“Turn off your lights,” Li ordered. “We don’t want them to see us coming.”

Xander and Priya snapped off their headlamps. Li tapped her phone screen and covered the soft blue glow with her hand. Xander couldn’t believe this was the same girl who had jumped at the slightest noise in the cemetery. She was calm and focused.

“You two ready?” she asked.

Priya nodded.

Xander choked out, “Yes.”

“Then let’s roll,” Li said.

Chapter Eight

Li led Xander and Priya toward the end of the dark corridor. She hugged the wall until she reached an intersection. She peered around the corner. She motioned the others to follow. Her phone lit up chairs stacked in front of a set of double doors. On closer inspection Xander noticed a narrow gap through the blockade of chairs.

Li put a finger to her lips, signaling for silence, then slid between the chairs and pushed one of the doors open. Xander went next. He bumped into a chair, making it scrape across the floor. He froze.

“Shhh!” Li hissed.

“Sorry,” he whispered. He squeezed his arms tight against his body and inched toward his friends.

On the other side of the doors, more furniture had been stacked in what looked like an obstacle course. Li climbed over a gurney and slid between two tall filing cabinets.

“Who would set up this blockade?” Priya asked as she scrambled behind Li.

Xander shrugged. “I guess someone wants to be left alone.”

“But why?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“Will you two shut your mouths?” Li whispered. “They’re going to hear us.”

Xander fell silent. He wouldn’t tell Li this, but he was very impressed with her and wondered how she had found the courage to do all this when she had been so scared.

Priya and Xander made their way through the obstacle course and reached Li, who stared at a trail of footprints leading to an exit.

“I think they were protecting this door,” Priya said.

Li nudged Xander forward with her elbow. “Open it.”

“Me? Why not you?”

She held up her phone. “I’m lighting the way.”

“Fine, fine.” Xander gingerly pulled the door open. On the other side was a stairwell. But this one was different than the first one he had explored. Barbed wire was nailed across the staircase leading up, but someone had snipped the wire that was supposed to block the steps to the basement.

Priya looked over his shoulder. “That’s the way to the morgue.”

“Are you sure?” Xander asked.

“I think.”

Li gritted her teeth. “I bet we’ll find Omar down there.”

Xander peeked down the stairs. A faint light was coming from the lower level of the hospital. Someone or something was definitely down there.

Li said, “Let’s go.”

“You first, Priya,” Xander suggested. “You seem to know your way around this hospital.”

Priya didn’t reply, just stepped in front of them and prepared to descend. Li tapped her phone screen and shut off the light. The glow from below was enough for the teens to navigate the stairs.