Laura looked critically at the huge crate, her brow furrowed in puzzlement. Why had they wasted their effort with something so heavy and imposing? Surely, if this girl (was she?), this thing, was as powerful as Laura suspected, the box would be about as effective as tissue paper. And it looked like Dr. Karzakoff and his cohorts knew that too, judging by the obvious relief in their faces. There was no doubt in her mind now - Patient X-1 was most definitely being foisted upon them, whether they liked it or not. Whether they were ready for it or not. As the seconds dragged by, Laura wasn't so sure that they were. But then, what could they do? Laura gave Emma's shoulder a little, reassuring squeeze and her sharp gaze turned up to Karzakoff's face. She stepped forward. What aren't you telling us, she wanted to hiss at him. Why in the hell are you doing this to us? Don't know you know that we're all spread impossibly thin as it is?
But the question that left Laura's mouth was much simpler than that. "What are we supposed to do with the box?" She kept her tone neutral, despite the flash of disdain in her eyes. "It may have wheels, but it's too heavy for us to hide safely, and we'd like as few questions as possible. The children on the island were already starting to ask more questions than Laura was comfortable with, and they certainly didn't need any more. "Do you have any guesses about how long X-1 will be under? We can carry her back while she's asleep if there's enough time." A thousand other pertinent questions chased themselves around in Laura's brain, but she knew that almost all of them wouldn't be answered. After all, she'd asked them before and was met with avoidance, or sometimes flat-out hostility. And she was too tired to deal with that now. Therefore, her final question was another simple one.
"She wrote that her name was Jacquelyn. Is that what you've been calling her?" As often as she'd breathed the syllables of "X-1," Laura knew it was time for a change. Even Laura, clinical and label-obsessed as she was, knew that people should have names, not numbers. She wondered whether her mainland colleagues had bothered to use the one they'd given Jacquelyn.