Abel Ladd - The Crying Child | Day 4 : 1024 words

Lennie and Grey stood watching the Ladds walk from the lab. Lennie waited until the door had shut fully before launching into a whispered tirade.
“That was perfect. It got them out of here with the least amount of suspicion. We need to keep the data and sample. You pull the sample out of the unit. I’ll get the data on a card. We absolutely have to keep this. There is far too much at stake with this kid. If he really is the one the Diviners have spoken of for so long we could be on the verge of the new world. He’s the crying child for god’s sake!”
Grey watched as Lennie animatedly whispered himself through the rapid word vomit, waiting for him to finish. “Okay, I get it. Is the director on board?” he whispered back.
“I don’t care, this is beyond him. You keep the sample and I’ll keep the data.”
“Fine, but I don’t know what we are going to do with this.” Grey walked to the front of the unit and opened the hatch to access the robotic arm. The twist locks popped open easily and he was quickly digging through the internals. He pulled out a tube carriage which held the various samples that had been taken through the day. A ring of vials held in tubing each with a sample that had only a barcode label.
“Which one is it?” Grey asked aloud.
Lennie looked up from the displays to see the carriage and his heart sank. “You kidding me?” he shook his head. “Just take them all.” He said to Grey.
“What am I supposed to do with these? They’re supposed to be in cryo.” Grey implored.
“Isn’t there the cryo tanks in the basement? Those are all long term storage and should be fine for now.” Lennie suddenly realized.
Grey’s forehead narrowed as he thought it through and then as his face relaxed he looked at Lennie, “Damn that’s a good idea. That should totally work. No one goes into those and a couple of them are only half full. Okay you finish getting the data and I will get these downstairs.”
Lennie put up a thumbs up. Grey took the carriage and put it in a cold bag, replacing it with a fresh tray pulled from the storage below. He walked from the lab and to the elevator, standing in front of it waiting for it to arrive. He couldn’t stop shifting the package in his hand and he kept looking around him nervously. The elevator finally crept its way to a stop and the door slowly opened. In front of him stood the director. Grey stepped into the elevator, his heart in his throat.
“Doctor Stetler.” The director said.
“Director.” Grey replied.
Grey poked the spot for the ground floor only to see it lit already. He glanced at the director and shifted the packaged carriage in his hand.
“So I assume we have everything taken care of?” the director said without turning.
“Ah, yes sir. Everything will be dealt with soon and then we can hopefully forget this whole ordeal.” Grey responded looking at the lights as they descended the list.
“Well, just make sure there are no loose ends. I don’t need this coming back to bite me. I want every assurance that this will be handled fully.” He had turned to look at Grey with a piercing stare.
“Yes, sir. I understand.” Grey responded without returning his gaze.
The elevator slowed to a halt on the bottom floor and the doors opened. Grey motioned with his hand for the director to go first which he did. Grey followed him from the elevator and watched as he continued down the entry hall.
“Remember what I said Grey.” The director said loud enough that it reverberated off the walls of the hall.
Grey was barely paying attention to the sounds as he bolted for the door to the basement, pushing it open and pounding down the stairs two and three at a time. He hit the bottom landing, thrusting the basement door open. The cavernous basement was an open bay with regularly spaced pillars and filled with various cold and cryo storage units. He flipped the light switches on ans the high pressure lights gained their faint strap glow.
The rows all had labels and the far right side held the long term cryo tanks. He ran to the back corner where the least likely to be used unit lay. He set the carriage package on the floor and started to work at the locks on the tank. It had twelve threaded screw down locks around it spaced equally that each need to be unspun. As he worked to open each of them the lights popped on to their full power. The sudden brightness in the bay forced him to shade his eyes and pause until he could adjust enough to keep working.
Finally getting the last one unscrewed he turned to the operations screen and turned the vacuum off. A quick pop of a valve and the sudden hiss of pressure change filled the bay. Grey looked around in surprise at the sudden noise, unsure if there was anyone around for the moment before the surprise wore off. The tank lid loosened visibly and he was able to lift it off. The lid attached to an arm that gave a mechanical advantage which reduced the weight tot he point a human could lift it.
The froth of fog emanated from the tank and Grey waved his hand over it to clear some away. He could barely see the open spaces in the tank and quickly opened the package and removed the carriage. He set it in the tank and then replaced the lid. The worst thing about the tanks was the forever it took to seal and unseal them. He tried to console himself with the fact that this is the future as the seal slowly engaged. “This will be the answers to almost everything wrong with the world,” he thought as the final seal engaged on the cryo storage.