“Go sit there,” Mike whispered, pointing at a work station in front of a microscope. “Act like you’re just checking stuff on the desk. Then grab the lab coat off the chair and put it on.”
Heather nodded. If they were wearing white coats they’d look more like hospital workers.
Her phone buzzed as she pretended to be busy, moving papers around on a bench that held several microscopes, watching Mike from the side of her eyes, at another work space, as he slipped on a lab coat that had been left on a chair.
She glanced at her phone. It was Rod. “Hi Heather.”
“Hi. Did you get the ice?”
“Yeah. We found some dry ice and are on our way to the hotel. The professor knew exactly how to pack up the eggs to keep them the at right temperature. First, we got a sturdy packing box and added dry ice enclosed in plastic pouches around the canister with the eggs. Then Vincent told us to line the box with Styrofoam and aluminum foil to help keep the temperature uniform. Not only that. He called a buddy at San Francisco General Hospital, who will pick up the package when we send it, and store it for us at the hospital there. So Michelle might just have children in the future.”
Rod sounded so happy Heather felt herself smiling.
“That’s great,” Heather said. She believed that Michelle and Rod were meant for each other.
“Yeah, the professor was a great help. I never would have known what to do. How are things going with you and Mike?”
“We’re on the tenth floor of the hospital, in the laboratory that connects to the fertility clinic, waiting for the cleaning crew in here to finish up so we can see if we can get across the bridge. If the door’s locked we’re out of luck.”
“Keep me updated,” Rod said. “If you get across, you can see if Michelle’s back in her room on the tenth floor. If she is, maybe you can sneak her out. Let us know if you need us to come and help. We’ll drop off the eggs in the freezer at our hotel, then come back and pick you two up.”
“Okay,” Heather said and clicked off.
Waiting was tedious, and pretending to be interested in the papers she shuffled through was even more boring. But it looked like the janitorial staff was finally finishing their work about a half hour later, as they straggled out of the office, one by one, when they finished their cleaning duties.
Finally they were alone and Mike went over to Heather.
By mutual accord they didn’t say a word as they went toward the door to the bridge to the fertility clinic. When Mike turned the knob, it opened and he inspected the mechanism. “It looks like it will relock when it closes. We won’t be able to get back in here.”
Mike went out the door so he was standing on the walkway. The door closed automatically behind him. He felt very exposed. Anyone looking out the windows of either the hospital or the fertility clinic could see him. He was glad he had on the white doctor’s coat for superficial inspection if anyone was looking. But the door had locked behind him. He couldn’t get back in.
Heather opened the door and he came back inside the lab.
She went over to a desk and held up some silver adhesive tape that she’d noticed. She handed the roll of tape to Mike and watched while he used it to depress the tongue of the locking mechanism on the door.
Then he made a ball of the tape and set it at the bottom of the doorway so it wouldn’t close completely. It was almost invisible. “Just in case the tape doesn’t hold the lock open.”
Heather nodded. “It’d be embarrassing to get locked out—be stuck all night on the walkway.”
They were both nervous, walking quickly across the bridge to the fertility clinic. Heather felt spectacularly visible with all the hospital windows glaring down above them. It seemed like a long way, although it only took a minute to cross the short stretch.
When they got to the fertility clinic, Mike tried the door. The ruler he had used to block the door open was still there and they went inside.
Mike led the way through the laboratory, pointing out the refrigerated case from which he had taken Michelle’s eggs.
When they reached the stairwell it was quite different than when they had climbed up in total, creepy, shadowy darkness. There were bright florescent overhead lights shining the way. Neither held onto the handrail. It sagged down in places, the black paint was melted away and showed the silver steel underneath, and it sure didn’t look safe. At several places the steel had dripped in puddles down on the steps. For Heather, the observable destruction of that sturdy stair bannister was a reminder of just how powerful Omar was. She shuddered to think of what he could do to a fragile human body if he got angry.
Since it was late and the elevators were working again, they were the only ones using the stairs. They went down two floors to the tenth floor.
Heather opened the door and peeked into the hallway. The nursing center desk for the floor was in the middle of the corridor, with patient rooms on both sides of the corridor. The place where the nurse sat was enclosed by glass, with a door to get into the hallway for the patient’s rooms.
Mike and Heather conferred about how to get to the room where they thought Michelle could be. It was at the other end of the corridor. They’d have to get past the nurse in the middle of the hallway.
Heather watched the nurse for a while. When she seemed preoccupied with paperwork, Heather darted across the hallway into the closest patient room.
Inside, the lights were dim. A young woman was asleep in the bed and Heather
