Chapter 76
We sat at a table outside, with the aroma of coffee and sweets flowing in fragrant whiffs from the bar, and waited for our order. Jack and I already had breakfast, but the smell of coffee was so appealing we ordered cappuccinos anyways. Mori had a large mug of latte and two cream filled pastries, which he began eating voluptuously, and yet elegantly.
After he finished the first pastry he looked around contently, then smiled at me and said, “You shouldn’t let the events get you down”
“Oh I don’t…”, I replied without meaning it
“You must remember that what is happening is not your fault. You are an ethic scientist”
“Not at all”, I said, and this time I meant it
“Why do you say so?”
“Because I never thought about any consequence of what I was doing until the shit hit the fan. Excuse the language”
Mori smiled again, and looked at the street
“You see, we are all doing what we do because we enjoy it, not because we want to save humanity. The point is not to damage anyone in the process, and you didn’t. You never intended your polymer to be released”
I sighted and shrugged.
“I never thought the polymer would kill people, but I intrinsically accepted the fact that it could do people some harm. The same way candy colouring, or hydrogenated fats do, just to mention few items among a long list of those that are around regardless of their effects on health”
Mori nodded
“The whole point is to learn from your experiences. You got it wrong, that’s fine. So where do you go from there?”, Jack said, and I started because I we never spoke about this before
Where would I go from there? I wondered at times, and had no answers
But before I could answer I saw Jack’s expression darken, so I turned to the point where he was looking and I saw it too. A car passing by and a woman on the passenger’s seat, her face looking like the face of the cleaning lady. Her hair was blond rather than dark, and yet the features were unmistakably hers
“It cannot be true”, I whispered
“But you think the face was hers…and I do too”, Jack replied
I frowned in silence, and looked back to the point where I had looked before, staring blankly at the flow of cars running by
“What is happening?”, Mori asked
“Perhaps the lady who had been following us is still in business”, Jack replied
“What do you mean?”
“That maybe she wasn’t dead after all”, I said
“She faked it to make you believe the danger was gone so that you would lower your guard?”, he asked
“Something like that…maybe. I don’t know”, I said, shaking my head
“Ok, let’s go”, said Mori getting up, throwing a quick glance at the pastry still on the table before heading back to the clinic
We walked quickly, Jack and I throwing anxious glances around, wondering what would happen next. I felt sure that the people she was working for were involved in McMurrich’s murder, and that I was the next target. I didn’t even know if we would make it back home. A wave of sadness surged within me, and I tried to breath in the smells, take in the feeling of these streets. Would I be alive the next day? Would Mori be a target too? His pace was fast, but when we finally reached the entrance of the research building and stepped in I saw his expression was alert but calm.
“I would call your detective lady in the States again and tell her about this”, he suggested
“Yeah…”, I agreed
When we got to Mori’s office and I punched in her number she picked the phone right away, and this time her voice was the voice of someone who was fully awake. I told her who we just saw.
“That’s right”, she said
“That’s right?”, I asked
“I made a few phone calls after you phoned me, and there didn’t seem to be any shooting at your hotel. It was a bluff”, she said.
Just as we thought, I told myself.
“So the lady is still around. Will we be the next target?”, I asked, although I knew she couldn’t answer.
She didn’t, and instead asked me if I had fixed the time of the flight back
“I’ll be at the airport when you get there, if anything comes up make sure you call me”, she said
I said I would, and hang up.
“The lady is still around”, I repeated, looking at Jack and Mori
“So what is the plan for the day?”, Jack asked, as if hadn’t heard my statement
“We go back to the lab and continue our work”, Mori replied on behalf
And we did, working until late in the evening. One test after the other we saw how the polymer altered the normal functioning of the cells and the organs. And one test after the other we kept working, strangely galvanized by the fact that we were seeing what we expected, although what we expected was terrible.
At 9 p.m. we were still in the lab, exhausted and starving, and at that point sure of what the polymer could do to people.
“What about calling it a day and going for dinner?”, Mori proposed
“Sounds like a plan”, Jack agreed
I didn’t say anything. I was numb and could have kept working all night. My mouth was dry and I felt raw, but I was in a self-destructive state of mind and I all I wanted to do was work, work till I fell on the floor unconscious, with guilt as my blanket.
But then the food and the warmth of the air leaked into my mood as the evening flowed by, and by the time we finished our dinner I had regained some hope.
“What will we do next?”, I asked
“In terms of our research?”, Mori asked, and then, without waiting for my reply, “We’ll have to try and find an antidote for this, right? As I told you this morning I will run some tests in the next days, and I will tell you what I find”
“I wish we could stay here…”, I sighted
“I will keep you posted and you can come back once it is safe for you”, he reassured me
“Don’t worry”, he added, leaning forward and pressing his hand on mine, smiling paternally
All of a sudden all I wanted to do was let myself lean on this man, taking in the reassuring calm exuding from him, and fall asleep till I all of this would feel like a nightmarish dream.
“Thank you”, I said instead
“Don’t worry”, he repeated, “Let’s go get a good night sleep now”
He accompanied us to the streetcar stop and waved us goodbye, saying, “Have a good trip and be careful”
The next morning we were in the skies again, and about 15 hours later we landed on a hot Californian morning, worn out but still alive.