Part 38 (1/2)
”No. They have alternative meanings for everything, just in case someone asks. But everyone on the job knows the truth.”
Spatters on the window became was.h.i.+ng rain, then hissing jets of water as the flash storm intensified. Josh nodded toward the gla.s.s.
”Good job you don't need the Tube to get back.”
”They're getting better. It might be OK.”
Most lines had overground sections which flooded during flash storms. London Underground had spent millions of euros on drainage tunnels and elevating barriers, with some success. But every summer, the storms grew more frequent.
”Come on.” Suzanne tapped Josh's upper arm. ”Let's take a break.”
They walked out to the corridor, leaving Richard at the bedside.
”He needs to tell Opal how he feels,” she said. ”I'm not sure how she'll respond later, because for now the drugs are dulling her mind. But Richard needs to verbalise his thoughts.”
”What do you mean about responding later?”
”Once she's a bit more compos mentis compos mentis, she'll remember his words. I've no way of telling what they'll mean to her. Maybe she'll blame him for her being here.”
”If it's anyone's fault, it's mine. But won't she be more worried about social services carting her off to some home? I mean, she's young and living in a squatters' commune.”
”Maybe.” Suzanne looked back toward the ward. ”I'm not sure what we can do for her.”
”Are you trying to save the world, Dr d.u.c.h.esne?”
”One person at a time. Fractal salvation, my new theory. Save one, save all.”
”You have an interesting mind, Doctor.”
”Whereas you're a thug whose major a.s.sets are physical.”
”I may not be intelligent, but I can lift heavy weights. That's the Navy Gunners' motto.”
”It's not so much your muscles I was thinking of.”
”Dr d.u.c.h.esne. Tsk, tsk.”
”Hmm.” Once more she looked back at the ward. ”What are we going to do about Richard and his father?”
”Philip and I had an interesting chat.”
”Excuse me? Did you just refer to Broomhall senior as Philip?”
”Actually, I did.”
”Tell me. All of it.”
Richard felt someone tapping on his shoulder.
”are over,” she was saying.
”I'm sorry?””Visiting hours,” said the nurse. ”All done. Our patients need their rest, you know?”
”Yes.” He touched the back of Opal's hand, avoiding the inserted tube. ”They do.”
”Your folks are waiting out on the corridor.”
”My? Oh. Right.”
He walked alongside the bed, touching the warm metal of the bedframe as though it could keep him linked to Opal; and then he went out. Dr d.u.c.h.esne, Suzanne, was there.
”Josh is checking his car and the roads. It's quite a storm, isn't it?”
”Storm?”
”Look, there's some kind of waiting room for patients' families, just round the corner. Shall we go in and sit down? Hang on for Josh?”
”OK.”.
White-and-blue corridors and a sharp chemical tang: this was a strange place, almost dreamlike. In the waiting room, Suzanne sat him down, then took a chair at right angles to his. If she was going to put him into trance again, that was all right with him. Anything to forget the bruises on Opal's face that were all his fault; except that was wrong, he needed to keep her in his mind, every detail.
”You know,” said Suzanne, ”when I was a student, a friend asked me to cure her phobia of snakes. She lived in the middle of Paris, so I asked her if it really was a problem.”
There was a pause. Some distant part of him wanted to hear the rest of the story.
”Well,” Suzanne went on, ”she said if she just walked into a room where a screen was showing a scene with gra.s.s, she'd have to leave the room in case she saw a picture of a snake. So she really did need to feel comfortable about what used to be a problem.”
His eyelids were blinking.
”In this country,” she continued, ”arachnaphobes used to be in no danger at all, but over time things change, and you know about copperlegs being sighted in London?”
”Um, Ms Cole in biology showed us a newsclip from Kansas, this church guy saying copperlegs are another sign of the, er, apocalypse, is that right? The Final Days.”
”Not Josephson, President Brand's pastor?”
”Yeah, that's him.”
”So what did you think?”
”She also showed Sharon Caldwell saying that visible speciation, black widows turning into copperlegs, is evolution in action, right before our eyes.”
”So do you think the TechDems can win the general election here?”
”I guess.”