Page 37 of Devil
“I’m not going to think about that right now,” she said. “Right now, we’ll just test the sample from Pritchard and see what shows up in our blood work. Depending on the results, we’ll take it from there.”
He had to trust she knew what was best, so he agreed. Then, after telling her to text him when she arrived so he could meet her downstairs, he ended the call. Glancing at the clock on the wall, he turned back to the game and shut the television off. It was well past lunch but not yet dinnertime. And he’d place money on Lily not feeding herself before getting in her car to come down to Boston. It probably wasn’t the kind of support his superiors had contemplated when they’d assigned him to this op, but if she needed to eat, he could feed her. And he had ninety minutes to get some shopping and cooking done to make that happen.
He was closing the lid on the last to-go box when her text came in letting him know she was ten minutes away. Placing all four containers in a paper bag, he set it beside the door, then dashed into his room to change his shirt and grab his shoes. By the time she pulled up to the curb outside his building, he was standing on the sidewalk.
He set the bag on the floor in the back seat, then climbed in beside Lily. He reached around to buckle his seat belt and found her craning her neck to see the bag. “Whatever that is, it smells delicious,” she said, pulling her attention back to the road and merging back into traffic.
“Fried chicken, biscuits, and some greens,” he replied. Her head whipped around. “My momma’s recipes, of course,” he added. By all standards, his family wasn’t “truly” Southern. He was only second-generation US-born. But his mother and grandmother had fully embraced Southern cuisine. To say the family ate well would be an understatement.
“You didn’t have to do that,” she said, flicking her blinker on and turning onto the road that would take them to the hospital.
“I didn’t know how long we’d be at the lab, and I figured if you’re like me, you haven’t eaten yet. Healthy body, healthy mind, and all that.”
She laughed. “I’m not sure fried chicken counts as healthy, but I get your point. I also happen to love it, so thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Now, do we need to park and go into the hospital or is Will going to meet us?”
“He’ll bring it out. He’s off shift now so will leave after meeting us.”
Darius nodded, then fell silent as Lily navigated the short distance to the hospital. For as prominent a city as Boston was, it wasn’t very big. So long as there was no traffic, which admittedly didn’t happen often, it rarely took very long to get from one place to another. And on a quiet Sunday evening, the traffic gods were smiling on them.
Ten minutes later, they pulled away from the hospital with the sample in a sealed bag on his lap. Ten minutes after that, Lily pulled into her assigned spot at the lab. He handed her the package Will had given them, then slid from his seat and collected their dinner.
“Is there anyone else here?” Lily asked as they rode the elevator to the third floor.
Darius shook his head. “I checked while you were talking with Will, and the building is empty. The cleaning staff is even done for the day.”
Lily nodded and said no more as they exited onto her floor and made their way to her lab. Once inside, she set the sample down at the far end of the room while he unpacked the dinner items. By the time he was done, she was standing beside him, admiring the spread, with a needle and test tube in hand.
“This looks amazing. I want to get the samples going, and then we can eat. The antibody test shouldn’t take too long, but the tissue sample test might need to run overnight.”
He nodded and rolled up his sleeve. “You need me to get yours once you’re done?” he asked as she swabbed his skin with an alcohol wipe.
Her fingers traced the veins on the inside of his elbow, but her eyes came up. “You know how?”
He nodded. She found a vein, then expertly inserted the thin needle so smoothly he almost didn’t feel it. “Maybe not as well as you, but yes, I have medic training.”
She clicked the test tube into place, and his blood filled the vial. “If you wouldn’t mind, that would make things easier. I can do my own draw, but I’d need to do it from my leg and while it’s not complicated, it is a little more of a hassle.” By the time she was finished talking, the vial was full, and she popped it out. Setting it on the counter, she grabbed a gauze square, held it over the puncture site, and slipped the needle out. “Here, hold this for a minute,” she said, nodding to the gauze.
He pressed the small piece of material against his skin as she disposed of the needle and set the test tube in a rack. Returning with the second set of the same equipment, she gestured to his arm. “Is it still bleeding?”
He lifted the gauze and although it had a few drops of blood on it, the bleeding had stopped. Tossing the soiled square into a garbage can under the counter, he picked up the needle she’d set on the counter. “Ready?”
Without a word, she rolled her sleeve up and a few minutes later, her sample was beside his in the rack.
“What’s next?” he asked.
“I’m going to get the tissue sample going. As I said, it’s a longer process and once I get things started, we can leave it overnight. After that, I’ll start the antibody testing on our blood. We can eat while the antigen is doing its thing, and then I’ll have a look under the microscope to see what’s there. Hopefully, it will just be the usual antibodies I’d expect given that we’ve both been vaccinated for our jobs.”
“Anything I can do to help?”
She shook her head. “Just stay on this side of the lab for a little bit. I’ll suit up to handle the tissue sample, and I’ll run the test down there.” She nodded to the other end of the room. “Even if it is smallpox, or some form thereof, the sample shouldn’t be too contagious, but still, I’d rather you stay away.”
He nodded and took a seat at the counter. Once again, he felt a bit useless as she went about her business. At least he could feed her, he supposed. And take away some of her stress once they were back at his place. Ideas started to percolate in his mind about how to do that, but when the beeping of a machine drew his attention back to the room, he put a stop to them.
“What would someone need in order to stitch together a virus?” he asked. Lily’s back was to him, and all he could see was a figure in a bunny suit.
“Pieces of DNA from other viruses, to start,” she answered. “I haven’t ever done it, so would need to research it more.”
