Bad Nerd Rising (24 page)

“I don’t see anything,” Tia
said after a careful inspection.

“No, I don’t either. But I
hear loud bang, and I look, but I no see.” Anson all but wrung his
hands. He was definitely agitated, as Graham explained his English
became creative when he was nervous. Yet Anson not only spoke
English, but his native French, Russian, and Rurikstani. And he was
the janitor. An impressive lot, Europeans.

“When did you hear this bang?” Maria
asked.

Tia wondered if Anson was
sweet on Maria, because the little Frenchman appeared to go all
flustered when she asked the question. Plus, his eyes kept darting
to her, even when she didn’t speak. “Over month ago,” he finally
said.

Tia nodded. “That fits. But
you haven’t been able to locate the crack?”

“No.” He darted another
look at Maria, his cheeks reddening. “That’s why I not say
anything.”

“There has to be a crack
then,” Jorge said, and squeezed into the space behind the
autoclave. “But I don’t see one.”

“No, I either.”

“What about on the floor?” Helena
contributed.

Tia frowned. “It would make
sense if there was a problem on the floor.” She glanced around the
room. “Anson, where do you store the biohazard bags before you
autoclave them?”

“Here,” he said and pointed to a row of
shelves a few feet away from the sterilizers.

She stared at the metal
shelves and shook her head. “This doesn’t make sense.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Graham
said, and she heard frustration in his voice. Just like
hers.

“We aren’t going to find
anything here, are we?” Maria asked with a sigh after Anson
demonstrated his entire procedure for them. The six of them took
turns searching for the crack, but no one discovered anything
new.

“Not today,” Tia said. She
turned to Anson. “If you would be so good as to keep a careful
watch on the walls and floor?”

“Of course,” he promised and Tia felt he
would.

The weight of no answers
made her shoulders ache as she trailed up the stairs with the
others. Her frustration roiled between the five of them. Anson had
stayed behind to sterilize some of the waste from the
racks.

“What a fruitless hour,” Maria groused.

Tia nodded. “I don’t
understand. It has to be that area that’s causing the
problem.”

“Why?” Helena
asked.

They all turned to stare at her.

She, in turn, stared at
Graham. “This isn’t the only autoclave or waste disposal area,
right?”

He hesitated. “No. A small
area behind the main lab was just added.”

“We’d better check there,
too,” Tia said. “Excellent idea, Helena.”

“Thank you.”

They walked briskly to the
area Graham indicated and again the five of them searched the
entire space. No one in the lab could remember seeing a crack. And
after a thorough investigation, Tia had to conclude it was highly
doubtful the contamination came from this room.

The area was sealed off
properly and was several floors above the well, plus it was on the
other side of the building. She made a note to have maintenance
check for cracks in the piping, but otherwise felt this area wasn’t
contributing to their problem.

She felt in her bones that
Anson’s area was the problem. Tia added another note beside the
first. Perhaps the crack was in the pipes, not the floor or walls
in Anson’s area.

“Hmm,” she mused.

“What’s wrong?” Jorge asked.

“Do you think the problem could be burst or
cracked pipes in Anson’s area?”

Graham paused and stared at
her. “That’s a possibility.”

Jorge added, “That would explain why we
didn’t find cracks in the floor or on the walls.”

“The crack in the piping
wouldn’t need to be big,” Maria added.

“But wouldn’t it be sterile water going
through those pipes?” Helena asked.

Tia’s shoulders drooped.
“Yes, you’re right. It should be sterile water. So even if there is
a crack—”

“It would still allow for
buildup of nutrients, which would allow for growth,” Maria
said.

“That’s true. But would the
species we’ve seen in well twenty-six be that growth?” Tia
challenged. She tapped a finger against her chin. “Too bad we don’t
have a crystal ball.”

The others laughed. “That
would help tremendously,” Maria said, while Helena grinned. But
their smiles faded too quickly.

They needed answers, not
more questions. Clarification so they could treat the well. If they
didn’t know where the contamination came from, there was no sense
in treating the well. It’d only become re-contaminated and the
problem might explode out of proportion.

Tia forced herself to wait.
Made herself be patient. They needed answers before they took
action. Patience hadn’t really been a problem for her before. There
was no reason for her to be impatient now. She was a scientist. She
could outwait the slowest grower there was.

Could she outwait a
certain prince?
Her femme fatale split
personality irrational side questioned.

Since Tia didn’t want to
deal with that problem at the moment, she flicked the voice away.
Why couldn’t her life be easier?

Chapter
17

When Maks and Emerson
finally left, taking Nadia with them, Aleksi settled into the chair
behind his desk and contemplated the stack of mail. Should he read
mail, or work on correspondence? Should he check email, return
phone calls, or push through the stack of folders on his desk
first? None of it appealed to him. Not when he still wanted to kiss
Tia senseless.

The phone rang.

Answer the
phone
. Easy decision.

“Aleksi?” His aunt Loletta,
and she sounded odd.

“Yes, what’s wrong?” The
tension in her voice didn’t sound familiar.

“We have the test results
from your mother’s physical.”

“And?”

“They say she has lead poisoning.”

He sat forward in his
chair so fast it almost sprung him out of the seat.
“
What?
Lead
poisoning?”

“Yes. I’ve been doing some
research on the subject.”

“And you’ve discovered?” He
tried to comprehend his mother suffering from lead
poisoning.

“My research told me that
some of the symptoms are as follows: lethargy, muscle cramps and
weakness as well as headache, drowsiness, and confusion. The more
severe symptoms are: seizures, dementia, personality changes, and
eventually coma.”

