Page 19 of Under Pressure

Kendra lunged forward. “But it’s not enough? We barely scraped it for the PCR.”

“Sure, it is. I trimmed a piece of material off the glove’s knuckle, right where the dried blood was—very small, barely noticeable,” Lily said as they watched the machine work. “I hope it’s enough to give you the answers you seek.”

Kendra blinked as she observed the machine working, running aspects of the sample inside it. The answers she was looking for were just hours away.

“God, I hope so, too,” Kendra whispered to herself.

She couldn’t admit out loud just how important it had become to her—how much she wanted to understand the irregularities in Delta’s blood. Lily watched her, checking out the bruising that lingered on her temple from the car accident. Pensively, she reached up to touch her aching face. Kendra wasn’t the type of woman to engage in games with trust.

“Are you okay, Kendra?” Lily asked in a lower voice, concerned and compassionate. “Have you gone to see a doctor yet?”

Kendra let out a low breath, shaking her head. “No, I’m fine. I don’t need to see a doctor.”

“Don’t need to—or don’t want to?” Lily challenged her.

Kendra’s focus shot to her junior colleague. The truth hurt. Don’t want to was a far better description of how she felt. She did not want to go into the hospital or the clinic—or wherever. She did not want to see a doctor, just to hear them reiterate everything that she knew was wrong with her.

“You’ve got to take care of yourself, Kendra.” Lily spoke gently, as if knowing she was overstepping.

“I am doing just fine,” Kendra answered as she smoothed the outside of her brow where her head had hit the steering wheel, feeling the pain that lingered. “It’s going to heal. It was just an accident.”

Her final words came out like someone trying to convince themself, so she stopped. Lily raised her eyebrows but said nothing else, seeming to know more than she let on. It was no secret that Kendra was ultra-independent—to the point of pure stubbornness.

Kendra relented. “I don’t feel great right now. My head hurts, and it’s all been a bit much lately.”

Lily agreed, a sympathetic glimmer in her eyes. “The transition back to work is never easy. You’ve only been back at the lab for, what—a month now?”

Kendra gave a quick nod but didn’t reply. She hadn’t ever confided in Lily about all that had happened to her when she had been off work the past year—and she didn’t want to. She didn’t want to see those compassionate eyes flashing at her. She just wanted to feel normal, feel like she was good enough.

She just wanted to start over.

Taking in a deep breath secretly so Lily wouldn’t hear, Kendra watched the young laboratorian jotting down analyses in her lab report book, diligently working through the list of standard checks.

“It may help your report to know that the owner of the glove was in the military,” Kendra explained slowly, trying to get the conversation back on track. “The SEALs, to be exact.”

Lily’s lips formed an understanding circle as she nodded, her analytical eyes darting toward the test tubes and back to Kendra.

“I don’t know what you expect to see,” Lily began assuring her, “but I’m sure it’s all normal.”

“I just— I just need to see what’s in his genes.”

After a moment, the machine clicked, alerting them that it had an error. Lily immediately started working the console, trying to understand what the error code was telling her. She pulled out the instructions of the brand-new machine that were still hanging on the side.

“Error 72— Okay, now it’s telling us that it needs the optimizer add-on to complete the analysis,” Lily sighed, reading the material from the company. “The microchip optimizer assists in low-material situations—”

“The optimizer?”

Lily flipped through the pages of the manual.

“Ah, yes. It’s an added cost to buy it, of course. And that makes sense—another way to make money.” She sighed, slamming the manual down in frustration. “They don’t give things away for free anymore.”

Kendra darted her gaze back and forth, trying to figure out a solution. Are we the only lab that has the new machine?

“What about our sister lab up north—in Bakersfield?” Kendra pressed, wondering what options they had. “They always get the best equipment.”

“Actually, I think they did buy the optimizer. Smaller police department, bigger lab budget—go figure,” Lily scoffed in disbelief. “Field trip?”

Kendra reached forward and released the lock on the machine, pulling out the sample. Lily gave her a bright, questioning expression.

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