Mutation (25 page)

     "I don't think that's necessary," said Victor. "I think I've seen enough. Would you mind leaving that floppy disk you've used to bring these files up? I'll bring it to Chimera on Monday."

     "Not at all," Louis said. "In fact, this is just a copy. You can keep it if you want. I have the original at home."

     Victor saw Louis off, holding the front door ajar until the man got in his van and drove off. Victor waved and then shut the door. Going upstairs, he made sure that VJ was not around. Back in the study, he called Marsha's office but got the service. They didn't know where she was, although she'd been at the hospital earlier.

     Victor put the phone down. Then he got the idea of contacting Able Protection. Maybe they could get in touch with their operative. If so, then Victor could find out where VJ was.

     But a call to Able Protection only yielded the recording. Victor was forced to leave his name and number with the request that he be called as soon as possible.

     For the next half hour, Victor paced back and forth in the upstairs study. For the life of him, he could not understand what it was all about.

     The phone rang and Victor grabbed it. It was the grating voice of the man from Able Protection. Victor asked if it were possible to contact the man accompanying VJ.

     "All our people carry pagers," the man told him.

     "I want to know where my son is," Victor said.

     "I'll call you right back." With that, the man hung up. Five minutes later, the phone rang again. "Your son is at Chimera, Inc.," the man said. "Pedro is at the security gate this minute if you want to talk to him."

     Victor thanked the man. He hung up the phone and went downstairs for his coat. A few minutes later he was cutting his wheels sharply to do a U-turn in front of the house.

     After a quick drive, Victor made an acute turn into the entrance to the Chimera compound and came to an abrupt halt inches from the gatehouse barrier. He drummed his fingers expectantly on the steering wheel, waiting for the guard to raise the black and white striped gate. Instead, the man came out of the office in spite of the rain and bent down next to Victor's window. Without hiding his irritation at being detained, Victor lowered his window.

     "Afternoon, Dr. Frank!" the guard said. He touched the brim of his hat in some kind of salute. "If you're looking for that special security man, he's here in the guardhouse."

     "You mean the man from Able Protection?" Victor asked.

     "That I don't know," the guard said. He straightened up. "Hey, Pedro, you from Able Protection?"

     A handsome young man came to the door of the guardhouse. His hair was coal black and he sported a narrow mustache. He looked about twenty.

     "Who wants to know?" he asked.

     "Your boss here, Dr. Frank."

     Pedro came out of the guardhouse and over to Victor's car. He stuck out his hand. "Nice to meet you, Dr. Frank. I'm Pedro Gonzales from Able Protection."

     Victor shook hands with him. He wasn't happy. "Why aren't you with my boy?" Victor asked brusquely.

     "I was," Pedro explained, "but when we got here, he said he was safe inside the compound at Chimera and that I was supposed to wait in the guardhouse."

     "I think your orders were pretty clear to stay with the boy at all times," Victor said.

     "Yes, sir," Pedro answered, realizing he'd made a mistake. "It won't happen again. Your son was quite convincing. He said you'd wanted it this way. I'm sorry."

     "Where is he?" Victor asked.

     "That I can't say," Pedro answered. "He and Philip are on the grounds here someplace. They haven't left if that is what you're concerned about."

     "That's not what I'm concerned about," Victor snapped. "I'm concerned that I hired Able Protection to watch over him and the job's not being done."

     "I understand," Pedro said.

     Victor looked up at the gate operator. "Is Sheldon working today?"

     "Hey, Sheldon!" the guard yelled.

     Sheldon appeared at the doorway. Victor asked if he had any idea where VJ was.

     "Nope," Sheldon said, "but when he arrived this morning, he and Philip headed that way." He pointed west.

     "Toward the river?" Victor asked.

     "Could have been," Sheldon said. "But he could have gone to the cafeteria, too."

     "Would you like me to come with you and help find him?" Pedro asked.

     Victor shook his head no as he put his car in gear. "You wait here until I find him." Then, to the guard, who was blankly listening to the conversation, he said, "I'd appreciate it if you could raise this gate before I drive through it."

