Karen shook her head. "Let's just get you home for the night. I just need to run back and finish up a couple things at the office and then I'll be home later. Is that okay with you?"
"Do I have a choice?"
Karen gave a noncommittal look. "We'll try and do some mother-daughter stuff this weekend. Maybe we could go get a pedicure and lunch. How does that sound?"
Ellie smiled holding out her rainbow painted fingers. "Um, like a deal!" She looked out the window as they exited the parking lot and saw Shaun halfway across the grounds running hard. She bent her neck back around further towards the school doors and saw Shaun's dad walking slowly and defeated. She pulled out her cell phone and texted Shaun: "
If you need to talk, shoot me a text later xoxox.
"
****
Later that evening as Frank was wrapping up his experiments, he looked around and saw how empty everything looked. After thinking about Shaun all night he barely was able to get anything productive done. He was really feeling alone at that moment and felt even worse about Shaun being by himself at home. What was he thinking about his father? He put some notes away and backed up his research for the day, locked everything, and stuffed his wallet and keys into his pocket. He felt a slip of paper in there and immediately thought about Karen. He knew he should get home, but at the same time was thinking there are only so many opportunities in life. He knew, after Marie, you shouldn't waste one day without being with the girl you love. Not that he was in love with Karen, but there was no point being alone...
He used his computer to search the employee directory for Randall and then narrowed it down to Karen. She was located in the middle of the building towards the entrance. He was on his way out anyway and thought he might as well take a gamble. If she wanted to hit a café on the way home, he'd be happy to treat her, and it would be harder for her to decline if he asked in person.
He hadn't dated regularly in years and this was out of his comfort zone. He found what looked like a empty accounting department except for the tap, tap, tap of different keys sounding like they were being hit with machine gun rapidity. As he poked his head around the corner, Karen stopped typing abruptly and screamed.
This was not the reaction Frank was shooting for. His eyes grew wide, and he held his palms open. "I'm sorry! So sorry! I just--I just ... coffee! Yes, coffee! That's why I'm here! To drink or offer to go get some!"
Her chest was rising and falling, definitely accenting the lines of her breasts under her cream colored silk blouse. Her suit coat was hanging on a coat hanger by a filing cabinet. She took a few heavy deep breaths before speaking. "Yes ... coffee is good. Hell, you scared me! You were like a ninja, Dr. Fox!"
He smiled, doing a very cheesy impersonation of what he thought a ninja move would be. "I am so sorry. And remember, it's Frank." She nodded. "Let me save my work and get a few things put away, and we can maybe go to a coffee shop--my treat."
He shook his head. "I just scared you half to death, so it's on me. I'll even buy you a cookie if you play your cards right! You take your time.... I'll go wait in the lobby. I'm in no rush."
As soon as he rounded the corner she quickly shoved everything in a frantic mess into her desk. She hit the lights while sliding on her suit coat and ran with effort to the bathroom where she made sure her hair was in place. She pulled out some essentials and did a quick update on her makeup, putting on fresh lipstick and mascara. She sent a text to Ellie telling her not to wait up as she was probably going to be out for just a little while. She checked her ensemble one more time and headed down to the lobby to meet Frank.
She tapped him on the shoulder, surprised that he didn't have his nose buried in a cell phone. He looked up at her with that gorgeous smile. "Ready to get that coffee, Karen?"
She nodded, and they headed to the front entrance. Passing the night security guard, they walked out to the parking lot.
"How about you ride with me," Frank suggested. "No reason for us to both drive right?"
She agreed and he opened the truck door for her, waited for her to get situated, and shut the door.
He trotted back to the driver's side, got in, and turned the key. The radio came on blazing over the speakers. For the second time tonight Frank had scared the ever-loving hell out of her. She jumped, and he fumbled for the power button to the radio, having scared the crap out of himself as well. She laughed at being so jumpy tonight. "Rocking out on the way here, Frank?" she managed when he finally switched it off.
He smiled. "Oh, you know it! Shaun and I didn't see eye to eye back at the school and I lost myself in music for the drive back. I don't want to bore you with it.... So, how long have you worked at E&T? Have you lived in Adel for a while?"
"I've been in accounting for the last six years. I got my degree to be a CPA and have been thankful for such a good job ever since I graduated the night course program. We've been in Adel forever ... my dad lived here, and his dad before him."
"Did you work right out of high school then?" Frank asked as he drove down to Main Street where the coffee shop was located.
She looked curiously at him. "Okay, Mr. Twenty Questions, but after this you're all mine, and do I have questions for you! No, I didn't work right out of high school. I became a young mother by having Ellie at the age of nineteen, and then after she was two, I went back and got my high school diploma so I wouldn't have a dead end job. It took me twice as long as it should have due to working part time and taking care of Ellie. When I was able to graduate I did so with honors."
"Well ... that kind of makes you Mom of the Decade."
"No, Frank, that makes me done answering your questions!" she finished with a smile.
Frank held up his hands. "Well, I'm just a little terrified now!"
