Poe (22 page)

He stuffed the envelope in his pocket and resumed his journey to the prison.

As was protocol, his first stop was the assistant administrator’s office, where he would check in and learn of anything he might need to know.

He and the assistant administrator, Petro Doroshenko, had developed a friendly relationship that had on more than one occasion extended to drinks away from work.

“I heard Timko is sick,” Petro said. “So you’ve got a long shift in front of you.”

“Not the first time. Anything happen while I was gone?”

“All quiet.”

“Good,” Teterya said, “then I should probably get to the infirmary.” He turned for the door, but then stopped as if he’d just remembered something. “Petro, yesterday evening I was informed that several prisoners had been taken to isolation, but no one told me why. Is there something I need to know? Any medical issues to be aware of?”

“No,” Petro told him. “None that I know of.” He hesitated as if there was something more, but he was unsure whether to say it.

“What?” Teterya asked.

A pause, then, “A rumor, really. I don’t know anything for sure.”

Teterya kept quiet, waiting for him to go on.

“There might be a threat on the life of one of the prisoners who was moved.”

One of the doctor’s eyebrows rose a millimeter. “What’s so different about that? This is a prison. Inmates are threatened all the time.”

“No, no. Apparently this news came from outside. Someone in the prison has been hired to kill her.”

“An assassin?”

Petro kept his mouth shut, but the look on his face said
yes.

“But why? Who is she?”

“A’isha Najem. At least that’s the name she was brought here under. But…” He shrugged his shoulder.

“A false name? Is anyone checking to see who she really is?”

“The warden is handling the investigation personally.” The message was clear. Petro had been cut out of whatever was really going on. “Most of this is just rumor, of course. Best if you don’t share them.”

“Share what?” Teterya said, acting innocent, but feeling anything but as he turned for the door and left.

* * *

A
LEX SAT QUIETLY
for over forty minutes before she heard a new, male voice talking to one of the nurses. When the curtain surrounding her table moved to the side again, she was surprised to see Dr. Teterya.

“My apologies for wait,” he said, his face tense. “The nurse call me because Dr. Timko not feel well, so has gone home.” He sat on the stool Dr. Timko had been using. “You are here for check of arm, correct?”

“That’s right.”

“Please, may I see?”

Alex extended her arm.

Dr. Teterya made a show of giving it a thorough examination. When he was finished, he frowned and shook his head.

“This, I do not like,” he said, pointing at a spot along the wound that looked no different than anywhere else. “Infection, I think. Very dangerous.” He turned toward the closed curtain. “Irina!”

A few seconds later, the nurse was there. Teterya spoke rapidly to her in Ukrainian. She nodded and left quickly.

“You must stay here for watch,” he told Alex. “Maybe go back to cell tonight, but give antibiotics first, see what happen. Okay?”

“Is it serious?” she said, acting worried.

“We treat now. Will be fine. Don’t worry.”

He stood up and disappeared for a moment. When he returned, he had a roll of gauze that he wrapped loosely around her arm, covering up her wound.

“Is painful, yes?” As he said this, he pantomimed cradling one arm in the other.

Alex got the message and mimicked him.

“It hurts like hell,” she said. “What do you think?”

“Because infected. Please, stay here moment. Nurse Irina fix room where you can rest.”

He left again.

So this was how they’d been planning to keep her here. She’d been wondering about that. She wondered also what they had given Dr. Timko to make him so sick. Whatever it was, she was pretty sure he wouldn’t be enjoying life for a while.

Suddenly, the curtain was pulled all the way open.

“Come,” Irina said.

She led Alex through a door at the back of the infirmary, into a large room with cluttered supply shelves along one wall, and three metal doors across the back. Each had a slot window in the upper half that could be closed off with a locking flap.

Irina took Alex to the open door on the left. The room inside was just large enough for a bed, a toilet, and the space needed to get from one to the other. A cell, in other words, for patients required to stay in the infirmary for treatment.

