Go For Stories

“Murdered?’ Nigel raised his eyebrows as high as they could go. “What makes you say that?”

Milly declined to answer. She stared out of the window with a pale face and red eyes.

“You know,” her voice was barely a whisper, “I’ve never actually been to your office.”

“What?” asked Nigel. “That can’t be right. How long have we known each other? Three, four years?”

“Going on four and a half now.”

Nigel furrowed his brow.

“No, I met you at least a few months into our time here.”

Milly turned to him and smiled a thin smile. “You were at the main gates when we started, frisking all the newcomers. You were quite thorough, as I recall.”

Nigel laughed and sat back down, holding his hand out to the other chair.
“Sit down, Milly.”

She frowned when she saw the back of his hand. “What happened there?”

“Hmm?” He looked at his hand and saw that the skin was a dark red colour with white, jagged lines following the path of his veins. He hadn’t even noticed but, now that he did, he could feel a deep throb going from his fingers to his wrist. He covered it with his other hand. It was warm. Very warm. “It’s nothing. Just got a bit of a shock from the elevator.”

She sat opposite him and grabbed his hand in both of hers. She leaned in to get a better look at it. Her hair brushed past his face and he smelled the same, sterile shampoo that they were all required to use.

“No, this isn’t just a small shock. You’ve been electrocuted,” she furrowed her brow, “but it looks odd somehow. You should probably come to my office so I can check it out properly. How does your chest feel?”

He took his hand back and placed it on his knee. Her eyes followed it with a curious expression.

“I’m fine,” he said. “If it gets too bad, I’ll come see you.”

She pursed her lips and scanned his eyes for any dishonesty. She seemed satisfied with what she saw and leaned back in the seat. She rubbed her eyes. “Fine.”

“Now, I know you didn’t come here about my health” said Nigel, “Tell me about Doctor Peterson.”

She gave a little start, as if she had forgotten why she had come here in the first place.

“Oh, right.” She clasped her hands together in her lap and looked Nigel in the eyes. “It probably sounds silly, but he was in early this morning. He’s never in early.”

“It’s not silly, I noticed that too.”

“Yes, but I don’t think he really was in early. I think he never left last night. Did you see his face?”

Nigel thought back to the look of absolute terror on the doctor’s face as he stumbled for the door. It was almost as if he could see inside his mind and there was nothing good happening there. Only fear and misery. He tore himself away from the memory and looked at Milly.

“Yeah, he was covered in blood. He must’ve cut his head in the explosion.”

“Except it was dry. The blood was completely dry. It had been there for at least a few hours. Whatever had happened to him had happened well before that explosion. I think he was knocked unconscious and left for the bomb or whatever to finish him off. Didn’t you find it odd that the explosion didn’t happen until right as we were turning up. If it had happened any later, we would have found Allen.”

“Wait,” Nigel held out a hand, “are you suggesting that someone set off an explosion, a bomb, at the exact moment when they saw you all getting close to finding him?”

“I don’t know what I’m suggesting, Nigel. I just think it’s odd, is all.”

Nigel scratched the stubble forming at his chin. “It is odd. Very odd.” He thought back to his ride in the lift and shuddered. “Listen, Milly, something weird is going on here. It could be something big, but it could just as likely be nothing. A simple accident. I’m going to have to go back to the lab anyway and have a look around. I’ll check over Doctor Peterson’s body while I’m there and see if I can find anything suspicious.”

Milly’s mouth opened in shock. “You can’t go in there; the solution will kill you.”
Nigel gave her a warm smile. “I’ll wear protection. There are quarantine suits in the lab, remember?”

Milly flushed a little in embarrassment. “Of course, yeah. I forgot about those. Sorry, it’s been a hard morning.”

“You’ll get no argument from me. Listen, you can hang around if you want. Enjoy the view.”

“No, it’s okay,” she said, standing and heading for the door. “I’ve got to keep going with my work. I’ll move over to Research One with the rest of the team. There’s a bit of spare room there. Thank you for listening, Nigel.”

“Milly,” said Nigel, a thought bursting to life in his mind, “I know I’m not supposed to ask, but what are you guys researching exactly.”

“Oh,” she stopped in her tracks. She stood at the door for a moment as if deciding whether she should tell him. She bounced from foot to foot. It broke all the rules talking about her work with another department.

“We’re trying to cure death,” she blurted out.

With that, she left the office and shut the door behind her.