Equilibrium (34 page)

EPILOGUE

O
livia sat down on her leather-bound chair and switched on her computer. It seemed like forever since she had last been here, in her office at Ames. It had only been a week, though a roller coaster week.

As she waited for the computer to start up and go through all the security filters, she reached for the pile of mail that had been building up on her desk. She pulled at a padded envelope stuck in the middle of the pile and looked at the return label. Finally! She tore it open and carefully extracted the silver necklace from the bubble wrap inside it. She had missed her necklace, annoyed that it had taken so long to fix the clasp. She ran her fingers across the letters, Q-U-A-N-T-U-M, and then secured it safely around her neck where it belonged.

She kicked off her Louboutins and made herself comfortable. The nauseous feeling in the pit of her soul wouldn’t lift. Erica was gone–dead. Though they hadn’t been close, Olivia had known Erica for a very long time. She’d worked tirelessly on her projects alongside Grayson. Grayson was naturally devastated, inconsolable. Olivia couldn’t even imagine how Simla was coping, if she had coped at all. To lose her mother at such a delicate age; it was incomprehensible. She thought back to when she had lost her own mother, the dark dismay that she had felt. She had not been able to come to terms with it. She doubted that Simla would be able to.

Simla had also lost her father in a sense. A father who had killed her mother, but she didn’t know that. Hopefully she never would. He was gone, no one had seen or heard from him. He seemed to have vanished into thin air after he fled from Kevin’s house. The police had launched a search for him after Kevin had unintentionally mentioned his name while he was still delirious from the anesthetics. So far, there had been no signs of Raj anywhere. Olivia expected that he would hide out for quite some time. She wondered if he knew that he’d killed his wife or if he was under the impression that she was just hurt. Was he going to come back for Simla? Olivia felt conflicted. She wanted Raj to come back for Simla. Simla needed him more than ever now. However, Olivia had to keep him away from her own kids.

Olivia scanned through hundreds of unread emails. She clicked open a few, but couldn’t concentrate. There was only one issue that needed her undivided attention right now: The Darley-Stevens phenomenon. She was utterly stumped, but not defeated. There had to be an explanation, there always was.

Her desktop phone rang and interrupted her thoughts.

“Dr. Darley, you have a visitor–Simla Sen. Shall I send her up to your office.

“Yes, please do,” Olivia replied surprised. Simla? She certainly had not expected to see her, not here at Ames anyway. What could she want? Olivia, as far as she could recall, had never spoken to Simla directly, not once.

Simla was an anomaly. Arizona had mentioned a Simla in Princeton. They had been friends. She had assumed there were two different Simlas. Could they be one and the same? Had Raj Sen somehow used the portal before? Had he brought Simla and Erica through? Olivia had no recollection of either Raj or Erica from Princeton. Surely it must be a different Simla. It was certainly too late to ask Erica, Olivia thought sadly as she buzzed the door to let Simla in.

“Simla,” Olivia said warmly, pointing her over to the couch.

Simla stared at her defiantly, with the same stance she’d exhibited the last time Olivia had seen her, at Morgana’s house. What was it Simla had said then? She threatened them. She had expected Simla to be sad and vulnerable, but the girl who stood in front of her was far from that. She almost seemed intimidating.

“Sit down, Olivia,” Simla seethed.

“I know that you’ve had a very rough time, but temper your tone,” Olivia warned. “I’m extremely sorry for your loss. I’ll try to help you in any way I can.”

“Oh, shut up, you stupid woman,” Simla spat out. “Sit down and shut up.”

Olivia moved to her desk, her eyes on the panic button. She sat down with her finger hovering just under it, ready to press it, if need be.

“Where are the blueprints?” Simla hissed.

“I don’t have them here, Simla. Why do you need to know?” Olivia asked, taken aback.

“
I
am asking the questions, not
you
,” Simla replied venomously. “I want them, the blueprints, go and get them. Now.”

Olivia shook her head, almost amused. “Oh, Simla. That’s really not going to happen. There is nothing you can do. I can have security up here in seconds. I don’t want to do that, though. You’ve been through so much.”

“Olivia, give me the blueprints,” Simla growled.

“Or what?” Olivia asked.

“Call down to reception. There’s something down there for you,” she said.

“Okay,” Olivia said puzzled. She dialed down and spoke to the same voice as earlier.

“Hi, Helen. Is there something down there for me?”

“No, Dr. Darley.”

“Ask her about the man who came with me,” Simla said.

“Helen, did someone come in with my visitor, Simla Sen?”

“The man who came in with your visitor is waiting in the lobby.”

“What man?”

“Oh, I didn’t get a name. Do you want me to ask?”

“Just do a routine check of his ID. I’ll wait,” Olivia said.

Helen was back in minutes. “Dr. Darley. Shall I send him up as well?”

“Who is it?”

“Oh, sorry. His name is Dillard Stevens.”

The story continues….

PORTAL CHRONICLES BOOK THREE

Available Fall 2010

Imogen Rose was born in a small town in Sweden and moved to London in her twenties. After obtaining a PhD in immunology from Imperial College, she moved with her family to New Jersey, where she has been based for the past ten years. Storytelling is her real passion and she is excited to be publishing the second book in the Portal Chronicles.

Please visit
imogenrose.com
for more information.

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