Clarity clapped her gloved hands and said, “We never thought of making Renaldo (the Dangerous) a doctor. Kudos to you, Concierge. Don’t be surprised if we steal your idea.”
“It would be an honor,” said Concierge.
Because they had begun to talk shop again, and because she was invisible in this crowd anyway, Mary joined Georgine at the tank. The medtech had applied skin-growth gauze to the skull, hiding most of it. Mary took a daisy she’d stolen from the lake path and crushed its bloom next to the control unit’s olfactory grate.
THE FAUX DOCTORS, visitors, and mentar departed the cottage, leaving only the Sebastian Carol behind. “Young ladies,” he said, waving a paintbrush at Mary and Georgine, “remove your garments and sit over there.”
MARY WAS HALFWAY to South Gate at the quarter hour of french fries, quitting time, before she remembered the stain on her sleeve. Somehow she’d managed to forget it all afternoon.
“What’s wrong?” Georgine said.
“Nothing. I just remembered something I have to do.”
Georgine gave her a shrewd look and said, “I saw a public extruder in the gym today.” That meant that Mary could order new clothes in the locker room. She could toss her incriminating suit into the digester and take a sauna, and no one would be the wiser.
But Mary hated to be such a coward, and she said, “Never mind. I’ll do it later.”
Without discussion, Mary held back to let Georgine leave the clinic grounds first, so she wouldn’t be implicated by association in case something happened. When Mary judged that Georgine had had time to clear the clinic property, she held her breath and went through the gate.
Reilly was still on duty, and Mary scolded herself for involving him in this. But no one stopped her. Reilly said he’d see her and Fred at Rolfe’s later for their regular Wednesday get-together, but Mary told him Fred had some big job tonight.
And then she was out and up the hedge-lined drive, and Georgine was waiting for her, full of sisterly pride.
“RESULTS?” MEEWEE ASKED.
“Still analyzing it,” Wee Hunk said, “but the syrup’s oxygen, nutritional, hormonal, and pharmaceutical properties all fall within normal parameters.”
“Then why hasn’t Ellen waken up yet? What are they doing to her?”
“Perhaps it’s as the nurse said: perhaps she was injured too severely.”
Meewee weighed this possibility against what he knew of the girl. Ellen wasn’t as bullheaded as her mother (who Meewee half expected to return from the dead herself), but she was no quitter either.
“I must say,” Wee Hunk continued, “the evangelines baffle me. They seem to have a communication system as subtle and flexible as Starkese, and largely nonverbal. It’s completely opaque to me; I can see that information is being passed, but I can’t read it. Is there such a thing as cellular communication?
“Also, I would have thought that news of their colleague’s discharge would have instilled fear into the rest of them, but it seems to have had the opposite effect. I didn’t ask them to make another attempt to acquire an amnio sample.”
“I know what you mean,” Meewee said. “I’d never paid much attention to the type before. I always thought they were bred to be lapdogs.”
3.9
Bogdan arrived home from work two hours early. He stood in front of the door for a long time, staring at the control plate, not touching it, not saying anything. After a protracted standoff, the door surrendered to his will and slid open. Bogdan marched through the foyer and climbed the stairs to the fourth floor, where it seemed the entire house was waiting for him in the corridor outside Green Hall. His first thought was, Who told them? But after watching his ’meets for a few moments he realized that not only were they not waiting for him, they didn’t even know he was home. It’s probably because I’m two hours early, he thought and joined them at the door to Green Hall. Inside the room, April was having some sort of unhappy encounter with Kale. Megan and BJ, standing next to the door, provided a running commentary.
“Samson rose from the dead this morning,” Megan said. “He sat up in his death-cot and croaked, ‘Mush, mush! And juice!’”
BJ said, “Now Denny and Rusty are in the john with him.”
“Assisting in a heroic bowel movement.”
“And he insists on coming to Rondy with us.”
“But Kale says that’s crazy talk. What about his odor? What if he dies in front of everybody?”
“But April is arguing his case. If Sam goes, that means she can go too.”
There was a sharp noise, like a slap, and all eyes snapped back to Green Hall. Kale lifted his paper notebook and slapped it on the tabletop again.
BJ said, “Kale’s been taking assertiveness pills all week.”
Megan said, “Yeah. Every little decision he makes he clings to like a life raft.”
Kitty came down the stairs and joined the ’meets at the door. “I’m going in,” she said. “Wish me luck.”
“Good luck,” they all wished her.
Kitty glanced at Bogdan. “What’s wrong with you? Lose your job or something?”
Bogdan was too stunned to reply. Kitty entered the room and announced brightly, “It’s all arranged. I rented the lifechair. It’s on its way.”
“Lifechair?” Kale gasped. “I didn’t approve that. That’s not covered. How will we pay for it? It’s out of the question. I’ve made up my mind.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Kitty went on merrily. “It’s coming out of Sam’s own pocket, not the house’s. That Hubert artifact in his belt arranged the whole thing. It’s all arranged and covered and on its way.”
“Cancel it!” Kale roared.
“I will not. He’s coming with us.”
“But, but—” Kale sputtered, “he’s under house arrest!”
“Quit shouting,” Kitty said. “I can hear you fine. I talked to that bee that’s watching him and cleared it with the hommers. They said he can go. They didn’t even seem all that concerned about him, actually.”
“But, but, but—”
“Look, Kale,” April said, rising from her bench seat, “it’s a badge of honor that our house cares enough about him to take him to his last Rendezvous. And it’s a badge of honor we should be proud to wear in front of your damn Beadlemyren. Believe me, none of them look too healthy themselves. We’ll be nursing them soon enough.”
The truth of her argument tipped Kale momentarily off balance, and the woman and girl used the reprieve to exit Green Hall. “I said I made up my mind,” Kale threw at their backs. “Did you hear me? My mind is made up.”
On her way out of the room, April paused to speak to Bogdan. “You’re home early,” she said. “Did you get that bonus?”
“Yes!” Bogdan roared. “I got the feckin’ bonus!”
But April didn’t stay around to hear about it. She sent all the loitering ’meets on last-minute errands. The bus was due to arrive in two hours. April dropped a package into Bogdan’s hands and said, “Wear this.” She wrinkled her nose and sniffed him. “Take a shower first.”
Her suggestion startled him. He lifted his arms to sniff his pits. Subject reeks of unholy fear, he reported to himself. He held the package of party togs before him like a bowl of water and gingerly carried it to the upper spheres of the house. Subject must be careful not to shut his eyes, or even to blink too slowly, for every time he does, a bloodred curtain drops, and he sees again with cornea-blistering clarity the unraveling of his day.