     The guard jumped and ran back inside to activate the gate mechanism.

     Victor floored the accelerator and sped onto the Chimera lot. Forsaking his reserved parking space, he drove to the building that housed his lab and parked in front of the entrance. It said no parking but he didn't care. He pulled his coat collar up and hunched over, running for the door.

     Robert was the only one still there. He was as busy as usual, again working with the gel electrophoresis unit. That was where the bits and pieces of the cleaved DNA were separated.

     "Have you seen VJ?" Victor asked, shaking off some of the rainwater.

     "Haven't seen him," Robert said. He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands. "But I have something else to show you." He picked up two strips of film which had dark bands in exactly the same location and held them out for Victor to take. "That second tumor sample you gave me had the same extra piece of DNA as your son's. But the sample was from a different person."

     "It was from our live-in nanny," Victor said. "Are you positive that the moiety was the same in both samples?"

     "Quite sure," Robert said.

     "That's astounding," Victor said, forgetting VJ for a moment.

     "I thought you'd find it interesting," Robert said with pride. "It's the kind of finding that cancer researchers have been seeking. It could even be the breakthrough that medicine has been waiting for."

     "You've got to sequence it," Victor said impatiently. "Immediately."

     "That's what I've been doing," Robert said. "I've got a number of other runs with the electrophoresis unit and then I'll let the computer have a go at it."

     "If it turns out to be a retro virus or something like that . . ." Victor said, letting his sentence trail off. It was just one more unexpected finding to be added to a growing list.

     "If VJ shows up, tell him I'm looking for him," Victor said. Then he turned and left the lab.

     In the cafeteria, Victor went straight to the manager. "Have you seen VJ?"

     "He was in here for an early lunch. Philip was with him along with one of the guards."

     "One of the guards?" Victor questioned. He wondered why Sheldon hadn't told him that. Victor asked the manager to call his lab if VJ showed up. The manager nodded.

     There were a handful of people in the library. Most of them were reading, a few were asleep. The librarian told Victor that VJ had not been around.

     Victor got the same response at the fitness center and the day-care center. Except at the cafeteria, no one had seen VJ all day.

     Getting an umbrella from his car, Victor set off toward the river. He walked north and hit it at about the middle of the Chimera complex. He turned west, walking along the granite quay. None of the buildings lining the river had been renovated by Chimera as yet, but they'd make ideal sites for some of the intended expansion. Victor was considering moving his administrative office down there. After all, if he had to spend all his time doing administrative work, he might as well have a view.

     As he walked, Victor gazed down at the river. In the rain the white water appeared even more turbulent than it had on the previous day. Looking upriver toward the dam, he could barely see its outline through the mist rising from the base of the falls.

     Passing the line of empty buildings, he realized there were hundreds of nooks here a boy could find entertaining. It could be a paradise for games like hide-and-seek or sardines. But those games required a group of kids. Except for Philip, VJ was always on his own.

     Victor continued moving upstream until his path was blocked by the portion of the clock tower building that was cantilevered out over part of the dam and a portion of the millpond. To go beyond, Victor had to skirt the building, then approach the river on its west side. There, Victor's path was blocked by the ten-foot-wide sluice that separated from the millpond, then ran parallel to it before leading to a tunnel. Back in the days when waterpower ran the entire mill, the sluice carried the water into the basement of the clock tower building. There the rushing water turned a series of huge paddle wheels which effectively powered thousands of looms and sewing machines as well as the tower clock.

     Standing at the tunnel's edge, Victor inspected the bottom of the sluice. Besides a trickle of water, there was debris mostly made up of broken bottles and empty beer cans. Victor eyed the junction of the sluice and the raging river. Two heavy steel doors had once regulated the water flow. Now the whole unit was horribly corroded with rust. Victor wondered how it could still hold back the horrendous force the water exerted on it. The river was practically at the level of the top of the doors.

