Dominant Species Volume Two -- Edge Effects (Dominant Species Series) (23 page)

“Hi,” Rachel smiled back.

Joan got up and walked right at
her, her concerned look and outstretched arms easily turning Rachel down the
hall. When they got to the kitchen, Joan was the first to speak. They whispered.

“It’s the same damned shit.”

“I could see.”

“What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know yet. Take him to
the clinic. I’ll meet you there. Applegate should have had something on the one
who died. Maybe his file can tell us something. I don’t know. What’s the guy’s
name again?”

“Gursten or Gearster or
something.”

“I’ll find it. Do you need a hand
with him?”

“No. I can manage.”

Joan stuck her head out the door
and called Bruce over. She gave him a hard look as he bounced toward her. Mike
hadn’t said anything about Bruce being involved in the theft, but you never
knew. She wouldn’t trust any of her kids anytime soon. That’s just the way that
went.

She told him to open the doors
for her as she came through, then went to Mike’s room and hefted him up. When
he put his arms around her shoulders, she could see that he was embarrassed
about being carried. He was heavy, over forty kilos, but she managed easily.
Careful not to bump him into the walls or doors, she moved sideways down the
hall.

When she got to the clinic, her
arms and back ached, but she had plenty of reserve. She went easily up the
stairs; and with Bruce holding the door, into the clinic.

“Put him down on that thing,”
Rachel said, pointing to an examination table. “I’ve found something. Look at
this.”

Joan followed her over to the
little data center. Geary’s file was on the screen. In the lower corner played
the recording Donna had made of the tissues around Geary’s ankles.

“Applegate thought it was the
larvae of some parasite. I agree with her. She says it probably came from
contaminated standing water. It’s a common M.O. for certain species and an
excellent delivery system.” She pointed to the screen. “Look, you can see them
right here.”

“Did she say how to cure it?”

“No. Just some ideas, only one of
which we can try.”

“What?”

“She recommended irradiating the
afflicted parts in the scanner—using the modulated microwave energy to kill the
larvae.”

“Can we do that?”

“That’s the problem. I don’t know
anything about using a scanner in that mode. It’s probably a risky,
undocumented
feature you have to finesse
yourself through. I might be able to take some pictures with it, but I don’t
know how to use it to deliver heat. I could cook him. I don’t think the scanner
is really designed to act as a therapeutic device.”

Joan thought about it. “We have
to try,” she said. “You can try it on me first. I’ll volunteer.”

Rachel thought about it. She
drummed her fingers lightly on the table. Then she sighed. “We’ll need some
pain killers. It’ll probably hurt some.”

“Okay,” Joan said.” I can do
this.”

Rachel started to look around,
opening cabinets and drawers. Joan watched her for a moment.

“You can stop looking,” she
said.” I know just where to get some.”

“Great. I’ll see if I can figure
out how to make the scanner do this.”

Joan turned to Bruce who was now
leaning against the wall, still on standby, still gnawing on a finger.

“Go find Eddie,” she said
bluntly. “Tell him to get over here.”

Joan went outside to wait. She
didn’t want to confront the little shit in front of Rachel, and especially in
front of Mike. She could see the dock from the clinic’s steps. She watched the
tiny figure of Bruce find the lift Eddie was operating. She saw Eddie jump
down, get in a truck and drive down the ramp.

As the truck headed toward the
clinic over the rough ground, Joan’s anger grew with each bounce. He’d
endangered the life of one of the best delivery kids she’d ever had working for
her—a sweet and honest kid utterly devoid of guile.

She waited until the truck
stopped and Eddie beamed his oily smile before she moved down off the steps.
Eddie got out of the truck to greet her. He would have been safer in the truck.

Joan grabbed him by the hair and
punched him once in the face before he could get his hands up to protect
himself. The smarmy smile vanished.

“Hey!”

“Hey,
what
, you little prick!”

“What’s this about?” he asked
with an angry pout. A bright trail of blood came out of his left nostril.

“I want the Xerc. All of it.”

“The what?”

“The Xercodan, Eddie—the drugs
you and Geary scammed! I want it now, all of it, pronto. ASAP. Now!”

“I don’t know anything about any
Xercodan.” It was one of the most sincere lies she’d ever heard, buttery and
innocent, perfect, with a hint of childish petulance at the end. She laughed.
“Really?”

“Yes.”

“Mike told me all about it.”

“What? He’s crazy.”

“He’s dying! Because of you! You
sent him into the green after Geary’s drugs—now he’s sick, too!”

“I really don’t know what you’re
talking about, Joan.”

“You don’t?”

“No . . .”

“Well, let me refresh your
memory,” she said. “You set up the theft, and Geary did the stealing. Does that
filthy little scenario ring any bells? I’ve been around docks my whole life,
Eddie. I’ve seen it all. It’s the oldest scam in the book.”

Eddie’s face got stony. He wiped
the blood from his nose onto the back of his hand.

