David took the opportunity to extract a little more blood from Bianca than he needed for the hospital tests. It would aid his own private research; forwarding his Orpheus experiment.
His new laboratory was a lot more basic than the one he'd had in the cabin before the fire, but there was enough there to do his own blood screening.
He left the computer to process the results as he made himself a coffee. He was testing the chemical make-up of Bianca's blood to find out how the Orpheus treatment may have altered it.
…
The computer alarm sounded when the results were processed. David took a sip of his coffee before glancing at the readings. He wasn't expecting to find anything too out of the ordinary. But he straightened suddenly when he noticed spikes in potassium and sulphate levels. Neither of these where expected on her current medication. It was a very confusing result.
With a frown David picked up the phone and called the hospital lab.
"Hello," he said, "It's Dr Hayward here. I wondered if you had the results for Bianca Montgomery's blood screen."
There was a rustling of paperwork at the other end of the line.
"I've got them here…um… We've found nothing out of the ordinary."
"Nothing unexpected?"
"No. It all seems normal."
David looked at his own results again and frowned. He quickly examined his equipment. There was a chance the sample had been contaminated at some point, although he had been careful.
"Could you do me a favour?" David asked the technician, still waiting at the other end of the line. "Could you run the blood test again?"
"Of course."
"Thank you. E-mail me the results as soon as possible." said David, before putting down the phone.
He pulled on a pair of gloves and turned to recalibrate his equipment. He was going to have to double check his own results too. One of them had got it wrong.
…
Seven hours later David was examining the new blood results. The unexpected spikes were still present on the new print out.
The e-mail had also come through from the hospital with both of their test results. The hospital readings seemed perfectly normal. There was a slight lowering of calcium which was to be anticipated because of the steroids Bianca was taking. It was much more of what he had been expected to see. David's own results made no sense at all.
David scowled at his spectrometer. There was obviously something wrong with his machine. He should have learnt by now not to go with the cheapest contractor.
…