Chapter 9
Dead silence greeted Amber's announcement, at first. It was finally broken by a hearty, barking laugh from Dr. Krueger. All eyes turned to him, while he leaned on the table with one arm, his head supported in his hand, still laughing. He waved a hand at the room at large. "I'm sorry," he gasped, his laughter subsiding but the wide smile remaining in its wake. "Miss Jezic, your timing could not be better. You must have stood there just waiting for the most opportune moment for that statement." He turned to Austin, who sat attentive but unruffled beside him. "What do you think about this, Austin? It appears you are simultaneously our greatest asset and an enormous liability."
"Sounds like business as usual," Austin replied evenly.
From the other side of the table, Erich was glaring angrily at Amber. Whatever humor Dr. Krueger had found in the event was lost on him. "You must have something very solid you're basing this accusation on. Otherwise, I hope you are prepared to issue a formal statement to me and an apology to Mr. James."
"Oh, come now," Dr. Krueger said congenially to Erich, glancing warmly at Amber and nodding her to join them at the table. "I think we should hear out Miss Jezic. Please sit down and tell us your news. What information have you so recently acquired concerning the state of Austin's mental health that is so urgent?"
Amber pulled a chair out two seats from Dr. Krueger and gingerly sat down in it. She turned her dark eyes to Austin. "I've been talking to Austin's associate, Mickey Castle, and she has suggested that Austin has a definite psychiatric diagnosis." She paused to take in Austin's expression of surprise at the report. "She had utmost concern for maintaining confidentiality, and wouldn't tell me anything specific, but her exact words were to the effect, she doesn't feel Austin is psychologically qualified to father children."
Austin sputtered out an unguarded laugh at that before raising a finger to his lips and sobering.
He earned inquiring stares from both Dr. Kruger and Erich. He grinned at them, and then shook his head and clucked his tongue. "She must be more upset with me than I thought." He glanced up at Erich with a knowing look. "For leaving Serendip all at once like that and not telling her," he explained. "She was pretty angry about that." He raised an eyebrow at Amber. "Still is, apparently."
"She told me she has had to accompany you everywhere you go in her work for you at Serendip."
"She was my personal assistant. They generally do that, don't they?"
"She insinuated you shouldn't have been flying alone."
Austin sighed. "She knows I hate to fly." He looked at Erich. "I'm rather phobic. I confronted that irrational fear to extend a personal invitation to her to come here. I didn't know she'd use that as a means to discredit me to my new employers."
Dr. Krueger rubbed his forehead and looked up over the rim of his glasses at Amber. "Now we have a quandary. Who is playing who, and toward what end?" He nodded to himself. "I think we need to bring Miss Castle into our discussion to get a full picture of this situation."
"I left her up in her guest room. Do you want me to have her brought down?"
"Thank you, Miss Jezic," Dr. Krueger said. "Yes. We will wait."
Amber got up and departed the room. Immediately, Austin was on his feet and following her out the door.
"Wait, Austin! Where are you going?" Erich called after him.
Austin only paused a moment at the doorway, turning to look over his shoulder at the two men left behind. "If you will excuse me, as entertaining as this has been, I am not in the mood to deal with a confrontation with my former associate. You can find me back at the lab if you need me. I have work to do."
Dr. Krueger said nothing, but it was with an expression of curiosity that he watched Austin leave.
"Do you want him to go?" Erich asked the old professor in a low voice. "Shall we bring him back?"
"Let him go," Dr. Krueger answered. "If he's the same now as he was when I knew him, I can guess where he's gone. I'm more interested to find out about this secretary of his. Is she speaking truthfully, or is our Amber Jezic more resentful of being replaced than we might have thought?"
Minutes later, he got his wish.
Mickey entered the conference room accompanied by Amber. At once, Dr. Krueger stood and welcomed Austin's associate. He then proceeded to ask Amber to close the door behind her and join them at the table.
"Please come and sit," Dr. Krueger said to Mickey with a congenial smile, patting the table in front of the head seat, and placing himself beside it. The arrangement would position Mickey with Dr. Krueger on her right and Erich on her left. Amber, without making eye contact with anyone in the room, wordlessly went to the chair beside Erich and sat there. Mickey hobbled on her boot to her indicated position and sat down. Erich was leaning back in his seat, stationing himself as the detached observer, while Dr. Krueger leaned forward and took the position of directing the conversation.
"What happened to your foot?"
Mickey glanced downward and looked at Dr. Krueger again. "Just a dumb accident; I, um, caught it on a door."
