The Fair & Foul (Project Gene Assist Book 1) (17 page)

Juliane was confused. Why wasn't he rushing to meet her? Why wasn't he pulling her into one of his crushing embraces? Hadn't he worried about her? She looked at her teammates. Chad eyes immediately dropped to the floor. Had any of them even tried to reach him about her health? If he didn't know she had been out of commission for a week, it would explain why he didn't arrive sooner, but why wasn’t he making eye contact?

A female voice spoke up behind him. “Are you going to make me stand here in this hallway all evening?”

“Where are my manners? Dr. Dronigh, Dr. Faris, I would like to introduce you to Elena.” A delicate-looking woman stepped into the lab light. She had long blonde hair that flowed down her back in soft curls, blue eyes, and flawless skin. Juliane’s eyes darted between Louis and the woman like a hummingbird seeking sustenance. A wave of hot blood hit her ears in a futile attempt to block out Louis’ next words. “My wife.”

Although Louis had always spoken with a slight accent, it was as if he now spoke a different language. Each syllable leaving his lips blended together as if the words fought against the forward movement of time. Though Juliane clearly saw the woman standing next to him, a double vision of her entering the lab and Louis encircling her waist with his arm played over and over again in Juliane’s mind’s eye.

She looked to Chad in a desperate attempt to find someone who could make sense of the situation. His gaze was at least off the floor, but his expression lacked the sense of shock she felt. Juliane began to question whether she had heard Louis’s introduction correctly. None of the others had made any attempt at greeting the new arrival either.
Is this a bad dream?
No, the pain of crawling out of bed was much too real to be a dream.
Am I hallucinating?
Juliane wondered.
Is that woman even there?

Juliane closed her eyes and took a deep breath in an attempt to calm her nerves. When she opened them, the woman was still there, Louis’s hand continued to rest upon the small of her back, and Louis’s smile still had an idiotic dreamlike quality to it. Chad’s eyes met hers and softened.
Pity.
A quick glance showed a similar reaction on Betty. This couldn't be happening. She would not be pitied! The taste of copper filled her mouth as she bit her tongue to keep from screaming. She felt as shattered on the inside as the broken glass that marred the lab floor, but drew herself up like an empress. She would not shed tears. Not in front of this woman. Not in front of Louis. Not in front of anyone.

“Rest assured, Evans, we are more than equipped to deal with a little water here. As you can see, it is already finding its way to the drainage system.” In an instant, Alan had snapped back into crisp business demeanor.

“I don’t understand. What is all the fuss about a little water?” the woman, Elena, asked.

"The fuss, as you so put, is not about the water, but where the water came from." Alan launched into his lecturing tone. “I will try to keep this to the high-level concepts. Nearly half a century ago, researchers were able to finally confirm the existence of a particle, dubbed the Higgs Boson. This particle is important because it is what gives an object mass. Without it, you and everything with mass around you would merely be raw energy. There have been a number of attempts to study the power of the Higgs Boson over the years through various experiments, but until today, no one has been successfully able to control its power and modify the particle’s bonds at will with such a small and deployable mechanism. What we have done here today is, well, you could effectively call it magic. In simple terms, the water you see here was created out of thin air.”

When Elena did not immediately respond with gushing praise, Alan sighed. “I am sure your husband can explain this all to you while you travel to wherever it is you are going.” Turning back to Louis, he continued, “Evans, we’ve had a rather eventful day, and while I can’t speak for the others, I am exhausted. I’ll issue our formal report at the end of the week along with a demonstration. You would be welcome to attend, or if you would prefer, you can have your people contact me to schedule a more convenient time.”

Without waiting for a response, Alan began collecting his things. Betty fidgeted nervously in the corner of the room as she attempted to pick up the shards of glass from the broken bottle. “Err . . . yes, it has been an extremely busy few days. We can celebrate after the formal report . . . unless any of you would like to come out with me after this mess is cleaned up. Juliane? Chad?”

“I'm supposed to meet Nadia in the next thirty minutes or so.” Chad continued to look at Juliane, his shoulders slumped in apology.

