NirSighted Chapter 6: Enter the Scientist
Mal faced Dr. Burk. He had to admit, the man was not attractive. Well, he might be to some ladies in some circles, but none that Mal ran in. Dr. Burk was maybe forty-five, with extremely curly red hair sprouting all over his skull. His face was pale, dotted with an over-abundance of freckles, and he wore large, thick glasses, which he kept pushing up on his bulbous nose. And apparently no one had taught him how to dress, as he wore a loud red-checked shirt, a brown suit jacket, black pants, a bright yellow bow-tie, and dark green shoes, which were untied. Into his shirt pocket was tucked a plastic packet containing pens and a small calculator.
But Dr. Burk was a lot more than his looks. In fact, he was probably worth very close to if not all of his weight in credit for Mal and his crew. Dr. Burk was one of the premier scientists in St. Florin's, or at least he had been until his discovery of a molecule called AT-12 had been published in one of the leading scientific magazines. It was a great discovery and a wonderful published article, but it hadn't been published in the magazine Dr. Burk was employed by. In fact, it had been in one of the random outsider magazines, because the discovery of AT-12 apparently had some use to the rogue scientists in their search for "aliens."
Now, Mal wasn't a science buff, and he probably couldn't have told anyone what AT-12 did if he'd been held at gunpoint. But he knew that Dr. Burk's discovery had made him a very unpopular man, not only in St. Florin's but in the neighboring settlements and even in the neighboring worlds. So the good doctor had decided to retire to Irving-Keene, where his wife kept house with their twelve daughters. And he was taking the AT-12 and all related work with him, hoping to set up a laboratory there where he wouldn't be shot at every day, as he was here in St. Florin's. As such, he had agreed to pay Mal an almost-outrageous sum for transporting him halfway across the black to his family.
"Are ya sure 'bout this?" Mal asked for what seemed like the fifteenth time, though in reality it was only the fourth. Dr. Burk, besides being uncommonly unattractive and badly-dressed, was also a bit wishy-washy. They'd been trapped in his lab with him for half an hour now as he tried to get up his nerve to leave St. Florin's. "Look, we don't haveta tell anyone yer leavin'. We'll just sneak ya out."
"You can do that?" Dr. Burk asked.
"We kin."
"Well, I just don't know," Dr. Burk repeated for what seemed like the fifteenth time, though in reality it was probably the twenty-fifth. "I haven't seen my wife for two years now, haven't even seen the newest baby, but… but I love St. Florin's."
"St. Florin's don't love ya anymore," Mal said bluntly. "Fact, there's killers waitin' fer ya. Gettin' outa here's a right smart decision."
Dr. Burk paused in his pacing and rested his arm on one of the large black leather cases that were scattered around his lab. "My passage with you must be top-secret," he reminded Mal for only the third time. "No one must know I am with you."
"Believe me, Doc, nobody'll know and nobody'll care."
Dr. Burk appeared to think this over as he jimmied the catch on the case closest to him. Then it appeared his mind was made up. He snapped the catch with a definitive click. "All right then. Let's go."
Zoë moved into action; she'd been waiting half an hour for this. "All right, the fastest and most secreted way outa here's the back stairwell."
"No, no, not going to work," Dr. Burk said. "There are four guards at the base of that stairwell and they have instructions to stop me from leaving the building until I turn over the formula to Dr. Copenhagen. Which reminds me, how did you all get in here, anyway?"
"We're sneaky," Jayne said from the corner, where he was cleaning one of his guns.
"'Kay, not the back stairwell," Zoë said, trying to think of the other routes she'd planned. "Side stairwell?"
"No. Six guards."
"East corridor?"
"Seven."
"What does this molecule do, reproduce gold for ya?" Zoë muttered.
Dr. Burk gave her a kindly smile; she was not a scientist and couldn't possibly begin to understand.
"Any more routes?" Mal asked. He was looking out the door of the lab. There were no guards in the hallway; that was odd.
Zoë thought again. "There's always the best way… up."
"We're leavin' li'l Kaylee and River?" Mal asked, astonished by his first mate's sudden defection. He had thought Jayne would be the one to leave the other two, which…
"Don't need the moon-brain no how," Jayne said, voicing his unneeded opinion, seeing as three of the four people in the room knew his feelings for River and the fourth would find out soon enough.
"Don't mean that kind of up, Jayne," Zoë said as though he was daft. "We'll go up a level, through the glass-walk to the hospital on the other side, come down again. Jayne can run over 'n get Kaylee and River, we'll get back t' Serenity a'fore anyone notices the good doctor missing."
