Rain Saga (14 page)

“If you’re going up to his room, can you give him my regards? He risked his life trying to save me, and I’d hate for him to think that I’m ungrateful.”

Edgard nodded and placed a hand on her uninjured shoulder. “Of course, I’ll be sure to tell him. And I’ll let him know that you’ve been released as well. It might make him feel like his mission was a success.”

Mr. Edgard released her shoulder and glanced down at his watch. “Well, I should probably let you go now. I’ve only got a few minutes before I’m supposed to be back in the office for a presentation. You take care of yourself, and don’t forget about that press conference tomorrow. It’s best not to keep potential investors waiting.”

Luna gave him a wave and pulled her duffel bag higher up on her shoulder. “Don’t worry, I won’t forget.”

Luna watched him until he was out of sight and then turned and walked down the remaining steps to the street. She’d left her BMW in the Agency parking garage near the hanger over a mile away, and of course, no one had bothered to ask her about moving it while she’d been in the hospital. Under normal circumstances she would be totally peeved. But after spending several days confined to the hospital, she actually found herself looking forward to the long walk.

She arched her back and tried to stretch out her stiff muscles as best she could without aggravating her healing shoulder. It felt so good just to walk!

She inhaled and smiled contentedly. At last she could breathe without smelling the hospital aroma of disinfectants and latex.

Almost a half hour later Luna arrived at the hanger and made her way down into the subterranean parking garage where her BMW sat waiting for her.

She ran her fingers across her car’s security lock, typing in the combination. The door popped open, and she tossed her bag into the passenger seat before crawling behind the wheel.

“Welcome back, Miss Luna. How was your trip?” A small female voice asked as Luna started the car, causing her to jump in surprise.

“Ada! You startled me!”

“I am sorry, Miss Luna. I did not intend to startle you. I just wanted to know how your trip went. It has been so long since we last spoke.”

Luna relaxed. “That’s okay, Ada. My trip didn’t go exactly like I’d hoped, but it was still a huge success.”

“That is good to hear, Miss Luna.”

Luna smiled. Despite being a run-of-the-mill commercial AI unit, Ada had always seemed a bit more human to her than most of the other computers she’d met, and she’d come to enjoy their conversations. In fact, speaking to her again made her realize how much she’d
missed
having the AI around while she’d been in the hospital.

Luna popped the car into reverse and then remembered the sling holding her arm firmly across her torso.

She bit her lip and pressed her foot down on the brake pedal. There was no way she could drive with just one arm—at least not safely.

“Hey, Ada, can you drive me back to my apartment? I um … sort of hurt my arm on my
trip
, and now I can’t drive.”

“Of course, Miss Luna. Interfacing with vehicle controls now.”

Luna watched the steering wheel move slightly from side to side as Ada’s program took control of the BMW.

“Please make yourself comfortable, Miss Luna,” Ada said a moment later. “We’ll be arriving at your apartment building shortly. Is there anything else I can do for you in the meantime?”

“Some music would be nice,” Luna replied.

“Do you have any specific music requests?”

“Not really,” Luna said, “just … play something good.”

“Of course, Miss Luna. Searching music database for music marked as
something good
.”

Luna sank back in her chair, losing herself in the music as Ada drove her home. Eventually the inner workings of her mind took over and she began to lose track of time all together.

The next thing she knew, she was in the parking garage of her building, wondering how long she’d been sitting there.

“Miss Luna? Are you well?” Ada asked.

“Yeah … I’m fine.” She replied, snapping back into reality.

“That’s good to hear. You haven’t spoken in nearly forty-five minutes.”

“I’m all right. I was just spacing out.” Luna replied, gathering up her duffel bag. “I’m going to take you inside now, Ada. You’d better interface to my headset again.”

“Of course, Miss Luna. Disengaging vehicle interface. Returning to all-purpose device.”

Luna waited until the blue light on her headset lit up, then carefully unplugged the device and slipped it into her pocket along with the keys to both her car and her apartment. She locked the BMW then made her way up to her apartment.

