And now, an hour later, all was told. But despite everyone’s dumbfounded horror, it still did not feel real. Arianna looked around her living room at her wooden bookshelves, flat-screen television, glass table, leather couch, and white fur area rug. Only two days prior, the table had held a bottle of champagne, and she and Sam had clinked glasses, toasting “to life and to progress.” It seemed impossible that today this same room could be the backdrop to whispered fears and worried looks.
Megan finally spoke first, her voice low. “Ar, it’s not safe for you here anymore.”
“What do you mean here?”
“I mean, in this apartment, in your clinic, anywhere they can get to you. They’re not going to stop pursuing you until they get what they want. Isn’t that what Trent told you?”
Arianna nodded. “He said it didn’t look like they were going to stop anytime soon.”
“She’s right,” Sam said. “You can’t stay here. It’s only a matter of time before they find some reason to arrest you on a technicality, and then that’s it, once they have you, they’ll never let go.” He gestured wildly, the veins in his forehead bulging. “To hell with freedom! This is post-liberal America, the renaissance of the Dark Ages!”
“Shhh, Sam,” Arianna whispered. “You’re getting too excited.”
“You should be this excited!” he whispered back loudly.
She nodded at Sam and Megan on the couch, while speaking to the Ericsons, whom she could always count on to balance Sam’s outbursts. “They might have a point. But I would hate to leave home. What do you think?”
She braced for their response.
Dr. Ericson removed his knuckle from his clenched jaw. “I think they’re absolutely right.”
Her heart plummeted. “You do?”
“If you want any hope of recovering in peace, you’ve got to get out of here. And I think we do, too.” He turned to look at his wife.
Emily nodded sadly. “Once they manage to pin you down, they’ll turn to us. But I hate to abandon our patients.…”
“We won’t be,” Dr Ericson said. “The DEP will find a reason to shut the clinic down anyway. I’ve been thinking that our days there are numbered, ever since that inspector started showing up every day. I just didn’t realize how seriously they had it in for you.”
“Apparently there’s a lot at stake for them,” Arianna explained morosely. “They’re in danger of losing state funding unless they pull off some major disciplinary action, and I’m their only lead.”
“Then the three of us should seriously consider making a run for it.” Dr. Ericson looked grave, graver than she had ever seen. “I don’t know how else to avoid the inevitable.”
“What about me?” Sam piped up. “I’m not exactly beyond liability.”
“But they don’t know about you,” Arianna pointed out.
“No. But what the hell am I going to do here? I want to be able to see the results of my work!”
“Okay, Sam, keep it down,” Arianna whispered. She looked at Megan wistfully. “I don’t want to leave you.”
“Just because I’d stay behind doesn’t mean I wouldn’t see you, right?” Megan said. “Anyway where are you planning on going?”
Arianna sucked in a deep breath, forcing herself to abandon emotion for pragmatism. “I don’t know. We have a lot of logistics to figure out now. First of all, if we’re really going to leave, the soonest we can go is after the transfer on Friday night.”
“We could leave straight from the clinic,” Dr. Ericson suggested. “But where to?”
The group looked at one another in silent bewilderment.
“It would have to be somewhere nearby,” Emily said. “At least, accessible by car. So we don’t leave a paper trail.”
Arianna nodded, yearning for the days of relative anonymity, when one could board public transportation with nothing but a ticket; it was becoming hard to remember that she used to get around without showing her U.S. identification card, a magnetic log of her subway, bus, train, and plane trips.
“Do we know anyone trustworthy who has a vacation home that they would let us use for a while?” she asked.
Megan held up a finger with sudden eagerness. “My friend has a cabin in the Catskills. Belleayre Mountain. It’s about three hours north of the city. She used to go skiing there, but after she had knee surgery a few years ago, she stopped going.”
“How rural is it?” Dr. Ericson asked.
“Very. I don’t think that many people live there. It’s mostly a resort town.”
Arianna shook her head. “Then we would stick out too easily, especially once they started to look for us. Which brings up another major problem. How are we going to get Dopp off my trail long enough for me to have the transfer and then flee?”
“Good question,” Sam noted.
“What if you could just do the transfer here?” Megan asked the doctors. “Then we wouldn’t have to worry about Dopp following her anywhere.”
“I wish,” Dr. Ericson replied. “But we need so much equipment: the heart and blood pressure monitors, the IV drip machine, the bag drainage stand. Not to mention the sterile environment of the clinic.”
“All of our supplies are on hand there, too,” Emily added. “Every drug and emergency tool that we need for surgery. It would be impossible to move it all.”
“Plus we’d still have to get rid of Dopp afterwards,” Sam grumbled.
Megan looked dejected, and Arianna shot her a resigned look; she had known from the start that there was no way to get around using the clinic.
“First, let’s figure out where to go,” Emily said. “There has to be someplace where we can blend in, especially in a city with nine million people!”
“You could be on to something,” Arianna mused. “The best place to hide might be in plain sight.”
“Like a different part of the city,” Megan said. “Another borough, maybe.”
Sam cleared his throat, and then gave a long sigh.
“What?” Arianna prompted.
“Well,” he said, “it’s not in another borough. But almost.”
“What is?”
He looked both apologetic and uncomfortable. “I never told you this, but I still own an apartment in Harlem.
