Her intent had been to pay Diane's technician a visit on her return, to see if she might find out what had been so bloody important about the amber; it seemed to be the only loose end of any importance remaining. But Bryce had relayed a message from her two days before they left San Francisco, asking Lara to come to the laboratory at her earliest convenience.
Lara therefore hopped on her Norton the morning after her arrival and sped out to Cambridge. It was a fine, warm day, and Lara had to laugh inside her helmet as the miles sped by. All too quickly, she arrived at the university. She found a place to park her bike, then made her way to the research building. Lindsay was busy at her bench, so Lara signaled her presence, then retreated to the break room to wait.
Lindsay came running in shortly afterwards, looking as excited as a boy with a new toy firetruck on Christmas morning. "Miz.. er.. Lady Croft! Thank you for stopping by. I just thought this might inteterest you. And," she added, with a bit of a smirk mixed into her smile, "thank you for coming up the stairs, this time."
"Lara, please," Lara replied, shaking Lindsay's outstretched hand. "Yes, Diane told me that she would tell me more about why she wanted my amber later - but later never came around, for her."
"Yes." Lindsay's mood darkened immediately. Lara sighed, then reached out and squeezed Lindsay's shoulder gently.
The girl shook herself slightly. "Yes. Well, even if she wasn't around to see the fruits of her work - well, she knew it was coming; she must have." Lindsay turned, leading Lara to an elevator that required a flick of the technician's keycard to open. They rode it up to the top floor as Lindsay talked. "We have been working on avian cloning. We actually have it working fairly well. That was only a tool, however, for Doctor Hamilton." Lindsay crossed her arms and drummed her fingers nervously on the insides of her elbows. "She wanted to clone... something different. That's what she needed the amber for. She wanted an inclusion of a mosquito that had just had a blood meal." Lara started to have an idea of where this was going. She wondered if she should check her amber chunk for a microscopic tunnel leading into the insect.
The elevator opened, and Lindsay lead them to a keycard-opened preparation room where they left their street clothes in lockers, showered, dressed in scrubs, and put on hair nets, masks, and gloves. They proceeded to one of many featureless doors set beyond the preparation room, and Lara sucked in a breath at what was caged within. It was birdlike, with a broad wingspan, black feathers shading through brown to white at the wingtips, and a black collar over an off-white body. But its beak was reptilian, with horny tooth-like projections, and its legs were more like an iguana's than like a raptor's talons.
"There were a few eggs in the incubator, and this one hatched," Linsdsay said, quiety. "I could have sent you pictures, but I thought you would want to see it in person."
"Yes, indeed!" Lara breathed, walking slightly closer to the cage. The bird-like creature cocked its head at her, spreading its wings and beating them slightly in what looked like a territorial display.
"Archaeopteryx, we think," Lindsay said, with some pride. "It will be interesting to look at its skeleton, when it's had its natural lifespan. We hope we can get another one, before then, and get them to reproduce!" Her voice was eager, and her eyes were shining; Lara looked from the bird to the enthusiastic woman and back again. Well, if Diane had to die in an untimely fashion, at least she left someone behind to carry on with her work, someone with the irrepressible enthusiasm that the business demanded.
The spring sun was bright and warm. It beat steadily on the roof of Lindsay's car as she glared at the brake lights in front of her.
She hated traffic. No matter how lovely the weather was, she would never grow to like the damn traffic. Worse yet, this was an errand of her own choosing, so she could not seethe at anyone for sending her on it. She honked at a BMW that tried to cut into her lane, and crawled forwards past it. She twiddled the radio, managed to find a station playing music that was not horrific, and dangled her arm out of the window as she crawled along the M1.
The minor roads leading to her destination in Buckinghamshire were less crowded, and she made the trip at a good clip. Her mood improved as she drove along the green countryside. Even if it was odd to drive on what she still intuitively felt was the wrong side of the road, she could not ask for more pleasing scenery in which to do it. The long driveway leading to Croft Manor was bordered by immaculate grounds that she had not been able to see on the dark night she had first arrived, and she sucked in a breath of fresh grass as she pulled into the cul-de-sac. She retrieved her bag from the passengers's seat and walked up to the impressive door. It opened as soon as she reached it, as if someone had been watching.
"Good evening; please come in." Hillary smiled genially at her. She smiled wanly back. The accoutrement of aristocracy was something she hoped she would never be comfortable with. She accepted a cup of tea gratefully, however, as she waited in the soft beige armchair; it had been over a year since she had sat in that same armchair on a rainier and darker evening, but the room looked as quiet, lofty, and immaculate as it had before.
Lara arrived shortly afterwards, and Lindsay rose, setting the tea aside and picking up her bag. "Miz... Lara." She fished in her bag and pulled out a sheaf of paper. "I just thought - you might want a copy of this." She handed it over, and Lara skimmed the title, then looked up.
"Ah, yes, I heard it died rather quickly," she said. "Terribly sorry."
Lindsay waved dismissively. "Oh, the fact that it was born at all blew our minds! After all, we only had DNA to go on - and we had to use different samples to cover for the gaps of degredation that each one had. No cytoplasm, no mitochondria - we had to take all of that from current birds. It would probably be easier to mate a human with a drumstick!" Lindsay laughed nervously as Lara raised an eyebrow at her. "Well, anyway," she continued, hurriedly, "we are still studying all of the data we have from the weeks it was alive." Massive amounts of data! The papers would not stop flowing... well, ever, perhaps! "We're putting Doctor Hamilton's name on these initial papers," Lindsay added. "It was her work, even if her methods weren't exactly..." Lindsay trailed off, shrugging. Outright theft, in some ways. Not that she counldn't understand the drive.
Lara smiled gently. "Well, it's done. If you have a few moments, sit down; I'd love to go over these with you."
At a party of postdoctoral fellows, someone's wife had mentioned that the way to a scientist's heart was the phrase, 'Tell me about your research.' Lindsay knew that it was true, but was never able to resist it, nonetheless. She sat with Lara on the loveseat and soon found herself jabbering excitedly, pulling more papers out of her bag.
"Whot the hell are they up to?" Bryce muttered, sliding a new drive into his game computer.
"Talking," Hillary said, rescuing Bryce's teacup as it started to slide off of the stack of electronics he had absently set it on. "If you'd like to know what about, feel free to join them."
"Are you daft?" Bryce asked, closing the case and beginning to hook the computer back up. "That science crap is as borin' as all freaking hell. I'll go talk with them if I can't get to sleep later, how's that? Now," he said, smiling and tapping the case in his hands, "this is more my speed. Dija know..."
As he started to ramble on about the computer in his hands, Hillary let the man's voice fade to a buzz as he rubbed his forehead with two fingers. One of these days, he decided, he would have to get Bryce into a truly interesting hobby.