Page 140 of Johnny

“Listen,” I say, raising my voice. The hazmat girl looks at me, eyes wide. There’s a speaker on the

outside of her gas mask so people can hear her talk. But all I hear now is amplified heavy breathing

from her mounting panic attack. “Shut the fuck up. Now.”

The older woman pulls her towards her and starts to take off her hood. When the young girl

protests and starts to back away Logan steps in, holds her hands, and helps the woman take off her gas

mask.

“It’s fine,” the woman soothes. “There’s no leak.” Then she glances back at me. “But these men are

here to look things over. That’s all. It’s all part of the standard audit, I’m sure.”

I almost laugh at her delusional rambling.

Standard audit. Sure. We’ll go with that if it’ll keep everyone quiet.

This seems to pacify the girl, but Logan points his rifle at her and motions for her to join the group

of others once her hood and mask are off. She slinks back against a wall and slides to the floor.

Logan shoots me a look that says, This isn’t gonna turn out well.

I shoot him one back that says nothing.

But he’s right. It’s not.

I move forward through the small space that was clearly not designed to hold ten people at once.

It’s some kind of security room that also holds supplies. Computers covered in plastic to prevent

contamination. Monitors on the wall that show the cells on the other side of a biohazard door. People

in beds on those monitors.

“I’m going to need a list of names,” I say, pointing to the monitors, trying to maintain some

semblance of detached calm. Because all the people in the cells are women, and all the women are

very pregnant.

“I can get you that,” Darrel says, sitting down at one of the monitors. His fingers tap out commands

on the plastic-covered keyboard like this is just another day on the job for him too.

And sure enough, just a minute or so later a list pops up on his monitor. He pushes back from the

workstation so I can see, but I say, “Is Charlotte Kane on that list?”

Every single head swivels in my direction. Like I just uttered the magic words and they are under

my spell.

“Is she?” I ask again, doing my best to ignore their reaction.

“No,” Darrel says hurriedly. “No. Miss Kane was here. For a while. But…”