Death by Facebook (20 page)

The
doctor followed Janet into the examination room where they strapped
her down on one of those paper covered couches. He swabbed a cotton
stick inside her mouth, put the stick inside a tube and sealed it.

“
Star,
we need to do an a
mniocentesis,
to determine the baby's DNA. Do you approve that?”

“
I
can't say, I just met her a few weeks ago. Can't you call someone?”
Star complained. “I don't want to do something wrong here.”

“
Look,
it won't harm Jimmie or this baby. She's going to need one anyhow,
to make her case for such a late term abortion.”

Star
sat down in the chair next to Janet's now sleeping form. She was
crying softly. Covering her face with her hands she spoke quietly.
“She called it a monster.” Star sobbed for a moment and
then repeated Janet's words. “She said get this monster out of
me.” Her tears overwhelmed her.

The
doctor went to comfort Star and w
ondered
to himself as I did too. Which monster was she speaking of?

~~~

Larry's
phone was ringing before he finished figuring out whether the
earthquake was just a coincidence or not. Shirley had immediately
looked him the eye and raised her eyebrow high.

“
Larry!
It's Jack.”

“
Who?
Your connection is bad...” Larry could hear what he thought
sounded like a lot of wind. Wind close to a motorcycle.

“
Jack,
it's Jack! Look I'm on my way up to your place. We need you to drop
some sensors for us.”

“
When?
Why are you coming up here right now?” Larry said loudly so
Shirley had fair warning.

Shirley
watched Larry shake his head a little, lean into the call and smile,
then walk up to the large picture windows and look out. “Sure,
Jack, I'll meet you outside, across the street.”

Larry
looked across the room to Shirley after hanging up. “I've been
drafted, again. HVO needs some sensors and a transmitter dropped
upcountry. Seems urgent.”

“
What,
right now?” She sat her coffee cup down. “I thought …
what's he doing coming up to the house then?”

Larry
had already started his subconscious checklist, feeling in his
pockets for his spare glasses and sunglasses. “He's bringing
the sensors now. They want me over the drop site within the hour.”
He couldn't find his sunglasses yet.

~~~

Janet's
DNA mouth swab had been administered while she was still sedated.
Star sat by her side the entire time, crying.

“
OK,
we've got Jimmie's DNA and we can get the baby's after we get the
father's.” The doctor had the sample placed carefully in a
mailing container. “How are we going to get that?”

Star
looked up at him, and shook her head.

“
Star,
we can't determine if this baby is hers and her brothers without the
father's DNA.”

“
Well,”
Star said. “Do you have any doubt? After that performance?”

The
doctor stood up and walked over to his desk. “No, of course
not. I don't.” He stopped at his desk, still facing the wall.
“Star, I don't perform abortions. Period.” Sitting
down heavily in his chair he rubbed his forehead and continued,
painfully explaining the options.

“
I
understand when they are necessary. Of course. But, I don't perform
them. I can't do it. Personal thing, you must understand.

“
Jimmie
is really at the limit of any kind of discretionary action at this
point. In another couple of weeks, only a threat to the mother's
life or a proven debilitating disability would make it happen.”

He
turned to look out the window, trying to wish this part of the human
experience never again crossed his doorstep. “The best I can
do without the father's DNA is to recommend a mental health
evaluation and possibly an adoption of the baby by the State.”

Star
was gently stroking Janet's unconscious hand, humming some old tune
from her childhood. Something comforting.

“
Did
you hear her?” Star asked, looking up at him. “What she
said?”

The
doctor tried to recall but all he got was screaming and wild insane
eyes. “No, what?”

“
She
said,” Star spoke precisely, as if daring herself to get it
right. “ 'I'll kill you twice.' ”

The
doctor put his head down into his hands and moaned a little. “You
think that means...” He looked up at Star, over to the still
unconscious Janet and then up to the ceiling, hoping the revolving
fan could somehow make it all more palatable. It didn't.

“
You
think she has already killed the father, then? Her brother, as she
claims?”

“
Yes,”
Star confirmed quietly. “And, she will kill this baby as soon
as she gets a chance. One way or another. You saw it, in her eyes.”

