The Good Reaper (14 page)

It didn’t take long for a cabbie to find us as we waited for
our luggage. Fifteen minutes later we were on our way to Harrisburg
International Airport. I thought at that point we were somewhat safe. By that
time, the hospital and LeAnne’s family knew she was gone. They would be
completely confused wondering how, why and where. I wondered how much effort
would go into finding LeAnne. If I didn’t return to work in a day or two they
would know it had something to do with me. LeAnne must have been thinking the
same thing as we stood on the ticket line. “Do you think they will report me as
a missing person?” LeAnne asked.

“I think they have to wait twenty four hours before they can
do that. I guess they will eventually figure out where we went, unless you can
talk to your parents at some point. Maybe we shouldn’t fly directly to Tucson.
Maybe we should fly to Phoenix or Flagstaff and have Cooper come and get us.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” LeAnne agreed. 

We made our decision just as the ticketing clerk called us
up to the desk. “Two tickets to Phoenix please.” There were some redeye seats
available but we decided to get some rest at an airport hotel and take a flight
that departed the following day. The terminal mall had a hotel at each end so
we looked at our location on the “You are here” guide and headed for the
closest hotel. There was no awkwardness or discussion about the room. We both
knew it would be better to stay in one room. It wouldn’t be much different than
visiting LeAnne at the hospital. I would be there to help her if she needed
help. I called the front desk, ordered room service and asked for a shower chair.

“So Luke, we are finally alone. We don’t need to whisper. I
was going to wait until we got to Cooper’s but this is as good a time as any. I
want to know everything. I want to know about your life, about your family and
about your home. But first, please tell me your real name.”

 “I promise I’ll explain everything LeAnne. But there
is one thing I need to do first. I need to let Cooper know of our plans. I
think he’ll agree with our idea to fly to Phoenix.”

I set up the laptop and logged onto
HealthChat
.
Cooper was logged on but away from his computer so I kept sending “hello”
messages every few minutes. Finally around 9:45 I heard the beep. “Coop here.”
It took five minutes to relay our plans to Cooper. LeAnne was sprawled out on
the couch facing the TV but I was sure she wasn’t paying much mind to the
cooking show that was on.

“Cooper’s on board with the plan. He agrees. If they somehow
track us to Phoenix, it will be a dead end.”

There was no response from LeAnne and I suddenly got a sharp
pain in my abdomen. She was after all a very sick woman. It was the first time
she missed her treatment. My heart immediately began racing. “LeAnne, are you
alright?”

To my relief, she opened her eyes slowly. “I’m fine. I’m
just very tired.” Even though LeAnne only weighed 103 pounds, it was still
difficult to pick her up. My weak legs felt like they would give out but I
managed to carry her to the bed. It was a room with two full sized beds. I
pulled the covers back on the other side and she used her own strength to slip
under the covers.

I pulled the covers up to LeAnne’s chin and she grabbed both
of my hands and began pulling me toward her. “We’ll have to have that
conversation tomorrow. Just do two things for me.”

“Sure LeAnne, whatever you need.”

LeAnne’s eyes looked heavy and she had a look of exhausted
desperation but she managed to say a few words. “First tell me your real name.”

“My real name is Naos, Naos Oriel-
Achernar
.”

“Naos.
That is a beautiful name.”

“And your second request?”

“Kiss me Naos.”

***

Mia Maldonado usually came around with the lunch menus at
St. Elizabeth’s around 9:30 AM. When she saw LeAnne’s empty bed she assumed she
was in the bathroom or down in the cancer treatment room. “Are you in the
bathroom LeAnne?” Mia asked just loud enough for someone in the bathroom to
hear. It was quiet and she didn’t hear the fan running in the bathroom so she
went to the bathroom door which was closed and repeated, “Are you in there
LeAnne? Are you okay?”

Mia didn’t become curious about LeAnne’s whereabouts until
lunchtime. LeAnne’s treatments usually lasted a couple of hours and she was
always
back
in her room before lunch. Mia assumed that
they started the infusion late and LeAnne would be back a little later than
usual. Mia’s lunch break was at 1:00 so she checked LeAnne’s room just before
she left. LeAnne had never been that late coming back from her treatments so
Mia decided she would stop by the treatment room on her way to the cafeteria.
She was sure she would see LeAnne asleep in one of the big recliners. There
were a half dozen patients being treated but LeAnne was not among them.
 

