Bad Nerd Rising (15 page)

“Then why the nasty
behavior? She has been utterly insulting and rude to Tia. A woman
who has come to our home to
help
us.”

“Yes. But don’t forget,
your mother has that absolute hatred of Americans.”

“Yes. It’s been close to
forty years, and she still hates Maria.”

“I noticed last time I was
there, Maria’s adopted a more British accent. I wondered if your
mother’s antagonism had something to do with it.”

“Probably. It’s not Maria’s
fault she was born in America.”

“If your mother hates
America and Americans so much, why did she allow you to attend
university there?”

He shook his head. “I don’t
know. Father might have helped. I don’t know.”

“I’ll see what I can glean from her while
we’re here in London.”

“I hope you’re not in
danger with her.” Aleksi almost didn’t voice his newest concern.
But felt he had to.

Loletta laughed. “I’m not,
you know.”

“How can you be sure?”

“We’re sisters. Totally
different relationship than husband and wife.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. It’s a shame you’re
an only child. You can’t understand the relationship, but I’m
safe.”

“I believe, I
hope
, she’s in the best
possible place she could be.”

“I’m certain she’ll receive the help she
needs here.”

Aleksi appreciated the
confidence in his aunt’s voice. He needed to hear that he had done
the right thing. “I’m relieved.”

“Yes. I’ll think about your
theories and seek answers as to whether she was involved. I doubt
it, honestly, but I promise to maintain an open mind.”

“I appreciate you, Loletta.”

Her sweet laugh warmed him.
“You even love me.”

“Of course I love you. But
I love my mother, too. Unfortunately, at the moment, I do not
particularly
like
her.”

“No. But because you love
her, you’ve taken steps to help her. That’s the best a son can
do.”

“Thanks, Loletta.” And
Aleksi meant it.

“I know, love. And I
appreciate you and your efforts. Oh, by the way...”

Fear clenched his guts.
Aleksi recognized that voice. “Yes?” He kept his voice even and
controlled, but his aunt had definitely cast a fishing line. She
wanted information.

“Your mother, while ranting about this
American at your home, mentioned this Tia is attractive.”

Of course his mother would
mention something like that. His aunt’s sonar was well developed.
It would have beeped incessantly. She wanted to see Aleksi married
off to a nice girl so he could produce an heir. Loletta worked as
industriously at this project as his mother. Unlike his mother,
though, she had nothing against Americans.

He decided to be honest.
“She is.”

“Is she princess material?”

“Absolutely.”

“So what are you waiting for?”

Aleksi grimaced. “Mother
made courting difficult.”

“Yes, of course. Be a
challenge to court a woman with Her Gloominess about.”

“Yes.”

“Are her aunt and uncle still in
residence?”

“They are. They plan to
leave in the morning.”

“Hmm.”

“You’re not humorous, Aunt
Loletta,” Aleksi warned, but his heart warmed again. He was
heartened to learn she had no problems with this American usurper
in his palace. If Loletta liked the idea of Tia as his princess,
she’d be able to talk his mother around better than anyone else he
knew.

“That’s okay, love. I don’t
need to be. Good luck with the courtship.”

“Thank you.” Thinking about
the kiss they’d shared this morning made him want to jump up and
rediscover the joys of kissing Tia.

“I’d like to be kept informed,” she
warned.

He laughed. “Like I plan
to tell you
anything
.”

“I won’t tell,” she
promised, trying to sound hurt. “More than five hundred or so
people...”

“Since that number is
conservative.
No way
.”

“Good luck, Aleksi.” He
could tell from her voice that she smiled. At least one member of
his family was happy about Tia’s role in his life.

“Thank you, Aunt Loletta.
I’ll be fine. Just keep Mother entertained for a fortnight. That is
all I ask.”

“I can do that.”

“You have my gratitude.”

She laughed at the
heartfelt note in his voice, he was sure. “I’m having a great time
already. And even though you’re not cooperating, I’ll keep you
abreast of your mother’s appointments.”

“I do appreciate that.
Think on my theories.”

“I will. In the meantime,
maybe you could return to your courtship.”

“She has no idea that’s what I’m doing.”

“What?” she exclaimed. “How
could she not know?”

“Tia believes she is here
only to fix our wells.”

“Is she stupid?”

“Of course not. But she is
very focused.”

“You haven’t even kissed
her,” Loletta said with a groan. He could picture her placing a
hand to her forehead while shaking her head.

“I have,” he corrected. And
tried not to think about how much Tia had fired him up in those
wonderful, too few minutes.

“Well that’s something. You
won’t be able to kiss her if you’re talking to me, so hang up the
telephone and get busy, son.”

“I’ll do that,” Aleksi said with a grin and
they hung up.

He sat back in his chair
and contemplated life, with his mother’s problems in general and
Tia Morrison in particular. How did one go about conducting a
courtship with a woman who had no clue as to his
purpose?
Very quietly. With many
kisses.

Aleksi rose from his chair
and moved to the door. There was no time like the present to
conduct another kissing experiment with his intended.

***

Tia frowned at the plate
Helena handed her. “Are you sure this is from well
twenty-six?”

Helena nodded. “I labeled
these plates myself. This is from well twenty-six.”

“What’s the problem?” Jorge
asked, gliding over to where they stood. He peered at the plate and
winced at the overgrowth. “Wow. That plate isn’t even quite
twenty-four hours old yet.”

“No,” Tia said, staring at
the various bacteria that had grown overnight. Usually seven days
was required to support this much growth. “What about today’s
plate?”

