Page 25 of Salvation
The next morning, Nick sat on a stool leaning his forearms against the top of the lab table. He stared at the images projected there by his data device, studying the microscopic details of the blood samples from ten different Anferthians who’d died of the mystery disease. He frowned. The device must be malfunctioning, otherwise why else would all the images show up as normal?
The lab door opened and closed. The lingering scent of Storo’s flavorful, and somewhat spicy, breakfast wafted to his nose as Sakura’s light footsteps approached. “Have you found anything yet?”
He glanced up at her across the lab table. Straight, silky, dark hair fanned over her shoulders. Since he’d met her, Sakura had kept her hair pulled back in a tight ponytail.Focus, Nick. “Not a single thing. They all look perfectly normal.”
“Normal? How can that be?”
“I don’t know, but this batch is from the dead patients, and these are from the healthy control group.” He pointed to each group projected on the tabletop. “Take a look.”
As she leaned forward to examine the images, her hair fell forward and caught the light filtering through the cube’s skylights. How had he never seen the reddish tint of some of those strands before? His fingers twitched and he fought the desire to sweep her hair back over her ear. Not an action she would welcome. He had to snap out of it, quick.
She looked up from the samples. “You are right, they do look normal. How many have you looked at?”
He gave his head a shake, which cleared away some of the mysterious fog that had invaded his thoughts. “This is the fourth batch of ten samples. It’s like none of them were sick.” He ran his finger over the counter, whisking away the current batch of images and replacing it with the previous one. “See?”
She nodded. “Could someone have tampered with the samples? Or replaced them?”
“A’paz had them sealed, frozen, and under lock and key. Only he, Storo, and K’rona knew where he hid them and how to access them.” He sat back and braced his hands on the edge of the table. “Are we missing something? I can’t imagine any of them trying to sabotage the whole operation. It’s not to their advantage.”
“No, it is not.” Sakura tapped her fingernail against the table top.
What the hell was this? He couldn’t seem to force his gaze away from how her soft hair caressed and framed her face. Nick gave his head a shake. “Look, Saku…ra, I’m sorry I was such a jackass.”
Her piercing dark gaze met his. “Which time?”
Okay, he might have had that coming. “You aren’t the stereotypical quiet Asian woman, are you?”
She gaped at him. “I cannot believe you just said that.”
“Neither can I.” That was an unbelievably stupid thing to say.
He held her gaze, not blinking. After a moment, he saw it; one corner of her mouth made a barely perceptible twitch. He twisted his mouth into a lopsided look of chagrin.
A flash of mirth sparkled in her eyes. “You are a shithead.”
“I know. And I’m sorry you’re stuck with me, but I’ll try harder.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.” He stuck out his hand. Panic flashed in her eyes and she hesitated, then slowly reached across the table. Her palm was soft and warm against his as they shook. An odd sense of relief settled over him as he released her hand. Starting fresh was a good thing, and as much as he wanted to know about her past, he wasn’t going to ask again.
“So,” she said. “What do you think our next step should be?”
“I’d hoped you had a plan.” He glanced back down at the images. “I hate to ask A’paz about this, but I don’t think we have a choice.”
Sakura made a small wincing sound. “It will be hard to give A’paz this news.”
“Yes, it will. For all of us.” He couldn’t agree more. The complete normality of the samples had to be a clue, but they were going to need some serious miracles to figure this out if that were the case.
~*~
As Nick walked into A’paz’s room, his gaze was drawn immediately to the withered form propped up with bed pillows. The sharp lines of A’paz’s face stood out more and his cheeks seemed to have sunk. In the span of twelve hours their cheerful, eager-to-help patient’s condition had obviously deteriorated. A pang of guilt shot through Nick. Telling him about the samples seemed cruel, but what choice did they have? A’paz was not going to get better, and if they didn’t discuss it now there might not be another opportunity.
“Greetings, healers,” A’paz murmured, a faint smile on his lips as Storo retreated to a chair in the corner. “What news?”
Sakura stopped next to the bed. “Greetings, A’paz. We are sorry to trouble you.”
“Never are you trouble to me,lini.” Little one.
