Page 52 of Sky Song
Cricket shook her head. “Okay, Salty. Whatever.”
“It’s that doctor that made me think so!”
“Dr. Nura?”
“Yes, she. Used to come here all the time and talk to Igor, always whispering around, private-like. He sometimes took her to the supply room. Very shady, but we didn’t think at the time there was something inappropriate going on. Well, maybe except for Kim. Kim never liked her, even then.”
“Kim never liked anyone,” Terrance scoffed.
“No, she didn’t,” Salty had to concede. “But after Igor died, and Dr. Nura showed up here, Kim near bit her head off. Dr. Nura tried to put a stop to the scene but it was like Kim snapped. She screamed and yelled for a long time. The closest I’ve even seen her lose her shit. Sad. But also funny - Kim and her iron self-control. She’s just like everybody else, and so is that little bitch doctor.”
Cricket absorbed the information not yet knowing if any of it was important or meaningful. Once again, the subtle mistrust Lyle had planted gripped her, and it wasn’t right. Under his influence, she was turning into a conspiracy theorist to rival Kim, seeing odds everywhere, losing trust in everyone she knew.
Kim had had beef with Dr. Nura over Igor. Okay, fine. Feuds happened. Kim had beef with many people - she had an unfortunate personality. So did Salty, in her own way. And the supply room was just that, a supply room.
The stairs are going down.
Damn Lyle. Were there stairs? And was there the electric field he claimed to have felt? She had proof of neither, and the doubt drove her mad.
I shouldn’t ask.But it was too late, and she had to know.
Cricket turned to the counter and picked up a tray with her own samples. “It’s so strange that they had that big loud argument you mentioned,” she said casually. “It’s not like Kim to yell. And I know Dr. Nura, she’s pretty unflappable. Are you sure you remember correctly, Salty?”
Salty took the bait. “Are you calling me a liar?”
Cricket glanced at Salty through her face shield, filling her expression with doubt on purpose. “I’m not calling you anything. But neither I nor Terrance were there, and big arguments like that tend to grow improbable details as time goes by. It’s not you, it’s human psychology.” She busied herself with the samples, as if dismissing the topic.
“Yeah, you weren’t there! Not very nice of you to insinuate that I’ve concocted a story. Why would I do that?”
“I’m not saying you have, Salty,” Cricket repeated, noticing how Salty had already worked herself into a lather. Her normally hooded eyes went wide and brilliant with indignation.
“I’m telling you, Kim screamed and yelled at Dr. Nura. She was red in the face and used foul language. You should’ve heard her, she was so crude! And after that, Kim wouldn't shut up and kept ranting about Igor’s death. She went on and on about aliens and humans, the usual. She threatened toexposeDr. Nura, blamed her for ruining Igor, accused her of lies. Every day, it was something new. Kim really hated that woman.” Salty sniffed and touched her nose with the back of her gloved hand. “Unfair to the rest of us here, don’t you think? We were all shook up over Igor. I had nightmares about it. But what else would you expect of Kim?”
Cricket’s hands continued their work. “Kim never mentioned Dr. Nura in front of me. Have they patched things up?”
“I don’t know what they did, but Dr. Ragberg interfered. There were several private meetings between him and Kim. Soon after, Dr. Nura stopped showing her face at the lab and Kim became a shift lead.” Salty threw Cricket a dirty look.
Cricket ignored it. “And Kim has lost access to that door?” She pointed at the door.
Salty turned to look at where Cricket was pointing, surprised. “The supply room? Kim never went there. Igor had, and after he died, they hired Yanet to help with the supplies. That doesn’t matter.” She dismissed the door with a half-wave of her limp hand. “What matters is that Kim had raised a ruckus over some issue concerning Igor and Dr. Nura, and to hush her up, Dr. Ragberg had her promoted. And now I think she did it again, after this alien symposium, and they moved her somewhere where they don’t have to deal with her anymore. She was saying that the symposium was fishy, and maybe she was onto something.”
Terrance scrunched up his face. “Then why are they looking for her?” he asked the rather obvious question.
“I don’t know!” Salty said irritably. “Who says they really are?”
“They called the peacekeepers. A city-wide search is underway.”
“It may all be a ruse.” Salty presented Cricket and Terrance with her thin hunched back, indicating that she was done with this discussion.
Cricket and Terrance exchanged a look, and Terrance circled his finger around his temple, mouthing Cuckoo.
Cricket shook her head as they went to their respective duties. Her eyes strayed to the door. A supply room. It was just asupply room, a backdrop to a personal conflict between Kim and Dr. Nura, no more. No more…
It troubled Cricket that Salty mixed Dr. Ragberg’s name into this mess of a story.
She glanced at the wall. The metal cabinet hung silent and malevolent, hiding a weapon placed there by the gossipy air-headed nurse who couldn’t keep a secret to save her life. The weapon that only peacekeepers had a right to carry.
Too many random, insignificant details, and they didn’t add up.
