There was a sign on the wall noting that rooms 100-130 were in this part of the building. They had barely walked a few yards before the sign for room 101B was clearly in sight. The group paused and Clive was surprised by how easy it had been to find. His heart rate increased as the idea of Mayre being behind this door settled into his brain.
“The door is unlocked.” The radio chirped.
Arrow grasped the handle and turned. The first smell was of bleach and lemons. The floors inside were laminate wood and the lighting made the space feel like they were outside, except there were no windows.
Clive’s eyes immediately noticed Mayre. He could never forget her face and would always find it in a crowded space. However, in this space, it was much easier to notice. The only things in this room were a hospital bed, beeping machinery, a recliner, and a nurse kneeling beside where Mayre was resting.
“Mayre!” Clive exclaimed and rushed to his love.
The nurse at her side looked startled, but Clive didn’t care. This was his wife and nothing could prevent him from accessing her.
He realized something was very wrong as soon as his hand touched hers. “What’s going on?” He demanded of the nurse.
“Sir, you’re not allowed to be in here.” The nurse sounded absolutely terrified.
Several choice words jangled in his brain but he composed himself and said, “This is my wife. What’s wrong with her?”
The nurse was thinking hard about his words. After several moments, she decided to trust him and said, “She’s only here in body. Otherwise, she’s gone.”
The reality of what she had said settled on him like dust. His skin itched and his eyes burned. Inexplicably, all he could feel was fear. Pulling the pepper spray from his belt and standing to his feet he pointed it at the nurse’s face. “You’re lying!”
“Don’t!” Sirona shouted and joined them at the recliner. She had her gun raised and trained on Clive.
“I just want answers.” Clive said slowly, forever the diplomat.
“Dr. Evers, weren’t you fired?” Said a tired voice from the doorway.
Clive turned to where the new voice had come from and saw Preston Winston there in a white coat. In the chaos, Arrow and Misha had neglected to watch the door.
“Preston?” Clive slowly lowered the pepper spray.
“Good man. Please don’t burn the eyeballs of any of my employees.”
Sirona lowered her gun, but Arrow continued to keep a hand on the butt of his.
“What’s wrong with my wife?” Clive demanded.
“Unfortunately, she has become nothing more than a human vegetable. There is no way to get her back.”
This couldn’t be reality and Clive refused to believe it. She was just resting or in some sort of coma. She would be brought back to him and Preston would be sued for every inch of his life for traumatizing Dr. Clive Evers with his lies.
“Does Zion know about this?” Arrow demanded.
Preston laughed shortly, “Only what I want him to know.” Preston shrugged then changed the subject. “You all are definitely trespassing, though. Except for you.” He gestured at Sirona. “Glad you came back. We are pretty understaffed currently.”
Clive’s brain was a buzzing hive of anger now. He lunged for the man but was stopped by two security guards barreling through the door to protect Preston from bodily harm. Clive was a strong man, but not nearly as strong as these walls of muscle before him.
“You idiot!” Arrow shouted as he threw himself into the fray.
The addition of Arrow may have thrown the guards off balance, but it did not keep them from reaching for their own guns in self-defense. Clive couldn’t be sure what happened next, but he heard a gun go off and the sound of a body falling onto the ground.
“Take them.” Preston said, cooly.
“Yes, sir.” Said one of the men.
Clive tried to fight, but the man in charge of him was strong and began to drag him away. Arrow was being dragged by the other guard. Once they were on their way, Clive could clearly see Misha lying on the floor in a growing pool of his own blood. He had seemed so strong and full of life, but now he was dead. All of his physical strength was not enough to save him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
RACHEL WAS AT a women’s conference, which then left Harmony to her own devices for a few days. To keep occupied, Rachel had assigned her new cleaning duties in addition to the bedrooms. This kept her much busier than usual, but she was struggling to stay motivated enough to get the tasks done. She loved having her mind occupied but hated how mundane the work was becoming.
Another reason for her lack of motivation was that her mind kept drifting to Arrow. If she didn’t know any better, she would have thought that somebody had hacked her chip again and made her fall for a man who had so many issues. She did know better though, and she had done the falling all on her own.
Harmony had always prided herself on not being the type of girl to have relationship drama. She ate up all the gossip at work about the drama of others, but never her. In a way, she had been jealous of this but knew in the practical part of her brain that drama would just cause her an undue amount of stress.
She almost wished that she could see Romilda’s face if she knew where Harmony was now and what she was up to. Life was exciting for the first time and Harmony was getting to experience it all firsthand. It was thrilling, frightening, and aggravating all at once.
These thoughts swirled through her mind as she made her way to one of the labs in the main house. Rachel had explained how this particular lab was generally for private research. Zion, Clive, and Pat would be utilizing it later in the afternoon, but for now, Rachel had said it needed cleaning.
Harmony utilized the master key to open the door and walked inside the very well-lit space. Floor-to-ceiling windows filled up the entire left-hand wall, but tall pine trees were blocking anybody from having a real view. On the opposite wall, there were metal shelves filled with boxes, beakers, and clutter. Spaced out across the L-shaped room were long work tables covered in books, chemistry supplies, computers, and leftover cans of soda. In the foot of the L-shape space was a tall metal supply cabinet with a door, and Harmony assumed it must be full of scientific implements of some kind.
Overwhelmed by the mess, she pinched the bridge of her nose to ease a headache that began to throb in her sinuses. “Okay, Harmony, you got this. There’s no rush.” She muttered to herself.
To encourage an upbeat attitude, she went to one of the computers and signed in as a guest to find a website with music on it. The first playlist she found was fun, so she let it fill the silence.
She started by throwing away the trash that cluttered the tables. When that was done, she picked up every beaker and glass cup that needed washing and went to the sink that was sitting in front of one of the windows. It took longer to work through these items because each beaker was difficult to get a cleaning rag inside. She looked under the sink and around the room for some sort of bottle brush to make the process go by faster.
Nothing was near the sink, so Harmony decided to look in the tall metal utility closet nearby. To her dismay, it was locked and none of her keys seemed to work on it. Grumbling, she walked back to the sink and continued to wash the beakers the hard way.