Julie, the treatment room nurse hung up the phone as Mia
approached the desk. “It’s been crazy here this morning. I just talked to Cora to
see why LeAnne didn’t come down for her treatment. She said LeAnne did come
down here at her usual time. The only problem is that she never arrived here.”

“She hasn’t been in her room all morning. I thought she was
down here,” Mia said.

Julie grabbed the phone and called upstairs again as Mia
stood by listening. “Cora, this is Julie again. Mia is here and she said that
LeAnne hasn’t been in her room all morning.”

Cora felt the knot in her stomach intensify and tried not to
panic, thinking there must be a logical explanation. She dialed the
transportation room. Connie answered on the first ring. “Who brought LeAnne
down for her treatments this morning?” Cora asked.

“Luke. Is he up there? He isn’t answering his phone. I’m
going to kill him,” Connie said. “We have several patients waiting for
transport.”

“No. He’s not here and LeAnne isn’t here. He left with her
for the treatment room 9:00 this morning and no one has seen either of them
since.”

“I’ll take a sweep of the route they would take. If I don’t
see them, I’ll call Security,” Connie said.

By 3:00 PM there was still no sign of LeAnne. Every floor of
both wings of the hospital had been searched. Connie approached the Nurse’s
Station on the Weinberg wing followed by Dan Kinney, the head of hospital security.
“There’s no sign of her anywhere,” Connie said.

“The family will be in about 4:30,” Cora said. “We can’t let
them arrive here without knowing where she is. I’m going to call the family.
Maybe they spoke to her.”

Dan and Connie stood listening to one end of the
conversation while Cora phoned the Pearson home. “Hello, Mrs. Pearson, this is
Cora from the hospital.”

“LeAnne is fine,” Cora said and paused for few long moments
before gathering up her courage. “I was just wondering if you heard from
her?
”

“She missed her treatment this morning.”

“But she left for her treatment early this morning and
apparently she never arrived. She hasn’t been in her room all day so we were
hoping you spoke with her.”

“Yes. Security has scoured the hospital. We think she may
have gone somewhere off site.”

“Possibly but I doubt if Luke would have taken her anywhere
without telling us.”

“Okay. We’ll see you in a little while.”

Cora hung up the phone and turned to look at Dan and Connie.
“What the hell is going on?” Dan asked. “How long has Luke worked here? Does
anyone know him? I’m going down to HR and look at his background and work
history. Maybe I’ll see if my friends over at NYPD can do a background check on
him.”

It didn’t take long for the Pearsons to arrive. Cora could
see Carl and Madeline Pearson looking frantic as they rounded the corner
hallway that led to the elevators. She had asked Dan and Connie to stay there
but they disappeared when she was busy checking on a patient. The Pearsons went
directly into LeAnne’s room. Cora knew they would only be in there for a few
seconds. Thirty seconds later they were standing at the Nurse’s Station looking
down at Cora. “Well, where is she?” Madeline asked sounding more worried than
angry.

“Hold on a minute while I check with Dan from Security,”
Cora said. Cora was only on the phone with Dan for a few seconds. “Dan is on
his way up.”

A few minutes later Dan stepped off the elevator that opened
up to the Weinberg wing. Dan was a retired police officer who spent thirty
years working in one of the Westchester precincts just north of midtown. “This
Luke fellow has no history. I’m not even sure how he passed the background
check when he was hired. He’s a ghost. Whatever happened to LeAnne, I’m sure it
has something to do with him.”

“What’s next?” Carl Pearson asked, his voice sounding shaky.
“What should we do now?”

“What’s next is the three of us need to go down to Police
Plaza and file a Missing Person’s statement.”

“Don’t worry. We’ll find this Luke person and we’ll find
your daughter.”

We were both anxious, waiting to board the plane to Phoenix.
Although I didn’t think there was much chance that we would be found that
quickly, I was still feeling a nagging fear. LeAnne was feeling the same thing.
I knew we would feel better once we boarded the plane. We hadn’t broken any
laws so it wasn’t like we were criminals. The real problem was me. If they
tracked and found LeAnne they would interrogate me and somehow my true identity
may be exposed.

“I was thinking that we could ask one of my co-conspirators
to get a message to your parents. It wouldn’t matter if it was by postal mail
or pay-phone. Either way they would be able to figure out what area of the
country it came from. But that would lead to a dead end.”

“We probably should have done it last night,” LeAnne said.
“We’ll have to wait until we get to Cooper’s.”

I felt a rush of adrenalin as the plane made a steep ascent.
“Safe at last,” I thought.

