"Have any of you seen anyone near this desk?" called the director to the room at large. A woman pointed to the visitor the receptionist had touched. "He was!"
The visitor began to run.
"We've got to get him before he gets into a patient!" yelled Chester. "In an unbalanced mind even Monnn can't find him! Get him."
They went plunging after the visitor.
Minnn was pleased. He had a head start, and this human had good running potential. He would have fun. An interne stepped out of a door, the visitor touched his hand, the interne stepped back through the door, rapidly. The searchers swirled down the hall and grabbed the visitor and Monnn made his test. "Not here now," he reported.
The interne strolled into an elevator, went up a story, walked quietly down another corridor. Excitement was percolating through the place almost as though the inmates breathed it. There were many inmates on this floor; he could force into one almost at leisure.
Another elevator jarred to a stop, doors opened, and the searchers bolted out. Chester's face was like a purple plum, his eyes were red and wild. The long chase was teasingly close to ending, and could be frustrated forever.
The interne turned and thumbed his nose at Forge, who gave a bellow of anger. As the men surged toward him, the attendant sprinted a few yards, reached out and touched a patient. The halls were full of them; attracted by the excitement. Unobtrusively the patient touched another, who in turn touched another, who disappeared in the crowd.
"Go back to your rooms," shouted the director of the hospital. "You are impeding a hunt for a fugitive."
But the patients didn't see any fugitive, and they stayed, and more kept coming.