“What, hold on a second. What’s that, Pia?” Paul held his hand over the radio set so he could hear Pia’s question.

“Ask them if he has tattoos on his right forearm.”

“We can find that out when they get here, they apparently just revived the patient. A tattoo isn’t going to be germane to the immediate situation. What’s that?” Now Paul was straining to hear the EMT. He pulled the unit off his belt and looked at the controls. He had lost contact.

“I can’t hear them, dammit. Dispatch! We lost contact with Dave and Bill. Dave? Dave? Can you hear me?”

“What’s the matter?” asked Pia, although it was obvious that Paul couldn’t hear the EMT.

Pia and Paul stood there, useless, for a couple of long minutes. Then Paul’s radio crackled into life.

“What’s happening?” demanded Paul.

“What is it?” said Pia. Paul held up his hand, palm forward, telling Pia to wait while he heard whatever the story was.

“Are you serious? . . . The patient’s name was Yang. . . . And it was the same people who arrived, you’re sure of that. . . . Okay, I understand. You stay there, of course, get the police on the radio. . . .”

Pia experienced a sinking feeling in her stomach as she listened to Paul’s end of the conversation.

“Okay, wait there.” Paul broke off the call.

“What the hell?”

“They never got the guy in the ambulance. The same crew as came in here swooped in with a white van this time and took the man away. It sounds like it was practically at gunpoint, and just like with our guy, he’d completely revived. In the blink of the eye he went from moribund to fully conscious, and they don’t know how long his heart had been stopped and how long he’d not been breathing. . . .”

“Where is this loop place? Where did they pick him up?”

“I guess it’s thirty, thirty-five miles north of here. Why?”

“Because from where they are to Nano is about the same distance as it is from here to Nano, but they have to go on twisty back roads, and we can go mostly by freeway. Let’s go, we can head them off.”

“Head them off? What are you talking about?”

“We have to stop them getting back into Nano if we can or, at the very least, see where they enter the Nano grounds to be sure that’s where they have taken him.”

“How are we going to do that?”

“We’ll think of something. We know which road they have to take on the way in from Carter Lake Loop. Paul, are you coming or not? He’s supposed to be your patient. You were worried they might kidnap him here. But they didn’t wait this time, they took him before he even got in the ambulance. Let’s go, Paul, we’re wasting time!”