“You can’t prove anything,” he
said.

“Can’t I? Get in the truck.”

She shoved passed him and got in
the driver’s side. Eddie reluctantly walked around and got in.

“Where are we going?”

“Your shelter. We’re gonna find
those drugs. I say they’re under the bed—maybe under the dirty clothes—which is
it?”

“You can look all you want to. I
don’t have any drugs.”

“We’ll see.”

She put the truck in gear and
spun out, pelting the front of the clinic with debris. When she glanced over at
Eddie, he looked like he’d just seen a ghost. She was surprised he was sticking
to his story. She stopped at the side of the shelter and got out, then reached
in through the window with her hand open.

“Key. I don’t want to kick in the
door.”

“I don’t think you can do this,
Joan.”

“You don’t? Just watch me. Key.”

“You won’t find anything,” he
said, taking the card out of his pocket.

Joan snatched the key from his
hand. She went inside and got her bearings. Eddie’s room would be the nicer one
in the back. She headed straight for it. The bed was unmade. She got down on
her knees and flapped back the covers hanging over the cheap metal frame.

Nothing.

She went down the hall and into
Peter’s room. She looked under his neatly made bed.

There they were. A cluster of
brown bottles in a thick plastic bag.

“Christ . . .”

She stomped back to the truck and
tossed the bag onto the seat. Eddie ignored it.

“Look what I found—and in Peter’s
room. Nice trick.”

“So? They’re not mine.”

Joan shut her eyes and sighed.
She had no idea Eddie could be so incorrigible, such a liar, denying the truth
when it was right in front of him. She suddenly felt sorry for him. He was
lost. It was hard enough to live and work in the Commonwealth without the
stigma of
Thief
hanging over your
head. He’d made his life all the more difficult, maybe impossible. She could
see him now on Earth’s streets a year from now, just one of the nameless mass
of homeless scavengers—all because of this.

“No. They’re not yours. They
belong to the clinic.”

She fixed him with her gaze.
Maybe she could give him another chance. “Eddie, do you know what you’ve
done?”

“I haven’t done anything,” he
said stiffly.

“Don’t you really know?”

“No. I said I haven’t done
anything.”

Well, there was only so much she
could do. She had her own welfare to consider, too. There were strict and fast
rules to be followed in such cases. If she failed to make the report, she could
be held partially responsible. She didn’t have a choice in the matter. She
would have to file the report, annotate his records and have it notarized.
She’d fire him of course, cancel his contract legally, and send him home. He’d
be lucky ever to get another deal. That was the price of thievery in the Commonwealth.
That was all the punishment there would ever be.

Speaking calmly, she explained all this to him. While she did,
Eddie just stared ahead, tight mouthed, blood drying on his upper lip.

Eddie finally turned toward her. She thought for a second he was
going to cry, his eyes just starting to fill with tears. Those tears brought
her very close to taking it all back.

Without warning, he opened the door, dashed out of the truck and
ran toward the jungle at full speed.

“Eddie!”

Joan dashed out after him. Her legs pumped as hard as they would
go but were no match for the wiry springs of a fourteen-year-old boy.

“Eddie, come back!”

He ran until he reached the perimeter, then vanished into the
green as if he’d never existed. Fifty yards behind him, Joan stopped short at
the jungle’s edge, knowing better than to try to follow him into that viney
wilderness.

“Eddie! Come back, goddamnit! Eddie!”

She called and waited for a quarter hour, walking up and back,
yelling for him at the top of her lungs until she was hoarse. Finally, she went
back to the truck, swearing at herself for not grabbing him before he got away,
for hitting him, for being so hard on him.

Christ,
he’s just a kid. What was I doing?

* * *

When Joan got back to the clinic, Rachel was busy at the controls
of the scanner. Mike was lying as still as death on the examination table,
waiting and worrying. Joan rested a hand on his arm briefly as she passed by.
He brightened.

She put her thoughts about Eddie to rest for the moment.

Mike needed her.

“Do you have it figured out?” Joan asked.

“Well, I think so. It doesn’t seem as dangerous as I thought, but
there're still some risks. Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Yes,” she said flatly.

Rachel took a deep breath.

“Well, get on the table, then. I’m just about ready.”

Joan reached in her pocket and took out a vial of Xercodan and
popped the lid.

“What’s that?” Rachel asked.

“The pain killer, like you said.”

“Uh, you can’t use it after all.”

“How come?”

“Because you have to tell me when the heat gets too hot. If you
use that stuff, you may not be able to tell, and I could hurt you.”

“Great . . .”

“Sorry.”

Joan climbed onto the table and Rachel pushed it into the tube.

“All set?” Rachel asked loudly.

Her voice had a slight echo to it from inside the hard white tube.
“Yes.”

“I have to actually do a scan to get it set up, so wait a second.”

There was a hum inside the tube, and Joan felt a slight tingle in
her left foot that got wider and smaller and shifted from foot to foot as
Rachel changed the focus.