“Do people come from America just to go to the hospital?” Jack asked.

Saturnino shrugged. “I don’t know about that,” he said. He took the bills Jack had put on the bar and turned to the cash register.

“Nice try,” Laurie whispered.

“It would have been too easy,” Jack agreed.

Refreshed after their cold drinks, the group headed out into the sunlight. They passed within fifty feet of the soldier who continued to ignore them. After a short walk up a hot cobblestone street, they came to a small green surrounded by plantation-style homes.

“It reminds me of some of the Caribbean Islands,” Laurie said.

Five minutes later, they entered the tree-lined town square. The group of soldiers lolling in front of the town hall diagonally across from where they were standing spoiled the otherwise idyllic tableau.

“Whoa,” Jack said. “There’s a whole battalion.”

“I thought you said that if there were soldiers at the gate they wouldn’t have to have any in the town,” Laurie said.

“I’ve been proved wrong,” Jack acknowledged. “But there’s no need to go over and announce ourselves. This is the hospital lab complex in front of us.”

From the corner of the square, the building appeared to take up most of a Cogo city block. There was an entrance facing the square, but there was also one down the side street to their left. To avoid remaining in view of the lounging soldiers, they went to the side entrance.

“What are you going to say if we’re questioned?” Laurie asked with some concern. “And walking into a hospital, you know it’s bound to happen.”

“I’m going to improvise,” Jack said. He yanked the door open and ushered his friends in with an exaggerated bow.

Laurie glanced at Natalie and Warren and rolled her eyes. At least Jack could still be charming even when he was most exasperating.

After entering the building, everyone shivered with delight. Never had air conditioning felt quite so good. The room they found themselves in appeared to be a lounge, complete with wall-to-wall carpeting, club chairs, and couches. A large bookcase lined one wall. Some of the shelving was on an angle to display an impressive collection of periodicals from Time to National Geographic. There were about a half dozen people sitting in the room, all of them reading.

In the back wall at desk height was an opening fronted with sliding glass panels. Behind the glass a black woman in a blue uniform dress was sitting at a desk. To the right of the opening was a hall with several elevators.

“Could all these people be patients?” Laurie asked.

“Good question,” Jack said. “Somehow, I don’t think so. They all look too healthy and too comfortable. Let’s talk to the secretary or whoever she is.”

Warren and Natalie were intimidated by the hospital environment. They silently followed after Jack and Laurie.

Jack rapped softly on the glass. The woman looked up from her work and slid the glass open.

“Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t see you arrive. Are you checking in?”

“No,” Jack said. “All my bodily functions are working fine at the moment.”

“Excuse me?” the woman questioned.

“We’re here to see the hospital, not use its services,” Jack said. “We’re doctors.”

“This isn’t the hospital,” the woman said. “This is the Inn. You can either go out and come in the front of the building or follow the hall to your right. The hospital is beyond the double doors.”

“Thank you,” Jack said.

“My pleasure,” the woman said. She leaned forward and watched as Jack and the others disappeared around the corner. Perplexed, the woman sat back and picked up her phone.

Jack led the others through the double doors. Immediately, the surroundings looked more familiar. The floors were vinyl and the walls were painted a soothing hospital green. A faint antiseptic smell was detectable.

“This is more like it,” Jack said.

They entered a room whose windows fronted on the square. Between the windows were a large pair of doors leading to the outside. There were a few couches and chairs on area rugs forming distinct conversational groupings, but it was nothing like the lounge they’d initially entered. But like the lounge, this space had a glass-fronted information cubbyhole.

Jack again knocked on the glass. Another woman slid open the glass partition. She was equally as cordial.

“We have a question,” Jack said. “We’re doctors, and we’d like to know if there are currently any transplant patients in the hospital?”

“Yes, of course, there’s one,” the woman said with a confused look on her face. “Horace Winchester. He’s in 302 and ready to be discharged.”

“How convenient,” Jack said. “What organ was transplanted?”

“His liver,” the woman said. “Are you all from the Pittsburgh group?”

“No, we’re part of the New York group,” Jack said.

“I see,” the woman said, although her expression suggested she didn’t see at all.

“Thank you,” Jack said to the woman as he herded the group toward the elevators that could be seen to the right.

“Luck is finally going our way,” Jack said excitedly. “This is going to make it easy. Maybe all we have to do is get a look at the chart.”

“As if that’s going to be easy,” Laurie commented.

“True,” Jack said after a moment’s thought. “So maybe we should just drop in on Horace and get the lowdown from the horse’s mouth.”

“Hey, man,” Warren said, pulling Jack to a stop. “Maybe Natalie and I should wait down here. We’re not used to being in a hospital, you know what I’m saying?”

“I suppose,” Jack said reluctantly. “But I kind of think its important for us to stick together in case we have to mosey down to the canoe sooner than we’d like. You know what I’m saying?”

Warren nodded and Jack pressed the elevator call button.

Cameron McIvers was accustomed to false alarms. After all, most of the time he or the Office of Security was called, it was a false alarm. Accordingly, as he entered the front door of the Inn, he was not concerned. But it was his job or one of his deputies’ to check out all potential problems.

As he crossed to the information desk, Cameron noted that the lounge was as subdued as usual. The calm scene bolstered his suspicions that this call would be like all the others.

Cameron tapped on the glass, and it was slid open.

“Miss Williams,” Cameron said, while touching the brim of his hat in a form of salute. Cameron and the rest of the security force wore khaki uniforms with an Aussie hat when on duty. There was also a leather belt with shoulder strap. A holstered Beretta was attached to the belt on the right side and a hand-held two-way radio on the left side.

“They went that way,” Corrina Williams said excitedly. She lifted herself out of her chair to point around the corner.

“Calm down,” Cameron said gently. “Who exactly are you talking about?”

“They didn’t give any names,” Corrina said. “There were four of them. Only one spoke. He said he was a doctor.”

“Hmmm,” Cameron voiced. “And you’ve never seen them before?”

“Never,” Corrina said anxiously. “They took me by surprise. I thought maybe they were to stay at the Inn since we had new arrivals yesterday. But they said they had come to see the hospital. When I told them how to get there, they left straightaway.”

“Were they black or white?” Cameron asked. Maybe this wouldn’t be a typical false alarm after all.

“Half and half,” Corrina said. “Two blacks, two whites. But I could tell from the way they were dressed they were all American.”

“I see,” Cameron said, while he stroked his beard and pondered the unlikely possibility of any of the Zone’s American workers coming into the Inn to say they wanted to see the hospital.

“The one who was talking also said something strange about his bodily functions working fine,” Corrina said. “I didn’t know how to respond.”