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“Shit.”
Cathy backed out of the empty office quickly, and then stalled in the hall. She hadn’t seen him among the medical staff in the workstation area, and the boardroom with its glass walls had been empty.
When she started walking again, she went back out to the open area and hung a sharp left to go all the way down the far side of the lab. In the distant corner, a steel door marked “Authorized Use Only” loomed even though it was no larger or thicker than any of the other fire exits—and when she punched at the bar, she felt her entire body tense up.
On the other side, the small, square room glowed silver from all the stainless steel, glass, and overhead lighting—and Gus’s living, breathing presence was a not-like-the-others in the midst of the technology and mechanicals.
He didn’t even turn around from the cryobanking unit.
And after she stood there for what felt like an entire year, she cleared her throat loudly—
“Christ!” he barked as he spun around.
As their eyes met, her hand went to the base of her throat. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you.”
“Oh, yeah, no.” He took a couple of deep breaths and looked her up and down. “Going somewhere?”
She studied his face as if it were tea leaves and she knew anything about predicting the future. “I thought you were leaving.”
When he just shrugged, she nodded to the unit with its warning signs and the fingerprint-locked release on the jamb. “You thinking of taking her with you? You’re allowed, of course—we’re just going to have to get you an ice chest.”
As the venting system hummed at a deeper volume, like the compressor had kicked in, he exhaled like she annoyed him. “I told you, I’m ripping up that contract and you’re keeping Vita—”
“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about. Can you take some of the staff with you?”
Gus shook his head as if to clear it. “What?”
“Rhobes and you are going to need researchers familiar with Vita, and everyone here was trained by you—”
“Are you hearing anything I’m saying, or as usual, is it the C.P. Phalen show—”
“—so it’s not like you need their résumés—”
“—and to hell with everybody else—”
“—alsoIcanbeyourpatientonenow.”
She spoke that last sentence real quick because she was determined to show no emotion. But as he just stared at her, she realized she might have overplayed the velocity.
“You’re in charge,” she tacked on. “Of her. So you can give her to me. At Rhobes’s.”
The wave of exhaustion that visibly went through him seemed to take a couple of inches off his height, and as he started shaking his head again, he brought up a hand like he wanted to rub his face—before he grimaced and abruptly dropped his palm as if he remembered there was nothing but bruises there.
“Look, I’m not going through this with you again—”
“I’m not pregnant. Anymore. I lost the ba—I miscarried a couple of nights ago.” Putting her hands on her hips, she looked around at the high-tech everything and tried to draw some strengthfrom the clinical nature of it all. “So your rate limiter is gone.”
Gus stared at her for a long moment. “Are you okay?”
“Oh, yeah. Absolutely. I was thoroughly checked out. An ultrasound was performed and there is no residual tissue—”
“Are you okay,” he interrupted with more volume.
“Yes. I’m fine.”
When he just continued to stare at her, she started talking about something, anything. It could have been Rhobes’s location down in Houston, or maybe transferring Vita-12b. Maybe she’d switched it up and was talking about world peace. Basic arithmetic. Who the hell knew.
“Stop,” Gus said, putting his hand out like he was on a crosswalk and his job was ensuring schoolchildren didn’t get mowed down in traffic.
