Beach Blanket Bijou (Pajaro Bay) (2 page)

"He's Patient One?"

"Yeah," she said. Quinn knew that Carmen was Patient Zero. She had been Patient Zero since she was three years old, when her mother had fallen down the stairs while carrying her. The accident had killed her mother, paralyzed her below the waist, and set the computer genius Felix Cordova on a mission to find a cure for paralysis.

"I don't have time to work on the process twelve hours a day, so Edmund Grant is doing it," she explained. Then she turned back to her father. "Are you sure he's missing, Dad?"

Dr. Cordova nodded, then turned away to speak to Ben in a worried undertone.

"I hope he's all right," Carmen said. "He's a really nice guy." She wheeled over closer to Quinn. "It's not only that. If he's had an accident or something, it will be a disaster for the research. There aren't any other chips."

"Aren't there backups for this sort of thing?"

She shook her head. "The prototype in the lab was damaged, so there's only mine and Edmund's. I'll have to have surgery to remove mine if anything goes wrong so they can try to duplicate it. There have been a lot of problems with the project. A computer backup was erased last week. The backup chip was destroyed. All kinds of freak accidents."

"But I thought it was going so well. You said Edmund had actually walked under his own power."

"Seven feet." She looked up at him. "Doesn't sound like much, but the YouTube video of it has almost a million views, and Dad has been approached by companies all over the world wanting to license the technology."

"So maybe he took a hike?" He said it jokingly, but she shook her head again.

"The software's here, in the lab. He can't do anything without all this technology. A device attached to his legs, a big mainframe computer to run the software. All of it to walk seven feet. But it's seven feet no paraplegic has walked under his own power before." She leaned back in her chair. "Imagine all the people this could help."

"But where would he have gone?"

"I don't know. I've only met him a couple of times. He's been working on this full-time since he was selected for the project. He's the perfect test subject. He's an Iraq War vet, recently paralyzed. He was an extreme athlete before he was injured, so he has the stamina and ability to put himself through the training to use the device. Now—if anything's happened to him it will set back research for months, if not years."

"What about his girlfriend?" they heard Ben ask Dr. Cordova.

Carmen's dad looked up from the phone, where he was apparently on hold. "They're trying everywhere. No answer at his girlfriend's place."

Then he walked over to Carmen. "We'll break for dinner later, sweetheart." He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. "In the meantime, don't lose your head. We may need it."

•••

Bijou turned down another treat.

"There's something wrong," Quinn said. He sat on the living room floor next to Carmen's chair while they watched the dog play with her tail. They had stayed up late talking, even long after her father had come in and gone to bed. Now it was after midnight, and the living room's french doors were open to the cool night, with a view to the Cordova's private dock—a ribbon of yellow light leading to the silent bulk of the huge family yacht on the glistening waters of the moonlit bay.

"I've never seen a dog refuse food like this one does. And she's so fat."

"I swear I'm only feeding her the quarter-cup of diet kibble you gave me for her." Carmen crossed her heart and grinned at him. "Honest, Peanut."

"Well then it must be something else. You sure your dad hasn't been sneaking anything to her?"

"He promised he wasn't, and he wouldn't lie." Carmen leaned back in her chair. "This'll make a great segment: the dog conjurer finally meets his match."

Quinn picked up the dog and held her up to his face. "What's going on in that tiny brain, Bijou?"

Bijou smiled enigmatically at him.

"I swear she knows something she's not telling us."

He set her down and then rubbed her back. She rolled over for a belly rub.

Carmen sighed. "Maybe this wasn't a good idea. You don't have to stay if you don't want to. We can scrap the segment."

"Are you kidding? I love a challenge." Then he looked up at Carmen with an expression she couldn't decipher.

"What?" she said.

"I don't mind a challenge, Lefty." He brushed his hand along her arm, and it sent a shiver through her.

She looked down, embarrassed. "What are you trying to tell me?" But she was afraid she knew.

"Marry me," Quinn said.

"How can you say those horrible words after the month I've had?"

But he looked completely serious. "What better time? You've wasted enough time on the wrong guy—we've both wasted enough time. You know I've loved you since the third grade."