"You should be more careful and watch where you step, so you don't get caught," he replied, studying her face intently. "Erich," he continued, without taking his eyes off of Mickey, "please pass us a copy of Austin's contract with us. I'd like to show something to our newest associate." He waited for Erich to spread open a black leather folder, exposing a short stack of papers within it. He set it down on the table and slid it across to him.
"Miss Castle," the older man said, arranging the open folder in front of her, "when Austin first indicated he wanted to select his own surrogate, I had doubts, but he was confident as well as insistent, and I bowed to his request. The fact that you have come all the way here from your home in Phoenix indicates to me there must have been some sort of verbal agreement about the nature of our little project here at the Thorne Foundation and your part in it. Is this true, or did Austin mislead you into coming here?"
Mickey swallowed. "I think he was as candid as he could be expected to be. He tried to explain it to me; it's my fault if I didn't believe him."
"You didn't believe this to be a surrogate project? You thought he was lying?"
"I thought he was just…talking. What I believed is that he needed help with something. He was adamant he needed help."
Dr. Krueger paused to inhale deeply. He sat, thinking, and then turned over the first several sheets of the contract until he reached one of the last pages, clearly signed by Austin and dated ten days earlier. "I want you to read the terms he signed, and please pay particular attention to the conditions for terminating this agreement, here on this page. I am showing you only the part pertaining to the surrogacy. The development of the mutated HB2 is another matter, and not your concern. Here, take your time, and tell me your thoughts."
Mickey felt a weight pressing on her chest as she slowly took up the page and began to read. It didn't take long to see that her fears were warranted. How Austin had agreed to such terms, signed for them, Mickey couldn't fathom. Maybe he truly had lost his mind. She looked up and felt slightly dizzy. "You can't do this to him," she exclaimed, nearly breathless. "This says you're sending him to the retraining center in Ukraine if he backs out. It says he owes you five years of service there."
Dr. Krueger shrugged. "Ukraine has an excellent program in our field. Many of our associates have spent time in this facility. Our last chief research scientist is there at present. Anyway, it was a nonissue to Austin, at the time. He was that confident he had your consent. Was he wrong?"
"No!" She looked up from the papers, her jaw set. "No, he wasn't wrong, but you are." Her eyes narrowed angrily. "His mistake was misleading you about his ability to give full consent. He was in no position to make decisions like that without an advocate."
"I suppose you're going to give me more of a song and dance about some psychosis he has? You are ignorant, then, that I have known Austin James since his youth. Unlike our rather impressionable Miss Jezic, I am very well aware of his quirks and foibles, Miss Castle. How long have you known him? A year? Two years? I believe I am more familiar with the young man, with his background, his mind, than you are. I am not so easily deceived." He smiled, but there was no warmth to it. "Just what kind of game did you come here to play?"
Mickey flipped over the pages and closed them within the leather folder holding them with a sharp snap. She shoved it away from her on the table. "You only think you know him, Doctor. He spent three months in a psych ward when he was eighteen, did you know that? He had his last hospitalization a year and a half ago, shortly before I started working for him. He is under a physician's care. Look!" She pulled her purse up from off the floor at her feet and dropped it on the table, then proceeded to open it and dig out three amber prescription bottles. She set them on the center of the table, one at a time, between Dr. Krueger and Erich Thorne. "He's schizophrenic," she burst out, trembling with fear or excitement, or maybe a little of both. "You didn't know that because it didn't appear until after you last saw him. He's spent the last sixteen years trying to live a semi-normal life. And he can do it, but not without a lot of help!"
While Erich reached forward and picked up the bottles, inspecting the labels, Dr. Krueger frowned and cocked his head at Mickey. "Why have I never heard any of this before today?"
Mickey pressed her hands together between her knees, trying to still the trembling. "The first time, it was his parents. They didn't want that breakdown to end up spoiling his future plans, so they kept it quiet, and got others who knew to help them with that. Later, it was Serendip. His first partner, Howard Millhouse, didn't want anything to threaten such a new company. Even his current doctor helps keep it secret. He partnered in his practice with a pathologist from the county medical examiner's office so Austin's prescriptions wouldn't be attached to his name."
Erich issued a low whistle. "These are potent, Doctor. Thorazine, haloperidol, lorazepam; they're all common medications for schizophrenia. The labels look genuine." He offered the bottles to Dr. Krueger, who accepted them, shook them once, and also looked intently at the labels.
"Explain why these are in your possession and not his."
"These are refills I brought back with me from home. One of my duties when I worked for him was keeping his prescriptions current and ensuring he took them. I suspected he hadn't kept up with them here, and I was right. He admitted to me Friday he ran out and stopped taking them several days earlier. Haven't you noticed more peculiar behavior, more grandiosity, less interest in self-care? He's not shaving regularly, not eating or sleeping. He was going to be in a catatonic state again before anyone knew to do anything." She looked at each of the three others in turn. "I don't think it will come to that. I got him started on them again as of yesterday morning. He might show some signs of…impairment—for a while—but that should level out in the next week or so."
