Time Travelers Never Die - Jack McDevitt [53]
He heard them get into the elevator. Heard the doors close. He hurried back and pushed the UP button.
Dave’s elevator stopped at the fourth floor. And again at the fifth.
Three women were walking toward him. His elevator arrived, and the women picked up their pace. He got in. One of them called for him to wait for them. He ignored the request and pushed the fourth-floor button, then closed the doors. They shut just before the women arrived.
The elevator went to the second floor. And stopped. The doors opened. A doctor, bald, annoyed, shaking his head, stood just outside talking with an efficient-looking well-dressed brunette. “No, Suze,” he said, “I wish you wouldn’t get us into stuff like that.”
“I’m sorry, Jim, but he asked for you specifically.” Her hand reached in to prevent the door from closing.
“You know what pinochle’s like over there.”
“Jim, I didn’t have much choice. I didn’t want to insult them.”
It went on like that for a full minute before Jim sighed and agreed to go, told Suze she owed him, and came into the elevator. She released her hold, and he pushed the button for the third floor.
The doctor got off there, the doors closed, the elevator went up another level and stopped. Shel stuck his head out and looked both ways. No sign of Dave and his attendants. Two nurses sat at desks in a glass enclosure. He got out and walked toward them.
He needed a few moments to get their attention. “Nurse,” he said, when one finally turned his way, “did somebody just get off here with a man on a gurney?”
The nearer one looked up from a clipboard. “I don’t think so,” she said. “Why? Is something wrong?”
Yes. There were several more floors and they could be anywhere. “They dropped a pen,” he said.
She smiled tolerantly. “I wouldn’t worry about it.”
Too time-consuming. He went back to the elevator. It was passing the second floor on the way down. He pushed the button again. Then went back to the nurse. “Miss, is there a stairway?”
She pointed. “At the end of the corridor. Go left. You can’t miss it.” It was too far. He returned to the elevator, and rode it up to the fifth floor. But the corridor was empty. And this time there was no one to ask.
Damn.
He stood frustrated, wondering what to do.
Then he recalled the converter. He set it to take him back five minutes, and was standing well off to one side when the elevator arrived, and Dave and his escort got off.
They walked about halfway down one of the corridors and turned left. By the time Shel reached the intersection, they were at the far end of the passageway, entering a room. The eighth one on the right. The policeman hauled a chair outside the door, set it against the wall, and sat down. Minutes later, the gurney and the attendants reappeared and started back in Shel’s direction. Almost immediately, a doctor arrived, nodded to the cop, and went past him into the room.
Shel pulled back out of sight. Next task was to get past the guard. He set the converter for ten minutes earlier and pushed the black button.
TWO people who’d apparently gotten lost were in the corridor. They looked startled when he appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. Shel walked past them while they stared, said hello, asked how they were doing, and kept going. He counted to the eighth room on his right and let himself in. A male patient lay in one of the two beds. An older man, with white hair. Every vein in his arms and neck was visible. He looked languidly at Shel.
“Oops,” said Shel. “Wrong room. Sorry.”
The man saw him but didn’t react.
It was a standard hospital room, with several wooden chairs, a tray table, and a window overlooking a parking lot. It also had, of course, a washroom. The washroom was just inside the entrance, with the door facing away from the patients. Shel slipped into it, hoping the patient hadn