Shadows in the House With Twelve Rooms by J. Price Higgins

Author:J. Price Higgins
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Published: 2013-03-12T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 33

George

George picked absently at a scab on his upper arm. The tip of his tongue, held firmly in place by his teeth, protruded from the corner of his mouth as he concentrated on the pages of his final program for Pope Munoz. A smile spread across his face as he worked. These two programs would net him another three million. Not a bad haul.

He leaned back from the table. Reaching into his hip pocket, he pulled out a handkerchief and patted it across his face while he scanned the conference room. Where the hell is the thermostat, he thought. It's too damned hot in here. Throwing his pen against the wall, he charged out of the room and down the hall to Bianca's lab.

"Where is it?" he yelled, slamming open the lab door.

Bianca looked up from her microscope. "Where is what, George?"

"The goddamned thermostat for that conference room. It's boiling in there. I can't even think anymore!"

She spread her hands, palms up. "The building is automatically controlled, George. There is no thermostat."

He scrubbed the handkerchief across his face. "I'm trying to get Rafe's program finished. How the hell do you expect me to do that when I have to spend all my time wiping sweat off my face? Goddamn it!" He hiccupped. Hiccupped again.

Bianca strode close and peered into his eyes. "When did the hiccups start, George?"

"Just now. Forget about the fucking hiccups, just get me some cool air. I don't know why the devil you haven't done something about it already, hot as it is in here."

"All right. I'll see what I can do. First, I want to check your eyes and lungs. You may be coming down with something." She motioned toward the papered examining table. "On the table, pet. Take your shirt off, leave the trousers on. This won't take long."

"There was a time when that order would have been reversed, Bianca." He smirked. "Am I getting to be too much for you?"

"You always predicted that would happen, didn't you? I guess you are smarter about this virility stuff than I gave you credit for."

"Damn right. A good man only gets better, you know." He removed his shirt and sat on the edge of the table. "Pants on or off, it's all the same to me. I don't feel much like screwing anyway."

She held the blue light to his eyes until his vision blurred and tears came. She listened to his lungs, making him breath. In. Out. In. Out. Strapping a black-light eyepiece to her left eye, she leaned close to a crusted pustule on his upper arm. Using a small, hooked instrument to lift the scab, she removed a sample of the tissue beneath, placed it in the center of a slide, and slipped the square piece of glass into her scope.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm sure it's nothing, but no sense taking chances after we've come so far."

"It's this thing on my arm, isn't it?"

"A serum allergy, I suspect." She bent over the scope for a moment. "It can't be," she muttered under her breath.

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