His words gave her a start as they were exactly the same ones Z had asked her a moment before. “I’m fine,” she said, grabbing a spare lab coat from one of the hooks by the door and pulling it on. “Everything went according to the plan.”
“Good,” Ladee said. “Do you remember what we’re going to say?”
Dawn nodded. It was a relatively simple request on its face. Too bad the thing they were going to send him after didn’t exist.
She moved to her workbench and started looking things over. Everything had to appear normal.
The door to her living quarters opened, and Z strode through it, dressed only in a towel wrapped around his waist and carrying a plate of toast and a cup of juice for her. He set them on her station and bent to give her a kiss on the cheek. “I’m going to get dressed,” he said, heading toward the storage room.
While he was gone, she picked at her toast, not wanting him to think anything was amiss. But she could only stomach one bite, so she tossed the rest in the trash, then drained her juice. When Z returned, she gave him a wide smile.
“What’s on the agenda today, Dr. Illya?” he asked with a cheeky grin.
“Well, I figured we could start you on something a little more complicated. You see—”
“Oh dear!”
Both heads turned toward the robot who had a frantic expression on his little face.
“What is it, Ladee?” Dawn asked with faux concern.
“We’re out of Chromium-137. Without that, we can’t proceed with the next stage of our experiment.”
Dawn frowned. “Well, that’s no big deal. We’ll just order more from the delivery service.”
“We can’t,” the robot replied. “I’ve already tried. They’re all out. And so are all the other services in this quadrant.”
“What? That’s ridiculous. Why on Territh would there be a run on C-137?”
Ladee frowned. “It doesn’t bode well. It may be that the Hills has gotten wind of what we’re trying to do. They might have bought up the supply to keep us from reaching our goal while working on competing technology.”
Dawn’s eyes widened on cue. “No. You don’t think…”
Both gazes swung to Z, who had been watching their exchange with interest. “What?” he said when two pairs of eyes set on him. “You don’t think I had anything to do with this, do you?”
Dawn waited a beat before responding. “No, of course not.”
“I swear to you, I have nothing to do with it. I don’t even know what Chromium-157 is.”
“137,” Ladee corrected.
“Whatever,” Z said, waving a hand at him. “I didn’t tell the Hills anything.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Dawn said, falling back on her stool and putting her head in her hands. “If we don’t get that element, we won’t be able to continue.”
“So how do we get some?” he asked, drawing closer, his tone full of concern.
“We’ll have to go outside the quadrant. I bet someone in Sector A has some. But in my vessel, the journey will take two weeks minimum, just to get there. By the time we get back, we’ll be so far behind that the Hills will probably push something through the patent office before we have a chance of beating them.”
“Sector A is only a couple of days in my ship,” Z said, grabbing her arms. “Come with me now, and we’ll get what you need.”
“She can’t,” the robot said. “Dr. Illya will have to maintain current levels by near-constant adjustments. She can’t leave for several days or the experiment will collapse and there will be nothing to come back to.”
“Damn,” Dawn muttered, her eyes wide. “I’m sorry, but it sounds like there’s nothing we can do.”
“Bullshit,” Z muttered. “I’ll go. Just tell me what you need and where to find it.”
“Oh no,” she replied. “I couldn’t ask you to do that.”