Silence reigned for a protracted moment after that. Finally, Dr. Krueger turned to Erich and Amber. "Well," he sighed, "this is a bit of a disappointment."
Erich nodded. "But don't forget the HB2. That has been a success—provided he doesn't alter or destroy what he's already done. We are dealing with a psychosis." There was a question in his eyes when he looked at Dr. Krueger.
"The project has been closely monitored at every step. We are close enough to completion, I doubt that will be a concern. Just keep him closely watched. Still…" Dr. Krueger mused. He stared into space a while, before snapping back to attention and noticing Mickey again. "You see, Miss Castle, I have a particular concern which Erich doesn't share. I have amassed much wealth and influence both here and abroad, but I do have obligations to my backers. Some of them were depending on me to deliver not only the means, but also the genetic traits to bolster their cause. One without the other—that will be less valuable to them. They may not be understanding."
Mickey cleared her throat. Her mouth felt arid. "Does that mean you don't need Austin here anymore?"
"Oh no," Dr. Krueger smiled, "not at all. Austin has been instrumental in successfully purifying the HB2. I need him here long enough to ensure the HB2 produces the desired results. If for whatever reason this series is not successful, of course I will want him to repeat the trial after his condition stabilizes. For now, the next twenty-four hours will be especially vital. The pollination of the squash is an instrumental step in demonstrating the mutated HB2 is effective. Whatever Austin's condition, he has been successful in helping me with this portion of the project. I suppose I can't fault him for the other." He glanced down at his watch. "In the morning, when the offices are open, I will verify these medications and the history you've given me for their authenticity. You understand, I have no basis on which to rely on what you've told me. I'd like to say I trust Austin completely, but as you've shown me, there are things about him I no longer know. I would greatly appreciate if both of you remained here at Thorne Oaks until the HB2 portion of the project has been successfully concluded. We have sufficient amenities and staff to keep you comfortable during this time." With that, Dr. Krueger rose to his feet, handing the leather folder back to Erich. Erich and Amber also rose, and it appeared the meeting had adjourned.
"Doctor, wait," Mickey said suddenly, still in her seat. When he turned around again to look at her, she drew a breath and pressed on. "May I ask a favor of you, while we're here?"
"What is the favor?"
Mickey glanced at Erich and Amber, and turned back to Dr. Krueger. "He's afraid of the cameras," she said. No one said anything, so she continued. "The cameras in the laboratory," she clarified. "It's part of the reason he's not sleeping. He thinks there are cameras in the sensory deprivation tank too. He told me if he sleeps, the cameras will steal his thoughts and he'll lose his mind. Is it okay if I cover the cameras in the lab during the time he is willing to sleep? It would make things easier, just while his drug levels come up again."
Dr. Krueger nodded at Erich. Go and check with him. Let me know what you find out." He turned again to Mickey. "I will let Erich inform me of his recommendation. Monitoring of the laboratory is essential because of the highly sensitive work we are doing. I am not comfortable with the idea of losing visibility of this environment. I won't refuse your request outright, Miss Castle, but I will have to consider it very carefully. Erich will let you know what I decide." He opened the door and departed the room.
The sun was low when Mickey caught up with Austin again, finding him sitting cross-legged on the ground outside the laboratory with his back propped up against the wall, overlooking the laboratory parking lot situated behind the estate garages and next to the laboratory entrance. The area was well shaded and hidden from the main road by a border of dense shrubbery and tall trees. He glanced up at her approach, and the corners of his mouth turned up.
"How'd it go?"
Mickey dropped down beside him against the wall with her booted foot outstretched and released a deep, tremulous breath. "Terrifying," she admitted. "I think I'm still shaking." She held up her hands as evidence and smiled at him weakly. "They were really pushing the surrogacy thing until I convinced them you're schizophrenic. At least it looks like that's over. They're verifying your story in the morning, though. Are you sure everything's covered?"
He frowned and disregarded the question. "No one threatened you, did they?"
"No, not me," she said. "But Krueger made it clear he still wants you here for the HB2 and he has you on contract." She made a face, remembering the terms of that contract. "What are we going to do?"
Austin smiled grimly. "I'm going to give Krueger what he wants. The squash will be pollinated in the morning." He glanced sidelong at Mickey. "And after that, you're getting out of here." He looked straight ahead and didn't acknowledge Mickey's startled stare. "You bought me enough time to get done what I needed to. Now, tonight, we'll get the cameras covered so I can finish what I've started. It's over tomorrow."
