Hannah nodded, looking up at him. Perhaps she was waiting for him to make the call.
‘What do you say, then, Flash? This is your area of expertise, not mine.’
She grinned suddenly. ‘I say we go. We can open up the boxes and take just the amount we might need from them.’ She pointed at the large box of dressings. ‘Even if we need all that, there are only two of us and two people can’t apply that many dressings.’
‘Agreed. Why don’t you make a selection and I’ll put everything into the car.’
She raised an eyebrow. ‘You’re sure about that?’
‘Positive. I’m used to having whatever I could possibly need within reach. I’ll go with your best guess over mine.’
‘All right, Robin...’ He raised his eyebrows and Hannah chuckled. ‘You asked for that. You can start with the defibrillator and the oxygen kit—we should definitely take those.’
Fifteen minutes’ concentrated work, and they were ready to go. Hannah had used plastic bags and torn wrappers to contain reasonable amounts of as many different things as possible, repacking boxes and labelling them with a marker pen. She’d added a couple of large zipped bags to their provisions, commenting that they were obviously there for a reason, and picked up the bag of sandwiches and the six-pack of water bottles, stowing them in the footwell of the car.
‘Can you see what the others are doing?’ Matt drove out of the carport, and he caught an enticing trace of her scent as she craned round in the passenger seat, trying to see what was going on behind them.
‘Yep. Yellows have gone already. Since they’re an ambulance crew I wouldn’t be surprised if they haven’t done the same as us. Blues and greens look as if they might be staying put.’ She twisted back round in her seat, surveying the road in front of them. ‘I hope we’ve done the right thing.’
‘We’ve done it now. We look forward, not back.’ Matt could feel a tightening excitement in his chest. This wasn’t just about winning, not even just about bringing home the cash prize for their hospital. Suddenly, it was Flash and Robin, on the road together. Ready to face whatever was thrown at them.
CHAPTER THREE
HANNAH HAD PICKED a spot that gave easy access to main roads in all directions, and was approximately at the centre of the circle. They got out of
the car, stretching their legs, and even though it was only ten thirty, she broke open one of the packets of sandwiches. Who knew when they’d get a chance to eat later on? After ten minutes, the phone rang. Matt answered it, listening carefully and scribbling notes on the back of the map.
‘It’s at Lloyd Court. Apparently there’s someone who’s collapsed. No further details at the moment.’
Hannah rolled her eyes, spinning the crust of her sandwich into a nearby waste bin. ‘What, like where he is or what might be wrong with him?’
‘I suppose they think that’s far too easy. They’ll pass further information through to us in the next half-hour. Do you know Lloyd Court?’
She nodded. ‘Yes, it’s a country park. And it’s huge, it’ll take us all day to find someone there.’
Matt handed her the car keys. ‘We’d better get a start, then.’
As Hannah turned into the wide avenue that led to the heart of the country park, he got another call. He listened carefully and then turned to her.
‘Apparently our patient’s had a heart attack. There was one phone call from him, he couldn’t give his exact location but he said he’d been walking on the estate here for around half an hour, and that he was surrounded by trees. His name’s Justin Travers and they’ve given me a phone number for him, but apparently he’s not answering.’
The spike of adrenalin made a clear summer’s day move into even sharper focus. ‘Why give it to us, then?’
‘That’s what I’m wondering...’ Matt was fiddling with the phone as she drove, and Hannah concentrated on the road ahead, turning into the car park that sprawled to one side of the visitors’ centre. She got out of the car, opening the hatchback.
‘What are you doing?’ She started to unload the boxes, sorting out what they would need for the walk ahead of them.
‘Just looking...ah! Got him!’
‘What?’ Matt didn’t seem to appreciate that this was an emergency situation. Okay, so it was a fake emergency situation, but they had to pretend it was real.
‘I did an internet search for the number. There’s a business connections page for a Justin Travers and he’s obviously a walker. Look...’ Matt held out the phone and Hannah glanced at it, then went back to unloading the boxes from the car. She grabbed the two rucksacks and started to fill them with the things they might need.
‘He’s a made-up person, Matt. He’s not going to have social media.’
‘Or they’re testing us. What would you do if you were in this situation for real? You’d try to find out who he was if you could.’ He handed her the phone and Hannah scrolled through the page that was displayed. The guy was a self-employed computer consultant, and his hobby was walking. He’d been on a recent expedition to Mount Kilimanjaro, and his contact number was clearly shown. When she scrolled down a little, his other hobby was listed as ‘Watching Hospital Challenge’. That couldn’t be a coincidence.
‘I was wrong...’ She suddenly felt very small. Matt hadn’t underestimated the complexity of the challenge the way she had. He hadn’t dismissed her experience either. She hadn’t shown him that respect.