For the next several hours Luna did nothing but read and relax, and she would have continued to do so if her stomach hadn’t interrupted her with persistent growling.

With a sigh she got up off the couch and reluctantly fixed herself something to eat before deciding to call it a night.

She gathered up her dishes and deposited them in the sink, then went to her room and reached under her pillow for her pajamas before tromping off to the bathroom to change. Once there, she undressed and cautiously removed the gauze bandage from her tender shoulder. She quickly applied some topical antiseptic gel to the two sets of small, red-rimmed incisions, re-bandaged them, and then slipped into her pajamas.

After she’d brushed her teeth Luna went back into the kitchen, poured herself a glass of water, and popped two of her super-sized prescription pills before finally heading off to bed.

You’ve got a big day ahead of you, Luna,
she told herself as she switched off the light.
You’d better get rested up if you want to make a good impression at the press conference.

She closed her eyes and smiled in the darkness.

Chapter 17

Luna gingerly returned the squirming lab rat to its Plexiglas cage and tossed the syringe into the portable biohazard bin she was carrying.

One hundred and ten down
—
two hundred and ninety to go
.

Luna stretched her stiff neck and looked around the cage-filled lab. Nearly every available space in her laboratory was filled with cages—which were filled with large, white rats. Four hundred subjects to test her new Blister Wart cure and all of its subsequent variations.

Luna shuddered. She didn’t much care for rats, but surprisingly, she’d actually begun to feel
sorry
for the pink-eyed rodents. Every single one of them had been infected with the disease so that she could inject them with various mixtures of her experimental—and possibly lethal—cure.

“Okay, Alex. Subject one-one-zero has been infused with two milliliters of mixture LM34, variation F. Make a note of it, and add it to the log,” Luna said, walking over to a stack of padded cases piled near the room’s airlock door. Each of the stainless steal briefcases was filled with the variations of her cure—already loaded into four hundred pre-measured syringes.

“Requested data added, Doctor.” Alex replied as Luna cautiously picked up another loaded syringe. “Forgive me, Doctor McKelly. I do believe you’re forgetting something incredibly important.”

“Hmm? And what might that be?” She replied, already making her way back into the maze of cages.

“Your press conference, Doctor McKelly.”

Luna would have smacked herself in the forehead if not for the white hazmat suit she was wearing. She’d been so engrossed in her experiment that she’d completely forgotten about it.

“The press conference!” She shouted, nearly dropping the syringes. “Alex! I told you to remind me!”

“I believe I just did, Doctor McKelly.”

“That’s not what I meant! I need time to get ready!”

“You do have time,” Alex replied. “You have precisely twenty minutes.”

“I’m not a super computer, Alex! Twenty minutes is, like … no time at all! Look at me!” she said, indicating her suit with a frustrated wave of her hands. “It’ll take me at least that long just to take all this off!”

“Then I suggest you start immediately.”

“Yeah, you think?” She snapped. “Open the airlock!”

She didn’t wait for Alex to reply. She was through the airlock door the moment it opened, fumbling with her suit’s zipper while she waited impatiently for the airtight chamber’s second set of doors to open.

Come on, Alex! Hurry it up!

The doors slowly parted with a hiss and she bolted into the ready room on the other side of the airlock, racing through the decontamination process with an unprofessional sloppiness that would have made her sick to her stomach if she’d stopped to think about it.

Luna opened the double set of security doors and made a mad dash for the lab’s locker room. She quickly slipped out of the one-piece hazmat jumpsuit—ignoring the pain in her shoulder—and scrambled into the shower, hastily switching on the water. Ice-cold water bombarded her skin and she yelped in surprise, fumbling blindly for the tap. A few seconds later the water had warmed to a more comfortable temperature and she hurriedly scrubbed off all the sweat that had accumulated on her while she’d been wearing the hazmat suit.

She dried off and quickly dressed herself in the suit she’d picked out that morning. She hurriedly applied her makeup then checked her wristwatch and grimaced. There were only five minutes left until the press conference was scheduled to start!