"But what about you?" Mickey demanded. "You said I'm leaving tomorrow."
He nodded slowly. "That's the plan. I have a very important job for you to do. I'll get out when I can, but I need you to go first."
"Austin…"
He motioned her to stop talking as the lab door opened next to him. He looked up at Erich Thorne with narrowed eyes and no greeting.
"What are you doing out here, Austin?" Erich asked him in a guarded manner. "I've been looking for you all afternoon."
Mickey sighed, turned from Austin to look up at Erich, and answered for Austin when it became clear he was not going to speak for himself. "He says he was out at the beach. He's exhausted and he's scared. I'm trying to get him to go in and lie down." She returned her attention to Austin and patted his arm. "Please, can we go in now and get you some rest?"
In response, Austin bent his head toward Mickey, looking down at the ground, and muttered under his breath.
"What?" she asked, leaning in closer. She looked at Erich again. "I don't think he's slept except maybe an hour yesterday. I'm getting concerned." She leaned in toward Austin again and spoke to him encouragingly. "Maybe you could take one of your sleeping pills."
He suddenly sat straight upright, his back flat against the wall and a near-panicked look fixed on Erich. "No!"
Erich took a step backward. "Is he afraid of me?"
"I told you," Mickey said impatiently, "it's the cameras. It's getting worse the closer we are to sunset. I don't know how he'll be after dark. He won't go inside." She watched Erich turn around, a muttered curse under his breath as he opened the laboratory door again.
"Go ahead, cover them," he relented, standing in the doorway and holding the door open with his foot. "Just ring for me as soon as he wakes up in the morning; let me know how he's doing. There's a phone in the lab with my extension on it."
"What time is the pollination project due to start?"
"Never mind that right now," Erich said. He paused to glance down at Austin again, who was now bent over with his arms crossed over his chest and rocking slightly. "Will he be any better by morning?"
Mickey watched him rock and turned worried eyes to Erich. "I don't know, but it could be a whole lot different if he'd just settle down and sleep. I'll stay with him as long as I need to," she assured him. "If it goes well tonight, he could be much more himself by morning."
Erich left them alone, and after a ten-count, Mickey abruptly turned back to Austin. "I'm not leaving here without you," she hissed.
"We'll talk about it later," he murmured, still facing the ground, his hair hanging forward almost to his eyes. "Help me inside and let's get those cameras covered. I'm going to need to work fast."
They rose together as a unit from the ground and entered the laboratory, with Mickey guiding Austin with an arm around his back, speaking softly to him once they were inside.
"There we are. Come over this way with me. You wait here while I get the duct tape. Then you can point out all the cameras in here. I'll put tape over the lens, and when we've covered them all, you'll be safe to sleep." She turned back toward the front of the lab, looking left and right.
"Top drawer, far left," Austin murmured, tipping his head toward the closest aisle of cabinets.
Mickey darted off that way, opened the indicated drawer, and produced a new roll of silver duct tape.
"Don't leave me here alone."
She hurried back to his side and continued walking him to the back end of the lab. "I won't leave you," she promised him, giving him a sidelong, pointed glare. "I mean that, too."
"Not now!" he hissed under his breath.
They stopped by the tank just inside the doorway to Austin's apartment. Mickey flipped on the light switch inside and looked around.
"There!" Austin cried, pointing up and to his left. Mickey spun around to look and noted a gleaming black disk, like an oversized cornea, projecting from the top of the wall, up by the ceiling. It did have sort of a nefarious look to it when she thought of it that way. She tore off two pieces of silver duct tape, making an "x" shape with them. Then she pulled over a lab stool one-handed, and stepped up on it to reach the camera.
She repeated the activity twice more in the apartment, and then five more times in the laboratory. Afterward, she made a point of shining a flashlight into the sensory deprivation tank and checking for a hidden camera or listening device there, but none was found.
"Did I get them all?" she asked. She watched Austin slowly walk the perimeter of the room, his blue eyes sharply inspecting every part of the ceiling, the walls, down near the baseboards, and even the floor. He gestured for Mickey's benefit every listening device he found, which was transmitting all their conversation. He did end up finding one more lens, carefully installed within the center island of the lab above a chemical hood.
With that work complete, Austin returned to the tank. "You think I should go inside now?" he asked, a note of doubt in his voice.
"Please try, Austin," Mickey urged. "I'll watch here for you. You'll be safe." She observed him for a moment and added with a little doubt of her own, "You don't want help undressing or anything, do you?" That earned her a brief look of reproach, and no answer.
