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I nod. “Go. I’ll be here.”
He understands this part. Playschool taught him that one part of the day ends, another begins, and Mama is still there when it’s over. He walks into the second bedroom with Oksana, pausing only to tell Alexei, “Don’t eat dinosaurs’ eggs.”
The door remains open. Oksana starts a counting song, and Misha corrects her before she reaches four.
Alexei and I sit with our coffee. For a minute, neither of us speaks. The secure laptop he brought with him stays closed on the burnished side table beside a folded newspaper he hasn’t touched.
Then he asks, “What about your work?”
My hand pauses over my cup. Since I arrived here, every conversation about the hospital has involved Belov, Marina, forged records, or compromised staff. Alexei has asked about my work before, but this is the first time he has asked about the patients waiting for me.
“I’m on emergency leave without pay, but the hospital still calls me about trauma cases.” I set the cup down on the upholstered footstool in front of me. “I review scans, check blood work, and talk the residents through treatment plans when they need me.”
He nods and looks toward the closed laptop.
“What about Galina?” I ask. “Is she all right?”
“She left Moscow,” he says, turning his cup between his palms. “She went to her native village to stay with her son.”
My shoulders loosen a little. “You spoke to her?”
“Roman did. She was frightened, but safe.”
We sit in silence for a moment, then speak at the same time.
“So she’s not coming.”
We both laugh.
“Galina is safer where she is,” Alexei says.
“She wouldn’t survive Mrs. Wentworth.” I nod.
The corner of his mouth moves.
My hospital phone vibrates. Zorin has sent two surgery notes and a complaint that Kira Karpova stole his operating slot.
I type, You were forty minutes late.
His reply comes at once. Technical issue.
I answer, Your alarm clock isn’t technical equipment.
Alexei watches me put the phone down. “Hospital?”
“Two surgeons fighting over a gallbladder.”
“Who wins?”
“The patient, if they stop behaving like children.”
From Misha’s bedroom, Oksana says, “No, the dinosaur can’t eat all seven bears.”
“He’s hungry.”
“He’ll be sick.”
Alexei lowers his coffee. “He’s sharp. He knows dinosaurs eat a lot.”
