Sheila entered the waiting area; everyone stood. There was silence until Sheila spoke. “She’s in a deep coma, Richard. Under the circumstances, that’s probably the best thing for her.”
Richard’s voice was choked. “And the baby?”
“The baby seems fine.”
Richard slumped in the chair behind him.
“I have something for you, Richard.”
Richard held out his hand. “You took off her wedding rings and locket?”
“We had to, Richard. I figured you would want them.”
Richard slowly closed his hand.
Sheila stood. “Sam is with Donna, in ICU. Let’s talk in his office.”
“I’m going in with D,” Gary said.
Sheila softly smiled and nodded. “Sure.”
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Sheila walked behind the desk and waved Sir Richard and Richard to a chair. “Please sit. I know you both want to be with Donna, so I’ll make this brief.” She looked from Sir Richard to Richard. “Donna is gone. Clinically speaking, she died before she collapsed. All that’s keeping her body alive are the drugs, and the machines. If we take her off life support, whether it’s today or a hundred years from now, it’s not going to make any difference.”
Richard swallowed hard. “With all this technology there’s nothing you can do?”
Sheila slowly shook her head. “I’m sorry, Richard.”
Richard stood. “I’m going to see her.”
Sir Richard grabbed his arm. “Not yet, Ricky. Sam can stay with her a while longer. I need to talk to you and Gary. Go get him, and then come to my office.”
Richard paused in the ICU doorway. Tears filled his eyes. Donna didn’t even look alive. He clutched her rings and locket in his hand and entered the room. Sam was sitting on one side of the bed, holding Donna’s hand. Gary was on the other. Sam let go of Donna’s hand and stood, making room. Richard caressed her face with the back of his fingers, bent down and kissed her forehead. He turned to Gary. “Dad wants to see us in his office.” He directed his attention to Sam. “Don’t let her slip away.”
Sam swallowed the lump in his throat. “I won’t.”
Gary laid his hand on Sam’s shoulder as they shared a knowing look. Gary knew Sam was dying inside. Sam nodded. Gary left.
Sam sat in the chair and took Donna’s hand, again. He softly kissed the back of it. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I’ve let you down. I’ve let your baby down. What I wouldn’t give to have you open those beautiful brown eyes, and smile at me, one last time. I love you Donna.”
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Gary and Richard stood outside Sir Richard’s office. Gary looked at Richard. “I don’t need to be here!” Richard said as he pushed the door panel.
Sir Richard came to the door. “Ricky, wait outside.”
“Dad I need to be with my wife!”
“Ricky, wait outside until I call you. Time is short!”
Richard stepped back and the door slid shut. He put his back against the wall and slid down to a sitting position, pulling his knees to his chest. He played with his gold wedding band. As he toyed with it, he closed his eyes, remembering everything that had happened since Donna came back into his life.
His mind went back even further; to the day at the beach. He could almost hear Donna’s little-girl cries as the tide came in and washed her sand castle away. Images, sounds and sensations flashed through his mind like a slide show, until their wedding day. Tears blurred his vision. “Donna, you have to live. I can’t make it without you,” he choked.
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As Gary came in, Sir Richard stood and shook his hand, leaving a tiny piece of paper behind. Then he started looking around the room as if he’d lost something. Gary was confused. They both sat down. Sir Richard was blunt. “Gary what I’m about to tell you is the worst news I’ve ever had to tell anyone.”
Gary grabbed the arms of the chair and swallowed hard.
“This is not going to be easy for you, but I need you to hold it together for Richard’s sake.”
Gary’s heart began to pound. He sensed finality in Sir Richard’s tone.
“Donna is dead! Her body is still alive and so is the baby, but Donna is brain dead. The toxin Forrest used killed her within seconds after it was released into her bloodstream and there’s no antidote.”
Gary blinked and swallowed the knot in his throat, threatening to choke him. “How could this happen? Why did this happen?”
“Revenge!” Sir Richard tightened his jaw. “Forrest used something he knew we couldn’t stop! The vial was filled with modified blue ring octopus venom. It’s native to Australia, but its venom is known throughout the world as the most toxic and the most fatal of all. Forrest may look stupid, but he’s not as stupid as The Order thinks he is.”
Gary sat and said nothing; clenching the arms of the chair tighter and tighter until his fingers numbed from lack of circulation.
Sir Richard opened a drawer on his file cabinet. Gary watched as he took out a roll of wide duct tape. Without saying a word, Sir Richard started pulling off long strips of tape. He stuck them around the bottom of the door and the entire doorframe, sealing all the cracks.
Gary sat with his mouth slightly open and watched in amazement. Had Sir Richard gone off the deep end? Then he remembered the piece of paper. Discreetly, with several short glances, he read the message: ‘thr stll mght b hpe mst fnd bgs sy nthng ply alng.’ Gary pondered the cryptic writing. ‘There still might be hope… must find bgs say nothing play along. Must find bgs? What the heck is bgs? Bags?
Sir Richard sealed the door and doorframe to the toilet. He opened the file cabinet, put the tape away and sat back in his chair. “Gary, how long can the bugs operate before they have to recharge?”
Gary glanced at the paper in his hand, and then at Sir Richard. Sir Richard slightly raised his left eyebrow. Gary’s eyes beamed with recognition. Finally it made sense. “Well Sir, judging from the size of the fuel cell - assuming they don’t find a source of glucose - I would say they have to get to a light source - give or take, every ten minutes. After that, they start relying on whatever alternative power reserve they have collected.”
“How long can they operate on this alternative power source, provided they don’t have access to any form of light?”
