"We need to bring an image of the bottom of Kate's feet, up on the screen and actually view what's in them," One tech man suggested.
"The top of them should do the same thing," someone said.
"Take your shoes off," the professor commanded. "Just one foot." She obeyed, toeing the back of the sneaker and kicking it off. Kneeling before Kate, the professor ran the locator over the top of her foot. It beeped faintly. "Lift it up," he said as he shuffled backwards on the marble floor. Rolling the device along the bottom of her foot, caused the locator to sound out much louder. "Key into 'Locator N-H-T' —use my laptop."
Richard stepped over to the desk, calling, "Spell that now, lower and upper cases..." He keyed the letters in as the professor called them out.
An image of the bones in her foot, including her toes showed on the computer. "There are rods, individual, perhaps light-weight, flexible, like others in her body, almost like wires but with connectors, right inside her bone structure and, I see the locator, it's in the middle bone," Richard said in amazement, adding, "We can't take off both her feet!"
'I am just 'her' to him' and my feet are disposable... Kate felt overwhelmed, faint, to even think of Richard voicing such a thing, "But then," she said, softly "I could have artificial feet fitted. It wouldn't be so bad..." Closing her eyes and wanting to block out the discussion, she heard Diana's voice calling, "I'm coming! Make way!"
A siren sounded and a voice called over the intercom system, "Incoming, incoming! —Five minutes out! Lock down now! Move to the lower station floor!"
"This is ridiculous, Kindly!" Richard said to the professor, "We're not removing her feet, I won't allow it!"
Kate chastened herself, she was misreading Richard. He is so confusing to me, she complained to herself.
"Just pray the water works," the professor returned. He spoke in a quieter tone, saying, "She has these connectors and flexible rods all though her body, Richard. They're there, but without GPS locators. We need time to examine the images I saved and find out what she knows about her body and how it all works; why these implants are there."
They turned their backs to the door, talking so softly that Kate couldn't discern the rest of their conversation over the noise of the continuing sirens. She remembered times in her life that she had felt she was just her father's 'latest experiment' and this memory made her feel sad, depressed.
Taking the stool to the open door, Kate found Diana right there. Moving past her a little way down the corridor, she put the stool down and sat, flicking off her other sneaker and immersing her feet in the water.
Diana leaned on the wall to regain her breath as Richard, followed by the rest, stepped into the corridor, lining the walls both ways, filling the doorway, over a dozen of them. Some grouped together talking. The sirens still sounded. The corridor was a buzz of voices, people trying to hear each other over the noise. The proffessor held a small device with a screen to which he attached the scanner-locator and together they turned their heads to view a video.
Leaning forward, over the bowl, with her head down as far as she could, Kate plugged her ears with her fingers, working at propelling her mind back to more of her father's words and instructions. She didn't see Richard and the professor, their hands on each other's shoulders, kneeling to pray. One by one the others joined, kneeling in silent prayer.
Diana stood close to Kate with her arms round her shoulders before rubbing her back, then kneeling beside her.
Her touch of care gave relief to Kate. Someone is on my side, she told herself.
YOU ARE READING
From Bunkers to Palaces
ActionLike us all, Kate is on a journey. We all have to walk in our own shoes, or, on our own bare feet. Kate has many secrets, as does the man of her dreams who turns out to be someone entirely different from whom she had imagined him to be. From being...