Again, Aleksi nearly
ejected himself from his chair. “Aunt Loletta, those final symptoms
describe Father’s illness perfectly.”

“And your mother’s new
personality as well.”

He sat back in his chair.
“Lead poisoning. I thought they tested for lead poisoning? And
where did she encounter lead?”

“They did test for it, but
the tests came up negative. The doctors claim the source as being
the water pipes. Your parents’ rooms are in the oldest section of
the palace. You haven’t replaced the plumbing in that section yet,
have you?”

“No.” His parents had been
poisoned by the pipes? Their plumbing had killed his father? And
caused drastic changes in his mother? The absurdness was nearly
more than he could fathom.

“My suggestion is that you
conduct a meeting with the palace plumbing staff and have them
replace those old pipes immediately. Make certain they wear the
proper protective clothing, but have them utterly replace the
plumbing. Also suggest they look for leaks within the pipes,
because the doctors suspect there’s more than just the pipes
here.”

“Yes, of course. I’ll call
a meeting as soon as we conclude our telephone conversation.” He
couldn’t believe their home had caused his parents’ ailments.
Ailments which had killed his father.

“Why did it kill Father, and not
Mother?”

“I did ask that question.
His heart was weak, and he was more susceptible to the
condition.”

“So because Mother was healthier, she
survived, and he didn’t?”

“She said she always drank
bottled or filtered water in their bedchamber, because she didn’t
care for the taste of the tap water. Your father didn’t mind the
taste so he regularly drank water from those pipes.”

“So it only passed through
Mother’s system via her skin. But Father died because he not only
bathed in the water, but also drank it,” Aleksi concluded and
closed his eyes, blinking back tears. But for a ridiculous,
innocuous habit of his father’s, he’d succumbed to an illness that
could have been prevented.

“Yes.” He heard his aunt
sigh. Aleksi wanted to punch something. He wanted to start ripping
those pipes out himself, with his bare hands. Through long practice
he quelled that notion and instead asked a question. “What will
happen with Mother?”

“They’ve explained the
treatment for lead poisoning to both of us, and we’re planning to
go through with that. It could be a bit uncomfortable, but your
mother is willing for it.”

“What about her mental
therapy?”

“We plan to also keep up
with that. We’ll undergo the lead poisoning treatments as well as
the therapy. But you not only need to discover where the lead pipes
are throughout the palace, but also Rurikstan.”

Aleksi threaded a hand
through his hair. This sounded like a massive undertaking. One that
would consume him and not offer him any time with Tia.

Thinking about her made him
wonder about the lead pipes and the wells and whether part of what
she saw was caused by the lead pipes. At least that would give him
an excuse to speak to her again. Provided he could locate her. He
tried calling the lab when his friends left but received no answer.
The lab was like a, what was that American term? A ghost town, yes
that was it. If he visited again could he expect to see tumbleweed
blowing through it, even though he had never seen tumbleweed?
Except in some old John Wayne movies during his university
days.

He wondered if Tia liked John Wayne
movies?

“I’ll call you after we have a treatment,
which should be either today or tomorrow.”

“Have you been tested,
Loletta?”

“No, but I know my pipes
aren’t lead. Our house is new, remember?”

“And you don’t live in
Rurikstan.”

“Correct. The doctors
suggested, rather strongly, that you and the palace staff all be
retested.”

“Mother and Father’s
bedchamber is in the oldest section of the palace. Most of the
piping is new elsewhere,” Aleksi explained and rubbed a weary hand
over his forehead.

“Yes, I understand. The
testing would be a precaution.” He didn’t say anything so she
continued. “Aleksi, there is an accepted treatment for this, if
there’s a problem. You need to make certain to test everyone. Also,
some of those odd cases at the hospital need to be tested. You’d
better alert Graham.”

“I’ll do that.”

“We have answers now, love.
That’s something we didn’t have yesterday.”

“Yes,” he said tightly.

“By the time she returns
home, your mother should be herself again. You’re getting your
mother back.”

“I’m so relieved I don’t
know what to say.” But he thought about his father. He had still
lost someone precious. Because of the lousy
pipes
?

“I’d better ring off, love.
Your mother says they’re planning to start her treatments today. If
I can’t phone you this evening, I will in the morning.”

“Thank you, Aunt
Loletta.”

“You’re welcome. Now go
take care of all this.”

“I will,” he said, and they rang off.

He sat staring at the
opposite wall. Wondering about pipes, and death. With no
understanding of either, frustration and helplessness arose in a
choke hold. How did he combat something he had no knowledge
of?

With a sigh, Aleksi picked up the phone
again.

This would prove to be a long day.

He wondered if he’d get a
chance to even glimpse Tia. Because right now she was the only
bright spot of his life. Without her, he’d have sunk into a
depression he might not be able to escape.

His mother would get better, he reminded
himself.

But his dad was still dead.

No matter how many new
pipes he used to replace the old ones, he couldn’t bring his father
back.

***

Tia peered around the
doorway to Aleksi’s office, a little intimidated by the vastness of
the space. And the utter elegance. She was certain there wasn’t a
piece of furniture that wasn’t older than her, and solid wood. The
silver pieces were likely real, as was the gold inlay and gems that
decorated the various surfaces.

She thought about her
office back home. The metal desk was banged up, chipped, and had
seen at least five previous owners. It might have spent time in a
frat house, too. There was an ominous stain she hadn’t wanted to
inspect too closely.

A far cry from this office.
Her metal filing cabinet wasn’t the same color as her desk. The
table behind her desk was missing a leg. She supported it with old
textbooks.