     Victor skirted the sluice and continued his walk westward. The rain stopped and he lowered his umbrella. Soon he came to the last building of the Chimera complex. It, too, was cantilevered out over the river. Beyond it was a city street. Victor turned around and started back.

     He didn't call VJ as he'd done the last time. He just looked around and listened. When he got back to the clock tower building, he headed toward the occupied portion of the complex. Stopping in at his lab, he asked Robert if VJ had appeared, but he hadn't.

     At a loss as to what to do, Victor returned to the cafeteria.

     "Hasn't shown up yet," the manager said before Victor even asked him.

     "I didn't expect so," Victor said. "I came over for some coffee."

     Still damp from the rain, Victor had become quite chilled as he'd walked along the river. He could tell that the temperature was dropping again now that the storm was over.

     Once he'd finished his coffee and felt sufficiently warm, Victor pulled on his damp coat. He again reminded the manager to call over to the lab if and when VJ showed up. Then he returned to the security office. The warmth in there was welcome even if it was heavy with cigarette smoke. Pedro had been playing solitaire on a small couch in the back of the office. He got up when Victor appeared. Sheldon stood up behind his small desk.

     "Anybody seen my son?" Victor asked abruptly.

     "I just spoke to Hal not two minutes ago," Sheldon said. "I specifically asked him, but he said he hadn't seen VJ all day."

     "The manager at the cafeteria told me that VJ had lunch with one of you guys today," Victor said. "How come you didn't tell me?"

     "I didn't eat with VJ!" Sheldon said, pressing his palm against his chest. "I know Hal didn't either. He ate with me. We both brown-bagged it. Hey, Fred!"

     Fred stuck his head into the main part of the office from the spot where he operated the entrance and the exit gates. Sheldon asked him if he ate lunch with VJ.

     "Sure didn't," he said. "I went off-site for lunch."

     Sheldon shrugged. Then he said to Victor, "There's only three of us on duty today."

     "But the manager said . . ." Victor started, but he stopped. There was no point getting into an argument over who ate with VJ and who didn't. The point was, where the hell was he now? Victor was getting curious and a little concerned. Marsha had wondered, and now he did too, just what did VJ do at Chimera to keep himself occupied. Up until that moment Victor had never given it much thought.

     Leaving the security office, Victor went back to his lab. He was running out of ideas of where to search.

     "The manager over at the cafeteria just called," Robert said as soon as Victor appeared. "VJ's turned up."

     Victor went to the nearest phone and called the manager.

     "He's here right now," the manager said.

     "Is he alone?" Victor asked.

     "Nope. Philip is with him."

     "Did you tell him I was looking for him?" Victor asked.

     "No, I didn't. You just told me to call. You didn't tell me to say anything to VJ."

     "That's fine," Victor said. "Don't say anything. I'm on my way."

     Crossing to the building that housed both the cafeteria and the library, Victor chose not to enter through the main cafeteria entrance. He went in a side entrance instead, climbed to the second floor, and only then entered the cafeteria on the balcony level. Going to the railing and looking down, he saw VJ and Philip eating ice cream.

     Keeping back out of sight, Victor allowed VJ and Philip to finish their afternoon snack. Before long they got up and disposed of their trays. As they were leaving, Victor came down the stairs, staying out of sight close to the wall. He could hear the door close behind them as they left.

     Quickening his step, he got to the door in time to see them turn west on the walkway.

     "Something wrong?" the manager asked.

     "No, nothing is wrong," Victor said, straightening up and trying to appear nonchalant. The last thing he wanted was office gossip. "Just curious about my son's whereabouts," he said. "I've told him time and time again not to go near the river when it's raging like it is now. But I'm afraid he's not minding me at all."

     "Boys will be boys," said the manager.

     Victor exited the cafeteria in time to see VJ and Philip in the distance, turning to the right beyond the building housing Victor's lab. Clearly they were heading toward the river. Moving to a slow jog, Victor followed as far as the point where VJ and Philip had turned right. About fifty yards ahead he could still see them. He waited until they veered left just before the river and disappeared from sight. Victor ran down the alleyway.