Page 14 of Resolution
He got a static-like response from her on the com, although she kept her face expressionless and verbally engaged with Dr. Sharpton on the patient’s medical condition. Melly might not be a trained agent but he was proud of her ability to support this intel-seeking mission. He appreciated the fact she’d been willing to sign up for it and wished he hadn’t been obliged to ask her to come along.
“The general is coming,” Captain Briskinn announced as Frawkins reached the exam room and the medical staff went into a frenzy of activity around him. The patient gave a groan Jeff attributed to the news Quantike was going to make a personal appearance. He’d bet anything the senior officer wasn’t coming to express his sympathy.
* * *
Watching the activity in the exam room, Tamsyn backed carefully into the hall. She wasn’t needed for any of this. Dr. Sharpton had ordered the entire staff to attend the arrival of the injured man, who was apparently of high importance, but now she’d only be in the way. With the general coming, all three of the nurses acted determined to remain and be a part of the scene.
This was her chance to plant Cody’s bug in Dr. Sharpton’s computer if she could get into the office.
Once she’d walked leisurely down the hall, although her nerves were strung tight and she wanted to run, Tamsyn turned into the cross corridor and made her way to Sharpton’s office. As she’d hoped, the door was slightly ajar. He’d been complaining the hinges were being balky and when the news about Frawkins broke, he’d hastened to the front of the building, not waiting to be sure the door fully closed. Taking a deep breath, feeling like she was having an out of body experience or a waking nightmare, Tamsyn pushed the door open. She half expected an alarm to go off but there was silence. His desktop unit sat glowing on the big, battered desk and she rushed to it.
Cody?
“Here, sweetheart. What’s up?
I’m going to plant your bug. She drew a fingernail over the slight bump in her skin where the tiny instrument had been implanted and saw a black dot surface. Touching it gently with a fingertip so the device could cling, she slowly brought it closer to the desktop.
Get the bug anywhere close to a data port and it’ll do the rest, Cody assured her. Then get the seven hells out of wherever you are right now. Don’t wait to see if it succeeds. I’ll let you know.
Trembling, Tamsyn stuck her fingertip into the edge of what she hoped was an input/output sensor and squinted as the tiny black dot rolled off her nail and disappeared. Heart pounding she backed away, pivoted and ran to the doorway. Slipping into the hall she pulled the door to the position she’d found it and gave the knob a quick swipe with the hem of her tunic. She made herself walk away toward the lobby where she found one patient waiting.
“I’m sorry for the delay but we have an emergency going on,” she said to the man. “I hope you haven’t been here long?”
He gave her a smile and showed her his arm, which had a deep cut . “Hurt myself in the damn agro barn this morning, working on a harvester robo.”
“I can take care of it for you if you’ll come this way.” Tamsyn led him to the exam room which was furthest from Frawkins’s and set about decontaminating the wound, cleaning it and sealing the skin after administering antibiotics. She was allowed to function under Melly’s ‘supervision’ and no one had questioned her too deeply about what exactly her medical qualifications might be. They’d taken Melly’s word for it and she’d demonstrated her skill with minor things like this. She’d done first aid on her ranch hands at the Double Comets spread over the years. The grateful man thanked her, took his aftercare instructions, asked her out on a date which she politely refused and left.
As she cleaned the room for the next patient, she reached out to Cody. Well? Did the bug take?
For sure. I’m linked now but after the first few layers I’ve never seen anything like this before. Her husband sounded troubled, which surprised Tamsyn. I’m scraping intel from the camp in general but the information tree I most want to access is partitioned off and locked with so many barricades it’s going to take a while. Sorry if I sound distracted. No one saw you, did they?
No. And there aren’t any internal vid monitors here.
That you know of. I’ve already been to the central security system and scrubbed the surveillance records.
Tamsyn got the chills at the idea there had been a record of her entering the doctor’s office.
Not to worry—I’m not letting anything happen to you, sweetheart. If I can crack this damn interface and get what we need, I’ll tell Jeff it’s time for all three of you to exfiltrate that crazy place. I love you.
Love you too. I’ve got walk in patients waiting so I’d better go. Tamsyn wanted to keep talking to Cody—she missed him fiercely—but he needed to concentrate on his hacking and she couldn’t deal with people and talk to him subaurally. She hadn’t been using the com long enough to get good at it, not like the soldiers were. Pasting a pleasant expression on her face, she advanced to the reception desk and prepared to cope with the three patients who’d walked in.
* * *
General Quantike arrived in a military groundcar with another full of security guards escorting him, which Jeff found interesting. The man didn’t feel safe in his own camp apparently. He swaggered into the exam room, snapping off a salute to answer the one he received from Jeff and everyone else. “Clear the room,” he ordered Dr. Sharpton while glaring at Frawkins.
“Dr. Jericho, I believe you can go now,” the chief medical officer said. “There are probably patients waiting.”
Melly nodded, decontammed her hands and left the room with only a glance for Jeff. The three nurses trailed after her. The other guards had remained outside the room once Frawkins had been placed in the bed.
“Captain Pearson, thank you for your bravery and efforts above and beyond today,” the general said, flicking his eyes at Jeff briefly before resuming his scrutiny of the injured man. Frawkins moaned and shifted uneasily under the sheets as if the general’s stare was a physical assault. “Take your post outside the door and make sure we’re not interrupted.”
“Yes, sir.” Jeff saluted again, executed a crisp pivot on his heel as if he was on a parade ground and left the room. The general’s security detachment filled the hall so he certainly wasn’t needed but took up a position next to the door beside a hulking soldier armed to the teeth. He noted the man had one of the bracelets on his wrist.
The portal had closed behind him but with his enhanced hearing, Jeff could make out most of what was being said inside the room. The general read Frawkins the riot act for doing drugs, going out on the wall while high and most of all for demonstrating to anyone with sharp enough eyes what the bracelet did to inactivate the infected.
“It’s this place, sir,” Frawkins pleaded at one point, his voice trembling and broken. “I don’t care what the bracelet tech does. Knowing we’re trapped here, ringed by thousands of those things, listening to their constant moans and shrieks—it tears at a man, sir. I took something to calm my nerves and yeah maybe it didn’t come from Dr. Sharpton here, discipline me for the lapse, but at least I felt free. I was completely myself for the first time since we came to this fucking place.”
“And you’ll be telling us all about who supplied you with the feelgood in a minute,” General Quantike said. “But I need to hear your apology for breaking ranks, violating the security agreements about the individual protection devices, setting a deplorable example—you were my closest aide, man. How do you think this will affect morale once word gets out? And it will. This camp runs on gossip.”
