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"You look tired," Cassie said, as she poured me a cup of coffee. "How did you sleep?"
"Not great. I had a bad dream about Chance that woke me up. This place sure is deserted in the middle of the night." Actually, it had been a very productive night. I followed Tattoo back into the building through a door with no cyber lock or palm scanner. It opened onto a service corridor and eventually to a door into the medical unit. He didn't want anyone to know he'd let me into the med unit, so he took me out another back way.
"I don't understand why the guys are being sedated," Cassie said. "Their wounds are healed, and their fevers are gone. It can't be good for them to just sleep all the time." I agreed with Cassie. This was part of our plan for today.
"Katrin, could you please tell Dr. Braun we'd like to speak with him," Cassie called to the woman who stood beside the kitchen door watching us as she did during every meal. "I have questions about my husband’s medical care."
"I'll tell him when he gets back," she said. I might have imagined it, but I swear I saw a flicker of anger when she realized what she'd said.
"When will he be back?" Cassie asked.
"Not until tomorrow," she said.
"Does that mean that our schedule for the day is open?" I asked. "No medical exams or lab work?"
"There is nothing scheduled."
"Great. After we see the guys, let's go for a hike. I want to see some of those monkeys."
"You should stay inside," Katrin said. "The jungle isn't safe. Don't tire yourselves out. You'll get your fill of wildlife in tomorrow's activity."
Again, it might have been me just projecting my feelings, but I swear I saw an evil gleam in her eyes as she made that pronouncement.
It was hard to sit there calmly with our new-found information. We had been planning to launch our escape in two days, but we needed to take advantage of the fact that Dr. Braun wasn't on site. "We go tonight," I whispered to Cassie and Gracie as we headed for the medical section for our morning visit with the guys.
"Good morning, Babe. You look good today," I said, bending over and kissing Chance's forehead. I put my lips to his ear. We're getting you out of here tonight. Be ready." He squeezed my hand twice. "As soon as Dr. Braun gets back tomorrow, we're going to ask him why you guys can't be allowed to walk around some. It can't be good for you to sleep all the time. In fact, maybe we'll try to find Dr. Wainwright and see if he'll wake you up."
"Time's up for today," Blank said. I pressed my lips to Chance's mouth before I was pulled away.
"Can we speak to Dr. Wainwright, please?" I asked as we were led to the door out of the section.
"He's busy."
"Can you ask him to come talk to us sometime today?" I asked. "It's not right that they're being kept sedated. There's no reason for it, now that they're better."
In my room, I made a few quick notes. There were a couple of questions we still needed to answer before we launched our escape plan. I used my multicolored highlighters to draw some really bad pictures of local birds and flowers we'd seen. I'm a terrible artist, but the pictures were only intended to be a distraction. On pages between the drawings I wrote the questions.
I took my masterpiece and headed to Gracie Layne's Room. "Hey guys, since we don't have cameras or even our phones, I decided to draw some of the birds and flowers we've seen. I handed the pad to Cassie first.
"Do you mind if I add some details?" she asked.
"Add as much as you can remember. I'd like to be able to identify them when we get back home."
Cassie made her additions and handed the pad on to Gracie Layne, who added her own bits to the drawings before handing it back to me. I flipped through the drawings, looking at the answers. It looked like we were all in agreement. That made things easier.