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Through the swinging doors, now in the scrub roo doctor is soaped up to his elbows, preparing for surgery He ju in here?" he deloves We’ve run out up front"

The surgeon jerks his head toward a row of cabinets on the opposite wall

"You’re li," he says "Are you hurt?"

"I pulled a uy to the john"

The doctor rinses the green soap from his forearms "You should have used a bedpan"

Boxes of latex gloves, surgical masks, antiseptic pads, rolls of tape Where the hell is it?

I can feel his breath against the back of ht in front of you," he says The guy’s giving me a funny look

"Sorry," I say "Haven’t had hs and elbows rit h the inner doors to the operating theater Ithrough the supplies, but I can’t find what I’ like hell How long will Kistner stay out? How long before someone ducks in for a piss and finds him?

There’s a bin on the floor beside the cabinets labeled HAZARDOUS WASTE--USE GLOVES IN HANDLING Yank off the top and, bingo, there it is ads of bloody surgical sponges and used syringes and discarded catheters

Okay, so the scalpel’s coated in dried blood I guess I could sterilize it with an antiseptic wipe or wash it in the sink, but there’s no time, and a dirty scalpel is the least of ainst the sink to steady yourself Push your fingers against your neck to locate the tracker under the skin, and then press, don’t slice, the dull, dirty blade into your neck until it splits open

79

STEP FIVE: NUGGET

A very young-looking doctor hurries down the corridor toward the elevators, wearing a white lab coat and a surgicalhis left side If you pulled open his white coat, you reen scrubs If you pulled down his collar, you e on his neck But if you tried to do either of these things, the young-looking doctor would kill you

Elevator Closing my eyes as the car descends Unless soolf cart unattended by the front doors, walking distance to the yard is tenthe fifty-plus squads bivouacked there and getting hi anybody So maybe half an hour to seek and snatch Another ten or so to slip over to the Wonderland hangar where the buses unload This is where the plan begins to break down into a series of wild i the driver and any soldiers on board once we’re clear of the gate, and then when, where, and how to duer?

What if you have to wait for the bus? Where are you going to hide?

I don’t know

And once you’re on the bus, how long will you have to wait? Thirty minutes? An hour?

I don’t know

You don’t know? Well, here’s what I know: It’s tooto sound the alarht It is too much tiinal steps:

Step four: kill Kistner

But Kistner isn’t one of them Kistner’s just a kid Like Tank Like Oompa Like Flint Kistner didn’t ask for this war and he didn’t know the truth about it Maybe he wouldn’t have believed ave him that chance

You’re soft You should have killed hi The future of hus to the hardcore

So when the elevator doors slide open to the et, the promise I didn’t make to my sister, whose locket he wears around his neck

If anyone comes between you and me, they’re dead

And thein the universe decides to answer, because the air raid sirens go off with an eardruoinginto the barracks searching for the Nugget in a haystack No race to the buses Instead, a straight shot down the stairwell to the underground coanized chaos of the safe room, hide out until the all-clear sounds, and then on to the buses

Simple

I’hts up in a sickly green glow, the saer’s head when I slipped on the eyepiece The overhead fluorescents have cut off, standard procedure in a drill, so the light isn’t co lot

I turn around to look I shouldn’t have

Through the glass doors, I see a golf cart racing across the parking lot, heading toward the airfield Then I see the source of the green light sitting in the covered entranceway of the hospital Shaped like a football, only twice as big It reminds me of an eye I stare at it; it stares back at me

Pulse…Pulse…Pulse…

Flash, flash, flash