Dues of Mortality (35 page)

Dana
looked sharper at the man. “
How
do you know Richard?”

Xavier
peeped over his shoulder, motioning for Glenda to step forward. It
was a bold move if not a stupid one. If Dana raised a stink and
alerted security, he wasn't sure if he and Glenda could outrun them.
He could only say his choice to be honest with Dana, from the jump,
was pure instinct.

Glenda
angled in front of Xavier and almost went so far as to flank Dana.
But Xavier subtly cupped Glenda's waist and halted her movement.
Making Dana feel boxed in wouldn't win them any favors.

“
You
and I have met before,” Glenda said. She tapped a finger behind
her ear and the outline framing her glasses dissolved.

Dana
gasped.

“
Please.
There's no reason to panic,” Xavier said, looking directly into
Dana's bulging eyes. This is where his boyish features and disarming
charms would come in handy. “We just want to talk.”

Dana
backed away. “I'm not talking to you. I'm calling security.”
She then turned, breaking into her best high-heeled trot.

“
You
have to help us save Richard!” Glenda said promptly.

Dana
froze. She looked back at the pair, but kept the rest of her body
aimed in the opposing direction, ready to book under the slightest
provocation. “What do you mean?”

“
Dana,
could we please go somewhere a bit more private?”

“
Why
would I go anywhere with you and what does this have to do with
Richard?”

Glenda
paused. She and Xavier bounced glances up and down the hallway
ensuring they were safe from curious eyes and ears.

“
Four
days ago I got a call from Richard,” Glenda said. “He
sounded frightened, panicked. He wouldn't or couldn't tell me what
was happening, but ever since then I've had people trying to kill me
and one of them mentioned Richard's name. I think he wanted to kill
him too. I think Richard may have been trying to warn me about
something, something that's led up to all this
insanity
that's been going on around me.
But now it looks like he's gone missing himself and we
need
to find him. I'd tell you why we
haven't gone back to the police yet, but you wouldn't believe me.
Please Dana. It may already be too late.”

Dana
homed in on Xavier.
“
Who
is he?” she asked.

“
I’m
someone who’s trying to help,” Xavier answered simply. He
regretted not telling her his name—it wouldn’t serve to
earn Dana's trust—but throwing it around could bite them in the
ass if he wasn’t careful.

“
Will
you talk to us?” Glenda asked.

Dana
just whipped her eyes between them. “No. Leave me alone.”

“
Dana,
please.”

“
I
haven’t seen Richard for months,” Dana exclaimed. A
benign answer was best. Anyone looking to hurt Richard would get
nothing from her.

“
Do
you have any idea where he might be?”

“
If
I did, I certainly wouldn’t tell you. You’re a murderer.”

Glenda
sighed, visibly wounded. It was the first time she'd actually been
called a murderer...to her face. “I didn’t murder anyone,
Dana. May I call you Dana?”

“
No.”
Dana answered hastily, almost before the question was finished.

Stupid
thing to ask anyway
, Glenda thought. Good thing she didn't
have to make a living as a diplomat. Though, not many alleged
fugitive, cop killers could.

Xavier
took a solid look at Dana, overtly panning her. He waited for her to
notice before saying anything. “Let’s go,” he said.

Glenda
looked shocked. “What?”

“
This
was a mistake. A waste of time. She doesn’t trust us; she has
no reason to.” He turned back to Glenda. “Kelmer may be
on his own, but you’re not.” Then for dramatic effect, he
said, “With any luck, we can get to him before they do. Come
on.”

Xavier
took Glenda’s arm and they made for the north exit as if there
wasn’t a millisecond to spare. Thank goodness, Glenda didn’t
blatantly protest. They hadn’t discussed much of a contingency
if Dana refused to talk. Xavier knew his abrupt severing of the
conversation would, at the very least, be confusing to Glenda, but it
was all he could think of on the spot.

“
Who
are
they
?”
Dana asked.

Xavier
halted and looked back. “Whomever it is trying to kill us,”
he answered. He then continued to walk Glenda down the hallway.
Dana’s paralyzing ambivalence had been palpable. It was all in
the timing now.

“
Is
it Millenitech?” Dana asked quailed, as if the walls had ears
of their own.

Xavier
and Glenda stopped cold. Xavier blew a sigh of relief that only
Glenda could see as it whipped up the bangs of her new hairdo. She
drove her nails into the back of his hand as they walked back.
Jerk!
Next time give a girl a little warning!

****

“
I knew it. I knew
something was wrong, but he wouldn’t tell me,” Dana said.

She
and her “guests” had gathered in the lab module, drew
chairs and sat in a semicircle. The lab was a farmed field of metal
and microbes kept under controlled climates and constant monitoring.
It was littered with microscopes, state-of-the-art computer
terminals, centrifuges and scores of other high-tech tools that
together put out enough magnetic interference to make all nearby
radios, phones and comwatches a serious hassle.
This
actually made things a little calmer for Xavier
.
It occurred to him that if anyone were trying to keep tabs on Dana,
they would have a hell of a time from outside the lab.

“
What
do you mean?” Xavier asked. “You knew what?”

Dana
hugged herself. “It was that place, that Millenitech monster.
It drained the life out of him. That Wallace was too demanding and
too stifling. He pressured Richard about everything. Had him working
like a slave. He even had him commuting back and forth from upstate
at some sort of advanced research center. I tried to help as much as
I could, to take some of the load off, but eventually it just became
too much and Richard left the university.”

“
Have
you spoken to him recently?” Glenda asked.

