CHAPTER 11
The only reason that Calvin could figure that Harvey was managing to sleep like he was, had to be because his snoring was louder than the construction sounds coming from the back hallway. Of course, Calvin never could figure out how the guy snoozed off, sitting up, in a roller desk chair that did not look all too stable to begin with. Not once, in all the years that Calvin knew him, had the guy fallen out of that chair. Cal was kind of surprised that Harvey didn't take the thing with him when he retired. Did the guy ever sleep in a real bed?
Cal was wishing that, right now, he could. He was technically not on comwatch since Harvey was here but would the guy actually hear the radio or phone if something happened? One look out the front windows of operations told Calvin they might actually really get a call tonight. The weather service had not been kidding when they issued that three flag warning. If it was this bad on the beach, he hated to think what it would be like five or six miles out in the shipping lanes. Cal decided to miss some sleep and hang around for a while. He brought his little note pad with him, pluggedh is ears with some small speakers, and watched ANT news.
How could he possibly miss the latest feeds? His ex-wife Cindy, was all over them with these terrorist trials going on. She was rattling on in front of every camera that would point in her direction, unfortunately she was also doing something else and it had been quite unexpected. Cal got a reminder of it when he looked up from his screen and almost jumped out of his skin because someone was standing over him and glancing at the video screen he was holding. Leslie was also holding flowers in her hand.
Cal pulled the speakers out of his ears and snidely remarked, “I know you didn't bring those Leslie, so, don't even try it.”
Leslie almost acted like she was trying to control her temper, even if Calvin knew better. She forced a smile and replied, “of course I didn't you big twit. I wasn't trying to pretend that I did.”
Tony was a lot more nonchalant about the whole flower business as he strolled up the stairs, into Ops. He was actually more curious about the banging noises and the sight of Harvey sleeping through it. Tony did manage to comment though, “that's the third set I've seen in the last two days. I was getting worried that Barbara might think they're for Shannon, or something.”
“Barbara knows better,” Leslie said in a matter of fact way as she kept her eyes on Calvin. Then she reached out with one finger and tipped his screen so she could see it better. She had guessed right about what was on it so she told Calvin, “you're pining over her and throwing her flowers away. I don't get it Calvin.”
“I'm not pining over Cindy,” Calvin said in an agitated tone. “If you knew what she had done to me you'd know better.” He then snatched the bundle of flowers out of Leslie's hand and threw them over on a pile of junk. He then turned off his notepad and grunted in frustration, “call it morbid curiosity.”
With her hands free, Leslie put them on her hips and then cocked her head, “she wants another chance Cal. You rescued her from certain doom. Some people would call that romantic, you know?”
Calvin quickly shot back, “I called it dangerous.” Then he got fidgety and added, “a dinner for two is romantic. Exploding bodies are not.”
With all the noise and talking, combined with the normally soft footfalls of the person walking up the stairs, they almost missed Patsy until she was on the floor and was lighting a cigarette, “exploding bodies? I must have missed that episode.”
Calvin complained and pointed to her cigarette, “yeah Patsy, it's what happens when you light one of those things up. I already have to deal with the banging and snoring, so, will you please wait till you're outside to do that?”
Patsy looked him in the eye and said, “you know I got this friend named Sherbert, down at City Lockup. He told me that...”
Calvin interrupted quickly, “it smells great.”
Patsy did not even give it a second thought as she asked, “where's Norm? He told me to meet him here when I left old man Alvarez.”
Now they had Tony's interest, only, he was not sure which one he wanted to know more. He decided one could wait or, at least till Calvin was out of earshot. Tony decided to be a little more diplomatic and pry into the business of the guy who was currently not here, “what were you doing at Garcia's place? I knew he had to get to a nurse for his dad but, you're a doctor. How can he...”
Calvin's eyes opened wide and he asked, “you're a doctor? I thought you were like a hospital librarian or something?”
“Barbara asked me to,” Patsy replied to Tony, completely ignoring Calvin's outburst. “She's going to owe me big for this one too. I can see where the son gets it from now. His old man is a horny old bastard in a diaper.”
Tony ignored the last part, he already knew it, “wait a minute, why would Barbara...”
Norm came stomping in right at mid sentence and finished it for Tony, “cause it ain't none of your business.” He then stopped and looked to both Tony and Leslie, “what are you two doing back here? Have you taken care that jewelry store robbery yet? I ain't seen no calls on my phone.”
Tony complained, “it's pouring out there Norm.”