Maria selected a plate from
the incubator where they had stored the day’s plates after
spreading the water over them. She frowned, and from across the
room, Tia could tell there was plenty of growth.

“We’ve got a problem,” she said.

“Besides the fact that this well feeds the
hospital?” Maria asked, worry prevalent in her voice.

“I was afraid you were going to say that.”
Tia dropped heavily onto a stool.

Jorge’s eyebrows snapped
together. “The hospital?” And he glanced at the plates
again.

“This is bad,” Helena said on a moan.

“What’s wrong?” Aleksi
asked from the doorway. He stared at them before crossing the
distance rapidly.

Tia pointed to the plate on
the bench in front of them. “That’s the problem.”

He glanced at the plate.
“Wow, you can barely see the, what is that stuff it is on
called?”

“Agar,” Maria supplied.

“Thank you. You can’t see
much of the agar.”

“That’s the problem,” Tia
said.

“Why?” He frowned at her
and her heart raced a little. She wanted to kiss him again, but
that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

“Because this amount of
growth shouldn’t happen for another six days. And the well this
particular sample was taken from supplies the hospital.” Tia rubbed
her forehead.

Aleksi blanched. “The
hospital?”

“Yes.” Tia nodded. She saw
comprehension dawn in his eyes.

“This would make anyone
sick, I’m guessing.”

She, Jorge, Maria, and
Helena all nodded solemnly.

“Is this why my people have grown sick?”

“It hasn’t helped matters,”
Tia answered. “Whether it’s the cause is unknown. They are boiling
the water, right?” She turned to Maria.

“Yes. I’ll go call Graham
and tell him to make certain the hospital is still
boiling.”

“Make certain they’re also
following the entire procedure. No shortcuts.”

“I’ll explain
that.”

“That well supplies all their water, right?”
Helena asked.

Tia consulted the map
before she shook her head. “No, well twenty-seven also supplies
them.”

Helena raced for the incubator that held
yesterday’s samples and tugged a couple more plates from the
stack.

“This one looks okay,” she said, and handed
the plate to Tia.

“There’s one spot on here.” Tia took the
plate to the microscope.

After peering through the
lens for a time, and moving the plate around, she nodded. “This is
to be expected. But well twenty-six is not. What about well
twenty-five?”

Helena handed her another
plate, while Jorge took the first well twenty-six plate and placed
it under another microscope. Tia glanced at well twenty-five’s
plate, and was heartened to see it looked nearly like well
twenty-seven. “Okay, wells twenty-five and twenty-seven both look
normal. What are you seeing Jorge?”

He shook his head. “This
plate is awful.”

She nudged him aside and
peered through the lens. Tia adjusted the scope, so she’d see the
least power, and slowly worked her way around the plate and up in
lens power.

She didn’t like what she saw either.

“Okay, here’s what we need
to do. Let’s isolate these colonies. I want to know specifically
what these bacterium are. Once we know that and we should have
those answers tomorrow, we can treat this well, at
least.”

Jorge and Helena nodded and Helena took the
plate Tia handed her.

Aleksi closed in and lifted
her chin. “I am not a scientist, so I do not understand what you
are so concerned about. Can you explain this to me?”

“All we know at this point
is that well twenty-six is contaminated.
Very
contaminated. Whether the
contaminant is a true threat, or a mild inconvenience or a little
of both, we don’t know yet.”

“What else are you thinking?”

“The worst possible well to
be so contaminated is the one that feeds the hospital.”

“Yes,” he said and nodded.
Her heart dropped before spinning in circles. Tia wanted to clutch
her chest to keep it from the acrobatics, but she didn’t want to
draw attention to her predicament. At least not the inner
one.

The outer one, with the
hospital well in such bad shape, was bad enough.

“Tia, should we use all the same agars?”
Jorge asked.

She shoved to her feet and
trailed over to the bench where the others worked. “Yes, let’s do
both plates and media broths. We might as well reproduce as much of
these as we can.”

“I don’t like this,” Jorge
muttered as he streaked more plates. Helena worked with the media
tubes, poking them with the bacteria.

“No, you’re right, Jorge,”
Tia said, and exchanged a worried glance with him. “I’m guessing
we’ll need to do dilutions on these as well.”

“I just spoke with Graham.
He’s planning to hold a meeting with all hospital staff in an
hour,” Maria said and her eyes settled on Tia. “He’d like for you
to be present, if at all possible.”

Tia nodded. “If he wants me
there, I will be.” Tia bit her lip. “Do you have plate
tape?”

Maria opened a drawer and
tugged out a large scientific tape dispenser. “Will this
do?”

“Of course. I’m
thinking...”

“Yes?” Helena asked, her
brow pleated. Aleksi moved to stand beside her as Tia watched Jorge
streak yet another plate.

“I’m wondering if we should
tape that plate up and pass it around. Most everyone who is
hospital personnel will recognize the threat that plate
represents.”

Maria’s eyes widened. “Of
course. If we tape them, they’ll be safe for the medical staff to
see the problem for themselves.”

“Yes, that’s what I’d like
to do. Why should they take our word for it? When they can clearly
see the problem just by viewing this plate?”

“That’s an excellent idea, Tia,” Helena
said.

Jorge cocked his head.
“Why don’t we tape up some of the others, the cleaner ones to show
them what that plate
should
look like?”

“Another excellent idea,”
Helena said. She bustled over to the incubator and extracted plates
at random.

“I like how you folks think,” Tia said with
a grin.

“I’ll come with you,” Aleksi said.

Maria’s head jerked up.
“Graham is expecting you.” She grinned and batted at him when he
ran his finger down her nose. Tia received the impression he teased
her often.