Chapter Eighteen: Kai
“There must be thousands of books here,” Kai said, as he followed Caryn into the library on Hallows Street, a detour Caryn insisted they were dry enough for. Although most of the library’s materials were electronic, reading stations filled with more electronic books than Kai could ever count took up the front, they also had bound books on display in shelves that lined across the room. He ran his finger along the backs of several spines. It caught on the last one and a small blue book fell to the tiled floor with a bang.
“You are supposed to be quiet in a library,” Caryn said, with a small smile on her lips. “Have you ever been in a library like this before?”
“I never thought I would be allowed. Are all libraries open to the public?” There were no visible scanners at the door and the entrance seemed bare without them.
“All public libraries are. The library we have at the Compound is private and only those who have permission can go there. Here, you might find this section interesting.” She sped up and stopped in front of the medical genetics section. After a quick scan, she selected several books and placed them in Kai’s hands. He held the books at an awkward angle to keep them from opening at the same time. Then as one of the books began to close a picture caught his attention right before it shut.
Kai set the other books on a shelf and opened the book entitled Disease DNA for the 49th Earth Century: the 5th edition. From the first picture he lost himself into a world he had never known existed and yet seemed as familiar as the back alleys he grew up in. He didn’t know what half of the words meant, but the pictures spoke their own individual stories. The way the balls and lines circled around each other forming complex designs and shapes gave Kai a taste of purpose in an otherwise pointless universe.
“Caryn, look at this one. It’s almost like the model in Doc’s office,” Kai said, his finger pausing over a picture of a DNA model.
It took him a moment to realize she was not answering. When he managed to drag his eyes off the pages he realized something was wrong. Caryn was no longer in his aisle and Kai couldn’t remember even hearing her move. He shut the book, ran to the end of the row, made a quick turn left and continued running down the back of the wall. He wanted to kick himself for allowing her out of his sight. What kind of companion was he? If she had any enemies all they would have to do was hand him a picture book of diseases and he would forget everything. He circled around to the front and raced back to the row he had been in, ignoring the frowns of other patrons and the “No running allowed!” that a woman behind a big wooden desk hissed at him.
Then in the aisle two beyond where he had started he saw her. She stood there with a book open in her hands completely oblivious to any of the noise he had made or to the frantic look he was sure could be seen in his eyes. He paused long enough to let his heart catch up and then he walked over to her. She jumped when his shadow crossed over her page and then she laughed.
“You scared me,” she said.
Kai only nodded. Where scaring was concerned they were even now.
“Did you want to see if you can borrow that?” she asked.
It was then Kai realized he was still holding the disease book in his hands.
“No,” he said. “I’m going to put it back.” He didn’t want the temptation this book could weld interfering with his attention. He just hoped no one else had seen it or considered it a breach of his contract.
Caryn’s face fell for a moment as if she were disappointed. She closed her own book and set it back on the shelf.
“Are you hungry? We could get something to eat after we change in the hotel,” she said as she walked back to the entrance.
He was always hungry, but he said, “That’s fine.” He set the book on top of the other books on the shelf and slowly released his fingers from it. Maybe one day he could come back and look at it again.
They exited the library and headed toward the hotel, but they had only walked for two blocks when a boy runs out from an alley straight at Caryn. Before Kai could react, the boy grabbed her arm and began pulling her back to the alley.
“Miss, you have to help us,” the boy said. The lowering suns caught glints of his red hair and Kai remembered him from yesterday, but that did not matter. In two steps Kai blocked the way and grabbed the boy’s shoulders.
“Don’t hurt him,” Caryn said.
Kai rolled his eyes, he wouldn’t hurt the kid, but loosened his grip.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Tommy,” the boy said.
Caryn held out her other hand for Kai to let go and turned to the boy.
“What is wrong Tommy?” she asked.
“My boy’s terribly sick. I can’t get him to eat or anything,” Tommy said. Kai could see the red in Tommy’s eyes and the dirt on his cheeks had clean trails running down them that tears had blazed.
“Where is he?” Caryn asked.
“This way,” Tommy said and this time Kai let him pass with Caryn’s arm in tow.
They followed him to the end of the alley where Tommy pointed to a cardboard box with a small form wrapped in a worn blanket inside it. Although Kai did not believe this would be dangerous, he motioned for Caryn to stay back just in case. He knelt down in front of the box and felt around the blanket until he found a head. Removing the blanket, he felt himself sigh with relief when he saw the little boy’s chest move. The little boy looked no older than three years old, but because of his thin frame Kai guessed he was probably closer to the age of five. His dirty blonde hair had been hacked at with a knife or dull pair of scissors and stood up at various levels depending on the length. His skin was pale, reminding Kai of the Doc’s son, and dried pieces of apples were stuck to the skin around his mouth as if he had been fed recently even in his comatose state.
“He’s alive, but we should probably get him to Doc,” Kai said and he slipped his arms under the little boy and picked him up, being careful not to bump the boy’s head on the box as he stood. The boy was limp in his arms and his body was so light Kai thought he could carry him all the way around Malte Lake and his arms would feel fine.
Caryn and Tommy followed Kai as they left the alley, eating would have to wait again. Twice Kai thought he heard someone sniff behind him and assumed it was Tommy. When they reached the Doc’s neighborhood Kai was surprised to see a line of five ambulances waiting outside the house, lights blazing. Doc was standing outside talking with three medics dressed in blue uniforms. A stretcher with a young girl was hovering down to the closest vehicle with the girl’s parents touching her blanketed feet so they would not get in the medic’s way. Kai stepped onto the Doc’s lawn and he caught Doc’s eye. Doc brought his conversation to a halt and walked toward them.
“Has he been coughing?” Doc asked, after checking the little boy’s pulse.