Juliane said, “No, Alan’s right. There is still quite a bit of work to do, and I’ve been away from the office for far too long as it is." The image of Betty's pitying gaze burnt in her memory. She had to get back to her office where things still made sense. "Betty, if you can take care of the rest of the cleanup, I believe I'll head that way to get started on some paperwork.”

Juliane began walking toward the door directly into the path of Louis and Elena, frowning when it became clear that neither was moving out of her way. Whether Elena’s vacant expression was a result of not understanding Alan’s explanation about their work over the last several months, or if she truly had come into the room without any thought to what her reception might be, Juliane saw no point in wasting her breath asking either of them to stand aside.

Juliane glared at Louis. His grin slipped, but Louis appeared more irritated at Alan’s borderline insubordination than ashamed of his own actions. As she continued her approach, Louis raised the arm not currently attached to Elena’s waist briefly. Juliane arched an eyebrow in disbelief
. At least a part of him acknowledged our past connection,
Juliane thought to herself. Immediately, his arm dropped back to his side.

Louis moved first, but only to take a step closer to Elena. Juliane briefly paused on the threshold, taking another deep breath before taking the first step into the hallway. A large part of her wanted Louis to say something to break her professional demeanor, anything that would explain this sudden change in their relationship.

As she walked away, she heard Elena barely whisper to Louis, “Did Dr. Dronigh call her Betty? I thought you said Dr. Faris’s name was Juliane?”

“Juliane was the one who just left, but don’t worry about keeping the names straight. Alan Dronigh is the only name that will matter.”

Juliane stopped and stared at the hallway lighting fixture in an attempt to regain her equilibrium. She envisioned funneling the tempest of her anger and hurling it into the light. She imagined that the LED bulb pulsed in response.

The lab door had not entirely closed, and Juliane heard Betty exclaim, “Alan, did you turn the generator back on? We’ve got a situation. Everyone get back! I don’t know what's happening here!”

Juliane found herself back in her office, although she didn't remember making the trip. She debated going back to see what the commotion was about, but that would mean coming back into contact with
that
woman again and Betty's pitying eyes.
No.
She wouldn't go back. She couldn't go back. Only forward. Just then, Alan entered the room.

“You missed all the fun, Juliane.”

“What fun would that be?”

“Well, just after you left, there was an energy surge, and the generator came online by itself.”

“I guess it's possible that some of the capacitance didn't fully discharge.” Juliane leaned over the papers on her desk again. They were surrounded by technology, but the ACI had still never fully embraced going paperless. She could access all the documents in the world digitally, yet her inbox remained full. Normally, she hated paperwork, but right now, she was grateful for the distraction caused by the waste. “You can ask Chad to take another look at the groundings.”

“Ah, but I haven’t told you what happened next.”

“I'm on pins and needles.” She continued to move papers from one pile on her desk to another, adding the occasional signature.

“Well, it seems that there must be an error in at least one of your equations.”

Unable to ignore such a statement, Juliane put her pen down. She folded her arms and gave Alan her full attention. “I didn’t make any mistakes. You saw the results of the simulation. Everything went exactly as I had anticipated.”

“Well, then, how would you explain the lack of stability in the resulting water?"

“What lack of stability? When I left, the water was draining exactly as it should.” Her forehead knit in confusion. Juliane knew she was being led along, and she wondered what grand point Alan was trying to make.

“Yes, when you left, it was, but almost as soon as the door closed, the outer perimeter of the pool ignited. Then boom!" Alan spread his fingers wide like a child describing simple fireworks. "The floor is completely damaged, and poor Mrs. Evans”—Juliane felt her lips tighten at his casual use of the name—“may have gotten herself a little singed. It's a wonder the entire room didn’t explode.” He casually examined his fingernails as if the nail beds might still show evidence of ash. “I dare say, neither of the Evans left impressed. We may have just lost our funding.”

