The Vines by Shelley Nolden (ebook and pdf reader .TXT) 📕

that island huddled a woman, surrounded by eight million people ignorant of her plight.

Lily didn’t know if Cora was still capable of accepting anyone as an ally, but she had to try. Even if it meant going behind Finn’s back.

Usually, she avoided hospitals because of the visceral memories they triggered. She’d steeled herself against them to meet Kristian here, yet she still felt sick to her stomach. For multiple reasons.

“It’s so good to see you again,” he said from behind his oak desk, a genuine smile on his face.

A lump in her throat fought to block her from betraying Finn, or saying anything that Kristian might construe as forgiveness.

“As long as you’re here,” he said, evidently used to ending the charged silences that must frequently occur during his meetings in this room, “I’ve been wanting to tell you something. I had nothing to do with those bats out at the summer house. That had to be a trap cage left by my parents’ exterminator. They were probably roosting in the shed, and bats are one of the main carriers of rabies.”

Trying to picture the cage, so that she could refute his claim, Lily closed her eyes.

“Think about it,” Kristian continued. “If they were instead for our research, they would have needed to be handled according to Biosafety Level Three guidelines. It’s inconceivable that I would have put them in that shed, no matter how temporarily.”

Glancing out the window, she reminded herself that mentioning the syringes that Finn had found near those bats would derail her plan. “I believe you.”

“Good,” he said, adjusting a spray of candy canes in his pen holder. “So why are you here?”

“I need vaccines, a hazmat suit. So I can go back to North Brother this spring to talk to Cora.”

“It’s too dangerous for you.”

“Me? It’s your family she hates!”

“What happens if you have another seizure?” Kristian tilted back in his chair.

“The lightning triggered that. This time”—Lily shrugged—“I won’t go in a storm.” She strummed her fingers on the radiator.

Sighing, he removed his stethoscope. “As a doctor, and your friend, I’m advising you against it. You mean a lot to me, and you mean everything to Finn.”

Blinking, she inhaled slowly to keep her emotions in check. “What if I can convince Cora to start giving you blood samples again? Isn’t that worth a shot?”

“Why would she listen to you?”

“I’m not a Gettler. She wants off that rock, and you have all her files. Plus, I’m”—Lily’s voice cracked—“weaker than her. More vulnerable. She won’t fear me.”

Slowly, Kristian leaned forward. “You’re the fiercest among us, but I understand your point: she doesn’t know how strong you are.”

Unwilling to let him think he’d won her over, she allowed herself only a thin smile. “I want you to find that cure for your mom.”

“This is about helping you, too.”

“I know.” She leaned against the windowsill, its sharpness feeling oddly therapeutic.

“I have to admit.” He cleared his throat. “I was surprised Finn failed so completely, considering she clearly has a thing for him.”

A jolt of pain raced along Lily’s sciatic nerve.

He pushed the bridge of his glasses against his nose, the top of the frame merging with his thick, dark eyebrows. “At first, I thought we could take advantage of her interest in him, but now it concerns me.”

“Why?” She rested her elbows on the sill. “She’s just starved for affection. I feel bad for her. I can’t imagine being that lonely.”

“Lily, if she falls hard for him, what do you think will happen when he rejects her?”

A chill swept over her, leaving an ice dam in her stomach.

“It’s probably for the best that you go instead of him.” Kristian cocked his head. “He doesn’t know you’re here, does he?”

“No. He can’t know.”

“Hopefully the fact that she stole those vials has clued him in to her real nature. He should give me a chance to clear up a few major misconceptions.”

She looked down at her chinos and noticed a streak of dirt from the city greenhouse where she’d spent the morning. “I’m sure he’ll come around.”

“I’ll keep trying until he does.” Kristian turned to the bookshelf behind him, then handed her a small, framed photograph.

Lily appraised the pale toddler with soulful, brown eyes. That had been her once, though her mother hadn’t kept a single picture from that wretched period. “Who is she?”

“The first patient I ever lost.” Kristian gazed out the window.

Bombarded by recollections of her own past trauma, Lily let him dwell in the memory as she struggled to tamp down her escalating anxiety.

His shoulders straightened, and his deep blue eyes locked onto hers. “Do I think one woman should be willing to endure a little discomfort to save thousands—millions—of children like Simone? Yeah, I do. Does that make me a bad person?”

“No,” she replied without meaning to. “Could Cora’s immunities—I mean, could her cells really . . . ?” She wondered how many parents had sat here waiting for Dr. Gettler to pronounce the odds of survival for their child.

He folded his hands. “Once we’ve had that final breakthrough, we’ll achieve Pasteur’s vision.” He took the frame from her and returned it to the shelf. “I know it in my heart.”

She perched across from him. “What makes you so convinced you’re close?”

He drew a comma-shaped circle on a notepad. Within it he scrawled NBI. “Location is the key to her immunities,” he said, tapping the figure with his pen. “My great-grandfather conducted all stages of his experiments while at Riverside, but his equipment was crude and his knowledge elementary. Rollie and I have had the tools to replicate her antibodies, and we’ve been doing so onsite. But just like Ulrich with his livestock at Lab Two Fifty-Seven, we were conducting our animal testing—”

“Offsite, where her cells had lost their special properties.”

“Exactly. Or, in our onsite lab, deep within the bedrock. My theory is that the schist blocks whatever on the island influences her cells.”

Lily’s arms tingled. If he were right, a cure could be close. “Can’t you test