Chapter 15
THE LONG HOUR
Melinda
I see Kaden go down.
I see the canister and the gas.
I see the man in the doorway, and I think two things at the same time.
The first is: I am a doctor and I know what that canister is and I know I have approximately eleven seconds before my body stops cooperating.
The second is: get the door closed.
I get the door closed.
The military-grade lock engages with a heavy clean sound.
I lean against the door. The room behind me is small. The cot. A chair. A high window with wire in the glass.
The vapor is coming under the door.
I hold my breath. I drag the cot mattress against the gap at the bottom. It buys me seconds. It does not buy me enough.
I cross to the window. Wire glass. I cannot break it with the chair. I try anyway. The chair bounces off and clatters to the floor.
Eight seconds.
I look at the high window. I look at the door. I look at the cot.
I am going to lose consciousness in this room.
I take three breaths through my shirt pulled up over my face. It is not enough. The vapor is thicker now. My fingers are starting to tingle. The sound of the room is going thick at the edges.
I get my phone out of my back pocket.
Marcus's number is in it. Kaden put it there yesterday in case.
I open it. I press it.
It rings.
"East site," Marcus says. "What's happening."
"Marcus."
My voice is wrong. Slow. The slowness of a body that is being told to shut down.
"Melinda. What's happening?"
"They came, a few men and Kaden is down because of gas. I'm in the back room. The lock is holding. There's gas coming in under the door."
"Get on the floor. Now."
I get on the floor.
"Stay on the line as long as you can. Tell me what you hear."
"Footsteps. Plural. Three. They're at the door now. Trying it."
"Talk softly or they will hear."
"Are you hurt?"
"No. Not yet."
"Listen to me, Melinda."
"I'm listening."
"They want you alive. They need you to not testify. They will not kill you in that room. Do you understand?"
I understand.
I’m just not sure that they really want me alive.
I’m in this situation because I saw a murder, but I decide to just listen and agree.
"Yes," I say.
"Has Lange been injured?"
"I don’t think so, he’s down from the gas. In the front room. They didn't kill him. I saw them step over him.
The lock takes another hit but holds.
"Good. That tells me what we're working with. Stay on the line."
The door behind me thuds. Once. Twice. The military lock is doing its job.
A man's voice on the other side. Calm. Patient. The voice of someone who has done this before.
"Doctor Brock!” one of the men yells to the door.
I do not answer.
"Doctor Brock. You have one minute to open the door. After that, I am going to blow it open. You will be more comfortable with the first option,
I do not answer.
The tingling has reached my arms. My vision is doing the thing it does in the last sixty seconds before a faint. Edges going dark. The center still clear.
"Marcus."
"I'm here."
"Tell Kaden."
"You'll tell him yourself."
"Tell him anyway."
"Melinda. Stay with me."
"Tell him I figured out what to ask for."
A long-held silence from Marcus.
"Tell him yourself."
The door comes open.
I do not know how. Some kind of charge. Some kind of override. I do not know.
I do not see the man who steps through it.