He opened the door and knelt before it. "I need music. Get the mike." She hurriedly picked it up off the top of the tank and handed it to him. "Play Brahms' Fourth Symphony, at 78 db." He clipped the microphone to his collar, stood up, and closed the tank door with a resounding bang.
A lush combination of stringed instruments filled the room from the overhead speakers and drowned out Mickey's quiet, "Good night, Austin," which she spoke to him as he stood in front of her. He smiled and darted back into the lab without a word.
His first action was to swipe the notebook off the counter where the confocal laser microscope was perched. He thumbed through it to a particular page, the one he had jotted on earlier that day and set the notebook back on the counter. Carefully, he ripped the page out of the book. Then, pinching the edge of the page between two fingers, he pulled up an empty metal trash can from the cabinet under the nearest sink, silently set it down, and produced a lighter from his pocket. He lit the edge of the page with a flourish, and delicately dropped it into the can. Then he looked up at Mickey with deep satisfaction in his smile. He went on to repeat the process with a number of pages from several different notebooks.
Next, he entered the section of the lab with the rows of leafy squash all growing under the pale pink glow of greenhouse lighting. He inspected them briefly, before heading off somewhere in relative shadow and soundlessly retrieving a rack of refrigerated test tubes, various bottles and flasks, and a syringe and needle.
Mickey watched him only a short time before she turned and went into his residential apartment, settling herself on a plush sofa while she waited. It was with a sense of déjà vu she was startled from a doze by a persistent tug on a lock of hair near her ear.
"It's past midnight," Austin whispered not far from her ear, from where he knelt beside her. "I'm going to sleep for real."
She sat upright and blinked in the dim light. A different classical music piece was playing at a much lower volume. She didn't recognize it. "What should I do?" she mouthed back.
He glanced over his shoulder toward his sensory deprivation tank, and then motioned for Mickey to follow him. They went to the tank and he carefully, silently opened the door wide. He again signaled for her to join him as he lowered himself to his hands and knees in front of the contraption. She looked at him askance, but quickly mirrored his movements.
"Take it." He had a single brown clasp envelope in his hand, bulging slightly with probably a dozen or so pages. He pressed it into her hands. "It goes in your purse."
"What is this?"
"Get down here like I am with your head in the tank. It'll block our voices from the bugs, so I can tell you." He rolled onto his back and scooted up to the tank until he was inside to his shoulders with his head on its padded surface. Mickey joined him, and they lay shoulder to shoulder in the dark, their bodies from mid-chest down protruding in a perpendicular direction from out of the tank.
Mickey stifled a laugh. "Austin, this is so weird."
"Shh. Listen, I copied and shrank down Sykes' entire record of HB2, both the original study that was shut down and the stuff he was doing last year, when Edgar Johnson pilfered it." He stopped to smile broadly, rolling onto his side to look at her. "Everything we need to prove he had Edgar killed is here, all of his notes, in his own handwriting. You're taking it to the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations. It may take them a while to sort it all out, but they'll be glad when they do."
"Where is it?" Mickey tilted her head toward him.
"The closest field office is in Milwaukee. That's about a two hour drive from here. Go to sleep for now. You can take it in the morning, after the big pollination event."
Mickey gave him a wry look. "How am I supposed to do that, Austin? Krueger isn't going to let me drive out of here. He told me neither one of us can leave until the HB2 proves successful."
Austin considered that with a sigh. "He told you that, huh? Looks like things are getting serious." He rolled onto his back again before continuing. "Answer a question," he whispered. "Steal or stowaway, which would you do first?"
"She frowned, her lips pressed together in distaste. "I don't like to steal," she complained.
"Then I'll send you on an errand to pick up my mail from the post office box I took out. When Krueger tells you no, he'll send someone else out on the errand for you. As soon as we know who he's sending, you'll get in their trunk."
"Excuse me?" She rolled over to face him directly.
"Their trunk," Austin repeated, turning his head her way and enunciating clearly in a harsh whisper. "Take along a pamphlet or a piece of heavy stock paper so you can hold the trunk closed without latching it all the way. I'm giving you my wallet so you can take a cab to Milwaukee."
Mickey stared at him in dismay.
He sighed and looked at her sidelong. "Would you rather steal? It'd be easier?"
"No."
"Then it's the only way, Mickey. Just get into the trunk, don't latch it tight, and wait until whoever it is gets to the post office. Then you climb out and get out of sight."
"How do you know whose car is whose?"
"Why do you think I was sitting there watching the parking lot all afternoon?" He rolled his eyes. "Go back to the couch now; get some sleep," he instructed firmly, carefully extracting himself from the tank. "We have a big day tomorrow."
