off over the phone and cracked from the building at the same time.
Everyone froze, and then we could hear crying in the background. I thought my heart would beat out of my ribs.
“You make me wait another minute,” the man’s excited voice was back on the line, “and another one gets killed.”
I moved closer to the phone and before anyone could stop me, I said, “I’m a doctor. I need to know exactly what happened when he fell into the reactor pool.”
Silence. Then the man said, “He almost drowned, that’s all I know. We tried to pump water out of him but he was already unconscious.”
“Did he swallow water?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he did. Some was coming out of his mouth.” He was becoming more agitated. “But if you don’t do something, lady, I’m going to turn Virginia into a goddamn desert.”
“I’m going to help you,” I said. “But I need to ask you several more questions. Tell me his condition now?”
“Like I said. He’s out. It’s like he’s in a coma.”
“Where do you have him?”
“In the room here with us.” He sounded terrified. “He don’t react to anything, no matter what we try to do.”
“I’m going to have to bring in a lot of ice and medical supplies,” I said. “It’s going to take several trips unless I have some help.”
“You’d better not be FBI,” he raised his voice again.
“I’m a doctor out here with a lot of other medical personnel,” I said. “Now, I’m going to come and help, but not if you’re going to give me a hard time.”
He was silent. Then he said, “Okay. But you come alone.”
“The robot will help me carry things. The same one that brought you your phone.”
He hung up, and when I did, Wesley and Marino were staring at me as if I had just committed murder.
“Absolutely not,” Wesley said. “Jesus Christ, Kay!
Have you lost your mind?”
“You ain’t going if I have to put you in a goddamn police hold,” Marino chimed in.
“I have to,” I said simply. “He’s going to die,” I added.
“And that’s the very reason why you can’t go in there,” Wesley exclaimed.
“He has acute radiation sickness from swallowing water in the pool,” I said. “He can’t be saved. Soon he will die, and then I think we know what the consequences might be.
His followers will probably set off the explosives.” I said to Wesley, Marino, and the commander of HRT, “Don’t you understand? I’ve read their Book. He is their messiah, and they won’t just walk away when he dies. This whole thing will turn into a suicide mission, as you predicted.” I looked at Wesley again.
“We don’t know that they’ll do that,” he said to me.
“And you’ll take the chance they won’t?”
“And what if he comes to,” Marino said. “Hand’s going to recognize you and tell all his assholes who you are. Then what?”
“He’s not going to come to.”
Wesley stared out a window, and it wasn’t very hot in the RV, but he looked like it was summer. His shirt was limp from dampness, and he kept wiping his brow. He did not know what to do. I had one idea, and I did not think there could be another one.
“Listen to me,” I said. “I can’t save Joel Hand, but I can make them think he’s not dead.”
Everyone just stared at me.
Then Marino said, “What?”
I was getting frantic. “He could die any minute,” I said. “I’ve got to get in there now and buy you enough time to get in, too.”
“We can’t get in,” Wesley said.
“Once I’m in there, maybe you can,” I said. “We can use the robot to find a way. We’ll get him in, and then he can stun and blind them long enough for your guys to get in. I know you have the equipment to do that.”
Wesley was grim and Marino looked miserable, I understood the way they felt, but I knew what must be done.
I went out to the nearest ambulance and got what I needed from paramedics while other people found ice. Then Toto and I made our approach with Lucy at the controls. The robot carried fifty pounds of ice while I was in charge of a large medical chest. We walked toward the front door of Old Point’s main building as if this were any other day and our visit was normal. I did not think of the men who had me in their scopes. I refused to imagine explosives or the barge loading up material that could help Libya build an atom bomb.