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begun issuing orders to the men gathered by the back door.
    Then she’d headed inside. By the time Lachlan followed, she’d disappeared into an exam room.
    His suspicions that Dr. Kirk might have pocketed money instead of buying the expensive equipment promised in the clinic’s marketing materials had been proven false when he watched the first box opened and the laborers began to set up something that resembled a microwave oven.
    Inside an exam room at the other end of the hall, a woman’s agonized moan switched to a cry of pain. One of the nurses poked her head outside the door. He thought it was Leticia, but couldn’t be certain given the surgical mask covering half her face.
    “Dr. Kirk! It’s time!” she called out.
    “Coming!” Dr. Kirk emerged from the exam room across the hall. She stripped off her latex gloves, shoved them in the hazardous disposal container attached to the wall, then pulled a clean pair from the dispenser and slipped into the other room through the door Leticia held open for her.
    Looking both ways, Lachlan saw that the corridor was temporarily clear. So he stepped into the empty exam room behind him. Unlike last night, today the countertops and drawers held the full range of supplies, including packets of sterile scissors and other implements that might be used as weapons.
    So. He’d been correct. The doctor hid her supplies at the end of each day.
    Unfortunately, there was nothing illegal in that. But if she had a secret hiding place for the supplies, what else might she be storing out of sight?
    Poking his head out of the room, Lachlan waited for another group of workers carrying boxes to file down the corridor. Then he made a beeline for Dr. Kirk’s office.
    The file cabinets were, of course, locked, but once again that was little hindrance. He flipped through the file folders that now filled the drawers, randomly pulling them out and checking them for anything suspicious.
    Everything was as it should be. The folders contained filled-in patient charts, treatment plans, and notes on patient personalities accompanied by suggestions how best to get each patient to follow the recommended treatment plan.
    He moved on to the file drawer in the desk. A folder marked LOAN caught his eye. Hmm. WAR’s background report hadn’t mentioned Layla’s Foundation taking out a loan. Had they run out of money already?
    The folder contained only three pages. The first one was a one-page loan agreement between Sani Natchaba as representative of SN Investments and Dr. Kirk as representative of Layla’s Foundation. Lachlan raised his brows at the sum involved. It was much more than he expected would be needed to run the clinic for an entire year.
    The second page contained the repayment schedule. The first payment was due next week. The interest rate was high, with a stiff penalty should Dr. Kirk or Layla’s Foundation fail to make any of the twelve monthly payments.
    So. Layla’s Foundation needed tomorrow’s grand opening to be a financial success, or they’d never be able to repay the money.
    The third page contained the categories of materials that were to be purchased with the funds from the loan. Lachlan skimmed over it, then read it again. His suspicions about the timing of the security upgrades were correct. The list included louvers, security bars, and the reinforced door. Concrete would have been used to anchor the security bars, but could also have repaired holes or cracks in the building.
    Either the building had been in terrible shape and this SN Investments had provided the money to fix it up, or the clinic had suffered major, and unreported, damage.
    Had the clinic been attacked by the rebels? Aside from the weapons smuggling, Lachlan had no knowledge of active rebel groups in the area. Perhaps the clinic had been damaged in a natural disaster?
    He set those questions aside. What he needed to focus on was discovering the location of Dr. Kirk’s hidden storage room. Because any space