Book Two - Part One: Spectre

Chapter Twenty-Six

Samson steps into the living room as Betty emerges from the mudroom/garage entrance. He looks at her...wondering. Betty gives him a small smile as Bruce and Laurie follow her into the house.

"Welcome," Samson tells them. "Now all of you go get out of those wet clothes. I think we all need some hot food and a number of drinks. You're talking, I'm cooking. Now go..."

............

Samson is cooking food while Bruce, Laurie, and Betty talk across a small dining table off the living room. Betty has drawn all the curtains.

"...and they just let you stay?" Betty asks Bruce who nods back.

"I think it was novel at first, they don't get the spiritual tourism up there on the Northern Plateau. And I'm good at fixing things so..." Bruce looks at Laurie. "It was peaceful" he admits, she lifts her eyes to meet his. He looks back at Betty. "For a long time that's all I wanted. When I heard the rug dealer down in town had gotten internet...my brain started going and eventually, I couldn't resist. That's how I got to Sterns"

"And trimethadione..." Betty adds.

"I didn't think you could synthesize an inhibitor that complex but he has been. I mean five years ago..."

"We're all a lot further along than we were then, but Sterns is way out in front on that score. He had some kind of ethics cloud around him at Cal Tech but it didn't stop him. His work is unbelievably brilliant" Betty admits. Laurie stands from her seat, her eyes on her cell phone in her hand.

"I'll be right back," she tells Bruce who watches as she walks away from them and out the front door with her cell phone.

"So, Brazil for the corablanca?" Betty asks Bruce, causing him to turn back to her, he nods.

"He's synthesizing it but I had to try to get it at the source. It took a long time just to get there. And I couldn't get a thousandth of what I'd need. If he's even right..."

"And now?" Betty asks him.

"Laurel and I go find him, I suppose. I don't know if he's really got something and it's a much longer shot without the data but I've got to risk it..." his eyes track Laurel through the window as she talks on her phone. He needs to be there for her, for them. And he can't do that if he's constantly looking over his shoulder, ready to run. And he can't drag her around with him. Not pregnant. Not with a baby or a toddler. He needs to create normality for them and then deal with whatever comes after.

"No, you don't." Betty corrects before she gets up and goes to a bookshelf with a vase on it. She shakes out a small flashcard on a ring, with a lanyard. She goes back and hands it to him. "I got in there before they carted it all away. I hoped it would tell us something someday"

"Does the General know you have this?" Bruce asks.

"I don't think so" Betty answers.

"He was there in Brazil. When they came for me. I saw him"

"Oh my god...he's crazier than anybody knows. I'm so sorry... How?"

"I've twisted it round every possible way" Bruce admits. "Is there any way it could have been Sterns?"

"I hear he's a total anarchist. Hates authority. Doesn't think he should answer to anybody. That's why he got in trouble" Betty admits and then nods towards Laurie. "Do you think that..."

"Laurel?" Bruce asks. "No" he answers quickly. "No, he was surprised she was there with me, and she would never....she would never do that" That he is sure of. Laurie would never betray him, and not for Ross. And not now. Not with..this baby. She would know the risk to it to be around Ross. And their child or not, Laurie would never put a child in danger. Samson enters the room.