Dr. Teterya was waiting for her next to the bed. “Why you here?”

The sharpness of his tone took Alex by surprise.

“What do you mean?” Alex asked. “We talked about this last night. This is how you’re going to—”

He moved around her so that he was between her and the door. “No. I mean Slavne Prison. Why?”

“To take the other prisoner out. You know that.”

“I think you maybe come to kill her.”

She stared at him for a moment. “What? Why would I kill her? I’m supposed to get her out.”

“I just find out she and friends are in isolation because assassin come here to prison—come to kill her. Is you, isn’t it?”

Alex closed her eyes. Now he made sense. It was only natural, she thought, that once he found out about the assassin he’d think it was her. She had kept the conversation she’d overheard between El-Hashim and the warden to herself.

When she opened her eyes again, she locked her gaze on his. In no uncertain terms, she said, “No. It is
not
me. The last thing I want is for that woman to be killed. She has information that’s very important to me personally.”

“So? You get information, then you kill.”

“No,” she told him, her voice rising. “My employers need to talk to her, too. None of us,
none of us
, wants her dead. Do you understand? If she dies, my time here has been wasted.”

The doctor looked uncertain. Irina said something to him and he looked at her, then glanced back at Alex before walking out of the cell and shutting her alone inside.

Cursing under her breath, Alex moved over to the door and pressed her ear against it, hearing only muffled voices.

This lasted maybe two minutes before all went silent.

“
Are you sure
Petro is right about this?” Irina asked.

“He told me it was a rumor,” Teterya said. “But you know he’s always aware of what’s going on around here before the rest of us.”

“Even if he is right, that doesn’t mean this woman Powell is the killer.”

“She came into this prison simply to get close to A’isha Najem. Isn’t that proof enough?”

“But did you listen to her? Did you watch her? She wasn’t lying. I’m sure of it.”

“You can’t know that.”

Irina was silent for a moment. “You’re right. I can’t. But I
have
to believe it. And so do you.”

“What are you talking about?”

“If we don’t help her now, what do you think the people who sent her here are going to do?”

That stopped him. He knew very well what they would do. They would expose him and Irina, and the two of them would be arrested and undoubtedly given a severe sentence.

“So we go along with it?” he said. “What if she is the assassin?”

“If she kills Najem in the prison, the guards will get her, probably even kill her. You can say she coerced you, threatened your family. If she takes Najem out and kills her somewhere else, that’s not our problem. Don’t you see? We have no choice.”

Teterya felt faint. “I…I need some water.”

What he really needed was time to think, and since Irina knew him better than anyone, she didn’t follow him when he left the room.

* * *

A
LEX WAS ALL
but certain Teterya and Irina were telling the guards right now that they had the assassin locked in an infirmary cell. When she heard someone grab the door handle on the other side, she stepped back, hoping to God that McElroy had some way of getting her out of this mess.

But instead of a squad of guards, it was just the doctor and the nurse. They stepped into the room, and Irina closed the door behind them as Teterya set a cloth bundle on the bed.

“Why is A’isha Najem important to you?” he asked.

Alex decided to be as forthcoming as possible. “That’s not her real name. The name I know her by is El-Hashim. I’m not sure that’s her real name, either. She launders money for terrorist organizations that then fund bombings and murders and God knows what else.”

“Then you
do
want to kill her.”

“No,” Alex said quickly. “Killing her serves nothing. If she’s alive, we can find out who she works with. She could be the key to unraveling a very large network. Who knows how many lives that could save?”

“Don’t understand,” Irina said.

The doctor translated for her, then said to Alex, “You said you have personal need to talk to her. Is same?”

Alex hesitated. “No.”

“What is it?”

“Like I said, it’s personal.”

“Tell me.”

“If you don’t mind, I’d rather not.”

Teterya considered her for several seconds. Then he pointed at the bundle on the bed. Clothes that looked very much like those being worn by Irina and the other nurse.