LeAnne was sitting by the window again, admiring the scenery
as we headed toward the dry side of the US. “The Rockies are beautiful from up
here,” LeAnne remarked.

“Everything here is beautiful to me,” I whispered. I leaned
over closer to LeAnne so no one else could hear me. “Where I am from is much
older. The mountains have flattened out over time.”

“Yes, we still have to continue that conversation about your
life and your home. I guess we’ll have plenty of time when we get to Cooper’s.”

“I have one wish and one thought that is now always at the
forefront of my mind. I hope we have all the time we want. I hope we have many,
many years,” I said.

LeAnne took my hand and whispered, “I hope we are together.”

I leaned in close to Leanne. “A light kiss is all that I can
offer you now in this crowded plane.”

A few hours later the plane made a smooth landing in
Phoenix. LeAnne was the only passenger on the flight in a wheelchair so when we
exited the gate, Cooper was waiting for us. I could tell right away that he was
Ranjisi even though he looked human. He would have looked like a cowboy if he
exchanged his baseball cap for a riding hat. He was thin to the point of
appearing skinny and wore his brown hair in a long ponytail. He wore a silver
chain around his neck that draped down over his denim shirt and when he shook
my hand I noticed large turquoise rings on each hand.

“Welcome to Arizona,” Cooper said with a big smile.

LeAnne and I listened to Cooper talk about the weather and
the wildlife of the Sonoran Desert as we headed south on Interstate 10. “This
is amazing,” LeAnne remarked, “So different from upstate New York and yet
beautiful in its own way.”

“I love it here. I don’t think I could live in a cold
climate again,” Cooper said. Cooper looked at me with an inquisitive look and I
guessed that he wasn’t sure how much LeAnne knew.

“Yes, LeAnne knows,” I said.

“We don’t have deserts back home LeAnne,” Cooper said. “It
is beautiful but it is a double edged sword. Deserts seem to grow. They eat
into the fertile areas of the world. If a planet becomes a complete desert, it
begins to become uninhabitable. But for now, it’s just beautiful and I love
it.”

“Well I’m still waiting for Naos to tell me all about your
home. I still feel weird saying ‘your planet’ so I keep referring to where you
came from as your home.”

“Tonight after you get settled in, Naos and I will tell you
everything you want to know about Ranjisan.”

“That sounds good. Meanwhile, can you tell me what your real
name is Cooper?” LeAnne asked.

“My Ranjisi name using English characters would translate to
Algol Arial-Seginus.”

“Is there a special meaning to the name?” LeAnne asked.

“Algol is the name I am known by. Seginus is my mother’s
family name and Arial is an indicator that means my parents had more than one
female child. It’s kind of a statement in support of women’s empowerment. It’s
also become a sort of patriotic label. So I have two sisters back home, Sadr
and Rana. Sadr is 62 years old and Rana is 54.”

“What? How old are you?” LeAnne sounded surprised.

“I am 56. I guess Luke hasn’t explained it to you yet. Just
briefly, we have a life expectancy of around 160 to 170.
Since
we don’t have to battle gravity back home, our appearance changes very slowly.
I have noticed in the few years I’ve been here that I have aged a lot.”

LeAnne turned quickly toward me. She didn’t need to ask. I
already knew the question that was written all over her face. “I am looking
good at around age 60,” I said and laughed at my own joke.

“Yes, you sure are looking good,” LeAnne said.

LeAnne turned back to face Algol. “Can I start calling you
Algol?”

“You may since we will be spending all of our time at my
home. However, if we are out in public at some point you must remember to call
me Cooper.”

We passed the time joking around about some of the
differences between humans and Ranjisi and before we knew it we were pulling
off the highway.

“It seems the sun set suddenly,” I said. “A few minutes ago
it was on the horizon and now it is almost completely dark.”

 “They have a light ordinance here so all the street
lights point down, making the sky dark. One of the most beautiful things about
the desert is the night sky so we like to keep it as dark as possible. We can
see all the constellations and shooting stars here. We don’t have light
pollution like back in New York.”

 “This is it,” Algol said as he turned the car into a
long, dark driveway. The only light came from the small solar lamps that lined
both sides of the driveway. Algol showed us around and helped us get settled.
We were anxious to see the treatment room he had set up. It looked like it
could have been a much smaller version of the infusion room back at St.
Elizabeth.

Algol looked at LeAnne when he spoke, “The serums arrived yesterday
so the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.”

“When will we start?” LeAnne asked.

“It’s late. You can shower while I cook dinner. After dinner
as soon as you feel sleepy, your bed will be waiting for you. We can start
first thing in the morning if you are up for it.”

