuck, another one bites the dust, Heather thought. Sometimes it’s embarrassing to be female. How anyone of her gender could be attracted to Omar was a mystery to her. He might be extraordinarily handsome, but she’d found him creepy the first time she’d met him in Hawaii.
“Must have missed Omar,” Rod said, easily. “We went to the tenth floor, where Dr. Franz said Michelle’s room was, but couldn’t find her.”
“Maybe Mr. Satinov took her to his room on the third floor.”
“He’s staying here?” Rod asked.
“Yes. You can visit him tomorrow, if you’d like. We finally got all the lights and electricity on in our building. The equipment was fried. The police are here because they believe it’s sabotage.”
“Do you have a pen and some paper?” Rod asked. “I want to send a note to, ah, to Mrs. Satinov. It’s a surprise for her husband, so the note’s ‘For her eyes only.’”
Julie smiled. “They’re such a wonderful couple. Of course. I’ll make sure it gets to her.”
Vincent watched Rod write something down on a pad of paper. Rod folded the paper in half and handed it to Julie. Then Vincent whispered, “Time to go.” He nodded in the direction of the policemen, who were looking at the four of them with acute interest.
Since they were the only non-hospital people on the premises, and had been there at the time the electricity went out, Vincent’s assessment seemed prudent.
The most vital fact for retreating now, though, was that Omar knew they were here.
Julie turned to Mike. “Dr. Franz said to tell you he’d be here to see you tomorrow about your patient, Mrs. Satinov. Right now he’s extremely busy, checking on his surgical patients.”
The four started walking to the door.
“Michelle’s right here, somewhere in this building. This is so frustrating,” Heather whispered. She could almost feel the speculative eyes of the policemen imprint on her back as she went past them.
When they got outside, they huddled together.
“What did you say in the note for Michelle?” Heather asked Rod.
“I told her we all were here in Mexico. Said her father, the professor, could hardly wait to see her. I said her doctor, Mike Kapahu, came from Hawaii to see how she was doing. I told her we wanted her safe and well and back in Hawaii.”
“Sounds good,” Heather said. “At least she’ll know we’re here and who we’re supposed to be. She must be so scared right now.”
“Any ideas about what else we can do?” Rod asked.
“We might be able to go into the regular hospital behind this clinic,” Mike said. “Cross the bridge from there and come back into the fertility clinic that way. I left the door blocked open, so it’s unlocked.”
“It might have worked if the lights were still out. But we’ll be noticed, and probably thrown out, this late at night,” Vincent said.
Rod sighed. “I think Omar found Michelle and hid her. Maybe in his own room.
