Scourge by Charley Pearson

Author:Charley Pearson [Pearson, Charley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Medical Thriller
ISBN: 9780997299328
Publisher: CEP Books
Published: 2018-12-30T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Spring, Year 3

Stacy cleared a bench in one corner of her laboratory, relocating all the analytical balances, steam baths, and Bunsen burners. Aatos helped her set up a new big-screen TV, running cables to a computer server with its cover removed. He plugged a card into the server’s motherboard.

Stacy double-checked the cable connections, threw the TV’s power cord over the bench, and crawled underneath to plug it in. “Now we got enough memory?”

Aatos slipped a cover over the server. “Should do.” He turned on the server, went over to the fridge, and leaned inside.

Professor Sturdevan opened the door and walked in.

“Integer alert,” said Mr. Praline.

Sturdevan came to a halt when he saw the parrot and TV.

“That’s ‘intruder alert,’” said Aatos, straightening up with a bottle of fruit juice. “Intruder.” He saw the professor and went rigid.

“What on earth?” Sturdevan focused on Aatos. “What are you doing here?”

Stacy scurried backward from under the bench.

“Oh,” said Aatos. “Um. Just visiting.”

“Haven’t seen you in years. Or have I? I’m sure I… no, that’s…”

Stacy rose to her knees, lifted a finger, and snared his attention. “Hi, Prof. He’s, uh, my date.”

“Your date?” said Sturdevan.

“Your date?” said Aatos.

“And all this…” She indicated the TV and new computers.

“You have a date?” said Sturdevan.

“New grant money. I’ll tell you about it when I get a chance.” She got up and herded the old man toward the door. “Thanks for stopping by.”

“Since when do you date?”

Stacy got him out and shut the door. “Damn, he’s the one person who could spot you.”

Aatos didn’t react to that. Instead, he gaped at her in awe. “My God,” he said. “Someone with less social life than me.”

Stacy didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or bash him over the head and risk damaging the smattering of brain cells that were still functioning. She pointed to the computer. “Saddle up.”

Aatos got this inane, hopeful expression. “Really?”

She rolled her eyes and pointed at the computer. Aatos quit pretending to be enamored, laughed, and went to work.

“Eventually, he’ll remember the cops are flashing your face,” said Stacy.

“Understood.”

They worked through the night. Once, they disassembled all the connections and started from scratch, testing each one as they went along. Aatos held up a wire with a kink in it.

“Well, that’s sub-optimal.”

He rooted around for a replacement.

At some point, dawn broke over the deserted campus and they took a breather. Wisps of fog wove through the bushes. A remarkably obese field mouse waddled across the sidewalk and onto a quadrangle covered with dew-bedazzled grass and tiny white flowers.

Aatos sipped coffee by one of the second-story windows with a view of the mouse. “Peromyscus among the clover. That dude can’t believe its luck.”

Stacy munched a cookie beside the other window. A hawk swept down on the fat rodent. She grimaced. “That hawk can’t believe its luck.”

Aatos watched the hawk fly away. “Nature is cruel.” He took another sip.

“No. Nature just is. Gotta have controls. Feedback.” She cocked her head. “Of course, in this case, feedback is rather literal.

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