Mirage Beyond Flames (Coriola) (2 page)

“You hear a bit too muc
h for your own good, Mr. Leon!” she teased. “Since you are so well informed, tell me, what did you hear about my divorce?”

“Not much. I
t only took meeting you to realize the guy is an idiot and it’s probably in your best interest you’re rid of him.”

Recognizing a compliment but avoiding its trap, she replied:

“There’s no interesting story. I’m simply one of the millions of women who got married to a man with whom I had nothing in common. Seven months later we said
goodbye
in agreement, no scandal involved. This is all. Disappointed?”

“You’re kidding, right?”

His green, exotic eyes boldly met hers with unsettling directness, causing her pulse to accelerate slightly. Gerard signaled the waitress and they ordered some tonic water.

After the first sip, Linda restarted the discussion:

“Now that you know the story of my life, tell me about yourself. You’re French, right?”

“Is it so obvious?”
he joked, stirring the ice in his glass.

“
Bien sûr.
This is pretty much the limit of my French,” she said laughing.

“In
any case, you have a great pronunciation,” he remarked.

“
Merci beaucoup
! So, since you lured me with ice cream to tell me about your project, why don’t we start with a short biography? You can tell me to mind my own business if you don’t want to talk about it,” she imitated him, smiling.

He laughed
, looking surprised to discover what a delightful person was hiding behind that distant shield.

“Okay
, here’s the synopsis of my life: I was born in Bobigny, a small town located North-East of Paris, where I lived until I was sixteen. That’s when my father died.”

He paused,
as though waiting for the usual pitying remarks, but she remained quiet. Gerard resumed:

“He was working in nuclear research,
a field about which I don’t know much, since I was too busy being a teenager. Anyway, at some point, he began having serious health problems and when he finally went to the hospital, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It was inoperable, being too advanced, because he had ignored the symptoms until the last moment. Two months later, he was dead.”

Although he tried to appear detached,
his voice still reflected the regret and sadness accumulated in twenty years.

“After that, my
mother decided to move here, with her sister, Sophie. She was destroyed, physically, mentally, and I, in my ignorance, wasn’t a big help.”

“
Did the way your father died determine you to become a doctor?” she asked in a gentle voice, which inspired understanding and confidence.

Gerard lifted his gaze to her,
looking somewhat astonished by her perception capacity. Then he took a sip from the tonic water and answered thoughtfully:

“Could be… Maybe in my subconscious this weighed a lot in my career choice, but there
are other factors. I inherited from my father a thirst for knowledge, fascination toward science in general, and the human body, in particular.”

She could
read in his attitude the passion and profound devotement for his work. This kind of passion motivated her too at the same extent, even if the direction was different.

Gerard went on:

“I’m intrigued by the mechanisms, by the configuration of live organisms and their chemistry, their way to function, to adapt, to reproduce…”

Flustered, she
lowered her eyes to the glass in front of her, toying with the colored straw, but she could feel the weight of his gaze on her. If she had looked at him then, she would have seen his almost imperceptive smile.

“Well, mostly that’s the boring story of my life. Is there anything else you want to know?”

“Yes,” she replied, her eyes sparkling with interest. ”Tell me about the magical treatment you’ve discovered.”

He
reclined in his chair.

“
Actually, I can’t truly say I discovered it. There has been some research done in this direction. I managed to determine a treatment formula which, so far, is giving excellent results in vitro testing.”

“I gather
that at HOPE they don’t do tests on animals, it’s one of the reasons I chose it to offer financial support. I consider tests on animals monstrous in this era when technology has evolved enough to exclude them,” she said.

“I feel the same. As a doctor
and as a human I respect life in any form. Even though it’s not appropriate for a physician to say this, there are people who deserve to live less than animals and suffer much more. There’s not a crueler animal in nature than the human.”

Linda smiled, a wave of heat enveloping
her soul.

“I can’t believe there’s someone who actually loves and r
espects animals as much as I do. I agree with you, I couldn’t have said it better. Why didn’t you become a veterinarian?”

“
I intended to, but I thought I could do better saving children’s lives. For now, no matter their genetic baggage, they all deserve a chance to live and maybe this will make them better people. The ones who survive, that is,” he added, a hint of sorrow in his voice.

They remained silent for a moment, each abs
orbed in their own thoughts. She was the first to reopen the conversation:

“How did you test your miraculous treatment?” she asked, back to the main topic. “And what kind of treatment is it?”

Gerard linked his hands under his jaw.

“A serum and an ointment based on snake venom. It’s mainly intended to cure some skin cancer forms.”

She raised her eyebrows in amazement.

“Is that so? I thought any kind of venom is harmful, not beneficial for the human body.”

He smiled slightly.

“That’s what most pe
ople think. I’m a nonconformist. I want to prove that any organic substance has its uses, it’s just hard to determine the proper way it needs to be used. The Mojave rattlesnake venom has some special features, discovered by researchers who try to produce anti-venom vaccines. It contains a very powerful neurotoxin and other substances which, to put it simple, transform the affected cells into a sort of… soup. True, the destruction is nonselective and the objective is destroying the cancerous cells. But, as an alternative to the traumatizing and invasive effects of surgery and chemo, it’s preferable to inject a well-calculated quantity of venom serum into a tumor. In the first phase we obviously try the ointment. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to annihilate only the cancerous cells without affecting at least some of the healthy ones. We’ve made numerous tests in vitro and using other methods and meticulous calculations, we determined a treatment formula, still rudimentary. Of course,” he admitted, “it can’t be applied in all cancer forms, but for external tumors, in light forms, we already obtained encouraging results on two volunteers.”

