Chronicle of Nautilus

Chapter 37: A Visit To The Hospital

Claire entered a hospital carrying a humble bouquet in her hand.

She would not have heard about James if his incident had not reached the public media. It was a part of her duty to follow news and scandals. A good reputation of the security was highly prioritized at the headquarters of security. If any crime went public, the officers needed to react to the incident immediately and solve it as soon as possible.

Back at the HQ she reviewed the video that was taken by one of the watchers. The angle was not perfect and the attacker tried to conceal his face, but she was positive that it was Glen. His whitish hair and brutal western martial art moves betrayed him.

She imagined that James would not remember a thing, just as all the victims of the Outsider did. Anyways, it was worth to investigate, even if there was only a slim chance to find any lead.

“I am here to see James June,” she said at the reception and showed her badge.

The receptionist looked at her computer screen, pushed a few buttons and said, “Room 515.”

The place was easy to navigate and she quickly found herself inside James’ ward. There were two beds inside it. James was sitting on the bed closer to the door, watching a movie on a transparent screen, projected from a device on the wall behind him, placed just above his head. A girl, who Claire identified got hurt in the incident together with James was sleeping in a bed closer to a window.

James noticed Claire the moment she stepped into the room and greeter her,  “Hey, I’ve not imagined that a visitor would come. I’m totally unprepared. What a pleasant surprise. You shouldn’t have brought me those.” He pointed at the bouquet and smiled.

“My visit is not meant to be pleasant. I come here as a representative of the security. And those—“ Claire lifted the hand with the flowers and spoke with a straight face ”—are sadly not for you.” smiling humbly afterwards, she continued, “Why do you need visitors anyways, when you have a friend in the same room?” She directed her hand at the girl lying on the bed by the window.

“Oh, her, she is small and stupid, we have not much to talk about.”

“I can hear everything!” the girl growled and turned towards the window. She lifted a pillow and put it on her head.

Claire was surprised by James, a man reborn, teeming with life. She had never seen anyone who would have recovered so much after the reconditioning.

“So, you were saying…” James looked at Claire with his wide eyes.

She came closer, sat on a small chair by his bed and said, “I was saying that I came to talk business. Now tell me, what do you remember from the incident? Who was the attacker and why did he do that?”

James scratched his head and replied, “I can hardly remember anything.”

“Just as I imagined.” Claire looked down.

“But I probably know why.”

“Oh?”

“After you left, my roommates got weirder and weirder. They began talking to themselves, hearing whispers and sleepwalking. They began talking about ‘the Voice’, his desires and how ‘awesome’ he was. It got really creepy in the end and I attempted to stay out of the place as much as possible.”

“I see… we have already visited your house, we found nobody there. Your housemates have already gotten on our radar. We suspect they helped for a criminal to make an attack on my husband at his labs. We caught one of them, he doesn’t remember a thing. My husband is lying in a room at another side of this corridor.” She pointed her hand at the open door.

“Sad to hear that,” James’ said sincerely.

“He’s fine, got a little memory loss, just like you.” Claire paused. “What about the girl? How did she get involved into this?”

“She’s my neighbor and a daughter of a beautiful woman. Not sure why, but she has easy time communicating with me.  She’s not very social, you know. I’m a nice person as you might have noticed—” he smiled again. “—and she is not, especially to strangers. And here I should stop talking about her or I might get injured after your leaving. ”

“Yes, I heard about the tool, she was swinging at your attacker, got some guts. Does she remember anything?”

“No, not a thing. She awoke only this morning. The man who attacked us was good at what he does. By the way, have you caught him?”

“No, but I know his identity. He was my colleague. Now he works to a terrorist we are trying to stop. He’s a dangerous man, you both are lucky to stay alive.” Claire stared at the girl. “You know, at the security they are always looking for tough women, you should suggest her to attend our entry exams, she could get into a decent position.”

“Yes, at skull basher position perhaps,” James replied.

They both had a good, tearful laugh. After calming down Claire said, “Thank you for the information. We will try to bring the man who injured you to justice. Do you have a place to go after the hospital? I could give you an apartment on the other side of the city from your old home.”

“Nah, I think they will take me in.” He nodded at the young girl.

“Great, I will come by someday to check on you.”

“You are always welcome.”

“Bye.”

“Bye.” Claire waved her hand before leaving.

As Claire walked to her husband she thought for a moment about the unfair job James had. She remembered that the man had dreams of becoming someone. When she has a free minute she should give the man a small push. She thought he had deserved it.

The girl which got hurt in the incident had impressed her too. Watching the video from the media was enough. She was a copy of Glen, only with five times more guts. It would be wise for her to keep an eye on them both. You never know when you might need a helping hand.

*****

“You poor man, it seems we’re both out of luck these days,” she told to Cyrus after giving him a short kiss. She took a vase from the top of a small cabinet standing by his bed, filled it with water from a water tap inside the room and put it back.

“I’m fine. I deserve some rest after working for so long anyways.”

“You do.” She touched his hand and stroked it a little. “But it’s too short. We should get a long vacation after you get out. You and I, we did our work, didn’t we?” Cyrus nodded a couple of times and Claire continued talking, “What if the world is going to end tomorrow or after a week? We should go and have fun for at least a few days. Not like we are the ‘game-changers’ in Tom’s line of defense.”

“You’re right,” Cyrus spoke slowly and clearly, “I got caught in my work for too long. This world had become a different place from what I knew when I was younger, I am no longer sure if it deserves our efforts. We put ourselves to help it again and again and again and all we get is pain and misery.”

After they finished complaining, they began talking about their friends about the acquaintances and how it would be nice to renew old friendships, whispering trash talk about old geezer who lay in the ward together with Cyrus. Today Claire felt that she was in a place that she belonged. She and Cyrus talked for a long hour before they walked to the cafeteria and had a few laughs there. Her free time passed quickly today. It was a long time since she had spent so much time with her husband.  She had to wait just a couple of weeks before Cyrus recovered and they could go out on their well-deserved break.