Page 92 of Stuart Woods' Golden Hour

As soon as the other man departed, Dieter jimmied the lock on the guy’s locker. Not only did he find a doctor’s coat inside, but there was also a pair of clean scrubs that would fit him and the man’s hospital ID on a lanyard.

After changing, Dieter put his own clothes in an unused locker and sent Rolf a text, instructing him to retrieve them.

He then opened the text from Jillian. In addition to the hospital location, she told him which operating room Verde’d been taken to and provided a link to a hospital map.

He checked the map, memorized the directions to the surgical center, and then left the locker room, acting like the doctor he wasn’t.

On the way, he passed an unoccupied nurses’ station, where someone had left a tablet computer, identical to the ones he’d seen other hospital personnel carrying. He grabbed it without missing a step. If he hadn’t looked the part of a doctor on a mission before, he did now.

He reached the surgical center waiting area a few minutes later and was not shocked to find two cops guarding the doorway to the operating rooms. If anything, he was surprised there weren’t more.

He opened the tablet, pulled up a random chart, and looked suitably concerned as he power-walked toward the doors behind the cops.

One of the officers said something to him as he came abreast. Ignoring him, Dieter waved his badge in front of the door scanner. The lock buzzed, and as he expected,neither cop tried to stop him as he pushed the door open and walked through.

At the sound of thelock buzzing, Teddy looked over at the entrance, his hand automatically slipping under his jacket to the grip of his pistol.

The door opened and a doctor took a few steps inside before noticing Teddy.

Their eyes locked, and in that brief second, Teddy knew the man was no doctor but the assassin coming back for a second shot at Danielle.

Seeming to also realize his charade was blown, the fake doctor threw his computer at Teddy like it was a Frisbee.

Teddy jerked out of the way, delaying him from yanking out his gun long enough to allow the man to fly back out the double doors.

Teddy sprinted after him and burst into the waiting room just in time to see the man disappear around a corner into a hallway.

The two cops looked confused but had barely moved from where they’d been.

Teddy pointed at the doors. “No one goes in! Understand?”

One of the cops stared blankly at him, but the other nodded.

“No one!” Teddy reiterated.

The cop nodded again.

Teddy took off in the direction the would-be assassin had gone, but when he reached the hall, there was no sign ofthe man. What he did see were more than a dozen ways the man could have gone.

He jammed his gun back in its holster and ran back to the cops. To the one who’d nodded before, he said, “You understand me?”

“Yes,” the officer said.

“That man was not a doctor. He was here to harm the patient.”

The cop’s brow furrowed.

Teddy made a pistol with his fingers, pointed toward the operating room, and pretended to shoot.

“Ah, I understand.”

“Call hospital security. They can try to stop him. Also”—Teddy pointed at one of the ubiquitous security cameras—“have them check their cameras. Maybe they can find out where he went or if he was alone or not.”

The man looked like he only understood part of what Teddy said.

“Hospital security,” Teddy said. “Go.”

The man said something to his partner, then rushed off in search of a hospitalphone.

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