Sex or Suffer [Dark Colony 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (30 page)

Oscar Kaslan, spoke a few words quietly to his law representative and exited the room with a brooding Damon. Penelope hoped she’d never see him again.

“Captain Wyckoff. Lieutenant Commander Tyndall.” The representative motioned them over to the opposite side of the table to officiate the agreement and put bio prints to documents. Both Gray and Nathan rose and rounded the table to the other side.

“Dr. Drake, may I see you in my office?” Dr. Ledreder motioned at her from the end of the table to join him. She stood, avoiding both Gray and Nathan’s gaze, and made a fast path to her boss.

The man who’d been like a surrogate father to her smiled sadly and led her from the room, down the hallway and toward his office. Grateful not to have to speak to Gray or Nathan and see the anger and resentment in their faces, she didn’t look back before exiting the room.

Gray finding out that she’d lied cruelly and then betrayed him further by remaining silent in the meeting was an unforgivable act in her mind. Her heart ached at the probability of never seeing Gray again, and she fought tears escaping in a foolish love lost moment.

Stupid virus.

He was better off without her to deal with any longer. She was grateful he at least got financially compensated for his trouble.

With an eye on the time remaining, she seated herself in Dr. Ledreder’s office.

“Can you tell me why you ran, Dr. Drake?”

“I’d rather not. Can you tell me why you sent Damon after me?”

“I was only trying to help you.”

“By sending him to hunt me down? Do you know what he did to me?”

“You mean breaking in on you and your friend at the Parsec Colony?” Dr. Ledreder’s eyebrows wrinkled in concern.

“No. Not that.”

“What else did he do to you?”

Penelope shook her head. If Dr. Ledreder didn’t know she carried the SOS virus, it was less embarrassing. Maybe she should just quit. The tears welled up again. Stupid. She hated the emotional influence of this virus.

Dr. Ledreder sighed. “The truth is Damon left Bravura without permission. He used my name to secure the ship and told everyone I sent him. In deference to his father—”

Penelope was about to quit her job and Damon had engineered the whole stunt because he knew his father would bail him out? She snapped, “Damon used your code to retrieve an ampoule of the virus from the vault and he exposed me to it.” Penelope was sick of hiding her embarrassment over something she didn’t deserve.

“What?”

“I have the SOS virus, Dr. Ledreder.” She leaned forward and focused on his stunned gaze. “That’s why I ran. That’s why I’ve done things I never imagined I would do all in the name of a virus I wish I’d never heard of. The very virus you entrusted me to cure. Instead, I couldn’t think of anything beyond curing myself.

“Perhaps I’m not worthy of this position after all. People like Damon will always win in the end because of his status, his father’s money, and the power of prestige. He should be in jail for all the things he did. But instead, everyone breaks their back in ‘deference’ to his father.” Time ticked down to where she’d have to find a mask, a fact never too far out of her mind.

“Dr. Drake.” The shock on his face was palpable. He shook his head. “I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. I didn’t realize—”

“Why is it your fault? Damon is the pervert in this scenario, but I didn’t press charges because I didn’t want to lose my job. I love working here, but with this disease, I’ll have to change absolutely everything to accommodate it. If you’ll even allow me to stay. The cure from the Parsec Colony is useless and only gives the victim a euphoric sensation and not a true treatment.”

“I know the cure from the Parsec Colony doesn’t work, but the SOS virus does have a cure, Dr. Drake.”

Penelope shook her head in utter disbelief. “Say that one more time.”

“The SOS virus has an established cure.” Dr. Ledreder stood and motioned for her to follow him. He led her from his office through a door she’d always thought was a closet. “Come with me. Quickly.”

“If it has a cure why did you ask me to find one?”

“I’ll explain everything once you’re quarantined.” He motioned her down the narrow hallway leading to she didn’t know where.

“Quarantined?” She stopped following, pausing in the center of the aisle like a petulant child unwilling to go to the doctor. “I don’t want to spend the rest of my life tucked away in quarantine.”

“That won’t be necessary.” Dr. Ledreder turned right at the first doorway and proceeded down the hallway to the private facility housing the elite rooms for those important enough to warrant them.

He led Penelope to the nicest area in quarantine. A spacious fifteen feet square room with one entire wall a clear window to the inner facility. It held a narrow bed, a table with two chairs for dining and a recliner in the corner facing a screen for entertainment viewing. Along the clear wall sat a desk and chair with a computer and a communication device.

Walking across the threshold was the hardest thing she’d ever had to do. She paused at the door, unable to take the final step.

“Please, Dr. Drake, trust me. I promise you won’t suffer with this virus forever.”

Penelope stepped through the door and walked straight to the desk in the corner. Pushing the button to talk, she said, “Explain.”

Dr. Ledreder seated himself opposite of her outside, pushed his button and began. “The virus is weak and unable to sustain itself after several weeks in a humanoid body. It burns itself out so to speak.”

“So the cure is just waiting in quarantine?”
Unbelievable
. “How long does it take?”

“It varies with each woman infected, but the longest recorded victim from the original testing was fifteen weeks. The average was eight to ten weeks across fifty or so victims.”

“So you knew if I had time to study the virus and a couple of patients infected with it, I’d draw the logical conclusion and be able to tell you something that you already knew. Why?”

Dr. Ledreder’s entire body sagged. “I want you to be my successor when I retire, Dr. Drake. You are the most qualified, the hardest worker, and the smartest. However, I knew that unless you did something very dramatic, those in charge wouldn’t ever let you take over my position at this facility.”

“So you resurrected a dangerous virus and infected innocent people?”

