Free Equilibrium by Imogen Rose Page B

years ago and has been bringing up his son on his own.”
    “That’s right,” said Olivia. “His son’s name is Justin, a troubled teen, from what I hear. He was involved in Simla’s assault on Arizona, I’m sure,” Olivia added.
     “Simla, that’s Erica’s daughter, right?” Rupert asked.
    Olivia nodded. “Erica Sen works closely with Grayson. They share a laboratory and office at Ames. They’ve worked very well together and are extremely productive as a team. I’ve never had any issues with either of them. Erica’s daughter, Simla, seems to have taken a dislike to Arizona–I’ve no idea why. Coincidentally, I recall Arizona mentioning that she had a good friend in Princeton called Simla as well. I’m rambling though–nothing to do with this I’m sure. So, back to Erica. She is married to a psychiatrist, Raj. He’s a royal pain.”
    “A pain, how?” Rupert asked.
    “Well, he definitely has a chip on his shoulderand showed a total disregard for doctor patient confidentiality when he treated the Moreaus. He’s just generally unpleasant.”
    “Would he know about the portal?” Rupert asked.
    “I assume so,” Olivia sighed. “If Erica knows anything, I’m sure she shared it with her husband, it’s only natural. I can’t imagine that he would have any interest in it, though.”
    “We need to come back to him, but let’s go through the list first. Anyone else?” Rupert asked.
    “The Moreau family,” Olivia added. “I brought Glenda over recently, to crunch specific aspects of the data. It was beyond my own expertise, I needed her. I have known her since I was a student, but don’t know her personally at all. She has one daughter, Ariele. Her husband, Pierre, is a French teacher. I offered her the job at Ames without disclosing exactly what it entailed, but she accepted with great enthusiasm. She lives for this kind of research. We regretfully had to bring the family over without fully explaining to them what we were doing. I hoped that they would be okay with it once I explained which I haven’t had a chance to do yet. They are still trying to figure out what happened to them, though Glenda worked out the October project and portal very quickly. She doesn’t seem upset about it, nor has she asked to be transported back, which I would do if she wanted me to. We do need to look into them further as well.”
    “Anyone else?” Rupert asked hurriedly, as the car drove up to the emergency bay at the hospital.
    Larry shrugged, “I guess the only other person I can think of is Morgana over at SETI, though I can vouch for her one hundred percent. She is unmarried with no children, totally devoted to her work. She lives by herself near the lake. No family, just a pet–a dog. I discuss my work with her all the time. She does know about the portal.”
    Rupert nodded in agreement. He had known Morgana for a very long time as well.
    Olivia looked puzzled and started to say something, but stopped as the car came to a halt and they rushed into the hospital following the two detectives who seemed to know where they were going. They took the elevator up to the private wing and were led to a room manned by three FBI agents.
    “Can we go inside?” Larry asked.
    “Dr. Fox? Yes, please do. May I ask that the others wait outside for now?”
    “No,” Larry said firmly. “Dr. and Mr. Darley are coming in as well.”
    The FBI agent started to resist, but another agent spoke up. “Go ahead, the doctor is inside.”
    “Kellan,” Larry sighed, as he saw his son lying down but clearly awake.”
    “Dad,” Kellan whispered weakly.
    “Are you his dad?” asked the doctor.
    “Yes, how is he doing?”
    “There’s no major physical trauma. He’s been drugged. It’s starting to wear off, but he is still a bit groggy and disoriented. However, he is fully aware of his surroundings and I have cleared him to speak to the agents. Take it easy with him. I know that you and the agents have a lot of necessary