DISCONTINUED

Chapter 14

Garreth prepared to head out early. He very much wanted to avoid the typical end of day mass exodus and he sure didn't feel like staying late. He made sure to bring the envelope containing the unexplained and seemingly unexplainable test results with him.

As his car exited the company parking lot, Garreth put a hand to his forehead, behind which a splitting headache currently resided, and once again went over what he did and did not know. In his hands were test results for something that shouldn't exist. Despite Kenzie's confidence, he didn't know for sure where, how or why his wife came by them. He didn't know what it was specifically, and he couldn't prove that it was related to the vaccine being administered against the virus whose existence he couldn't verify. Basically, all he had were questions.

Even so, the longer he pondered the more he was able to convince himself that he'd gotten all caught up in the moment with Kenzie and had allowed his mind to wander. These were strange times to be sure, and the shroud of secrecy surrounding this virus and its vaccine was both surprising and unsettling, but that was no reason to connect a bunch of disjointed dots, forcing them to scream "conspiracy". As well-meaning as Kenzie no doubt was, she simply must be wrong, or her source was unreliable. Hakam's Razor. Without evidence to the contrary, the most likely explanation was the simplest one. The virus was real, and the test results Julia had left were not for the vaccine but for something else she'd stumbled upon and found interesting. Some tech advancements that, in theory, he should have known about but apparently, he did not.

He put a hand to his mouth and stared out the window, trying hard to be satisfied with his own conclusion.

Poor G. Always needing to compartmentalize things so nicely into neat little boxes. I gotta be honest Honey, I don't think this one fits into any of those boxes.

Great. So, I assume then you think I should hop on board the conspiracy train with the blue haired intern?

Hey, easy there G. She's smart, and fortunately or unfortunately - depending on how you look at it - a lot less naive then some of us old folk.

I know, I know. Sorry. I didn't mean to talk her down like that. But Jules, seriously... what are my options here? Why couldn't you have just left some notes with your darn mystery sample?

OK. Hakam's Razor. Go with that. But... "razor" this into your thinking. Luna wasn't sick that day. She didn't even call me. Cars never crash. And why would I mail something to myself? Why wouldn't I just bring it home?

Garreth's closed his eyes as his headache intensified.

G, you're too trusting. And you lack imagination. Sorry honey, but simple isn't going to solve this mystery.

What I really lack right now Jules is you.

Get over it G.

Garreth felt his car coming to a stop and having been rather distracted for the duration of the drive thus far, he assumed he was home already. But when he looked up, he saw that instead he was being pulled over for some sort of roadside check. There had to be at least 6 police vehicles, and officers appeared to be stopping every car, waving them off to the side. Garreth rolled down the window and had his car stop when he reached the first officer.

"Can you just have your car pull off to the side there please sir, behind those other vehicles."

"Oh yea, sure thing officer." Nice how they still pretended that he had a choice, even though he knew they'd taken control of his car's navigation system. "What's up?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing to worry about I'm sure. We're just doing a spot check to make sure people have been inoculated."

Shoooooot...

Garreth leaned back and nervously ran his hands through his hair as his car slowly made its way to the group of officers off to the side of the road. Amongst the police vehicles he now also noticed a Health Services truck supported by a team of medics. He started to sweat as his mind raced. He should probably just come clean and tell them he hadn't had the shot yet, then they'd give it to him right here, right now and he could just be done with it. I mean, what were the chances that Kenzie's "guy" had managed to falsify those records anyway? If he lied and told them he'd had the shot already, only to have them find out he hadn't, well... that wouldn't be good. And what was he thinking anyways? "Falsifying records" to avoid getting a shot that was obviously important? This was crazy. It was time to stop this madness.

"Good evening sir."

"Hi there."

"We're just confirming that you have indeed been inoculated. You have received the shot, right sir?"

Don't do it G.

Jules, this is NUTS!

"Sir?"

Think of our daughter G.

I AM thinking of her Jules!

It doesn't add up G and you know it. You feel it, I know you do.

"Um, yea. Yes. Sorry. Yes officer, I've had the shot. Yes."

"Just look into the facial recognition device please."

It was a nervous 5 seconds that felt like minutes to Garreth before the officer spoke again.

"OK. Thanks Mr. Timmons. Have a nice evening."

As his car pulled awayand headed towards home, Garreth rolled up his window. He put his head in hishands, rested his elbows on his knees and let out a long, nervous sigh. He hadto admit one thing. Even if Kenzie was paranoid, she definitely hadconnections.