“Yes, the sooner the better. I don’t know if all those
treatments they gave me back at the hospital actually did anything but since
they are now stopped, I think the sooner we get started with the treatment, the
better.”

After dinner LeAnne looked like she was going to pass right
out so I helped her into bed while Algol brought two chairs in and set them
next to the bed. Algol was a natural storyteller and I could tell he was happy
to have visitors who he could speak openly with. He started talking about
Arizona and the different Native American tribes that lived there. I listened
and watched LeAnne as she tried to keep her eyes open while Algol’s voice
became softer and softer. He was intentionally putting LeAnne to sleep. LeAnne looked
as peaceful as I had ever seen her. She didn’t appear to be in any pain. I was
thinking that hope was a powerful emotion. Her new found hope for the future
gave her mental strength that produced physical strength. She was a sick woman
who had traveled all the way across the country without any medicine and she
seemed to be doing fine. When we were both sure she was sound asleep, we turned
out the lights.

***

All CIPE recruits had to pass written and hands-on medical
exams before being accepted so any one of us could have administered the
serums. It was a fairly simple procedure consisting of blood infusions. The
moment of truth had come. It would be a historic event that only a handful of
people would know about.

I could hear the TV on in LeAnne’s room the following
morning so I knew she was awake. “How’s the patient doing this morning?” I
asked as I stepped into LeAnne’s room.

“I’m feeling pretty good actually.” LeAnne paused and looked
at me for a moment. “So, today’s the day.”

“Yes, as soon as you eat something. Cooper said you should
eat something filling but easy to digest like oatmeal.”

“Oatmeal sounds good.”

As I walked out of the room toward the kitchen, Cooper
walked in. “Good morning LeAnne. I just need to get the IVs ready. I set up the
software while you were sleeping. As soon as you’re finished eating something,
we can begin.”

“Software?”
LeAnne asked sounding
confused. “What does software have to do with it?”

“I’ll explain that a little at a time going forward. For
now, just the realization that this is happening and the acceptance of us,
Cooper and I, is enough for any mind, human or otherwise.”

“Do you think there are any risks because this procedure has
never been done on a human before?” LeAnne asked.

“No. We’ve done extensive studies back home on human cells.
Your cells are identical to ours. It kind of makes you wonder about a Supreme
Being doesn’t it?”

“Yea, you come from light years away and you’re basically
the same.”

Twenty minutes later as LeAnne was finishing up her
breakfast, Cooper appeared in the doorway pushing a compact recliner chair on
rollers. “You will need to sit in the chair. You will probably have to urinate
a few times during the infusion,” Cooper said.

Cooper attached the IV to a port he made on the back of
LeAnne’s hand and started the infusion. “Today will take about four hours.
We’ll continue the day after tomorrow and then three times a week until we see
some results,” Cooper said. “The idea is to inject as small a dose as possible
and then monitor the progress.”

“Were you able to contact the person who you said can get a
message to my parents?”

“Yes, he’s the same person that arranged to smuggle the
serums here. He lives outside of London and he is going to call your parents
from a public pay phone. Anyone who is looking for you would begin there at the
pay phone in London so it will be a dead end.”

“Okay great. What exactly is he going to tell them?”

“He will tell your parents that he is a caregiver of yours
and you have been taken to a specialist in Europe who has had success with a
new experimental treatment that has not been approved in the US. They will ask
him where you are and how they can contact you and he will tell them that you
will contact them in the near future. They will continue to question him and he
will say goodbye and hang up. It sounds cold but it is the only way.”

“Okay, good. At least they will know that I’m alive.”

Cooper brought two more chairs into LeAnne’s room and we sat
quietly monitoring her reaction to the drugs. “How are you feeling?” Cooper
asked after about a half hour.

“A bit groggy, otherwise I feel fine.”

“Naos and Algol,” LeAnne said suddenly. “Even though we are
here in Arizona and this is happening, I’m still trying to wrap my head around
the whole alien concept. We have nothing to do now except pass the time. Why
don’t you tell me about your home? Maybe after I have mental images of your
home, it will all seem more real to me. Also, can you tell me more about the
beings from Andromeda? Do you know what their intention is? Are they kind and
friendly like you? Do they look like the aliens that we see depicted in all
those hundreds of “UFOs revealed” specials?”

Algol’s jovial facial expression changed. He suddenly looked
like he was deep in thought as he slowly turned to me. “Do you want to start
Naos?”