"When I ran over Kyle's foot after he made you drop your ice cream cone," Carmen whispered.

"We both know how we feel."

Carmen shook her head. "But I don't. I just don't."

"You don't love me?"

"I know you care about me. But I don't know what I feel, can't you understand?"

Now it was his turn to shake his head. "I don't understand. I'm sorry. What I feel for you is so clear to me. Do you think I'm lying? Have your father offer me a million dollars so I can turn it down."

She backed her chair out of his reach. "It's not that simple."

He looked up at her. "Yeah, Carmen. It is. It's that simple. You either love somebody or you don't. I love you. I want to know if you love me."

"I just don't know how to trust you," she said, feeling helpless to explain the confusion inside her.

"You just make the leap." He stood up. "You're the bravest person I know—you can do it." He clenched his fists and then turned away. He walked over to the windows that overlooked the glistening lights of Pajaro Bay.

She watched him standing there, his back to her, his whole body showing the frustration he felt. How could she explain? It just wasn't that easy. How did other people decide who to open up to? She didn't understand how someone could just let go and fall in love. "I'm afraid to fall," she said softly.

He turned to her, a tall figure so familiar yet so distant. "I'll catch you," he said.

She just shook her head at him, and he turned back to look out the window.

•••

"Bijou's gone."

Quinn turned around to face her. "What do you mean, gone?"

Carmen spread her hands out to take in the whole room. "Gone.
Ella se fue
. Took off."

He went over to her. "Did you see where she went?"

"I wasn't paying attention. I was thinking."

He waited for her to say more about that, but she just turned her chair and headed out of the room. "Let's find her."

Soon they spotted her little figure tromping resolutely across the lawn toward the Eucalyptus grove.

"She's heading to the lab," Quinn whispered.

They followed, and sure enough she made a beeline for the lab door, where she stood and barked in her piercing little voice for a minute.

Then the door opened and she went inside.

"That's weird," Carmen muttered. "Dad's asleep."

At the lab door they waited for a minute. The lights were on inside, and there was no sound of Bijou barking, so Quinn opened the door and they went in.

Bijou was gorging herself on what appeared to be a whole box of dog biscuits tossed all over the floor. She busily marched from one biscuit to the next, devouring them one by one.

Ben was furiously typing on the computer. The desk was cleared off, the dinosaurs and robot parts in a heap on the floor. Now only a small cardboard box sat on the edge of the desk, next to the aquarium.

"How could you?" Carmen shouted. She wheeled over to Ben. "You jerk! We've been working so hard and you lied to me!"

At her first words Ben had jumped up. Now he stared at her in shock.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" She glared at him, furious.

Then Ben reached for something that had been sitting out of sight behind the cardboard box.

It was a gun.

Both Carmen and Quinn just stared.

"Are you crazy, Ben?" Quinn stammered. "A gun?"

He didn't look crazy, though. He looked scared, and determined, and really angry. "Don't move. Either of you. I'm almost done."

"Almost done with what?" Carmen said.

Quinn took a step toward her, wanting to get between her and that gun, but Ben raised the gun toward him. "I said, don't move."

Quinn put his hands up. "All right. I'm not doing anything. We're just here for the dog."

"The dog? What's the dog got to do with this?"

Carmen frowned. "Oh, no." Then she looked up at Ben. "You've been sabotaging the research."

"Of course. What did you think?"

Carmen laughed out loud. "I thought you were sneaking treats to the dog, you idiot. That's why I was yelling at you." Then she backed her chair up and reached down to pick up Bijou. "That's all I meant."

Ben lowered the gun a fraction. "You didn't know?" Then he raised the gun again. "It doesn't matter. It's too late now."

The computer beeped, and he glanced at it. "And now it's too late for you to do anything about it."

"About what?" Quinn asked.

"Still don't have it figured out, dog guru?" He gestured toward Carmen with the gun, and Quinn felt a lurch in his stomach. "They have everything. They think they rule the world. Well, they're not the only ones who deserve money."

"Money?" Carmen snapped. "This is about money?"

