"Should I wait out here?" Deborah questioned.

"No, not at all," Carlton said. "The more the merrier."

He led them back behind the check-in desk into a hall with numerous doors lining both sides. Each door opened into a separate, unoccupied, and darkened ultrasound unit. The women followed Carlton almost to the hall's end where a light spilled out from one of the side rooms.

Inside, a woman in a short white coat stood up and introduced herself before Carlton could do the honors. Her name was Dr. Shirley Oaks. She had bobbed hair not too dissimilar from Joanna's both in style and color. In contrast to Carlton she was sympathetic about the potentially missing ovary and said so.

Joanna thanked her but then cast a concerned look at Carlton. She'd urged him to be as discreet as possible.

"I didn't tell the whole story," Carlton said in his defense. "But I had to say what we were looking for."

"Nor do I want to know the whole story," Shirley said. She patted the ultrasound couch to encourage Joanna to climb onto it. She'd covered it with fresh paper from a roll of paper at the head. "We've got to be expeditious about this," she added. "I've got another procedure I was about to do, plus I could get called away for an emergency at any moment."

Joanna started to comply but Shirley restrained her. "It might make it considerably easier if you slip off your skirt and unbutton your blouse."

"Sure," Joanna said.

"I'll wait outside and give you some privacy,' Carlton said.

"It's not necessary on my behalf," Joanna said as she slipped out of her skirt and passed it into Deborah's waiting hands. "There's nothing you haven't seen before."

Joanna climbed up onto the couch and Shirley exposed her lower abdomen by pushing away her shirttails and lowering the top edge of her panties. The three tiny puncture sites from the egg retrieval laparotomy were just barely visible.

"Do these scars appear normal for a laparotomy?" Shirley asked Carlton as she prepared to put on the ultrasound gel.

Carlton bent over and took a closer look. "They sure do. They're the usual size, and they've healed normally."

"Could an ovary be delivered through such a small incision?" Shirley asked.

"Certainly," Carlton said. "Young, healthy skin like Joanna's is surprisingly elastic. It wouldn't be any problem at all."

"Let's get this over with," Joanna said.

"Of course," Shirley agreed. She squirted out a generous dollop of the gel onto Joanna's bare abdomen.

"Ahhh! That's cold!" Joanna cried.

"Oh, yeah, sorry," Shirley said. "I forgot we usually warm this stuff, or at least the nurses and the technicians do."

Shirley turned the lights out with a foot pedal and applied the probe to Joanna's abdomen. The monitor was on an arm, and it was positioned so that everyone could see, including Joanna.

"Okay, there we go!" Shirley said, speaking to herself. "There's the uterus. It looks good and completely normal."

Both Joanna and Deborah marveled how anyone could make anything out of the squiggly white lines on a dark background.

"Now we'll move laterally," Shirley said. "We can see the ligaments and the tubes and there! There's the left ovary."

"I see it," Carlton said. "It looks normal."

"Very normal," Shirley said. "Now let's move back to the uterus That's good! Now to the right."

Joanna kept watching the screen, hoping to see something she could say she recognized, but in truth she knew little about her inner workings, and she preferred it that way as long as everything functioned normally.

Shirley moved the ultrasound probe around in a tight circle in Joanna's right lower abdomen. Then she began to press in on it to the point of discomfort.

"Ah," Joanna complained. "That's starting to hurt!"

"Just a second more," Shirley said. Then she stopped and straightened up and looked at Carlton. "Well, as near as I can tell the right ovary is not there."

"It couldn't be retroflexed or anything like that?" Carlton asked.

"It's not there," Shirley said. "I'd be willing to put money on it."

"Is it all right if I get up?" Joanna asked.

"Oh, of course," Shirley said. She gave Joanna some tissues to help wipe up the gel from her abdomen. Shirley lent a hand as well.

Joanna slid off the couch and buttoned her blouse.

"What are the chances that Joanna only had one ovary to begin with?" Deborah asked.

"That's not a bad question," Carlton said. He shrugged. "I don't know."

"Call one of the gyn residents," Shirley suggested. "They should know."

"Good idea," Carlton said.

"If I can help any more, give me a buzz," Shirley said. "I've got to go."

The group thanked the radiology resident, who then left. Joanna grabbed her skirt and shook out the wrinkles.

"Come out to the main desk when you are ready,' Carlton said. "I'll page the gyn resident from out there." He stepped out into the corridor and disappeared down the hall.

"Well, our worst fears have been corroborated," Deborah said. She held Joanna's arm while Joanna stepped into her skirt.

Now that she was alone with Deborah, Joanna felt a surge of emotion and even suffered some tears. She wiped them away with the back of her hand. "I don't know why I'm crying now," she said with a short, emotional laugh. "I guess it's just that I've had a long, intimate relationship with that ovary, and I didn't even know she was gone."

Deborah smiled. "I'm impressed you can find humor in this!"

"As tired as I am, laughing seems easier than crying."

"Well, I'm mad!" Deborah said. "The nerve of Paul Saunders and Sheila Donaldson and whoever else is in on all this." Using her fingers to count, she said: "Consider what they are apparently doing: one, stealing ovaries from unsuspecting women; two, cloning themselves to beat the band; three, impregnating poor Nicaraguan women and aborting them for eggs. And that's only what we suspect1. We have to do something about this."

Joanna adjusted her skirt and her blouse and slipped into her shoes. "I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to go home and go to bed. After ten or eleven hours of sleep, maybe I'll be able to think up something appropriate for the Wingate Clinic."

"Do you know what I think we should do?" Deborah said.

Joanna picked up her purse. She was in no mood to play Deborah's game and didn't respond. Instead she walked out of the room.

Deborah followed. "I'll tell you what we should do, even if you don't want to hear it. I think we should go back out there to the Wingate Clinic tonight and see what's in that egg room. There could very well be incriminating evidence in there. Hell, we might even find your ovary. And if that doesn't work, we can get you back into the server room and get the research files. At this time of night we won't have to contend with Randy Porter."

Joanna stopped and turned around. "That's the craziest idea I've heard in a long time. Why in heaven's name would we go back out there tonight!"

"Because we can!"

"You must be just as tired as I am. What kind of answer is that?"

"We still have access cards," Deborah explained. "We left early today, and I'm sure they discovered it, so we're out of jobs. But knowing bureaucracies, the cards are probably still operative. That will change tomorrow, but I'd be awfully surprised if they didn't work tonight. And we still have Spencer's card, and that's not going to stay good forever, either. My only point is that if we don't go out there sooner there probably won't be a later. We've got this narrow window of opportunity that we have to take advantage of."

"I suppose you have a point," Joanna said wearily. "But we're both way too tired." She turned around and continued down the hallway. Deborah followed at her heels, trying to convince her they had a moral responsibility. When they emerged into the waiting area they were still arguing. Carlton had to quiet them so he could hear while he was on the phone.