Bad Nerd Rising (25 page)

Obviously, she wasn’t in
academia America. Nor was she as comfortable as she could be. Most
likely the priceless heirlooms in this room were crying at the
sight of her. In her klutzier teenage years, it would have taken
her three minutes, max, before she started toppling priceless vases
and figurines.

As an adult, she hoped to
escape the room without knocking over anything or breaking
something. It would be a first for her. That’s why they’d given her
the refuse from the other offices. Her department had figured out
pretty quickly her penchant for clumsiness. Therefore, she was
rather comfortable in her office, because if it didn’t survive her,
who cared?

“You rang?” she asked as
she gazed at the man behind the impressive, antique, completely
wooden desk. He pointed her to a chair, a plush, comfy one on the
other side.

She noticed the lines
around his eyes, and a pinched quality to his lips as soon as she
sat.
Uh oh
.
“What’s wrong?”

He squeezed the bridge of
his nose and stared down at his desk. “Remember our conversation
about certain bacterium possibly killing someone?”

“Of course.” She’d never
seen him look so haggard. Did he regret their evening? All that
kissing had kept her awake for a full minute, but she certainly
didn’t regret kissing him. She would kiss him right now, if he
asked. There was a possibility even if he didn’t ask.

“My aunt just phoned. My
mother was put through a series of tests in addition to a thorough
physical examination.”

She nodded. Okay, that made
sense. Had they discovered something was terribly wrong with
her?

“They discovered lead poisoning.”

She blinked at him.
What?
“I must say I
never suspected you to say that. Why wasn’t she tested for that
initially?” Tia flopped against the back of the chair and stared at
him. “I assumed that would have been ruled out already.”

“She was, but the tests
came up negative. I don’t understand how they could
have.”

Tia bit her lip. “The
testing components might have degraded over time. Or there might
not have been a problem when she was tested then.” They had also
discovered something that she wasn’t certain she should mention to
him, in light of what appeared to already be a difficult
day.

Aleksi must have noticed her hesitation,
“What?”

“We found evidence of silver colloid.”

His face blanked. “That
figures into this how?”

“Silver colloid has been
used since ancient times as an antiseptic and is used to inhibit
bacteria in...” She swallowed. But Tia decided she wouldn’t be a
wimp and just blurted it out, “Drinking water. Specifically from
the well that feeds your parents’ section of the
palace.”

“So my parents have
suffered from two different heavy metal poisonings.” His voice
sounded flat and weary.

“Yes, I believe so.” She
hated the sorrow that crossed his face and the way he closed his
eyes in a defeated manner. Groping for something to encourage him,
she said the first thing that popped into her head. “Fortunately
there is treatment for lead poisoning.”

“Yes, she is undergoing
treatment now. My aunt suggested we all be tested again, both here
in the palace, and I have sent word for all who can be, to be
tested in the city. Perhaps the doctors should order new testing
supplies.” He massaged his forehead like he suffered from a
headache.

“Yes.” Tia nodded. “The
treatment isn’t bad. They’ll give those suffering from it a
chelating agent and they’ll have to stay hydrated, but it’s not
bad.”

“What if you are a child or
an older person?”

“It still should be okay.
There is a cure for this, Aleksi. That’s not so hard.”

He didn’t comment, but some of the pinched
qualities smoothed from his face.

“What was the source?” Her
mind worked, churning data. This might answer some of her
questions. She stood and stepped to the side of his desk to be
closer.

“Lead pipes, here in the
palace. Specifically in the section of the palace where my parents’
chambers are located.”

“Are there other lead pipes still in the
city?”

“I spoke with our plumbers
and some of the city council. There are several older parts of the
city that definitely have lead pipes.”

Realization dawned. “You’re
going to have to replace all of them.”

“Yes.” He
sighed.

“That’s going to be an expensive
undertaking.”

He raised his head to stare
at her. “We have the money to do so. But what of the children? What
of the older people who have already died? I cannot bring any of
them back.”

Tia’s throat closed off and
her heart stuttered. She darted around his desk. “Aleksi, this
isn’t your fault.”

“I am the prince. I am
supposed to know these things.” She could feel the pain emanating
from him. Tia rested a consoling hand on his shoulder.

“You’ve only been the
prince for a year. After having to deal with your father’s death
and figure out how to run Rurikstan. You’re not
superman.”

“Those lead pipes changed
my mother’s personality and killed my father,” he whispered in a
voice that made her ache for him. Ache for the evident pain
there.

She wrapped her arms around
him and held him as close as she dared. How did you comfort a man
who’d lost his father so needlessly? “I’m sorry.” The words seemed
so inadequate.

He nodded, but his arms
tightened as he tugged her into his lap and buried his face in her
neck. Aleksi swallowed before apparently pulling himself together.
“I am, as well. How many people have suffered because of those
pipes?”

“I don’t know. But you’re
taking care of the problem. As soon as you discovered there was one
you acted. That’s all you can do, Aleksi. If you beat yourself up
over every crisis like this, you’re going to lose your...” She
groped around for the right word.

“My what?”

“Your perspective. Your
edge. Your leadership abilities.” She held him tighter. “Oh, you’ll
also want the plumbers to make certain nothing leaked into those
pipes that added to the lead.”

He remained silent but held
her so close breathing proved a challenge. Tia didn’t mind. She
wanted to hold him tighter. Wanted to do something to ease his
pain.

When her eyes dropped to
his lips, she knew what she could do. Leaning forward, she kissed
him. His lips were hot.

