Leah nodded, then pushed through curtain.
There was another man inside with the girl, dressed in the same operating-room garb. He nodded to Dr. Gordon and left through the curtain without a word.
“How is she?” Leah asked.
“Her vital signs are stable. We’re feeding and hydrating intravenously. She was suffering from malnutrition. Starving, really.”
“Is that because of the cryonic freeze?”
“We doubt it. From what we could gather, they were for all practical purposes frozen from the moment they were placed in the tubes. We don’t think there was any metabolic activity at all from that point on.”
“So they were starving before they were put in this state of suspended animation?”
He nodded. “The irony here is that without the cryonic freeze, they would have all been dead in a matter of days, or weeks.”
Leah glanced around; only the little girl was present in the room. “There were 27 others alive. Where are they?”
“In separate cubicles, all getting the same treatment.”
“You can’t keep them here,” Leah said. “It’s a hangar, for God’s sake.”
“Our orders are to stabilize them here. It’s not like we can ship them to Bethesda for treatment.”
“Did Fischer issue talking points to you guys? You all sound the same.”
Dr. Gordon stared at the little girl, seeming not to have heard Leah’s comment. “So… you speak her language?”
Leah nodded. “I told Fischer I’d do it, but not with his flunkies standing around. Waking her will be frightening enough as it is.”
Dr. Gordon nodded.
Leah glanced around at the lights, medical equipment, all the shiny chrome and polished steel. How was she going to bond with this 800-year-old Navajo with all this modern equipment around?
“Can you turn down the lights? Maybe turn off some of this medical equipment?”
He nodded and began following her instructions.
“You wouldn’t happen to have a deerskin lying around here.”
His eyes widened. “No, I don’t believe we would.”
CHAPTER 122
“Amá,” the girl said in a soft voice.
Her eyelids had begun to flicker immediately after Dr. Gordon had administered a mild stimulant via the IV. Gordon now waited on the other side of the curtain in case of a medical emergency.
Leah leaned close to the girl and placed a hand on the blanket covering her shoulder.
The girl opened her eyes slightly and moaned, but she didn’t appear to see Leah over her. Suddenly, her eyes stopped moving around and locked on Leah. The girl flung the blanket aside with surprising speed and grasped Leah’s forearm.
“Amá….”
Leah felt goosebumps running up her arm, emanating from where the little girl touched her. The girl was asking for her mother.
Leah answered in Navajo that she didn’t know where her mother was but that she’d be okay.
“Haado’one’e nili?”
“A tribe like yours, but not those who took you,” Leah replied in Navajo.
When the girl unexpectedly smiled, Leah felt bolt of joy that she hadn’t expected and couldn’t name. “Who are you?”
“K’aalógii,” the girl replied in whisper.
“K’aalógii,” Leah repeated. “Butterfly.”
Leah felt the small fingers squeezing her arm. She placed her hand over the girl’s, deciding what to say next. Should she make up a Navajo name, something K’aalógii might understand? In a moment of clarity, she decided that these people had had enough deception.
“Yinishye’ ‘Leah.’” She hoped what she’d said translated as, “My name is Leah.”
“Láiish” the girl repeated softly.
Leah smiled and nodded. Láiish translated as something covering your hands, like a glove or mitten. It was close enough.
In the most exhilarating ten minutes of Leah’s life, she managed to understand much of what the little girl was saying, but not all. Some of the language she used was unfamiliar, while other phrases Leah recognized as Navajo.
Much of what she could translate made sense, given what she’d discovered about the cliff dwellers in the hidden stronghold.
The girl used the Navajo word for “suffering” several times: ti’hoo’niih.
Leah did her best to convince her that she wasn’t the ‘Others’ and that K’aalógii had been asleep for a very long time and Leah hoped to return her to her home soon.
Before she could ask her any more questions, the exhausted girl’s eyelids flickered and shut; it appeared that she had fallen asleep.
“Damn,” Leah whispered. She turned and walked to the curtain, where she expected to find Gordo peeking through the curtain watching the exchange. She wanted to make sure the girl was just sleeping and hadn’t fallen unconscious because of her medical condition.
Leah parted the curtain and, to her surprise, found no one present.
She shook her head. “This is worse than an HMO.”
Back bedside, K’aalógii appeared to be sleeping soundly.
Voices rose outside the curtain — hardly more than whispers. Leah crept forward and peeked through a gap between the partitions.
Stanton Fischer was the one doing the talking. He had armed security men next to him, who looked like they’d shoot first and ask questions sometime in the next century if provoked. Gordo and several others were trying to argue but Fischer simply talked over them.
“The situation is fluid and deteriorating,” Fischer said his voice hoarse and strained. “The Russians are deploying their armed forces to Antarctica in rapid fashion.”
“It’s our belief there are more of these… ‘facilities.’ The Indians weren’t building cities on cliffs for 200 years because 30 individuals disappeared. Think of all the cliff dwelling cultures around the world. We got to this one first, but the next one? We cannot allow the Russians, or anyone else access to this technology under any circumstance. It’s now a matter of the highest National Security, no assets will be spared in order to ensure our technologic supremacy.”
“What you’re saying, then,” Gordon said, “is we could be on our way to the next world war.” ”
Fischer glanced nervously in Leah’s direction, catching her off guard. He didn’t seem to see her through the narrow slit in the partition.
“That’s why it’s extremely important that Dr. Andrews communicate with your guests,” Fischer told the doctor. “If there are more facilities, the Russians might get the same opportunity we have. We need to get what we can, then dispose of the subjects. As important as gleaning the information about other facilities is sweeping up our footprints here.”
To his credit, Dr. Gordon refused. “I won’t do it. That’s murder, and we won’t cooperate with that.”
Fischer lit a cigarette and casually dropped the match after blowing it out. “Dr. Gordon, your family has already been evacuated to safety. Did I mention this?”
Gordon swore beneath his breath and turned away.
“I assume then that I can expect your full cooperation in this manner regarding the final disposition of the survivors — and Dr. Andrews.” Fischer glanced at his watch. “Unfortunately, I can’t stay to provide my expertise during your interrogations. Another developing problem requires my attention.”
CHAPTER 123
Leah let herself believe that Fischer’s other pressing “problem” had been caused by Jack and the others. It seemed a long shot, but it was the first remotely positive development she’d heard. By believing it, even for a moment, it helped her clear her mind and focus on how she might negotiate for the safety of the Native Americans at White Sands.