“I’m guessing, around thirty-five to forty minutes tops.”
Sir Richard began to act and talk strangely; at least to Gary. “You know, you would think, way down here in this mine we wouldn’t be bothered with earwigs.”
Sir Richard reached into the side-door of his desk and produced a spray bottle filled with some yellowish-green liquid. Gary was getting confused again. “Sir?” he prompted.
Sir Richard then took out a small tin container with a lid, took off the lid and sprayed inside the box. He began to spray the liquid all around the room as he continued talking to Gary. Once again, Gary was convinced Sir Richard had gone mad.
“What do you think I saw run under my file cabinet - a disgusting earwig. I hate earwigs! Don’t you Gary?”
Gary turned his head to follow Sir Richard as he walked about the room. “Yyyes Sir, I do,” he said, attempting to pacify him.
“Jeff assured me this insect repellent will get rid of it. I’m a bit sceptical, but I thought; what the hell, right?”
Once he’d sprayed over the entire office, he handed the bottle to Gary. That’s it – he’s bloody bonkers! It’s all become too much for him. He held too much respect for Sir Richard to say it out loud. Over time, Sir Richard had become a father figure to him. He was concerned about Sir Richard’s mental stability.
“When I close my eyes, I want you to spray me down with this – head to toe, front and back.” Sir Richard squeezed his eyes shut and waited. Curiously, Gary looked from the bottle to Sir Richard. He sprayed a little in his hand and smelled it. It had little odour. Finally, he shrugged.
“Good. Now it’s your turn.” Sir Richard took the bottle and prepared to spray Gary. “Close your eyes and keep them shut. Jeff assures me if you get this stuff in your mouth you’ll get a nasty surprise.”
Gary couldn’t see the purpose of spraying the room, himself and Sir Richard with what appeared to be no more than a sports drink. “Sir Richard…” he attempted slowly.
Sir Richard held up a hand and frowned. “I told you to keep your mouth shut Gary! Can’t you follow orders?” Gary grimaced and dropped his shoulders in defeat. “There, now you can talk if you must. But before you do, I already know what you’re thinking, and the answer is no – I’m not going insane, just be patient and observe.”
Sir Richard removed the soft white bulb from the lamp on the corner of his desk and replaced it with a dark blue one. “VICi, lights off.” He switched the desk lamp on and the room was filled with a bright yellow-green glow. Sir Richard advanced on Gary with a pair of tweezers. “There - on your shoulder - another one of the little buggers.” Sir Richard put the bug in the tin container and quickly closed the lid. “Now check me.” Gary found a second bug, clinging to the side of Sir Richard’s collar.
Together, they examined the office and found a bug under the phone, one on the filing cabinet and one on a spider web in the corner of the room; next to the spider’s empty shell. The device had apparently been feeding on it as an alternative power source. After successfully collecting the bugs that were in the office and double checking each other, Sir Richard sealed the container. “Now, we can talk freely,” Sir Richard said. “VICi, lights on.” He pointed to the tin. “How do we disable these things?”
Gary submerged the box in Sir Richard’s fifty gallon aquarium and removed the lid. The bugs sparked and jerked as the water shorted out their circuitry. Leaving enough water in the tin to keep the devices submerged, Gary removed the box and sat it on a facial tissue, on the edge of the desk. Fishing out one of the bugs, he then produced a small magnifying glass from the top pocket of his lab coat and examined the bug more closely.
“There are at least two things these bugs don’t react well to – stew and salt water. It stops them working until they dry out again. This bug is different to the one we have in the electronics lab. It doesn’t have the payload mechanism. These are probably just surveillance drones. To function, they have to have light or draw on their reserved power. What was in the spray we used to expose them?”
“Fluorescein dye. Jeff discovered the bugs can’t duplicate the colour it fluoresces when exposed to UV light. Now that we have more than one to work with, is there a way we could disable all of them at one time without spraying the entire complex and half the hillside in the process?”
“Yes, once we’ve established how they communicate, we could then jam their signal. With any luck, we can seize control from Forrest and make them do what we want. But I don’t understand what all this has to do with Donna. I assumed that’s what this was about.”
“Sheila said they’ve done everything they could for Donna. Even, if by some miracle, she manages to pull through, Sheila believes she will be little more than a vegetable. Can you do anything? Are you confident enough in the virus, to use it on Donna?”
“What have we got to lose? It will work or it won’t. Either way, Donna will be no worse off, than she is now. The baby is another matter. If this affects it, the only thing we should be worrying about is Donna’s wrath. If this were her decision to make….”
Sir Richard held up a hand. “At this point, it’s not her decision to make. It’s mine. If you think it will work, we have to try, otherwise we’re going to lose her.” He rang the RVI in Newcastle. “This is Sir Richard Triplet. Connect me to George Forrest’s room, please.”
“One moment please,” a female voice replied.
Sir Richard impatiently drummed his fingers on his desk as he waited.
“I’m sorry, Sir Richard. Mr. Forrest has a ‘do not disturb’ order on his room, and visiting hours are over.”
“Put my call through, or I will phone the Home Secretary; with whom I am well acquainted, and who would not take kindly to any form of obstruction. Do we settle this through those channels, or, are you going to put me through?”
“I’m sorry, Sir Richard, but I’ll have to speak to my supervisor, first. One moment, please.”
Sir Richard was getting annoyed. Triplet International made frequent substantial donations to the hospital, and he was well known among the administrative staff. Two minutes later, after having been properly rebuked by the hospital administrator, the lady came back. “I apologise for making you wait Sir Richard, it won’t happen again, Sir,” she said with great humility and connected the call.