“
Yes,”
Dana said hesitantly. “He called
me
at about the same time too, four
days ago. He sounded nervous, like you said. Only he told me even
less. Just said he would be unavailable. I wanted to ask him what was
wrong, but I was afraid to pry. Richard is very adamant about keeping
to himself. He has a hard time letting people in.”

Glenda's
ears pricked up. Was that a hint of regret in that last observation?
Don't tell me Xavier picked up
on it before me
.

“
Did
he mention Glenda to you at all?” Xavier asked.

Dana
looked embarrassed by the question. “He said...he thought she
was pretty.”

Now,
Glenda
looked
embarrassed.

“
Actually,
I meant when he called,” Xavier said, graciously as possible.
“He never mentioned anything about someone wanting to hurt
her?”

“
No.
Her name didn't even come up,” Dana said.

“
What
about
him
?”
Xavier held to his openness with Dana. She wouldn’t respect
less. “Is there a chance
he
might have a grudge against
her...for whatever reason?”

Dana
professionally tempered her offense. “No,” she answered
with her nose in the air. “Richard is kind and decent and he
doesn't hurt people. He
helps
them.”

Xavier
softened his eyes and brought his voice to a perfect and velvety
baritone. “
I'm not asking
you as a scientist. I'm asking you as a woman.”

Dana
blushed openly. The man's charms were working, but Richard was still
her priority.
“
Like
I said, Richard’s life’s work was about
helping
people, not hurting them. I would
think you would have at least known
that
before you came here.” She
averted her eyes. She believed every word she had said, but had
“polished” her statement just so. She knew Richard better
than most, but there was still adequate room for
doubt
about his overall lifestyle.

“
Dana,
can you tell us where he is?” Glenda asked.

“
No,”
Dana answered quickly.

Glenda
looked thoughtful. “Look, I know, Dr. Kelmer, too. And I feel
the same way about him as you do.”

“
You
couldn’t possibly,” Dana said tartly. She bit her tongue,
looking away.

Glenda
recognized the attitude right off. She, too, had a tendency to become
rabid whenever someone spoke ill or challenged her feelings for a
particular man. Xavier
did
notice it first
.
Way to
go, Dr. Freud
.
Most
men wouldn’t have caught something like that with a baseball
mitt
.

“
Dana,
you can’t imagine what I’ve gone through these past few
days,” Glenda said. “If Richard was trying to warn me
about something and someone else found that out, they may be involved
with his disappearance. You seem to be someone who cares about him a
lot. It would really help me
and
Richard
, if you
could give us, at least, some idea of where he is.”

Dana
stared back at Glenda straight on. “I don’t
know
where he is.”

Glenda
paused for a moment then stood up. She stepped away from both Dana
and Xavier, glazed over, looking like she was trying to run numbers
in her head. When it looked like she’d gotten the answer, she
stopped. “Oh, my god,” she said. “I’m going
to die.”

Xavier
bared his teeth. “Like hell, you are,” he said fuming. He
had seen this before. In the field. Openly declaring yourself to be
doomed was a type of defense mechanism against insanity. The mind
seeks to accept the inevitability so it doesn’t make you crazy
with fear.

Xavier
sped over to Glenda, lifted her face by both hands and riveted his
eyes to hers. “You
are
not
going to die, Glenda Jameson. I won’t let that
happen. Do you understand me? I won’t let anything happen to
you. I swear it.”

Dana
was abashed.
Richard
had certainly never looked at
her
that way. She'd never given him reason.
But
was it real?
she asked herself. She
wanted
to believe them, but what if she was wrong? If she was being
manipulated Richard would pay the price. If she did nothing and they
were telling the truth
Richard
would pay the price
.

She
finally sighed in defeat. “I think I might have...an
idea
where he might be.”

Glenda
looked over at Dana with wide eyes. The hierarchy of Feminine Future
Perfect had always held that one should never underestimate the power
of female communion...or maybe Glenda was just that good an actress.

Dana
proceeded to tell the couple of a house in the hills of Seattle,
Washington, the knowledge of which Kelmer disclosed to Dana during an
atypically mellow moment. Apparently, he had a habit of sequestering
himself there whenever he needed to shut out the rigmarole and
concentrate on a particularly elusive formula or calculation.
According to Dana, the house was actually a leading edge engineering
project designed by Richard’s uncle, John Kelmer, a genius
environmental engineer and physicist. The tireless efforts of
environmentalist politicians had just barely won John funding to
design and construct a new type of solar battery that could supply
the power needs for a modern twenty-first century home. The project
would have been leaps and bounds beyond the shabby yurt-like
dwellings that occupied the southwest—although, strides had
been made in improving those constructs—and would contain far
more than the standard contemporary amenities. Most remarkably, it
would be built in one of the rainiest parts of the country, where
direct sunlight was in short supply.

“
I've
never heard of such a project,” Glenda said. “You'd think
something like that would make news.”

“
It
frightened all the wrong people,” Dana replied. “Power
company lobbyists are a carnivorous lot. They shut the project down
before it could be completed.”

“
How
did he gain access to it?” Xavier asked.

“
He
never said,” Dana answered.

Xavier
rolled his eyes. “Well, I always wanted to see the Space
Needle.”

The
earliest flight Glenda and Xavier could find, and that wouldn't leave
them busted, was a red-eye to SeaTac that didn't leave for another
eight hours. They decided unanimously to put the spare time to use by
catching up on their sleep. Neither one of them had slept very much
their first night in the trailer. The calls Glenda made earlier that
day had put Xavier on guard, in particular. He fretted about getting
caught with his pants down since there was an off chance her
inquiries had alerted her pursuers—whomever they were—to
he and Glenda's location. He kept his suspicions to himself, however,
seeing no benefit to worrying Glenda beyond all hope.