Kaveh fumed, on some distant plane surprised that he agreed with Kaplan about something. He hated it when doctors dressed up covering their own asses with this “but think about the children” rhetoric. It was always so transparent. “You’re putting her in a position where she either has to lie to a mental ward about why she is there, or get stuck in a mental ward because they don’t believe why she is there.”

“She does not have any scarring,” said Kaplan. “There is no evidence of what happened. How can she tell them what happened if there is no physical evidence that it happened at all? Are you listening to yourself?”

“I’m making the call,” said Hossein, storming out of his office into the surrounding area of cubicles. “She should never have been given clearance in the first place. If the ETIs are provoking her to make suicide attempts—”

“Whoa, this was not a suicide attempt,” said Kaveh, resisting the urge to grab this man.

“What would you call that, then?”

“I call that a dramatic act to provoke a reaction, which it did,” said Kaveh. “This was not a suicide attempt.”

“It was an act of self-harm regardless,” said Hossein, raising his voice to match Kaveh’s. His eyes darted to the door that led to the hallway where he’d left Cora with Luciana not fifty feet away. They could likely hear every word of this. “It doesn’t have to be an out-an-out attempt for me to declare that she’s a danger to herself.”

“And what good do you think it’s going to do?” said Kaplan. “Do you think this is going to help her?”

“That’s why this system is in place,” said Hossein, flipping open his cell phone. “I’m making the call.”

“You’re just trying to cover your own ass,” said Kaplan, moving uncomfortably close to Hossein, using his height to his advantage. He stood at least a head taller than Hossein. “You damn well know that involuntary commitment is only going to make her situation worse, not better.”

“I’m making the call.”

Kaplan closed his hand around Hossein’s, clapping the cell phone shut. “And I’m pulling rank. No, you’re not.”

“I’m making the call.”

“Don’t make me beat the shit out of you, you fucking nerd,” said Kaplan, his voice low and calm.

This visibly shook Hossein. A threat of violence from Kaplan, a guy whose reputation among his contemporaries Kaveh could only imagine, was not on the level with a threat from any school-ground bully.

“I’m taking her home,” said Kaveh, backing away. He looked out through the window in the door into the hallway to make sure Cora was where he’d left her.