Chapter Fifteen
“Sweet Home Alabama” played in Melinda’s dream until she woke. Her dream slipped away like sand through fingers. She wasn’t one to remember her dreams, but these past few days had been stressful. Maybe that was the reason for the sudden change in her not only remembering her dream, but it being so real.
Realizing it was only Thursday, she groaned and rolled in her warm covers. This was the longest week from hell. Would it ever end? Maybe she should buy out the local market’s stock of chocolate and eat it all herself for Halloween. It was on a Saturday, so she had all day to gorge.
Even though Uganda had an official six-day workweek, her contract with the lab allowed her both weekend days off. She rarely took them, though. It’s not like she had lots to do around the house. Besides that, she loved what she did, so it didn’t feel like work. Most of the time. This week was an anomaly.
She wondered how the jaguar was. Later in the day, she’d call. The old man had assured her that it would be fine. What did he mean when he said “mate” and “transformer”? Obviously he didn’t have strong command of the English language, but she was thankful he was considerate enough to speak it so she could understand what they were saying.
By “mate” he must’ve meant someone who stands beside you, like a bodyguard. She could see the big, beautiful cat being her protector, her guardian. Maybe he just liked the smell of mouse she probably had soaked into her clothes and hands. That was a funny thought. A badass jaguar hanging out with her because she held mice all day.
“Transformer” was not as easy to figure out. The only transformer she knew was the kind that sat on a telephone pole and carried electricity between houses. When she was a kid, she’d seen lightning strike the top of a pole and sparks flew everywhere as a big metal thing virtually exploded. Then the family sat in the dark for hours waiting for the electric people to bring the lights back on.
So whatever the old guy meant by transformers being hard to “kill,” she had no clue. She let it go. It was too early to ponder such deep issues. She needed a shower and tea to get going.
• • •
At the research facility, her door no longer had the yellow tape, nor the guard from yesterday. She sighed with relief. She could get back to normal now. She had a lot of paperwork and testing to re-create for the file. Fortunately, it was more of a time thing than actual running of tests. She had the images of each page in her head, so it was just the arduous task of making them real.
She needed to bring her mice back into the lab also so she could get some work done. She’d figure out later where the best place to keep them safe would be. Hopefully their night in the strange room didn’t affect them any. She considered it a sleepover party at someone else’s house.
That thought made her angry. Because of her parents, she didn’t experience half the life most kids did. She’d missed out on so much. If she were to ever have a family, she’d make sure her children got to see and explore everything the world had to offer. She would never hold them back and tell them they couldn’t do something because of their gender or that they weren’t smart enough.
She’d never really thought about a family before. Shit, she was thirty years old. How long was she going to wait? She didn’t feel like she was waiting as much as the time simply hadn’t come yet. Inside, she felt confident it would happen; there was no anxiety over it. Okay, there was some anxiety, but mostly because her dream man had mentioned babies, and boy, had that made her hormones remember what nature had intended. As of that night, her biological clock had decided to start making itself known.
Maybe she just wanted a friend with benefits. Unfortunately, that friend was more of the make-believe kind. She’d still need help from her toy. The thought of him and her toy brought a flush to her face. Good god, she was so pathetic.
After unlocking the lab door and flipping on the lights, she was relieved to see everything back to where it had been. Tables were upright, machines off the floor, papers in stacks. She’d have to do an inventory to see which items were broken beyond repair.
From her purse, she pulled out the tissue-wrapped virus serum she’d snuck out of the building last night, ready to put it in the fridge again. Then she noted the complete destruction of the refrigeration unit on the other side of the room.
Seemed the thief realized her tea didn’t make a good virus serum. Every piece of glassware in the fridge was either gone or smashed on the floor. And the door had been completely shattered.
A bad vibe rolled through her. How did someone do this twice in a row? There were guards at each door. For a while, anyway. She wondered when they’d left. She never would’ve guessed a second attack would have happened the next night. That’s why she wasn’t a thief; she didn’t think outside the box enough to get away with that kind of thing. Predictable, she was.
She put the vial in her lab coat pocket and headed to Mr. Kintu’s office.