Kai turned to look at Tommy and Tommy nodded with eyes wide and watery.
“Let’s bring him inside. I’m having any patient who can afford it go to the local hospital so I will have space for those who can’t. My wife and Sara are rearranging our second basement to hold as many new patients as possible,” Doc said. Once again Kai followed him down the steps of his house to his first basement. This time every bed was filled and the room was crowded with adults and other children standing around the beds. Another medic was preparing to move a second young girl onto a stretcher while her parents collected a stuffed toy and a pair of shoes from the bed. Doc waited for them to leave and then motioned for Kai to place the boy on the empty bed.
“Will he wake up now?” Tommy asked, after Doc started an IV of saline.
“I’m afraid he will stay in his coma until the vaccine is ready,” Doc said. “But he will rest peacefully until then.”
Tommy did not reply and he reached out and brushed his fingers along the boy’s forearm. Caryn placed a hand on Tommy’s shoulder and he hugged her.
“I was hoping to see you again Kai,” Doc said. “Would I be able to have a word with yo
u?”
Kai looked to Caryn and when she nodded he stepped away from the beds and walked with Doc over to his desk.
“Are all these kids going to die?” Kai asked.
Doc darted a glance at Caryn, then looked down at the boy. “They will if the cure is not gathered in time, but there are still three days by my calculations before we risk any casualties.”
Kai followed the Doc’s gaze back to Tommy and Caryn.
“I was looking over the model you built last night. Have you ever studied genetics?” Doc asked. He leaned closer to Kai, all traces of the anger he had last night were gone and in its place was an intent awareness.
Kai shook his head. He hadn’t been in a classroom since 4th grade when the orphanage shut down.
“Did you do well in your classes, like science?”
Kai almost laughed. “I’ve always thought I was fairly normal, maybe even a little less.”
“I think you may have a spatial learning style, specifically connected with 3-D objects,” Doc said. “For you to build that model as quickly as you did, without any training and to build it primarily from the equations tells me you must be able to see and learn differently. When you finish school you should consider medical science as a degree. I must have spent several hours looking over the model, in between patient arrivals, and I think I finally figured out what you did.”
Doc picked up the model from his desk and pointed out where Kai had removed one of the yellow balls connected to the green.
“This was supposed to be a model for a cure that up until now has only been able to slow the symptoms for Yergi’s syndrome.” Doc paused with excitement in his eyes. “I have sent the specs of this model to several friends of mine in research and right now it looks like this model might be able stop the symptoms completely.”
Kai didn’t know what to say. He had only done what he thought the equations said. Any changes he made were only changes that would give the model’s story more sense, not to create a cure for some syndrome he had never heard of.
Doc reached for a file lying on his desk. He handed it out to Kai and said, “These are the schematics for the Alfred P. Stinger code. It has remained unbreakable for the last five hundred years. I want you to look at it and tell me if you think you can crack it.”
Kai took a step back from the file. “I’m really not that smart,” he said. “I’m lucky I still remember how to read and I don’t do that very well.”
“You don’t have to solve it right now, or ever. I just want to see if you understand the equations,” Doc said and he held the file closer to Kai.
Feeling as though he had a rock dropped into his stomach, Kai took the file and opened it. Immediately, he knew this problem was different. It was so much more complex than the model and even the pictures he had seen in the disease book. It made his head spin like he was trying to grab all the arms of an octopus at once, there were always four or five that eluded him. Kai did not notice when he picked up a pen, but he began make notes beside the equations on how to bring all the problems together. He tried rewriting one of the sections and then discovered his idea would not work because of a problem connecting it back into the original.
Kai shut his eyes and they felt dry, gritty, as if he had forgotten to blink in the last hour. He turned to where he had last seen Caryn and she was not there. Not again. He groaned, set the file down and was on his way to rush up the stairs when a quick glance around the room showed Caryn standing near the back next to another bed. He had to stop doing this or he was sure he would have a heart attack. She was near the doctor which was probably allowed.
How many more days did he have left to stay with Caryn? One, right? Just one day more and life could go back to normal, as long as that antidote came out. He noticed the concerned looks people wore as they walked down the street.
“Elaine?” Doc yelled from the back of the room. “Can you see if the ambulance has come for the Hester boy?”
“I think she went back to the second basement,” Caryn said. She looked up at Kai and made a move away from the bed.
“I’ll go up,” Kai said and she nodded. Taking the steps two at a time, Kai hit the sensor for the front door and stepped outside. There was no ambulance in front of the house so Kai walked down to the street for a better view. Both suns blazed just above the roof tops, not quite ready to set. He shielded his eyes against them and checked the sky.
“Nice day isn’t it?” a voice behind him said.
At once the hairs on Kai’s neck shuddered. Kai turned around slowly and saw Noah walking up the street.
“What do you want?” Kai asked, his voice cold as he moved into a defensive stance.
“Have you forgotten about the ruby you’re supposed to be stealing while you skip all over the city with your little friend?” Noah asked.
“No,” Kai said. “I’ll get it by Friday.”
“You better,” Noah said and he leaned closer as if he had a secret to tell. “You only have three days left.”
“I’ll have it in time, I promise,” Kai said. He stared into Noah’s eyes until Noah took a step to the side, turned and started to walk away.
“In case you forget who you are working for,” Noah stopped with his back to Kai, “and start thinking about running....” Then before Kai could raise his arms to block, Noah’s fist came swinging around and connected with Kai’s cheek bone. Kai felt his body falling, but he caught himself on one hand before he could land on his stomach.
“Be glad the T-Man sent me and not Red,” Noah said, as he walked back down the street.
“Like that’s going to keep me from running,” Kai shouted at Noah’s retreating form.