Argent Glass

Chapter 32 - Uncover - Jordan

Jordan hovered outside the door to Andrew's room. After Dr. Galen told Robin that Andrew would be okay, she walked down the hall. She stared blankly at the floor tiles where one of the laces of her shoes whipped back and forth and clicked with each step.

Chores. Pierce had told her and Jinho to go do their chores and the Mustela...whatever...weasel had run right off to get busy. Behind her, the door swished open and the nurse step through the door. Dr. Galen stepped out behind her and their heads came together for a quick kiss before they headed in the opposite direction down the hall. Even old Doc Galen has someone.

Debating her chores once more, Jordan was surprised when the door opened again and Pierce walked out. He smiled and met her partway. "You okay, Jordan?"

"You keep asking that," she muttered.

"Are you?" He waited for a response. After a moment, she met his eyes. "You're brave, Jordan."

"I don't feel very brave."

"Trust me. I know brave. I saw all kinds of brave people in Fallujah." He put his arm around her shoulder, and they walked down the hall together. His other hand slid into his pocket where the fabric stretched tight over his Mustang. He held it up on the palm of his hand. "I always called her Reckless. A bit how I always felt. I want you to have her."

"No, I don't..." She looked away. A lump formed in her throat and she couldn't go on.

"You don't what?"

"I don't deserve it," she whispered.

"You do. But call her Brave." Pierce stopped walking and when his arm fell away from her shoulders, Jordan shivered in the sudden loss of warmth. Pierce took her hand and turned it palm up. He placed the car lightly in the center, wrapped her fingers around it and laid his hand on top. "You are brave, Jordan."

"Do you love Robin, Pierce?"

Pierce drew back from the sudden question. "Do I–"

"Do you love her?" Jordan searched his face for the answer. She saw his eyes soften and she knew. "You do."

"I think so."

"I'm glad." She took his hand and they started walking again.

At the end of the hall, Pierce tugged her hair. He pushed through the door to the stairwell. "Thank you, Jordan."

Jordan pushed the door open and listened to Pierce's feet on the steps.

"I love you, Pierce."

The footsteps faltered but didn't stop and Jordan ran back down the hall. She passed Andrew's room and kept going until she reached the labs.

Aurum was perched on top of Jinho's head and hopped around to peer at her when she pushed open the door. Jinho was sitting at a computer and she looked over his shoulder at the screen. A graph filled the page with letters, numbers, and symbols. It could have been a foreign language as far as she was concerned.

"What are you working on?"

"The memory card from Andrew's phone."

"What memory card?"

"I told you there was a memory card."

"You did?"

"I'm not sure, but..." He scrolled the page and drew his finger across a set of numbers. He slowly took his hand away from the screen and looked at her. "It's not good, Jordan."

His eyes were serious and made Jordan afraid to ask the question. "What's not good?"

"The stuff on this memory card. It's information about a woman named Leslie Carrel." He touched the screen and another document popped up. "This one is a pathology report from a hospital."

The document had bright red letters stamped across the top: DECEASED.

"She died?"

He nodded. "From ALS. Maybe."

"What do you mean, maybe?"

"It's a lot of high-level stuff about genetics. Some of it I don't really understand."

"Really?" she asked sarcastically.

"No, really," he continued seriously. "Central sends us DNA slices, and we combine them with the DNA from the plants we already have here."

Jordan looked at him blankly.

"Okay, look...Maverick BioScience has successfully taken DNA from corn and combined it with DNA from different bacteria to make it resistant to drought. You've seen that." He waited for half a beat but Jordan's face was still blank. "The corn outside the dome. It's all green. And we don't water that corn. In fact, it hardly gets any water at all."

"Oh, yeah. My dad wanted to put in an irrigation system out there when we first moved in and was surprised when they told him he wouldn't need it."

"And even more surprised when the corn did so well. Remember?"

Jordan nodded, and Jinho pulled up another document. He pointed to the screen. "There's something about this protein... Cry1AB."

Jordan stopped nodding and shook her head. "So?"

"So something about that protein and Leslie Carrel's ALS." He sat back again and shrugged. "I don't know. I don't understand. It's over my head."

Jinho closed all the open documents and took the memory card out of the computer. The chip was tiny. So tiny Jordan couldn't believe it stored information too heavy for Jinho to understand.

"We should give it to your mom."

Jordan did a double-take. "Oh, no. No way. I've been in enough trouble this month."

"She's the lead scientist in the lab. She'll understand it better than anyone." Jinho stood up, and Aurum fluttered lightly at his shoulder. A tiny feather floated down and stuck to the front of his tee shirt.

"No."

"Well, then what? Two people were shot over this information."

"I say we talk to one of those people who got shot and find out how he got it."

"Andrew?"

Jordan nodded and started for the door. "Let's go ask him."

"What if he's not who we think he is."

Jordan spun back around. "What's that supposed to mean? He's Robin's kid."

"What?"

"Andrew is Robin's son."

Jinho's eyes widened. "Robin's–"

Jordan smirked. "I love it when I know something you don't. Pierce figured it out. Robin's at the infirmary right now."

"How would Robin's son end up with data files about research in the dome?"

Jordan shrugged. "There's only one way to find out."