His arms tightened more,
and then he took over the kiss with a masculine groan she felt to
her toes. A thrill and a fear coursed through her. She ignored the
fear and embraced the thrill.

Right now, this was where she needed to
be.

In her prince’s arms,
kissing him and being kissed senseless. Everything else could
wait.

Chapter
18

Back in the lab, Tia popped
the plastic tip off her pipette and jammed another tip onto the
end. She pulled up more of the murky media in one of the tubes from
well twenty-six.

This particular tube
emitted a vile smell, and since they weren’t certain what it
contained, she decided to run the tests on it in the lab hood to be
safe. The others were capable lab personnel, but she had the
advanced degree, so should be the one to suffer any ill
consequences. Tia worked in the hood, but still reminded herself to
breathe shallowly. The flow of circulating air sucked most of the
stench away.

She placed the tip of her
pipette into the second tube, released the dilution, recapped the
tube and vortexed the solution. Then popped off her pipette tip,
added another tip, uncapped the tube and inserted it inside. She
added that to the next tube and continued the same process. Maybe
these dilutions would help. She hoped so.

At least now they knew lead
pipes and the silver colloid had been part of the problem. But Tia
didn’t think they were the entire problem. Something was still
causing the contamination of the hospital well, and it was up to
her to figure out what.

She steered her pipette
toward the waste bag in the hood and caught the bag on the tip. The
bag ripped and she watched as a shadowy liquid oozed from the bag
and onto the stainless steel surface of the hood.

Tia dropped the tip into
the bag and grabbed another bag to place the old one inside. Then
she went for sterile wipes and cleaned up the ooze. As she stared
at the ripped bag, a thought occurred to her.

“
I think I know where the
contamination is coming from,” she told her lab crew as they raced
down the palace hall and onto the street that would take them to
the hospital.

“Weren’t we here already once today?” Helena
mock groused.

“I’m sure I’m experiencing déjà vu,” Maria
added.

Jorge alone remained
silent, but he concerned her the most. He kept darting worried
looks at her. Like he feared for her mental state.
Not promising
.

After she had finished her
dilutions, she’d called for Maria. Who she instructed to contact
Graham again. Then she removed her gloves, changed her lab coat,
washed her hands, and they all headed toward the
hospital.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”
Graham asked when he joined them.

“I think I know where the
problem is located.” Tia kept them moving at a brisk pace. She
thundered down the basement stairs, aware of the others following
her with less enthusiasm.

When they erupted into the
autoclave area, Anson jumped. “I not find crack,” he said and
stared askance at her. Tia was fast becoming familiar with that
expression.

“You won’t find it, Anson,” she assured
him.

Striding over to the racks
that held the waste bags before they were autoclaved, she stared at
them, and noticed a couple of them dripped. And stank. Yes, just as
she thought.

“Anson, do some of the bags always drip like
this?”

He nodded. “I ask, to put
another bag around the drip one, but they not listen to me.” He
shook his head sadly.

“Well, those bags are part of the
problem.”

Graham’s eyebrows soared so
high they were almost lost in his hairline. “What’s the rest of the
problem?” His voice indicated he didn’t look forward to her
answer.

“We’re all going to need to help,” she
answered and Tia grabbed a corner of the rack.

“What exactly are we
doing?” Jorge asked. It was the first time he’d spoken since they
left the lab.

“We need to move this rack.”

Jorge frowned at her and the rack before his
visage cleared and he said, “Of course.”

He grabbed the other end
and Anson, ever helpful, took another. With a shrug, Graham took
the last corner. “Whatever you say, princess,” he said. She started
at his name for her. How did he know she’d spent the good part of
an hour comforting and
kissing
his prince this morning?

But a quick scan of his
face indicated he’d just called her that name as an endearment. She
hoped.

“On the count of three, we heft this rack
and move it there.” Tia indicated a spot to her right with her
head.

The men nodded and she
started the countdown. “One, two, three.” And the four of them
hefted the rack, some of them groaned, but they moved the rack away
from the floor space where it sat.

There, beneath the rack was
an obvious crack in the floor, following a masonry line in the
stone floor. Coating both sides of the crack was a muddy looking
scum of various degrees. The liquid leaking from the bags looked
surprisingly like that of the mini bag she had ripped in the
hood.

Using her hand to indicate
the crack Tia said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the source of
well number twenty-six’s contamination.”

“How did you know?” Jorge
asked. He sounded impressed.

“I ripped the bag in the hood,” she said,
staring at the disgusting liquid draining along the floor and into
the crack. “It occurred to me that many scientists tend to be
thrifty or oblivious, so they wouldn’t double bag their really
disgusting biohazard bags.”

“Which always drip.”

“Yes. Helena’s comment
today about the liquids coming from the autoclave being sterile got
me to thinking. Most likely, the source of contamination isn’t
going to come from the actual autoclave.”

“But will occur before I autoclave bags.”
Anson stroked his goatee.

“Yes. We didn’t find the
crack this morning, because we were looking for it in the wrong
place.”

“Never think to look under rack,” Anson
admitted.

“I wouldn’t have either,
until I ripped that bag. And I realized a dripping bag, which could
contain anything from bacteria to acid, to some things we won’t
mention, dripping for an extended period of time—”

“Would eventually break
down the mortar holding the stones in place,” Helena finished for
her.

“Exactly. I suspect this
hospital is old,” Tia said, and Graham and Anson both
nodded.