Mary: "Bedpan. Bedpan bedpan bedpan. Blood pressure. Bloooood presssuuure. Oh! Neu. Ro. Sur. Ger. Y."

She smiled a toothy grin at an orderly who gave her an odd look as she punched the elevator up button. When the doors opened, she stepped inside and pushed the button for the eighth floor--Neurosurgery.

She found Markus in a small lounge off the main hallway. There was a television on in the room, but Markus faced away from it, his eyes locked on the door.

Mary: "Hey."
Markus: "Hey."
Mary: "Dr. Whatherface still in surgery?"

Markus: "Yep. Don't worry, she won't get by me."
Mary: "I'm not worried. So… what do you know about hypothermia?"
Markus: "It's cold."

Mary hovered in the doorway, but made no move to sit down.

Mary: "I mean medically. There's a girl they brought in. She's dead. Do you think she'll be okay?"
Markus: "She's dead, and you want to know if she'll be okay?"
Mary: "They're trying to bring her back."
Markus: "Is she still cold?"

Mary nodded.

Markus: "Then she's not dead. You're not dead until you're warm and dead. How long has she been cold and dead?"
Mary: "Ten minutes… twenty, maybe?"
Markus: "Pfft! That's nothing. I've brought people back after hours."

Mary: "Good to know. Hey Markus?"
Markus: "Yeah?"
Mary: "You've been a good friend to me. Thanks. I'll let you get back to watching the door."

Markus jumped as he cell phone rang. It was James.

Markus: "What's up?"
James: "Question for you - how cold does someone have to get before they die? If they, say, fell through the ice on a lake?"
Markus: "Low to mid eighties, Farenheight. Why?"
James: "And how would you know they'd reached that temperature?"

Markus was beginning to get an uneasy feeling.

Markus: "With a thermometer."
James: "Right, but what if you didn't have one?"
Markus: "Then I guess you'd have to just eyeball the fact that they were dead."

James: "Okay. And how long do you suppose a person could survive in a-an icy lake?"
Markus: "Fifteen to forty-five minutes, depending. James, what's going on?"
James: "Nothing! Sorry to bother you. I'll let you get back to what you were doing."

Markus stared at his phone after James hung up. Not counting the obvious, there was something strange about Mary's and James' questions. Then he remembered-he'd recently had a conversation with his Grandmother about hypothermia. He racked his brain, trying to remember what he'd told her, but given how much he'd always talked to her about work and medicine, nothing particularly stood out.

He was certain now that it all had something to do with Emily. Were they planning to drop her body into a lake and put her into some sort of hypothermic stasis? Did they need more time than delaying Dr. Waltham could give them? And where were they planning to find an icy lake in the middle of April?

Markus shook his head, not sure he wanted to know the answers, and resumed watching the door for Dr. Waltham.