He let out a sigh laced with regret. “Yes. I sent an unsavory man named Ross Collier to the mining colony with instructions to break an ampoule near a house of prostitution. I told him what to expect, and to bring the infected women back for treatment here. He didn’t follow my instructions. Instead he visited an old girlfriend to exact some revenge.”

“Alice?”

“No. Her name was Cora. She was Alice’s neighbor on the mining colony and our first victim. She’s the one who killed herself. I’ll never forgive myself for her death.”

“How did Alice get the virus?”

“Alice helped Cora chase off the man I’d hired. He became belligerent when the virus didn’t take effect as quickly as he wanted in order to fulfill his retribution plan, and he left. However, the virus must have still been alive when Alice came to help her friend. Neither Alice or Cora knew they harbored the disease until much later when they went to town together for supplies.”

“So where did the virus come from?”

Dr. Ledreder dropped his gaze. “It was invented about three hundred years ago here on Bravura. Not our most productive invention.”

“But worthy enough to be saved.”

“Only for study and safekeeping. But it got lost in the massive vault, and I found it by accident years ago.”

Penelope relaxed her stiff back and leaned forward. “How long will I have to stay here?”

“I recommend ten weeks.”

“Beyond the obvious, how will I know that I don’t have it any more? Is there a blood test or something?”

“No. Unfortunately not. If you don’t want to take any chances, you may stay as long as twelve or fifteen weeks.” He ducked his head. “Or if you’d like to have Nathan Tyndall brought back here—”

“No!” Penelope didn’t want to test herself on Nathan.

“I’m truly sorry Dr. Drake. I never imagined anything like this would happen. I was confident you would discover the secret to the virus given a week or two with the victims, but you left the planet unexpectedly. It never occurred to me that you had contracted it.”

“Am I out of a job?”

“No. Of course not.”

“I’ll just stay here for twelve to fifteen weeks then. I can do my work in here. I’d like to know what happened to Alice.”

“She’s fine. I have her in quarantine in a different section of the facility. She should be as good as new in about two more weeks.”

“Good.”

Dr. Ledreder wiped his eyes. “I should have put both Alice and Cora in quarantine the moment they arrived. The very second after I discovered my initial plan had failed. If I’d explained the established cure, they’d both still be alive. I wish you’d gotten the opportunity, Dr. Drake.”

“I appreciate your confidence in me, but it still wouldn’t have been right to infect anyone with this deplorable disease.”

“You’re right, of course. I’ll resign from this post after you’re released from quarantine.”

Penelope had mixed feelings about her boss and what Dr. Ledreder had done. She knew he meant to further her career, but couldn’t condone his actions. In fact, he was no better than Damon using the virus and the suffering of innocent women for his own gain. She sealed her lips shut to keep from blurting out anything inappropriate.

“Is there anyone I can call for you? Your brother perhaps?”

Penelope considered asking him to contact Philip, but decided not to just yet. Her last communication to her brother had been in the form of a request for lots of money with no explanation for why she needed it. Philip would contact her soon enough to check up on her.

“No. Perhaps later. For now, I just want some solitude. I figure I have about twelve more weeks to ensure I’m completely over this. And I don’t want to talk to anyone in the near future.”

Penelope pushed a button on the desk and the clear wall changed to opaque white privacy mode. She sat on the edge of the bed then reclined on it.

Twelve weeks was plenty of time to forget about how much she already missed Gray. It was also plenty of time to figure out how she’d ever live without him. Her foolish unattainable promise had cost her something very dear. A life with a man she loved.

* * * *

“Do you forgive her or do I have to threaten you with something dire?”

Turning a weary gaze to Nathan, Gray frowned. “Of course I forgive her. She did what she had to do. I would have done the same, and so would you.”

Penelope left the conference room with Dr. Ledreder. More importantly, she left without looking back. His heart squeezed a little in pain at the snub. But he understood her actions. She lied to him from the beginning regarding her connections, but Gray knew she wasn’t deceitful by nature. Her actions had to do with survival, and deep down he knew he’d likely have done exactly the same thing.

He and Nathan concluded their lucrative business agreement with the representative, and suddenly he had a bountiful credit balance.

The meeting hadn’t worked out anywhere close to what he’d imagined, but he’d gotten five times the money he’d initially been willing to accept. Stunned by the revelation that Penelope couldn’t deliver the meeting with the trade governor, Gray had sat frozen, and reviewed any and all possible ways of asking what he wanted. However, he wasn’t willing to kick Penelope to the curb and embarrass her in a public forum to achieve that lofty goal.

Luckily, Nathan had saved the day with his request for the appointment. Startled for a minute, Gray also thought fast on his feet and the credit amount increased five fold. Oscar Kaslan hadn’t even batted an eye.

He still thought Damon got off easy. The representative had intimated that the senior Mr. Kaslan was sending his son off planet someplace remote and that the funds being transferred were coming out of Damon’s trust fund. It was almost enough to know Damon would be furious over the monetary loss.

Nathan poked him in the side to get his attention. “And because you are desperately in love. The thought of living without her makes your balls shrivel with dread, right?”

Gray laughed. “Something like that, yes. Do you relinquish her to me or will we have to fight for her affection?”

“No fight needed.” Nathan gave him a somber look. “She doesn’t love me. It’s always been you from the very first. Besides, I’m not ready to settle down yet. Hearts would break on every planet all the way to Rycan if I settled down.” Nathan grinned.

“And you won’t find it awkward to be around the two of us in the future?”

“Nah. But I do like her very much, and if you don’t make her happy I
will
kick your ass.”

Gray laughed again. “You and what army?”

“Is that a challenge?”

“No. I wouldn’t want to beat up on the infirmed.”