He pulled into a parking spot and went into the shop. Karen and Frank each ordered Frappuccino before they found a quiet booth to wait for the barista to call their numbers. After they were served, Karen lifted the coffee up to her mouth to give it a test, but judged that it would burn her and put it back down. She stirred it slowly with the little plastic spoon. "So, walk me through how someone becomes a biochemist at E&T."
Frank looked at his coffee for a long moment and then back up at her and told her the story of how he joined the Army after getting his bachelor's degree. With his science background, he started in paratrooper school. After his application was accepted to train as a biochemist in the Army, he enjoyed the next step of his life. He explained how he'd fallen in love, married Shaun's mother, became a reservist, and, just as he was to start this job in Adel, he got called back to duty. He'd been taken back to work for a few years in the Army's special bio team. He explained how he had received orders at the most inopportune time. His wife was dealing with chemo and his son was too young to take care of her, while he and a team of nine other scientists had all been working endlessly day and night, miles away from Iowa.
Chapter 2
Day -3164: September 30th, 2008. World Population 6,696,637,725
A much younger Dr. Fox punched the keypad to enter an airtight, heavily secured lab room. He passed two rows of four young Marines wearing Kevlar vests, gas masks, and holding firmly onto gleaming black assault rifles. If anything went wrong here or anyone tried to get in, he felt he was in good hands. He saluted them and much like the guards of the British Royal Army, they did not even acknowledge his existence.
When Dr. Fox looked around his laboratory, anyone who walked in here could tell he and the other eight doctors had been hard at it for days. They all had one goal and they all wanted to be the first to say they had solved the problem at hand.
The soldiers of the Iraqi Army were using illegal chemical warfare. The Iraqi government, it would seem, felt that the rifles, tanks, planes and the hundred other ways they had of killing and maiming someone was not good enough. The number of casualties the chemical weapons were causing were catastrophic. It was incurable, currently, with no hope. Morphine and a quick death was all that could be promised to soldiers who had inhaled the gas. The chemical suits the Army had weren't able to keep the dangerous substance out of their lungs. It was the most painful way a soldier could die.
They were trying to cure the effects of the gases which would eat tissue and muscle from the inside. Dr. Fox was the only one who wasn't worried about a Nobel peace prize or the Medal of Honor. He was solely doing it for the soldiers. He had an added incentive that if he could get the preventive cure to work, he could go home, but he was in it for the long haul if need be. He couldn't be there for his wife or young son, but he couldn't possibly be so selfish that he could allow thousands upon thousands of soldiers to die for his own peace of mind.
The team of scientists put together had been hand-selected from the brightest, most talented team that the military had to choose from. The research was to design a vapor drug that would act as a rejuvenation drug. A drug to reproduce cells and tissue while counter-acting all of the horrid side effects. Taking care of the toxins was very important. Once inhaled, without a cure, the men were dead in a short time. The vaccine also had to keep the soldiers in fighting shape. If they were lying around fighting the effects, they'd be shot when found.
A well-educated eastern toned voice shouted, "Dr. Fox! I think we made a breakthrough last night! Take a look at this sample and tell me what you think. We're finally close, we just have a few issues to work out. I think your vitamin supplement you infused with the strands was the key!" Dr. Christopher was clearly excited.
Dr. Michaels came up and patted Frank on the shoulder and shook his hand enthusiastically. "It's true! Look at the blood samples where you infused your vitamins with the other part we came up with."
He pointed to a chart with a graph showing how well it had worked. He showed how the two fused together the 74
th
strand, the latest attempt at getting it to work. Mixing the vitamin with the X-74 vapor could be the breakthrough they had been fighting so hard for. The doctors all patted each other on the back, smiling because they had made a marvelous discovery.
They were already scheduling test subjects--the white furry kind. They made a massive first batch to distribute if everything worked out. Frank made the final notes in his personal medical journal and the next week was going to be the longest of his young life.
A telecom message came into the research lab. It advised Dr. Fox to come to the Major of Science office. Dr. Fox promptly reported to the Major's office and saluted.
The Major looked up, motioned for him to come in, and snapped back a quick salute. "Please have a seat, Dr. Fox. We need to talk."
Frank got a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. "Is something wrong, sir? Did something happen?"
The Major motioned again with tired eyes for him to sit he said. "You are what happened ... you and the other scientists potentially came up with a way to finally fight the deadliest ground chemical agent we have ever had to deal with. The results look promising if we can keep the initial dose from slowing down the heart. They should be able to perfect it in a few weeks when they finish things."
Frank stared. "Sir, what exactly do you mean, 'they'll finish things'? I've been here even while my wife is fighting for her life! The reason I agreed to stay was for the long term goal of saving lives, and maybe we could introduce this to the civilian sector medicine to try and save lives of sick individuals! I wouldn't be here without my wife's blessing, and now you tell me I'm off the team!?"
The Major nodded, ran his hand through his graying, short, stubbled hair, and looked with tired eyes that said it all. "Frank, you know I would keep you on the staff forever, but unfortunately your wife's chemo didn't take. It made her body shut down faster. They think that it's possible that the cancer was further along than they thought. She passed away yesterday and word just made it here an hour ago. You have my deepest sympathy and arrangements have been made for you to be on the next plane back to the States. You have a son that needs to be taken care of."