The closet was stifling and hot. The two men barely fit inside along with the broken easel and extra white board. The conference room was comfortable with the windows open even though it was eighty degrees outside. But there was no breeze in the closet even though they had the door propped open just a crack. Collin and Charlie had been hiding in there since eleven a.m. Now they could hear someone moving about in the conference room putting glasses and pitchers of water on the table. It would be noon in twenty minutes. Hopefully this conference with the couples that Doctor Phelps had mentioned would start soon.
The first couple arrived complaining that Doctor Phelps was not present in the conference room. The woman spoke, “I told you he wouldn’t be here when we arrived. That man drives me insane.”
Her husband responded, “George is a busy man.”
“Not George, I meant Gregory.”
At that moment Gregory Phelps entered the conference room. “I’m here Missus Southerland.”
“At last,” Darla Southerland said. “Where is everyone else? We need to get this problem handled.”
“They will all be arriving soon, I assure you.”
Timothy Southerland asked, “Is George going to be here?”
“No. We met yesterday. He wants me to handle it.”
Two more couples arrived.
Doctor Phelps said, “Welcome everyone. Please sit down.”
“Let me summarize the issue at hand and tell you the options we have. You all know about the unfortunate incident that occurred in May.”
A woman with a soft whisper of a voice said, “Unfortunate? That was more than unfortunate!”
Collin was surprised to hear the whispering voice. It sounded like Maggie Maxwell. Sure enough the next person to speak was Marvin, her husband.
“Maggie, don’t start. We all know about your failure Doctor Phelps. Now we need to know what you are going to do about it.”
Doctor Phelps replied, “The baby has been adopted by a couple that is willing to love and care for a special needs baby. They do not know how the child became blind and it doesn’t matter to them. We will process another embryo for Paula and Trent at no charge.”
Another woman spoke, “What about the security issue? Patricia said she saw that private detective here on the island.”
Doctor Phelps replied, “Katie, she said she thought it looked like him. I don’t think it was really him. Besides it doesn’t matter. He has no authority here.”
Katie spoke again, “Well what about the girl that disappeared?”
Doctor Phelps spoke with a sigh, “She is dead.”
The others all spoke at once.
“Dead?”
“How?”
“You didn’t, did you?”
“It was an accident” Doctor Phelps lied.
The others were quiet for a moment. They were told the girl, Ellen, had been dropped from the program because she got pregnant during the screening phase of the project. They were concerned because it meant one less surrogate and therefore one less couple that would be able to have a baby through the project. Now they were concerned because it was the second accidental death involving the group. The other had been a young man that was having an affair with Doctor Holt’s wife. When the young man died in a car accident the couples wondered out loud between themselves if there was a possibility that the young man had met with foul play. None of them trusted Doctor Holt completely. He came across as a determined man who didn’t let much stand in his way.
This was different. The young woman knew a lot about the secret experiment with genetics and Holt laboratory but the project was presented to the surrogates as legal and above board. It shouldn’t have mattered that she was dropped from the program unless she had somehow learned more than she should. Each of the husbands and wives in the room were thinking about the possibility that somehow they were involved with a murder. None of them could speak to that issue with Doctor Phelps present. Doctor Phelps supported George Holt completely.
Collin was shocked to hear Doctor Phelps say that Ellen was dead! But he and Charlie, suffering from the heat in the closet and troubled by what they were hearing, remained silent hoping to learn more.
Maggie whispered, “So where do we go from here? I want my baby. This is my last chance for a family.”
“Well maybe you shouldn’t have hired that private detective,” declared Darla Southerland.
“That’s not fair Darla and you know it” said Marvin Maxwell loudly.
“If Doctor Phelps had told us about Gene Search I would have known not to. I just didn’t know and I was worried about Shelby” cried Maggie hoarsely.
Doctor Phelps told the group, “You all need to calm down. The project is going forward. Doctor Holt assures me that the embryos have been corrected for any possible genetic defects and will be ready for implanting tomorrow. The women have been taking the fertility drugs and are ready to go on to the next step. In nine months your babies will be born and you will be the parents you so want to be.”
Katie Russell said, “What if something goes wrong? I can’t bear the thought that their might be another mistake.”
Frank Russell added, “I’m paying too much money for a mistake.”
Doctor Phelps declared, “There will be no mistakes. George has promised me the techniques have been perfected. Now, how about some lunch?”
The group didn’t really have much of a choice. They followed Doctor Phelps out of the conference room.
Collin and Charlie waited a couple of minutes and then left the closet. They were cramped and sweaty. They stood in front of a window and let the breeze blow gently over them.
Charlie was the first to speak, “Those people are monsters. All of them.”
Collin replied, “I’ve got to find the girls and get them out of here before the implant procedure. They have got to understand that they can’t be part of this!”