“Oh…Troubadour?! Kind of fits, don’t you think?”
“You could’ve called me much worse, so I’ll take it,” he laughed.
“Believe me, I did—on more than one occasion,” Naomi grinned. “Call you something worse, I mean.”
“I don’t doubt it.”
“So, are we going to see more of you again?” Naomi challenged him.
“You sure will.”
He signaled the waiter when Julia came running out into the courtyard.
“We’ve gotta go. Your friend is out of the catacombs, and he’s at the hospital right now. Come quickly. Alexander is meeting us there. I told the front desk to call a taxi for us.”
CHAPTER 33
Stella—July 2018
“I
s there another route you can take?” Naomi tapped the taxi driver on his shoulder. “We’ve been sitting here for an eternity!”
“Traffic is bad,” came the short answer in heavily accented English before he pointed to a sign above his visor. ‘Do not talk to driver when vehicle is moving.’
“We aren’t moving,” she scooted out a bit from where she was squeezed between Stella and Julia on the back seat.
The driver let the car crawl forward a few feet.
“Would you like me to drive?” Naomi’s chin almost touched the driver’s seat.
“You want to get out?” he retorted and turned on the radio. French rap music blasted through the taxi.
Stella pulled Naomi back and said, “What did you expect? We’re in the middle of morning rush hour traffic. A few minutes won’t make a difference.”
“Revan’s all by himself, so he might think otherwise,” Naomi hissed and tilted her head in the driver’s direction. “Should I ask him in French? Maybe he doesn’t like Americans. Our taxi driver last weekend was so much friendlier.”
The driver muttered something and turned up the volume on the radio—this time to near earsplitting levels.
Julia reached for Naomi’s hand and held it. “Revan’s safe now. And we won’t go away until they let you and Stella see him for a few minutes.”
After an agonizing twenty minutes, the driver pulled into the drop-off area in front of the hospital’s main entrance. Naomi glared at him through his rearview mirror and yelled over the music, “Are you sure this is the entrance we need? Shouldn’t we go to the Emergency Department?”
“You asked for Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital. This is University Hospital. Twenty-five euros.”
David handed cash to the driver with a short, “Keep the change.”
“You just let this guy rip you off,” Naomi fumed. She slammed the door shut and threw her hands in the air. “It was less than five miles. He shouldn’t have charged more than fifteen.”
“I know. There’s a reason why I gave him exactly twenty-five and told him to keep the change.”
“And it’s still too much tip for the pigheaded ass, but thank you.”
Alexander was waiting for them just inside the sliding glass doors. He shook hands with David and pecked Stella and Naomi’s cheeks. Stella tried to hide a grin when she saw him kiss Julia a little longer than necessary and Julia blushed.
Naomi rolled her eyes and scrunched up her face. “Ahem…sorry to interrupt. But what exactly is our plan? Do you think the information desk will point us right to Revan?”
“I don’t think so. And he might be under police protection, too,” Alexander said.
He was wearing a pair of dark jeans and a light gray polo shirt, and Stella couldn’t help but think he still had the posture and no-nonsense look of a former Special Ops soldier. And, to her great relief, he automatically took charge.
“First we need to find out which department has Revan. My guess is the Emergency Department, but he could also be in Intensive Care. We don’t know what his health condition is.”
Naomi tried to stifle a gasp.
“I suggest we don’t approach the desk as a group. I should go with either Stella or Naomi—someone who has a personal connection to him, even though we won’t give them details unless we have no other choice.”
Naomi pleaded, “Stella, let me go, okay?”
She nodded. “You two go find out where he is, and the rest of us can wait here. I’ll text Luca to let him know what’s going on. At least the little bit we know so far.”
David put his arm around her shoulders and led her and Julia to a table where they had a full view of the entrance area.
As they walked away, Alexander said, “Let me do the talking, Naomi. Just stand there and look desperate.”
Stella watched while Alexander spoke to the youngest of three nurses at the help desk, who shook her head after typing something on her computer. He reached into his pocket, flashed an ID card, and swiftly put it away again.
“What’s going on over there?” she whispered to David. Then she saw Naomi switch a ring from her right hand to her left before she pulled a tissue out of a dispenser on the desk and dabbed at her eyes.
“What’s she doing?” Stella whispered to Julia.
Julia said, “I don’t care, as long as it gets you girls through the first door.”
Stella could hardly sit still when she saw Alexander accept something from the desk nurse and reach for Naomi’s elbow to guide her back.
“How’d it go?” she asked.
“The nurse didn’t want to give me any information, and only reluctantly after I told her I’m working at the US Embassy. Revan’s in the Emergency Department,” he said. “We got three visitors’ passes. Stella, why don’t you come with us? Julia and David, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait here.”
“No problem. I’ll check the news to see if there are any statements from the police,” David said. He kissed Stella and hugged Naomi. “Go get him.”
Stella, Naomi, and Alexander followed the signs directing them deep into the belly of the hospital. Soon, Stella had lost all sense of orientation. The arrows and signs led them down one hallway, around a corner, then up one flight of stairs, down another long hallway. All looking alike, the only difference being the colors of the doors. The whole place reeked of disinfectants and carbolic acid, combined