“Put them on,” he said.

He turned to the wall to give Alex some privacy.

“The guard staff is told you stay here for observation,” he continued. “Is standard. Happens many time. They never check.”

Alex slipped out of the gray dress. “What about your other nurse?”

“She work here only short time. Irina in charge and you Irina’s patient. Only Irina or me check you.”

Alex would have to take their word for that. She pulled on the nurse’s outfit.

“Okay,” she said.

The doctor turned back around.

“What about this?” She raised her bandaged arm.

The doctor said something to Irina, who left the room for a few seconds and returned with a thin, cream-colored sweater. Alex donned it. It would make her a bit hotter than necessary, but hiding the wound was worth the price. Irina moved in behind her and started pulling at Alex’s hair.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Alex asked.

“No move,” Irina told her.

She attacked Alex’s hair with a brush and comb and a few bobby pins, and in record time sculpted a whole new look. At least it
felt
different. When Irina was done, she took a step back and stared at Alex.

“So?” Alex asked.

“One moment.”

She disappeared again. This time she returned with a pair of black, thick-framed glasses and a nurse’s cap. She handed the glasses to Alex.

“Wear, please.”

Alex put them on, relieved that the prescription wasn’t too strong. There was only a minute distortion to her vision.

Irina fixed the cap to the top of Alex’s head. This time, after she checked her handiwork, she pulled a small mirror from her pocket and held it up so Alex could see.

Alex had to admit that for a quick change, it wasn’t a bad disguise. Still, she wasn’t confident it would work, and said as much to the doctor.

“Will be fine,” he told her. “We have many different staff come through infirmary. Some only work one time. Is too much for them.” He handed her a laminated badge. “Is pass for temporary employee. Clip to dress.”

She did so.

“Now take this.” He handed her a file. “When walking, look at this as much as possible. You are ready?”

“Sure,” Alex said. “Why not?”

* * *

T
ETERYA LED HER
to the locked back exit of the infirmary.

“Take care,” Irina told them.

Alex had the distinct impression the words were more for the doctor than for her.

They stepped through the doorway into a vacant hallway, moved quickly over to the central stairwell, and began their descent. They had nearly reached the first floor when the door below flew open and two guards walked in.

Alex immediately looked down at the file in her hands, pretending to study the sheet of paper attached to the cover. She felt acutely self-conscious, certain that her disguise would fool no one.

As the guards passed them heading up, one of them said something to Teterya. He responded with what sounded like a complaint, punctuated by an ironic laugh. The guards snickered as they continued their ascent without slowing.

Alex let out a breath.

When she and the doctor reached the first-floor landing, Teterya leaned in and whispered, “Stay close.”

The corridor was bustling with activity. There were several guards present, a few escorting prisoners. There were also a couple of men in suits— administrators, Alex guessed—walking toward the far end on the right.

Following Teterya’s instructions, she stayed directly behind him as he walked rapidly down the hallway toward another doorway she hadn’t been through before. With every step, she was expecting someone to say something to her, shout at her to stop. At the very least, she was sure one of the prisoners they passed would recognize her.

But they didn’t even look at her, and no one said a word.

There was a speaker box next to the door. The doctor pressed the button at the bottom of the box, and a voice spoke. As the doctor replied, he tilted his head up to face a camera mounted above the door. When the voice spoke again, the doctor stepped to the side, giving the camera a view of Alex. Motioning with his eyes, he told her to look at the lens.

Steeling herself, she tore her gaze away from the file folder and looked up. Her heart was pounding.

The voice spoke again, and the doctor quickly responded.

A pause, then a buzz sounded as the door was unlocked.

The room on the other side turned out to be a stairwell that led to the basement, which was nothing more than a single long corridor that ended at a barred door. The walls were covered with green peeling paint, the floor made of bare concrete. Though otherwise clean, Alex was pretty sure it was a place that didn’t see a lot of traffic.