Part 36 (2/2)
”We've done a complete bio-chemical a.n.a.lysis on Mr. Ronyon,” the white-jacketed doctor said, punching keys on the nurses' station computer. ”There are still remnants of the stress-created chemicals, but we can't find anything that might have triggered the stress itself. We're still waiting on the results of the neural scan, but I'm not expecting to find anything.” He paused, just noticeably.
”Aside from the obvious malfunctions in a brain like his, of course.”
”Then what caused it?” Forsythe asked.
”I'm afraid I don't know,” the doctor conceded. ”Though with someone with Mr. Ronyon's congenital problems, I imagine things like this just happen every now and again.”
”No,” Forsythe said icily. ”They don't.”
The doctor blinked as he looked into Forsythe's eyes. What he saw there made him shrink back a little. ”My apologies, High Senator,” he said hastily. ”I didn't mean it that way.”
”This was not something random caused by his physical or mental disabilities,” Forsythe continued in the same tone of voice. ”Something happened to him out there. I want to know what.”
The doctor bobbed his head nervously. ”Of course, High Senator, of course. We'll do all we can.”
”I expect nothing less.” The woman manning the nurses' station, Forsythe noted peripherally, was puttering around in the back of her alcove, striving to look invisible. ”When can I see him?”
”Ah... not until morning, I'm afraid,” the doctor said. ”I mean, you could see him, but he won't be awake until then. The neural scans require the subject to be sedated-”
”I understand,” Forsythe cut him off. ”I'll see you in the morning.”
The doctor gulped. ”Certainly. Until morning, then.”
He turned and hurried down the corridor toward Ronyon's room and the examination room beyond.
Forsythe watched him go, thinking quietly contemptuous thoughts in his direction. He disappeared through the doorway, and Forsythe turned around-
”You were a little hard on him, weren't you?” Pirbazari commented quietly.
”I'm not going to stand here and let him push off what happened on vague he-was-born-that-way excuses,” Forsythe said tartly, moving away from the nurses' station. ”Nothing like that has ever happened to him before. I want an explanation.”
”I wasn't there, so I can't comment on what happened,” Pirbazari said diplomatically. ”I would merely suggest that jumping down the doctor's throat isn't going to help.”
”The fear of G.o.d can do wonders for someone's motivation,” Forsythe growled.
”Or else freeze them up completely.”
”You let me worry about that,” Forsythe said shortly. ”What's happening with the Angelma.s.s gravitational data?”
”It's been collected, compiled, and sent on to Kosta,” Pirbazari said, his voice going a little grimmer.
”And I'm no expert, but it's obvious even to me that something weird is going on out there. I've got a copy if you want to take a look.”
”Later,” Forsythe said, blinking his eyes a few times to moisten them. ”What about the other
matter?”
Pirbazari glanced around, making sure no one was in hearing range. ”Slavis went through the local police records for the past few months,” he said in a quiet voice. ”No reported con games involving anyone even close to their descriptions.”
Forsythe stroked his lower lip. ”Interesting,” he murmured. ”Especially on the girl's part.””You think she's gone straight?””Do you?”Pirbazari shrugged uncertainly. ”She has been working around angels.””Tigers don't change their stripes, Zar,” Forsythe said firmly. ”Once a con artist, always a con artist.
If she hasn't pulled anything since arriving on Seraph, it just means she's got something long-term in the works.”
”Teamed up with Kosta?”
”That's the logical a.s.sumption,” Forsythe agreed. ”The problem is, what could it be? Something involving the Inst.i.tute? Then why didn't they cut and run when we froze Kosta's account? That should have been a dead giveaway that we were on to them.”
”Maybe it has to do with that hunters.h.i.+p,” Pirbazari suggested. ”The Gazelle.”
Forsythe shook his head. ”That makes even less sense than an Inst.i.tute con. I was on that s.h.i.+p, and there's nothing aboard worth stealing. At least, nothing that would require more than a lock-breaker and a TransTruck to haul the stuff away.”
He paused as a sudden thought struck him. Turning on his heel, he retraced his steps back to the nurses' station. ”May I help you, High Senator?” the duty nurse asked as he approached.
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