Ben used one hand to disconnect an external hard drive from the computer and drop it into the cardboard box. "Of course it's about money, Carmen. You have no idea what being poor is. You think you're so high above it all."

"I don't think that," she said.

"It doesn't matter," said Ben with finality. He took a step toward Carmen and pointed the gun at her head. "You," he said to Quinn. "Come here and take this box. We're leaving."

As Quinn went to the desk to get the box, Ben suddenly looked down at Carmen.

Bijou was standing up on Carmen's lap and licking at Ben's gun hand. "Get that mutt off me before I shoot it!"

Carmen grabbed Bijou and held her down.

Ben turned back to Quinn, who was quietly standing in front of the aquarium, holding the cardboard box.

"Now we're going." He gestured with the gun.

Quinn didn't move. "Look," he said reasonably, "just take the box and go. We won't stop you."

Ben shook his head. "I've got to get out of the country before anyone notices what happened. That means you need to come along."

Quinn thought of pointing out that he could just shoot them instead of dragging them along, but he figured that wouldn't be a good idea. "Okay," he said reasonably. "Where are we going?"

"Come on."

He led them at gunpoint through the yard to the Cordova dock. Halfway down the dock toward the yacht, he stopped them. "Don't move." He walked down a little ways farther, then they saw a dark-clad figure in the shadow of the yacht.

"You idiot," the man said. "Why did you jump the gun?"

"Edmund disappeared," Ben answered. "You told me that was the signal, so I'm here. But why didn't you tell me it was going to be tonight. I almost didn't get everything downloaded."

The voice in the darkness was contemptuous. "I didn't warn you because we didn't kidnap Edmund. He disappeared. You should have called me before making your move."

Then the man stepped toward them, and Carmen shouted, "You?!"

Her ex-fiancé Jeff Yung stood there, a gun in his hand.

"It was you behind all this?"

"He's paying me a million dollars to give him the software, Carmen," Ben said. "Sorry." Then he turned back to Jeff. "But if the buyers don't have Edmund, what will we do?"

Jeff looked at Carmen so coldly Quinn wondered how the man could have ever pretended to love her. "We still have a chip."

"Take her," he told Ben, motioning with his gun toward Carmen.

"Take the box and go," Quinn said. "You don't need us."

"I don't need you," Jeff said coldly. "But she's got the only remaining chip."

Carmen glared at him. "The chip? What about Edmund?"

"Ben messed up. We don't have Edmund. I don't know where he is. Ben panicked and ran too soon. This should have been neat and tidy. But Ben blew it. Now we need you."

Quinn stepped in front of her. "Not happening."

Jeff looked like he'd gladly shoot him, but Quinn still held the cardboard box. "Yeah," Quinn said. "You need this box. Full of hard drives, isn't it? Backup of all the software to run the chip?"

"We have everything we need. And we don't need you. Set down the box and step back."

"Are you sure?" Quinn said.

"What do you mean?" Jeff asked.

"Look for yourself." He set down the box in front of him, then stood in front of Carmen, shielding her from Jeff's gun.

"Check it," Jeff said to Ben.

Ben put his gun in his jacket pocket and knelt next to the box. He opened it and looked inside, then began cursing.

"What?" Jeff asked.

Ben picked up the powerful aquarium magnet Quinn had dropped in the box while Bijou had been licking Ben's hand. "He's erased the drives with this!"

"I still can get something for the chip in her head," Jeff said. "Get out of the way."

Quinn took a step back, knocking into Carmen's wheelchair and sending her backwards. Bijou squealed as she slipped off Carmen's lap onto the dock.

Bijou ran happily up to Ben, begging for more treats. Ben and Jeff both looked at the little squealing dog for a moment, and Quinn gave Carmen's chair another shove.

The wheels of Carmen's chair hit the edge of the dock and rolled off.

Quinn dove after her, the sound of gunshots roaring in his ears.

"This way!" Carmen shouted to Quinn. She had ducked under the pier, using her powerful backstroke to maneuver herself out of sight of the men above.

Quinn swam over toward her.

"Where's Bijou?" she asked when he got to her.

Unable to speak, Quinn pointed up.