The
doctor turned back to his desk, found a pen in his top drawer and on
a piece of paper wrote something quickly. Almost frantically handing
it to Star, he acted like it might burn his hands, or perhaps it was
his soul.

“
Take
this. It's a clinic in Hilo. They'll do it. Ask for Dr. Zhung.”

~~~

Larry
heard the motorcycle long before he saw Jack speeding up through the
fog. A morning mist was beginning to form, threatening his launch.
Worse, though, was the fact that is was threatening his eventual
landing back home.

Ranger
Jack Clovis felt the backpack contents shift with every turn and
lurch with every bump. Normally, he would never drive this fast, but
then this was the first time, he thought as leaning into a hard left,
that timing had ever been this critical. Alice, the lead HVO
scientist was not known for enthusiasm in her voice or ever a hint of
hyperbole in anything she might say or predict.

Jack,
though, heard the stress in her voice when she'd said “I need
to get Larry airborne within an hour”. Something big was going
on and these sensors, to be dropped from the air over inaccessible
terrain upcountry of Halema'uma'u and Kiluaea, would immediately
begin reporting acoustic data that related to inflation.

Inflation
was one of the last hints you got before stuff started pouring out of
the ground, or shooting high up into the air. It was the very ground
itself swelling with the introduction of large pools of magma. It
was also the signal for down slope evacuations when it reached a
certain point. Civil Defense would begin closing the only road going
around the island at either side of the predicted flow zone as soon
as the HVC gave them the alert. Without these new sensors though it
would be a guessing game that almost guaranteed embarrassment.

Larry
had his wing deployed on the ground behind him and had done his
preflight check, twice. What had him concerned now was coming home.
He could take off into a fifty foot high fog in no wind and quickly
rise above it. Landing, though, would be impossible. He double
checked the hookup to the additional ten gallon fuel bladder he had
just strapped on.

Jack
roared up, dropped the kickstand on the Harley Davidson Superlow 883,
leaving it in the middle of the street. He hopped off while taking
his backpack off and opening it.

“
Captain
Larson!” he teased. “Ready for departure?”

“
Yeah,
well, departure is cool, but arrival looks a bit messy.”

“
I
see that.” Jack looked around at the thickening fog. “We'll
send up a spotter plane for you, like we did before. I'll call it
in.” He handed Larry the backpack. “Just monitor 123.45
and the spot plane will advise you as to landing spots as well as
where to drop.”

Larry
was looking inside the backpack, trying to figure out what all the
tennis balls were about. He pulled one out and showed it to Jack,
silently asking for an explanation.

“
Cool
yeah?” Jack laughed. “I invented that myself. You drop
those from what...three hundred feet or so? The tennis ball is
sliced open, we put in the wireless mote with acoustic and
accelerometers built in and sew them back up.”

Larry
shook one a bit and felt the movement of something small inside.
“Florescent yellow? So you can find them later?”

“
Yep,
plus they were on sale.” Jack was beaming.

“
OK,
where do you want these?” Larry asked, strapping the backpack
on backwards, onto his chest.

“
Pretty
easy, just get on a 360 degree north line just above Halema'uma'u and
drop one of these tennis balls every two hundred meters or so. No
further than four hundred meters, or they can't find each other. You
should run out of tennis balls about three miles up the mountain.
Then, drop this soccer ball.”

“
What's
in the soccer ball, Jack?” Larry was already laughing.

“
Yeah,
that! So cool! It's the mothership. All these wireless motes talk
to each other as well as transmit their own info. Only one of them
needs to find the mothership. All of the motes can relay for any or
all of the others.

“
The
soccer ball can transmit four to five miles. We already have one
deployed about where you will start, so we feel with your drop we
will have a good live feed on what this mountain is up to.”

Larry
nodded, confident he could help the scientists out. “And, so
Jack, what is this mountain up to buddy?”

“
More
than we know, that's for sure. That's why we have you ...”

“
I
know that Jack, for God's sake. Tell me what the hell is going on!”

Jack
put his helmet back on and straddled the Harley. He didn't have a
problem telling his friend, but he didn't want him to freak out right
before his important mission. Nevertheless he had to say something,
and he was sure Larry needed to hear it.