The Kingmaker

22 - Timetable

Getting rolled into the ER on a rattling gurney was enough to make Eden consider jumping up and insisting that the transport was more likely to injure her than any accident preceding it.

But she had to be docile and cooperative so that the ER doctor currently hovering over her would leave her alone and let her recuperate in short order. God, the last time she had been in the New Rutherford Medical Center was when she and Brook had gotten into a minor accident on a nearby street. That was the last time either of them stepped foot in a public hospital, too, and Eden had to stop herself from raising an eyebrow at the chaos.

It was even busier than she remembered. Gurneys  seemed to crash through the swinging doors every minute even though every bed in the ER seemed to be occupied already with its curtains drawn around. It was like a mass assembly line with doctors scrambling to place patients and many of them arguing back.

Well, that was convenient. All this hectic mess only meant it would be easy to slip away. She'd surely give the doctor a scare once she stepped away and returned to find the bed empty, but a public hospital like this one had too many things to worry about to break down over a single missing patient. They hadn't even taken in her information yet - she had given them a false name and nothing else.

"Doctor Moran's going to help you, alright?"

The nurse helping Eden onto the bed she'd been assigned to was a young, strapping male. Handsome. Eden vaguely wondered how much trouble he was going to get into when Doctor Moran toddled up to her bed to find it empty.

"Sure," she said with a weak smile. "Tell him to take his time, I'm just shaken up. Need a couple minutes anyway."

"Just relax and don't move around too much," he told her with a smile. "Hang in there."

She sent him off with a kindly nod before immediately swinging her legs back off the bed and sitting up. She would need to wait a few seconds before slipping past the curtain, but blending into the hospital jungle with all its frantic occupants would be easy enough after that. The real problem was how to get out of here unnoticed: not by the staff, but by whoever had no doubt followed her here.

If she were stupid, she would walk out the front and go about her merry business. From there, her tail would easily spot her - which was unacceptable. Maybe she could snatch a spare pair of scrubs out of a supply closet down one of the halls, disguise herself as a nurse before walking out of front doors. Or maybe she could find a window and slip out that way?

And who was the man anyway? She'd already killed Nate, screwed over Goodwin, and now she was toeing the line with DiAngelo - her tail could be connected to any one of them. Or a combination, she supposed.

She'd have to work that out later.

No one stopped her when she glided out past the curtain (making sure to keep it closed, of course) and heading through the swinging doors on the far left side of the room. They must have thought she knew where she was going, but without the right badge and dressed in these clothes, it wouldn't be long before someone shooed her back out. Could she make it to a safe juncture in time before -

Bingo. Was there a god above who happened to like her right now? Eden walked swiftly down the hall and turned down the corridor she had just seen a man with a wheeled rack full of folded clothes enter. She followed behind at a casual distance, pulse quickening any time someone glanced at her as she passed them. But there were half a dozen non-personnel walking this way as well - they had no reason to stop or suspect her. She just had to keep calm and...

The man finally stopped wheeling the metal rack and turned to unlock a door to a supply closet. The stacks of folded clothes arranged on the shelves were dark blue-green scrubs, identical to the ones the nurses wore. With a quick glance around to make sure no one's eyes were on her as she moved along the narrow hallway, she quickly snatched away a pair from off the rack and immediately turned down another corridor, rolling and stuffing the scrubs under her arm as she searched for somewhere she could discreetly put them on.

Unfortunately, every supply closet she passed by turned out to be locked. This was an underfunded public hospital, Eden grumped silently; the custodial staff had every excuse to forget such a small thing as locking them. But no such luck - she was forced to casually smile and pass by person after person and hope she didn't attract the wrong kind of attention from someone who realized she was completely out of place.

Finally, it was a bathroom that she ended up seeking refuge in. Now, what to do? The same hospital garb that would make her invisible here would make her too conspicuous once she was anywhere else. Hm. Well, she would have to simply wear the scrubs over her clothes so that she could dispose of them later. Good thing she hadn't grabbed a small on accident - she wouldn't have been able to manage it.

A moment later she was pushing her way out of the stall. No badge, but she didn't need one. Whoever was tailing her wouldn't look twice at her in this getup much less look for identification - but just in case, Eden gathered up her hair, twirled it once at the base of her neck, and pushed it all under the collar of her top. From a distance, it could easily be mistaken for short hair, all the more likely to go unrecognized by whomever might be watching.