Dr. Burk was nodding as she spoke. "Yes, yes, that might work," he agreed. "But we'll have to move quickly, before the hallway guards come back from their break."
Mal moved to grab some of the cases.
"Easy, easy! Don't drop or shake those!"
"He obviously hasn't seen our mode o' transport," Jayne muttered.
"Okay, Doc, let's go," Mal said once he and Jayne were carrying the bulk of the cases. Dr. Burk carried two, and Zoë led the way with her gun drawn.
The hallway in front of Dr. Burk's lab was empty, as Mal had seen it on their entry. He let Zoë go ahead, checking left then right, before she led them to the end of the hall and pressed the button for the elevator. It arrived with a desultory ding and they all got on.
Going up one level in the laboratory seemed to take forever. Mal found himself watching the ticker and counting under his breath. He stopped only when he realized it was something River would do.
"Here we are," Dr. Burk said as they arrived on the eleventh floor. Zoë got out first, left then right, and pronounced the hallway clear. Dr. Burk moved hurriedly towards the door on the east side of the corridor, which was connected to the glass-walk that linked the laboratory and the hospital next to it. He opened the door with a pass-key from his pocket, and led them through.
The glass-walk was full of other people, none of them guards, and none of them who gave Dr. Burk and his three "friends" a second glance. Most appeared to be doctors from the hospital, indicated by their white lab coats and colored scrubs. They walked along with official looking tablets or clipboards in their hands, chattering in quiet voices. Others were nurses with white crepe-soled shoes or nuns with high white wimples. And some were patients being wheeled along in wheelchairs or on gurneys.
Dr. Burk led the procession across the glass-walk, Zoë right behind him with her gun discreetly tucked at her side. Mal and Jayne followed behind, Jayne at the far rear, checking for enemies, of which there appeared to be none. There were no guards in the glass-walk, and as they exited the walk and came out into the opposite level of the hospital, they could see no other guards there either.
They got in another elevator, this time with a man lying on a gurney and a kind-looking nurse in a white uniform. "Going down?" the nurse asked. "What floor?"
"Ground level, please," Dr. Burk said.
The elevator began to descend slowly, stopping every now and then to collect more passengers. The kindly nurse and her gurney-bound patient got off on the fifth floor, and by the time they reached the ground level, the elevator was empty except for Dr. Burk, Jayne, Mal, and Zoë.
"Let's go," Mal said, and they exited the elevator. There were no guards here on the first level, just patients, their families, and a young blond woman behind the information desk.
Outside the sun was bright. Mal began to scan the square for Kaylee and River. It took him a few minutes, but he found them at last, sitting on the edge of a fountain about a hundred feet from Dr. Burk's office building. "Kaylee! Let's go!" he called to them.
Kaylee stood up, taking River's hand, and began to lead the younger girl towards them. "Howdy, Cap'n! Took ya long 'nough," she said.
"We ran into a bit o' trouble escapin' from the place," Mal explained as they headed back towards the docks. "What'd ya buy?"
"Somethin' I'm sure you'll be glad t' have," Kaylee replied with a smile. "Show ya soon as we get back t' Serenity."
The walk back took only ten minutes. When they were safely inside the cargo bay, Mal shouted, "Wash! Take us up!"
The pilot appeared from nowhere. "Thank God you're back," he said, sounding breathless.
"What's going on, baby?" Zoë asked.
"That GIRL!" Wash exclaimed.
"What? What happened with the girl?" Mal asked.
"Do we need t' shoot 'er?" Jayne questioned hopefully.
"No shooting!" River exclaimed.
"Right, no shootin'," Kaylee agreed.
"She beat me at six-circle!" Wash cried.
There was complete and semi-confused, semi-stunned silence for a moment. Then Kaylee said, "So?"
"So? SO? I'm the best six-circle player on Fauntleroy! I beat everyone five years running! I was the champion, the reigning champion – I had a crown and a trophy. No one could beat me, NO ONE, and then we get some crazy girl and she beats me!"
"Didn't even know we had six-circle," Jayne mused. "I'm purty good at that 'un."
Wash scowled and disappeared into the bridge.
"Kaylee, will you show Dr. Burk to his quarters?" Mal asked. "You kin leave yer luggage here, it'll be just fine."
"Right this way," Kaylee said to Dr. Burk, leading him from the bay. Mal and Jayne dumped the doctor's many black cases into a spot near one of the immense boxes of oatmeal.