G.U.A.R.D. Book #3: Recusant

-13-

    Turns out, the doctor was right. For the next three days, I got up at four-thirty, at at five, went down with Leslie at five-ten, and then wasted the day away doing nothing. Besides for lunch and dinner, I never really saw Jackie or Justin, which sorely disappointed me. I ate with James and occasionally Sarah. I did see Daniel several times in the cafeteria, but never spoke to him. He really didn't deserve it.

Down at the lab, most of the time Leslie and Dr. Eve seemed to much enamored by their air boots than to have anything to do with me. That left me plenty of time to observe the mentor and her trainee. As the days passed on, I noticed that Leslie had a lot of respect for the doctor and practically lived for her approval. Maybe that's why she was such a workaholic—not because she was obsessed with her work, but because she wanted Dr. Eve's affirmation.

The doctor herself was a mystery. I thought that she was just a normal, nerdy scientist whose only role in the agency was to create new gadgets... okay, not normal, but still. But when I started comparing her to the other researchers on the same floor, I realized she was different. For one, she wasn't angry at every little thing that didn't work. She wasn't completely consumed by her job, either. The woman was completely open to having pleasant conversation while she worked, even if it made her make a mistake. But it wasn't just her personality. There was one other thing.

She had the clearance to see a lot of things that the other scientists didn't. It wasn't like she waved it around for me to see, but I noticed again and again her logging onto an account that seemed to be for someone much higher than her station—as in, someone in charge of the base. It started to get me thinking.

When I first arrived, Daniel asked Leslie to take me to Commander Barnes. Why? Because he didn't have the clearance to go to floor one. Which implied that either Leslie had the clearance, or she knew someone who had the clearance. Namely, an important person with clearance, like Dr. Eve.

Getting in trouble had gotten me nowhere. Stealing one of the commanders' keycards was still impossible, and I didn't have their thumbs. But was there a way for Dr. Eve to take me down to floor one? I had given the question a lot of thought considering I didn't have anything else to do, but I couldn't come up with any plausible way to convince her.

In between these intense sessions of studying the air boots, Dr. Eve would let Leslie go to the "breakroom." Leslie really hated the prospect of letting me tag along, but she didn't dare argue with the doctor. There were several other young scientists-in-training who were friends with the British girl. Fallon, of course, was one of them. I also met Benny, a lanky, Australian guy; Calvin, a surprisingly buff dude from America; Kitty, who was black-skinned and incredibly pretty; and a few others.

All these guys were pure geniuses. Calvin and Kitty were into biochemistry, while Benny was into computer science. Fallon was a pro at engineering, and knew every little thing that existed in an engine. Not to mention they were a whole lot nicer than Leslie. And, in truth, they were becoming my plan B.

I had no idea how, but they were my ticket down to the first floor. I couldn't outright ask them to get me there, but Benny could easily hack into the computer database or Fallon could switch gears on the elevator and take me down there. I didn't think Calvin or Kitty could help, though.

"Natasha?"

I snapped to attention, straightening. I sat on the empty table, a seat I had come to adopt as "my place." It was uncomfortable, and started making my butt tender from its hard surface, and my back sore from not having a backrest, but considering it was the only "chair" available, I decided to claim it.

Dr. Eve looked at me while Leslie grabbed her clip-com from one of the cubby holes. I noticed her taking off her lab coat.

"Are you ready?" the doctor continued.