Too bad she couldn't leave using a side entrance, but she wouldn't be able to get through any of the doors leading to the other hospital wings with no personnel badge to scan herself in with. And unlike the student that had gone against code in Goodwin's department back at the labs, no one was going to generously buzz her in with missing identification.

And with no windows to clamber through, her only remaining option was to walk out the front entrance and keep her head down. The visitors' entrance would be fairly bustling, so as long as she didn't stick out...

"Hey, are you new?"

Eden looked up from the sink and smiled at the ER nurse who had just walked into the bathroom. "Just a temp," she said smoothly. "Travel nurse. Last day here."

"Oh, well that's a shame. I would have treated you to a coffee if we'd met earlier."

How nice, Eden thought. "Oh, that's alright," she said as she shook off the excess water from her hands into the sink. "I've been making myself sick on coffee since I've been here. Wasn't ready for how crazy it gets."

"Tell me about it," the other nurse sighed. "Guess you won't be wanting to come around this way again for a while. This is a real war zone."

"All my respect to you, but no, I don't think I can handle this again. I'll stick to quieter clinics. So much easier."

And that was that. The easiest way to make sure someone didn't suspect her was to flatter them a bit, make them feel superior. With a cloying, patronizing smile, the other woman sent Eden on her way.

It wasn't long before she was in the spacious visitors' lobby, following the signs on the walls - and it also wasn't long before she was being peppered with questions by worried relatives and friends as well as loitering to-be-patients milling about.

"It's been an hour since you took my husband for his X-rays, when is he going to be done?"

"Do you think you could take a look at my mouth real quick? Don't wanna pay to see a doc if it's nothing -"

"Were you the one who took in my father? He's lost his dentures on the way and I need help finding them -"

Eden pushed past everyone, not even bothering to put on a pretense. They would all forget her in a moment anyway the instant the next nurse appeared.

"I can't help you, sorry," she said over and over until she reached the doors. One man actually tried to bar her way, but she held up her hands with a sweet smile as if she had some invisible stains on them. "Sorry, sir, I don't want to infect you. I believe I've come into contact with something pretty flesh-eating, and I need to vacate the premises immediately before someone else dies. So..."

He jumped out of her way as if she was a leper, which was exactly what she had led him to believe. She walked out with a smile, turning and pushing the door open with her shoulder while still holding her hands up.

Too bad there wasn't a convenient gaggle of other nurses she could fall into line with as she departed, but this would have to be enough. The quicker she hit the streets, the less likely she would be spotted.

And that was what she did - kept her head down, pace swift. When she made it down the steps and turned down the sidewalk, heading for the nearest bus stop, no one stopped her. That didn't mean she was home free, though. As a matter of fact, she wasn't going back to the apartment at all. Most of the money was still there, but she could get by - she would just steal some more if she needed to.

The laptop wouldn't be an issue, either. She had no sensitive information on it, nothing that could be used to track her down. There wasn't a single thing to go back for, but she might chance it anyway later if she could guarantee she had shaken off the tail.

Eden stood next to the crowded bench by the bus stop and looked around with a casual sweeping glance: she didn't see anything suspicious...yet. She'd know for sure once she got on the bus - if she saw any familiar faces or vehicles once she got off a good ten stops away. No such thing as coincidence.

But now she had to adjust her plans, her timetable. So few of the pawns were in proper place, and she wasn't in position yet to make any grand moves. But what option did she have? Whoever was tracking her, that hadn't been part of the plan. And despite having a contingency plan for nearly every other possible thing that could go wrong, she hadn't ever thought someone would find her this quickly. She hadn't even made her move on Nate until a few days ago, and she had disposed of the burner phone she'd used to call DiAngelo and replaced it.

So who was it exactly that had managed to find her, out of the millions of people in Alexandria? And how?

No. This wasn't right. She needed to speed things up. DiAngelo - she would call him tonight, move everything up. Maybe he was the one who had sent his man to track her down, but she could use that to her advantage too: she just had to be cautious, make every move count. DiAngelo was neither harmless nor useless - she had to handle him with care. And for a while, at least, she would need him. His influence, his power, and most importantly, his connections.

She slipped her hand into the pocket of her scrub top and wrapped her hand around her phone.

Tonight.