Malik was speed-walking next to Dr. Patel and Magaly, trying to articulate his thoughts. “I don’t know who they were. They claimed to be Confidence Biotech tracers, but something seemed off. They told me that you sent them to the office.”
“It’s okay, Malik,” Dr. Patel said. “We will get to the bottom of this.”
Malik opened the door to the examination room and saw one of the contact tracers adjusting the sheet on his sick colleague.
“What in the world is going on here?” Dr. Patel demanded. “I didn’t authorize anyone to be brought to my office. This is ridiculous. Who is your superior? I’ll be calling him now.”
Malik had never seen Dr. Patel angry with anyone.
“There’s no need for that,” the man said. “There was a misunderstanding, and it’s been all straightened out.”
“What about the positive test result?” Magaly asked. “Didn’t you say he has some new strain? How would you know that?”
“That was a false positive,” the man said.
“And the symptoms?” Malik pressed.
“We think it could be the flu.”
“This is all very strange. You stay right here.” Dr. Patel pulled out his phone, and Malik saw him dialing 911. “What’s your name? Show your face.”
The man reached into his pocket and pulled out an identification card to show Dr. Patel. Malik couldn’t get a look at it.
Dr. Patel inspected the information, put his phone away, and let out a big sigh. “Ah, thank you for the information. I appreciate it.” As Dr. Patel tried to hand the card back to the man, Malik caught a glimpse. It just had a bunch of zeros and ones on it.
“No,” the man said, “you can keep it. We apologize for the inconvenience. We got here as fast as we could.”
Two of the tracers pushed the gurney out of the room, down the hall toward the reception area. The third walked next to Dr. Patel. The two were chatting like old buddies, laughing and joking.
“I wish I would’ve known.” Dr. Patel smiled wide, as he unlocked doors for their exit. “Why didn’t you tell me it was—never mind. Do you need any help?”
What? Malik said, “Wait a minute, Doc—”
“It’s okay, Malik,” Dr. Patel patted the contact tracer on his back. “We have a connection.”
“There is something else I’d like to run past you,” the man said. “I’ll swing back after we sort this out if that’s all right.”
“That would be great,” Dr. Patel said. “But you have to stay for dinner.”
“I couldn’t turn that down.”
“Wait,” Malik said. “There were six of you. Where did the other two go?”
“You must’ve missed them on your way back,” the man said as he walked out of the office.
“We’re gonna get out of your way. Thanks again for letting us use this space,” one of the other tracers said as they pushed the gurney out of the last door.
Dr. Patel closed the door behind them and twisted the deadbolt into place.
“What in the world was that?” Malik asked.
“I don’t know exactly, but it’s all good now,” Dr. Patel said. “Now, don’t you two have someplace to be? A date?” He smiled with raised eyebrows.
“Bye, Dr. Patel,” Magaly said, laughing as she pulled on Malik’s arm.
“You two have fun.”