Luna glanced in the polarized mirror and her grimace changed to an exasperated frown as she eyed the mess of long hair dangling limply around her shoulders like overdone spaghetti. Reluctantly, she pinned her hair back with a pair of simple hairpins. If anyone had issues with her look, then that was their problem. She wouldn’t be winning any awards for best-dressed researcher of the year, but at least now she was somewhat presentable.

“Alex, lock down the lab for the day!” she called, hopping on one foot as she struggled to cram her feet into the only pair of high heels she owned. “I won’t be coming back until tomorrow, so you’ll probably want to have someone come in here and clean up the mess in the locker room!”

“Of course, Doctor McKelly. I shall have one of the janitorial staff see to it at once. Good-bye, and have a nice evening. I’ll see you at your light-therapy session tonight.”

Oh yeah … that’s tonight. Can’t forget that,
too!

“Okay, I’ll be there!” she called over her shoulder. “See you, Alex! Wish me luck!”

Before Alex could reply, Luna was out the door and frantically scurrying down the long hallway toward the elevator.

She skidded to a stop in front of the elevator’s shiny black doors and tapped the button several times.

“Come on, come on!” she muttered to herself, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. Why had she decided to wear
heels
?

The moment the doors parted, Luna threw herself into the lift and punched the button for the main lobby. She leaned back against the wall and drummed her fingers against its smooth, steel-paneled surface. Everything was taking too long!

The elevator slowed then stopped, and the doors slid open. Within seconds Luna was trotting clumsily across the lobby, drawing curious glances as she struggled to keep her balance in her tall shoes.

Ignoring them, she ran to the doors, pushed them open, and staggered out into the dim, mid-afternoon light. About two blocks away she could see the Unitech headquarters building towering above every other structure in the complex.

She balanced precariously on one foot on the edge of the steps and pulled off first one shoe then the other before sprinting down to the sidewalk.
 
Luna gripped her shoes tightly in one hand and ran toward the headquarters. She would make it on time—she had too!

After about the first block, her lungs began to burn, and she found herself gasping painfully. She reached for her inhaler and drew in several deep lungfuls. She couldn’t give up—not now! She was so close! Luna hurried down the sidewalk past several rows of news vans and pushed her way through the company headquarters’ imposing double doors into the elegant lobby beyond.

Once inside she paused to put her shoes on, and then she dashed to the reception desk and the bemused secretary seated behind it.

“Hi … I’m Luna McKelly … I’m supposed to meet Mr. Edgard in the main conference hall … like … right now,” Luna gasped.

The receptionist stared at her blankly for a few seconds then pointed to a nearby elevator. “Um … of course. The conference hall is on the eightieth floor. You can’t possibly miss it. Do you want me to call ahead and let Mr. Edgard know you’ve arrived?”

“Yes, please! Thank you!” Luna shouted over her shoulder, already running across the lobby to the waiting elevator.

She jumped into the lift the moment the doors opened. The elevator jolted then began to rise, and Luna finally allowed herself to relax. She leaned back into the corner and took several long draughts on her inhaler while she struggled to steady her uneven breathing.

Why did I do that?
It’s not like it was a matter of life or death that I get here on time. … I’m sure they would have waited,
Luna scolded herself as she fell into a fit of violent coughing.

She moaned and rubbed her aching chest, hoping that by the time she reached the top floor she would have regained enough composure to at least keep from gagging into the microphones every two seconds.

About a minute later, the elevator stopped and the doors slid open, giving Luna her first look at the crowded conference hall.

Her mouth went suddenly dry and she swallowed, completely taken aback: the entire place was packed from wall to wall with reporters and other news personnel, each competing for the best angle of the speaker’s podium at the far end of the lofty chamber.

Wow. It looks like every major network in the world is here
, she thought nervously, her darting eyes taking in the many faces filling the room. She recognized a few of them from television, but the majority were strangers to her.

She felt her knees go weak.

What was I thinking?

At that moment Luna seriously considered going back down the elevator. Her finger was already on the button when she remembered how excited she’d been the day before and how important news of her progress would be to the countless victims of the Blister Wart disease. Slowly, she removed her finger from the glowing circle.