“That
is spectacular!” she exclaimed animated. “I suppose there are a lot of parents who give their consent for their children to serve as guinea pigs.”

“Yeah
,” he answered. “After all, their fate is pretty much sealed from the moment they’re diagnosed, so they haven’t got much to lose by trying new treatment methods. Nevertheless, our calculations are very exact and the risks are minimal for volunteers.”

Linda sighed, supporting her chin on her hands.

“But what exactly provokes cancer?” she asked. “A virus, a bacteria, what?”

Gerard looked at her,
seeming surprised by the acute interest she manifested regarding this subject.

“To be painfully honest, not even medical science can’t exactly point out the cause of this disease. Following all kinds of studies, there have been issued numerous hypotheses. The most plausible would be that, under the influence of certain factors, the growing and multiplication systems of
normal cells change. This becomes dangerous for the rest of healthy cells. In other words, the cancerous cells multiply in a chaotic way, uncontrollably, their number increases until they form a visible tumor. Beside their very fast multiplication, cancerous cells are incapable of adequately organizing, and the newly formed mass of tissue doesn’t have normal tissue features.”

“I know
tumors are malignant and benign, the malignant are nasty, so doctors have to get rid of them, right?”

Gerard laughed.

“Something like that. Would you like to be my assistant? I could really use having you around.”

“I’m sorry, but I’
m more in my element amidst pieces of wood, metal and sharp objects. Biology was never my
forte
and, most important, I don’t have the required psychological structure to work in health care. I get teary-eyed just by seeing sick people,” she said with forced cheerfulness. “Or did you forget the earlier demonstration?”

He covered her hand with his, gently stroking her.

“Don’t be embarrassed, it’s not shameful to have a soul. You have to be glad society didn’t turn you too into an insensitive robot, like the ones surrounding us.”

She
didn’t withdraw her hand, but fully enjoyed the pleasant feeling enveloping her at his warm touch.

“Don’t get me wrong,” she said.
“I’m not ashamed for having weaknesses, not really. I just wish I could hide it better, so I won’t be easily read by just anybody, like an open book.”

A corner of his sensual
mouth lifted.

“Believe me, you’re far from being an open b
ook. When I first saw you, I got the impression you’re a cool, distant dame who does charity just for publicity’s sake.”

When Linda looked at him with her jaw dropped, he ran a hand through his
short hair.

“Damn it, I can’t believe I’ve said that!” he went on laughing, and she
joined him.

“For such a smar
t man, you’re not so clever, Mr. Leon. Or didn’t you know I have always preferred to remain anonymous? What is known about me, is discussed only inside the clinic, at least I thought so. But considering how informed everybody is about my personal life, I wonder how come they don’t speculate about the color of my underwear,” she joked without malice.

Gerard widened his smile.

“If you’d like, I’m perfectly available to check, just so there won’t be any uncertainties.”

You have no idea how tempting it i
s
, she thought, but asked with a dry smile:

“Are you so friendly and helpful with all women?”

“Only with the incredible ones, like you,” he answered, watching her in such a way she wondered if she was running a fever.

Realizing their plates and glasses were long empty, Linda grabbed her purse and stood.

“I’d better be going,” she said. “I’ve got some work to do.”

“I’ll see you to your car, just hold on a minute while
I pay our bill.”

Outside
, the asphalt was still very hot, but the sunlight had dropped considerably.

They walked in silence the few dozens of yards until they r
eached the clinic, where Linda had parked her car - a sport, light blue Mercedes, its top carelessly left down.

“You should be more careful. D
on’t ever leave your hood down, especially when you park on the street.”

“Oh
,” she gesticulated vaguely. “There’s nothing to steal really, just some chisels somewhere in the glove box, but I have a few dozens more at home, of all kinds.”

Gerard took her hands in his once again.

“It was a real pleasure meeting you,” he said, looking her straight in the eyes. “When will I see you again?”

Linda hesitated, then answered on a neutral tone:

“I’m sure I’ll see you around, here at the clinic. Now that I live in London, I’ll pass by more often. Thanks for the treat and good luck with your treatment, I’ll check on your progress.”

Gerard smiled
, unaffected by her apparent indifference.

“I’ll see you aroun
d,” he said and kissed her cheek, before she had time to make any gesture of protest.

* * *

After her car was out of sight, he entered the building, going straight to the room where he’d met her earlier. From the floor, next to the chair where Linda had sat, he picked up the sunglasses he’d removed himself not long ago. With a little satisfied laugh, he headed toward Carolina’s office. She was one of the nurses and occasionally also served as a secretary.

Displaying his most seductive smile, he approached the plump, blond woman, who resembled a bit his own mother.

“Caro, Ms. Coriola forgot her sunglasses here. Do you by chance know her address and phone number? Yeah, yeah, I know they’re confidential, don’t worry. This data is safe with me.”