The Cure, стр. 41
Next to him the nurse and doctor were still stood by the body of his child massaging its tiny little chest. The nurse shook her head and the baby lay there motionless. Nothing. Silence. Nobody made a sound and all that could be heard was the clock. Tick tock tick tock.
Then there was a sound. A sound that pumped air back into his lungs. A noise so beautiful that the Senator’s face flushed with blood, bright pink and warm. The noise of a child crying. The doctors and nurses looked at each other. It was a miracle. The nurse swaddled the child and handed it to the Senator. ‘You have a baby boy sir.’
He held the boy close and knelt beside Logan. Logan’s comic fell to the floor and he was beaming from ear to ear. ‘Brother?’ he said, and the senator laid the baby into Logan’s arms. ‘Mummy?’
‘Mummy had to go to heaven so that we could have this beautiful little boy,’ said Nathanial holding back the tears. ‘Mummy wanted us to have this special little man so that I could have two amazing sons and that you could have a brother,’ he looked over to the bed where she lay.
The doctor and nurse who had helped deliver the baby had remained in the room but everyone else had vacated the hospital room, presumably to move onto the next emergency. The door slammed open and a nurse ran in with a look halfway between amazement and bewilderment. ‘Doctor, we need you to come and see something in the Oncology ward. They’re better. The cancer has just disappeared,’ she shouted.
‘Who? What do you mean nurse? Which patient?’ said the doctor trying to calm her down.
‘All of them. They’re all better.’
Chapter Seventeen
‘I recognize this chemical,’ said the Professor sniffing the air.
‘What do you mean?’ said Logan.
‘Back when Wanikiy and I were trying developmental drugs to try and cure Leukemia we were using a substance called arsenic trioxide. A poison which worked against the body but helped to rid it of the harmful diseases.’
‘So, this is a cure or a poison?’ Logan said still unaware of what the Professor was telling him.
‘Both my friend. But what I don’t understand is that the amount we are talking about here mixed into the water systems you are talking about would have absolutely no effect on anyone. It would dilute itself to nothing. To have any effect on a human being you’d need a ridiculous amount of this chemical to even have the slightest effect. Wanikiy must have known this.’
Logan looked puzzled ‘So the toxin isn’t a toxin.’
‘I mean, yes, it is poisonous in its undiluted form and could quite easily kill a person, but if you mixed it with the volume of water you are talking about then no, it couldn’t harm a fly,’ said Professor Brittle.
‘Sola dosis facie venom,’ said Mendez
‘Correct Isaac. As Paracelsus said, ‘the dose makes the poison,’ quoted the Professor.
‘Logan, you need to see this,’ said Chuck walking through the door and switching on a TV in the lab.
Logan was watching Tallulah in his father’s communications room ‘She doesn’t know,’ he said.
‘Know what?’ said Chuck.
‘It’s not a toxin, it’s a placebo. We need to get a message to her and to Danny. We need to get him out of there now. He’s in danger. Get me the satellite phone, quickly Chuck. Professor, how do we get hold of the base? Tallulah needs to know that her father isn’t trying to kill anyone. But we cannot alert Goldsmith. Wanikiy and Tallulah could be in serious trouble if he finds out Wanikiy has tricked him,’ said Logan.
‘Logan,’ Chuck said pointing at the TV.
Tallulah had the test tube to her lips and was drinking the arsenic trioxide. He looked at the Professor.
‘That’s going to be a problem,’ he nodded.
‘It’ll kill her. How do we stop her? You have an antidote?’ Logan said.
‘There is no antidote,’ said the Professor. ‘Wait. Yes, perhaps something, but we need to get it to the base as soon as possible. Activated Charcoal absorbs the chemicals and might just work if we get there in time.’
‘How long have we got?’ said Chuck
‘A few hours if we’re lucky,’ he replied.
‘Chuck, let the others know what is going on. You have this Charcoal?’ Logan said.
‘Yes, I believe so,’ said the Professor.
‘Mendez, I need a plane, now.’
‘Planes I have, pilots, not so much,’ repeated Mendez.
Logan paced the room ‘We’re wasting time. You’ve got no-one?’
‘Hod was the only one,’ Mendez said shaking his head.
‘I can fly a plane,’ everyone looked around to see Xander stood at the door.
‘You? How?’ said Chuck.
‘I used to go up in my dad’s Cessna when I was four. He’d let me take the controls,’ said Xander.
‘When you were four?’ said Chuck shaking his head in disbelief.
‘Yeah, these things stick. What have we got to lose?’ Xander said sucking on newly acquired rollup.
‘You are loco tio,’ said Mendez ‘I like him,’ he approved to the others.
‘We’ve got nothing to lose, but Tallulah has everything to lose. Let’s go,’ said Logan.
The group started walking, then jogging and eventually sprinting towards where the planes were. ‘Chuck, I need you to stay behind. Fill in the others if they don’t already know. Keep trying Danny. We need to get word to him, but don’t tell him about Tallulah. We’ll get word to you when everyone is safe.’ Logan put his hand on Chuck’s shoulder ‘Thank you.’