Free VIABLE by R. A. Hakok

these results back that I called you.’
    She handed a second sheet to Whitley, explaining to Lars that instead of showing reduced levels of hematopoietic stem cells, the results from the second test showed concentrations that were literally off the charts. The administrator said nothing for a while.
    ‘Sue, who can we talk to to get a better read on this?’
    ‘Well, Doug, I attended a seminar up in Berkeley last year. So I called the Genetics Department and managed to get hold of a teaching assistant there. He said one of the faculty members would probably be interested. We’ve got to move with it though, least if we want them to look at it this side of the holidays. Term’s ended and they’re all likely to disappear over the next day or two.’
    Lars volunteered to take what remained of the blood sample to Berkeley first thing the following morning, together with the results of the tests Sue had run, the patient’s medical charts and the additional samples and medication that had been found in the van. As they were leaving the lab he asked Doug what he made of what Sue Ellis had told them.
    ‘Well, to be honest with you Sheriff, stem cells aren’t my specialty, but I know enough to realize that we shouldn’t be seeing levels like that. If it had been any of the other technicians I would have told them to re-do the tests and stop wasting everyone’s time. But Sue runs that lab, has for the last twelve years, and hematology is her area. She’ll have been beating herself up over that transfusion. Not her fault of course. But if I know her she’ll have checked and re-checked those results before she picked up that phone to call me this morning.’
    ‘And there’s something very strange about the way this guy seems to have just overpowered a security guard and walked right out of here only hours after we’d pretty much written him off for dead. I spoke with Lionel. The monitors showed his heart rate and blood pressure stabilizing in the hours before his escape, but he was unable to offer any explanation for the apparent improvement in the man’s condition. Hell, Sheriff, right now I don’t know what to make of it.’
     
    Twenty minutes later Lars walked back into his office with a fresh cup of coffee in one hand and one of those Danish pastries from Starbucks that Ellie didn’t allow him to eat in the other. On his way back into town he’d called Connie and asked her to gather up the remaining items he needed from the evidence locker at the station.
    Connie wasn’t at her desk but that wasn’t unusual. The woman got through three packs of unfiltered Camels a day; she was probably in the parking lot on a smoke break. In any event he saw that the items he had requested from the back of the van were already bagged and on his desk. She’d left a note telling him that she hadn’t been able to find the blood samples he’d mentioned, but that everything else was there.
    He reached for the report the forensics team had prepared, flipping to the back page for the schedule of items recovered from the van. There was no mention of the three vials of blood there either. Picking up the phone he dialed the lab in Carson City and waited while the agent checked with the other members of the team. After a few minutes he came back on the line. No-one remembered seeing blood samples in the refrigerated container.
    Now that was odd. Sue Ellis had confirmed that what remained of the sample she had taken should be enough for the guys over at Berkeley to analyze, but it troubled him that items of evidence might have been removed from his crime scene. While he was finishing his coffee Connie walked into his office.
    ‘I got all the stuff you asked for, Sheriff, except them blood samples. Couldn’t find ’em anywhere. Weren’t no mention of them in the forensics report either.’
    Lars nodded, holding up the report to show he had checked.
    ‘Connie, will you talk to Jed and Larry when they get back? See if they know of