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"Hello, Shaun," said the pleasant voice of the Agora "Welco my shirt off over my head "Where do you want me to put my clothes?"
A hatch slid open in one wall I hadn’t even been able to see the outline of it in the tile "Please place your clothes in the opening to your left I pro process We are only interested in your co before shoving h the hatch I held up my pistol "What do you want done with the weapons?"
"Please place them in the sa process begins"
"Right" I wasn’t happy with that answer I didn’t see another way Autoetviolated, and no ive upprotocol I placed the ain
"Thank you for your cooperation, Shaun," said the Agora "Please move to the center of the room and close your eyes Sterilization will commence once you are in the correct position"
"On it," I said I moved to position myself directly over the drain, closedThe water turned on a second later, raining down on led jets I didn’t open my eyes to find out
Sterilization follows the sah class a place pretends to be First they boil you, then they bleach you, then they boil you again If the powers that be could get aith dipping us all in lye, they’d probably do it, just to be able to say that one ora was nicer about it than it technically had to be; the hot water lasted alht seconds of bleach, and then a citrus-scented foa Sterilization and a shower
Twice, the Agora instructedthe bleach, hot water, and cleansing foam cover every part of me The hot water jets were repeated three times; the bleach was only repeated once Guess I was dirtier than I was potentially diseased
Finally, the water turned off, and the Agora said, "Thank you for your cooperation"
"Didn’t you say that, like, five o?" I openedan antechayrammed responses is wide, but soora patiently "If you would like to register a co the hotel off et pants in the next rooora
"Aweso cotton, purple with the Agora logo over the hip, like they were advertising a high school pep team The bathrobe that ith theo I pulled everything on, checked to be sure the ties were tight, and stepped out the door in the far wall
George aiting in the hall, tugging anxiously at the sleeves of her own bathrobe Her feet were bare, the legs of her sweatpants pooling over their tops, and her sunglasses were gone Without a medical condition to make them mandatory, she could have them confiscated at every sterilization checkpoint we encountered Another EMT was standing nearby, using that weird gift that some people in service industries see into the furniture
I ignored her, focusing on George "Hey," I said "All clean?"
"All clean" She sighed, giving up on tugging her sleeves into place "Do you think that after we see how Maggie’s doing, we can get allon of Coke," I said
"Good" She looked to the EMT "Where to now?"
"This way," said the EMT She started down the hallway and we followed, only lagging by a few steps The hall ended at a pair of sliding glass doors, which opened to reveal a s roo behind it, tapping away at her computer
"The Masons are here for Miss Garcia," called the EMT, as she led us past the desk The other wo the whole time, and her eyes snapped quickly back to the screen
"Do you get ora is proud to provide hospital services to our guests, both past and present," said the EMT "We have patients uarantee of privacy and discretion that is unfortunately not present in many ht?" I said "Figures"
George didn’t say anything She just looked thoughtfully around as we followed the EMT past a row of unlabeled doors, finally pausing at one that looked like all the others
"A moment, please," said the EMT, and pushed the door open, vanishing inside Only a few seconds passed before she pushed the door open again, this tih "Miss Garcia will see you now"