We approached the receptionist.

She was about fifty, but was trying, and failing, to look twenty.

She wore a too short dress that revealed her scraggly legs, had on more makeup than a circus clown, including cakey foundation, obnoxious red lipstick, and terrifying blue eyeshadow. She had was must have gotten exceedingly cheap plastic surgery, as her skin was pulled upward so tight, it looked like it was being peeled off.

"Can I help you?" She asked in and irritating high pitched voice that would make a dog run for cover.

"We...Uh..." I was still a terrible liar.

"Yes Ma'am!" Abigail covered for me, thank goodness, although her voice was a little over enthusiastic. "We're here for school. We're doing a research paper on the Add-ps two thousand and we were wondering if you could give us some information."

The woman hesitated, although it was hard to tell with her face frozen into a creepy grin.

Abby gave her her most winning smile, and she caved.

"Oh, all right! I'm Miss Flotina, but you can call me Ingrid!" Ingrid laughed and lead us into the hospital, either not knowing, or not caring, that she was leaving the front desk completely unattended. "So, the Add-ps was created by Richard Maddison Snuff six decades back. It predicts when a person is going to die!"

"We know, but can you tell us how it works?" Abby asked sweetly.

"Well it counts down the person's life and when it stops they die."

"We know, but how?" I could tell Abigail was already losing her limited patience.

"When a baby is born is blood is put in the Add-ps and out pops a Clock that shows the amount of time the baby has to live."

"I know, but how?" Abby snapped.

"Watch it, young lady!" Ingrid warned. "Before they blood is drawn a primer serum is injected into the bloodstream. Then the blood is put into the Add-ps, which generates a Clock. Each Clock is specific to the individual child. When the clock hits zero, the person dies."

"Woah," I breathed, if only for the sake of letting Ingrid think we were awed by her rundown.

As usual Abigail seemed unimpressed, "Okay, cool, but how does the Add-ps know when the person is going to die?"

"Mister Richard Snuff is very secretive with his invention's details. All I know is that it has something to do with the primer serum."

Abby rolled her eyes at not getting a more thorough explanation, and, although we weren't getting anywhere with Ingrid yet, I couldn't let Abby's temper ruin a possible information source.

"Okay, but the Clocks. What happens to them?" I questioned.

"The Clocks are delicate. Snuff insisted they are kept under lock and key. Most are stored at the hospital, if that's not available they are sent to City Hall."

I could tell Ingrid was getting agitated and wouldn't be cooperative for much longer.
Smiling politely, I thanked her.

Abigail looked like she wanted to say more, but, before we could cause more trouble, I grabbed her wrist and yanked her through the revolving doors, and into the chilled evening air.