Leslie acted more upbeat, “oh we are on a hot lead and I am sure it'll be all rapped up by this time tomorrow.”
“Good,” Norm said with his usual lack of enthusiasm. “Now that we all through lying to each other, get the fuck out of here and don't come back till your done.” They were not that happy about going back out into the rain but, they did it. Norm then nodded for Patsy to follow him back down the stairs. Patsy wondered why but, Norm put the secret business to rest by saying, “ain't secret, I just can't stand all that damn banging.”
Cal complained, sort of, as Norm was walking away, “should I wake Harvey now?”
“Hell no,” came Norms voice from downstairs, “he's the only one up here that seems to know what he's doing.”
Once out on the porch, with water coming off the roof in what could only be described as a waterfall, mainly due to the disrepair of the buildings gutters, Norm stopped and waited for Patsy to light up another cigarette. When she got a good puff she said, “I don't have to guess what this is about.”
“Don't tell me you've had it all this time and we still don't know squat,” Norm stated for the record.
“Norm,” Patsy explained, “I don't even know what it is I've got.”
Now Norm really was frustrated, “you mean to tell me, that you been working at that hospital, all these years, and you don't know what a finger looks like?”
“The only thing in that container,” Patsy did not react to Norm's tirades, “that your Barton guy left me, was dust. It was putting off toxic gas too.” She took another drag off her cigarette and resolutely stated in an accusing tone, “and it better not give me cancer.” Then she told him, “we had to use level one containment on that thing. I couldn't keep it around forever. You know how much that costs? Somebody would have started asking questions.”
Norm huffed, “did you find anything out?”
Patsy shrugged, “I had to call in Fu.”
Norm slapped his forehead, “I didn't want a hamburger, Patsy.”
“Look,” Patsy waived it off, “just cause the guy got rich flipping burgers doesn't mean he isn't a competent microbiologist. He's the best we could do, on short notice, not to mention he can keep his mouth shut. Barton was pretty adamant about that part.”
“Well?”
Patsy snickered, “I think I know why too. I sure would be if had just found out I had a gold mine in my cheap WMD ice cooler.”
Norm winced, “it was gold?”
Now she laughed and then said, “something a lot more precious than that.” After a few more puffs, and some deep thought, Patsy brought up, “you said that was a finger? How is that possible? Fu didn't find anything organic in the entire sample, well, except maybe....”
Questioning friends was always a lot harder than some punk on the street. Norm could not beat the shit out of his friends, even when he wanted to, “Patsy, pretend I don't know nothing about chemistry.”
“Who's pretending,” Patsy told him as she tossed her butt out into the rain and then faced off with Norm, “look, all the chemicals you have in your body are really a cocktail of baser elements. The human body is basically a wet bag with a manual pumping system. The more you move around, the more pump you get. Most of what's moving is just water but it's laced with all these chemicals. Our glands break them down, and then make more. The only thing that could have possibly been organic, in that dust, was, well, I'll skip the long words you won't remember anyway and just say it's what makes up Adrenalin. ”
Now Patsy was thinking even more and Norm had to urge her on even if it was clear she was confused, “now that you're telling me this used to be part of a human body, I'm really at a loss. If that stuff had broken down from sugar compounds, it would have been enough to kill a human being, instantly. It would make diabetes look tame. Then you got the second most prominent element that was there. It's also in the human body but, that much? I would have never thought of it if you hadn't just told me what you did.”
Norm squinted and asked, “what element?”
“Iron.”
“Darcy takes vitamins,” Norm became concerned, “she's not going to blow up, right?” When Patsy did not answer, Norm just huffed and then continued trying to understand all this stuff. “Ok,” Norm admitted, “you have officially lost me. How about you tell me what you meant about a mine. What gold?”
“Unfortunately,” Patsy said with a disgusted laugh, “that stuff evaporated, pretty fast. It's where all the toxic fumes were coming from. I'm surprised your buddies didn't kill themselves just bringing it to me. If it hadn't of just vanished, literally into thin air, I could have retired and bought my own planet.” Norm just stood there with wide eyes, unimpressed, so Patsy just blurted it out, “it was Solanum. That dust was over half that and it was ninety five percent pure.”
Now, Norm was impressed. His eyes got wider and his jaw dropped, “Patsy, that's starship fuel.”
“Yep,” Patsy said as she slapped Norm on the shoulder and turned to leave. As she prepared to brave the rain she said, “congratulations Norm. You're the first guy to ever give me the finger and it was worth something.”
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Decant
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