Page 25 of Ezra
“She’d better be. If she gets belligerent, tell me, and I’ll handle her. Let me get in touch with the chief. I’ll call you back.”
As I wait for Deion’s call, I busy myself with double checking every nurse and doctor currently working at this hospital who’s available in the public domain. I cross-check names with social media accounts, doing anything and everything I can to identify any potential threats to the Carsons.
Deion wasn’t wrong in his assessment of social media. It astonishes me just how comfortable people are airing theentirety of their private lives. They post their destructive habits, actions, and opinions for the world to see. Within five minutes, I’ve located a doctor and a clinic receptionist who are currently engaging in an extramarital affair, if her photos are any indication.
Within ten minutes, I’ve identified a surgeon and two nurses as avid Humanity First members. Nothing alarming there. Many people are sympathetic, and their social media footprints are mostly political and social memes, decrying BioNex and android owners. Certainly not friendly, but not necessarily dangerous either.
Within fifteen minutes, I’ve narrowed down potential threats to three staff members who are registered android owners—a registrar, a nurse, and a surgeon. When I reach the limit of what I can search, I make a call. There’s only one person who can reach information that even I can’t.
Jayne Rose picks up after a moment. “Ezra. What’s the craic?”
“I need you to check a few names for me,” I reply.
“Course, love!” I hear her fingers clicking away on a surface keyboard back at ACU headquarters. “Send them over to me quick. Oh! You already did, look at that. Aren’t you fast. HF or TP?” I can tell she’s biting back a chuckle at the fact TP also stands for toilet paper. Jayne is easily entertained.
I can’t pass up the opportunity. “TP,” I reply in the most deadpan voice I can manage.
She giggles under her breath, and I smirk to myself. Success. The situation is serious, of course. But Deion says it’s important to have these little moments of reprieve and humor to keep officer morale up.
“Registrar is fine. She’s just got her privacy settings locked tight. Looks like she has a restraining order out on a rotten ex-boyfriend.”
“Understood. The other two?”
“Surgeon is fine, and—oh.” Jayne’s lighthearted tone changes in an instant. “Nurse isn’t. Eileen Miller. TerraPura initiate since October 2069.”
“Thanks.”
I end the call and make my way back to the nurse’s desk, where several are hard at work at computers in between tending patients. “I need to speak to Eileen Miller. It’s urgent.” I flash my badge at the young lady behind a computer holo-screen. “She in today?”
“She just started her shift, yeah,” the woman replies. “She’s checking her assigned rooms right now.”
I frown. “Are any of those rooms Robert Carson’s?”
“Um...” She breezes through staff information quickly on her holo-screen. “Yes. Why, is she in some kind of?—”
“Thank you,” I interject and hurry back to Carson’s room. I swing open the door and find a nurse attending to his IV. My optics zoom to her name badge.Eileen.
Katrina is already on her feet, appearing surprised to see me again so soon. Her mother, Catherine, is awake, bewildered at my presence. “What’s going on? Why is he here?”
“Step away from the patient,” I bark. I don’t even have to flash my badge. “Now. No sudden movements.”
Eileen Miller stares at me in shock, then bows her head as she obeys.
“Come here,” I command. She responds to my authority without question, making no attempt to resist. “What were you doing?”
“Checking his IV and his blood pressure,” Miller replies timidly. “That’s all, Master.”
From the corner of my eye, I see Katrina’s face twist into bewilderment. “Master?” she repeats.
The nurse completely ignores her.
“Do you have orders to sabotage or maim this man?” I ask.
Mrs. Carson moves protectively toward her husband, watching our exchange with a frown.
“No. I mean, not that I know of. I’m new,” the nurse replies. “As far as I know, we want nothing to do with him.”
She isn’t lying. But she also isn’t high enough in the TerraPura echelon for me to take her at her word. “I don’t want to see you in this room or anywhere near the Carsons again.”