Juliane felt a flutter of panic. She could not understand why Alan seemed pleased to deliver such devastating news. They both had leveraged much of their reputation on this project. Such a failure could set them back years within the ranks of the ACI. “No, I can’t believe Louis would do that to us. This is only a mild setback.” The words rang false even to her ears.

“Right. And Louis has proven how loyal he can be. If he could toss you aside so easily, why wouldn’t he do the same with our funding? As far as he is concerned, you and our project were merely distractions. Now that he’s occupied elsewhere, we will all be forgotten.”

Juliane slouched in defeat. “I just don’t understand. How did this happen?”

“I suspect some of the hydrogen and oxygen bonds began to break down. Then, with all that pure oxygen floating about, it wouldn't take much, maybe just the spark from some static cling or some preservative in the champagne to ignite the hydrogen. Fairly basic chemistry.” Alan shrugged. The smile plastered to his face told Juliane that he was purposely misinterpreting her question.

Juliane closed her eyes and took a calming breath to center her emotions. Had Chad or Betty been in front of her, she might not have had the strength to continue, but she would not break down and cry in front of Alan. “You know what I mean, Alan. None of you were surprised when Elena,” Juliane spat the name, “entered the lab. What did you know? What happened while I was ill?”

The smile dropped from Alan’s lips. “You really had no idea at all? After all that moping around the lab over the last few weeks, I thought for sure you were reading those rumor rags that Betty so enjoys. You definitely seemed to be paying them a lot of attention when you were featured in them every other day.”

“I admit it. I read the occasional article about myself. I’m only human, but the magazines aren’t exactly high on my daily reading list.” As she had started to fade from being a regular feature in the tabloids, other more farcical stories had taken her place. Stories about athletes rumored to be shooting up with extremely experimental performance-enhancing drugs, giving them competitive edges, but the drugs had monstrous side effects, such as fingernails hardening into claws and gums that receded back, making teeth look like tusks. Ridiculous stuff.

“Then, I am sorry you had to find out the way you did. You were so calm in there—rightfully pissed, but overall calm. I thought you had to have heard the rumors even if you didn’t know for sure.” Alan ran his hand through his hair, taking a few steps closer to her.

“I still don’t know. What are these rumors you keep referring to?” Juliane pushed her seat back, wanting to keep the distance between them constant. Alan recognized the move and stopped his forward progress.

“You may need to talk to Betty. She's the one who told me, but what people are saying is that Louis suffered a nervous breakdown, anxiety attack, or something like that about a month ago, and this Elena person saw him wandering the street. Supposedly, she had no clue who he was. She had no idea about his fame or wealth or anything, and took him back to her home where she nursed him back to health. They got married by the end of the week. Betty tells me it is being portrayed as quite the fairy tale romance."

The timing of his ‘attack’ would have put it around the time when Juliane first severed the bond. While she was here trying to fill the void with her work and feeling miserable, Louis was off getting played by wannabe Florence Nightingale.

Juliane felt a coldness settle into her heart. “Idiot." Juliane wasn't sure if she was referring to Louis or herself. "He should have called me. I could have explained everything.”

“Could you?” Alan asked. “Because I would like to know what the hell has been going on with you lately. If you didn’t already know about the rumors, then what is your excuse for the last few weeks? And what really happened today with the generator?”

Juliane ground her teeth together before answering. “The generator surged and the hydrogen ignited. You just finished telling me that.”

Alan closed the remaining distance to the desk and leaned on it. “You and I both know you don’t make mistakes. Something or someone sent a command to the generator. It wasn’t Betty, and even I didn’t know it was capable of doing anything like that.” Alan leaned over further. Juliane could see her stunned face reflected back in the safety glasses he still wore. “I believe it is your turn to do some explaining.”

Juliane bowed her head. “I didn't know. I swear. I didn’t mean for anything like that to happen. I overheard him tell her that I was nothing. I was so angry, but it couldn't possibly . . . I never would . . ." Juliane chewed her lip as she played the scene back in her memory. Louis's words. Elena's smug smile. Her shoulders slumped. "I haven't been myself ever since I disabled the private network.”