Eagle Squad. James C. Glass
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sure of that,” said Holleque, “but now I have another appointment.”
Jack squared away at the door, suppressed an urge to salute, for he was not in uniform. “Thank you for your time, sir.”
“Have a good day,” said the Colonel. Jack stepped backwards out of the room, executed a left face and walked briskly away.
Holleque closed the door and walked back to his desk thinking, Holleque, my man, you have found yourself another right-wing gem. As he settled in his chair the intercom buzzed again.
“Yes, Margaret?”
“You had a call from President Lundeman, and he wants you to call back. A Mister Ebensack from NSA Arlington called and set up an appointment for Thursday morning at ten. He said it would only take a few minutes.”
“What’s that about?”
“He didn’t say, sir.”
“All right, I’ve got it down. Thanks, Margaret.” Holleque punched the intercom, tapped his pencil on the polished desk a few beats, frowning, then picked up the telephone and dialed the president’s office.
* * * * *
Karen was still thinking about Jack’s interview when she entered the lab. The door was unlocked, so it was likely Doctor Reimer had already arrived. The animal room was dark, but there was light beneath the closed door to the adjacent lab. The animals chattered and squealed in their cages, smelling her perfume and anticipating a meal. Among her menial tasks as a graduate student it was her duty to feed them. Karen turned on the lights, retrieved food dishes from the cages and filled them with pellets.
There were muted sounds from the adjacent laboratory. At first Karen couldn’t identify them. She listened carefully in the silence of her room as the animals fed. Sobbing. Someone was crying behind the closed door. She walked to it, knocked softly.
“Hello?” Is something wrong? It’s Karen. The animals are fed. I need to check on how my assemblers are doing.”
The sobbing stopped, and there was a long pause. The doorknob rattled and Karen stepped back as the door opened. Judith Reimer, her thesis advisor, held the door open and smiled wanly at her. Reimer’s eyes were red, and she wiped at them with one hand.
“Sorry. I’m having a bad morning. Come on in.”
“What’s wrong?” asked Karen, and then remembered. “Is it about Doctor Bauer? I was so sorry to hear about him. So tragic.”
Reimer closed the door behind them. “More tragic than you might think, but don’t mind me. I’m just being dramatic.”
She wiped her eyes again and ran her hands over short-cropped grey hair that made some people think she was on the physical education faculty or even a coach. Karen had quickly learned that behind that hard face with thin lips was a genius who could model molecules hooking together in her sleep.
“There are rumors flying about how he died, and his research assistant is missing. Could he be responsible?”
“So much for military intelligence. That would be an easy answer,” said Reimer. “They’re interviewing all of us who have classified projects. Months to get us our security clearances, and now we’re murder suspects. Brilliant. I don’t even know what Bauer was working on.”
“I didn’t know you had a classified project,” said Karen.
“Well now you know. It doesn’t involve your thesis research, so don’t worry about that. Nobody will be telling us you can’t publish your work. That has been a problem on this campus, a problem doctor Bauer championed in the faculty senate.”
Reimer paused, pressed her lips together angrily. “Maybe he was too loud about it, and pissed off the wrong people.” Her eyes darted around, and she put a fist to her mouth.
“Sorry. I’m talking silly. This has nothing to do with you. A friend has died, and I’m a little scared about being interviewed by the feds. I don’t trust those people to get anything right. Back to work, now. How are the assemblers doing?”
“The chain lengths were up to ninety when I checked last night.”
“Not so hot. Should have been a lot longer by then. Change the temperature, the PH, or try another polymer with fewer side chains. The mites have to work much faster than what you’re getting, and we’re not going to spend time playing with their structure right now. We want to get your thesis finished and you graduated to do great things in the world.”
Reimer put a hand on Karen’s shoulder and squeezed. She was her old self again, quick and decisive. “I’ll be in my office all morning,” she said.
Karen spent the morning and early afternoon running one electrophoresis test after another and the results were all the same. Her chain links had only gone to two-hundred-thirty units overnight, a fifth of what she had hoped for. She set up six new experiments with varying PH and temperature and was ready to leave for the day to meet Jack. The door to Reimer’s office was ajar when Karen went to see if there was anything else she should do.
Reimer was talking to someone on the telephone, and she was crying again. Karen listened briefly, and quickly left the laboratory before Reimer could know when she’d gone. And the last words she’d heard troubled her the rest of the day.
“I’m scared, baby,” said Reimer to someone. “I could be next, and I don’t know who to be afraid of. Please come over tonight. I need a lot more than a hug from you.”
* * * * *
“Hey, spacewoman!” Jack said loudly, and other people in the library looked up from their books. “I’ve just had a major career breakthrough, and you don’t seem to be interested in it.”
Karen blinked her eyes and looked surprised, then hurt. “I have been listening to you, Jack. What do you want me to say? I knew you’d get it, so it isn’t big news to me. I’m happy for you. It’s what you wanted.”
“You seem kind of down.”
“No, I’m thinking about something else. After you left the union I went back to the lab to feed my animals and do some work. Doctor Reimer was there crying.”
“Who’s Doctor Reimer?”
“My thesis advisor; you’ve heard me mention Judith Reimer. She’s a physical chemist: polymer chemistry, nano-tech, that sort of thing. Anyway, she was crying, and I was so embarrassed for her.
Karen quickly told Jack what had happened in the laboratory.
“Hey, hey,” said Jack. “Sounds like she has a boyfriend.”
“Listen to me. She believes it was murder, and said so. I can’t forget that crazy, frightened look in her eyes when she first started talking to me. Then the wall went up, and we only talked about my work after that. She feels threatened by something. I’m sure of it.
“It’s none of your business. You can’t help her unless she asks for it.”
“I’ve never seen her vulnerable like that.”
“We’re all vulnerable.”
“Even you?”
“Vulnerable to your charms. Let’s get out of here, and go for a walk.”
They walked outside, where a cold wind came down from the hills. The campus was brightly lit; they walked arm in arm past silent, granite buildings and around the quad to a winding path lined with brick leading up into the hills. Every fifty yards a small wooden bench was placed looking down on campus, and after a winding climb of four hundred feet there was a covered overlook with tables and cooking grates. They leaned on the four-foot stone wall encircling the overlook, watched the lights from the campus town and a fire tower on a neighboring hill in the north woods. It seemed even the birds were asleep, and then Jack turned Karen to face him, taking her in his arms, and they kissed softly, without