Mind Games

Chapter Sixteen

  The Bet

  Sam Rawlston opened the door to the monitoring room and was suddenly deafened by loud music and someone talking in a very loud voice. He quickly stepped inside and closed the door behind him. Julia Connors was sitting by the monitor dancing on her chair. Her body swayed and moved to the beat of ‘You Sexy Thing’ as she swivelled back and forth on her chair. The music and the loud voice completely filled the room. Rawlston couldn’t help smiling.

  “Some people have the hardest jobs!” he almost shouted.

  Julia looked round and smiled at him. “Welcome to Radio MedTec!” she shouted back. “Seventies music a specialty! And it’s all courtesy of our resident DJ’s Super Seventies Sandra, and I’ve Got No Rhythm Hall!”

  Rawlston laughed as he walked towards her. He raised his hand and sliced it across his throat in an obvious gesture, and Julia turned down the volume. Rawlston stared at the picture on the monitor. There were tapes and CD’s strewn all across Jayne Middleton’s bed, and Matthew was sitting by his computer reading the morning newspaper out load. He was shouting above the music.

  “How long has this been going on?” he asked.

  “Since last night,” Julia replied. “Hall brought the music system into the room yesterday afternoon,” she pointed at the speakers, tape deck and amplifiers that were now littered around the room, “and Sandra brought in the seventies stuff this morning. Until then, it wasn’t so bad. Hall had a few good CD’s, but it was mostly classical stuff. Sandra is definitely a seventies retard.”

  “If it was that loud in here, what’s it like in there?”

  “I don’t know. The last time I went in there I wore ear plugs.”

  “Ben would go nuts if he knew what was going on.”

  “Why? There’s nothing wrong with a little music.”

  “There is if it wakes her up.”

  Julia laughed. “You would need a speaker the size of Jodrell Bank to wake up that slab of meat. She was dead before she got here, and she’ll be just as dead when she leaves. There’s no way that she’s going to wake up. She is definitely mutton.”

  “And you’re all heart,” Rawlston quickly added.

  Julia grinned very sweetly and falsely. “You’re so kind!” she said, fluttering her eyelids.

  Rawlston continued to stare at the monitor screen in concern. “I still think we should stop this,” he said.

  “And how will you explain that to the Music Master in there?” Julia asked him. “How about, ‘Sorry, but we don’t want the loud music to wake up Nefertiti because next week we’re going to slice her head in half to retrieve our expensive implant?’“

  Rawlston eyed Julia. He wasn’t impressed by her sarcasm, but she had obviously spent far too much time with the subject of the field trial to remain impartial. “Something tells me that when the time does come to retrieve the implant for analysis, you will be standing at the front of the queue with a machete.”

  “After all the cleaning up I’ve had to do over the past few weeks, I’d use a chain saw.”

  “You do know that if she wakes up, that might never happen?”

  “And I’m a fairy Godmother who works for an organisation that loves people,” Julia said in a light-hearted voice. And picking up a pencil from the desk, she tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Zing! You’re an expert whose every word is considered to be of momentous significance!” Then she added more bitterly, “Get serious, Sam! There’s no way her head is going to survive in one piece passed Friday!”

  Rawlston grunted. “I am being serious,” he said. “There’s a hell of a lot of money in this, and there’s no way the Corporation will just throw it all away if there’s the remotest chance of a payback.”

  “The only payback they’ll get from her is if they sell her by the pound.”

  “Not if she’s awake by Friday,” Rawlston insisted.

  “It’ll never happen. She’ll leave here just as dead as when she got here, a little more deaf maybe, but just as dead.”

  Rawlston could see that Julia was very sure of herself. But she always was. He decided to take advantage of that confidence. After all, unlike him, she didn’t know what he knew. “Would you like to bet on that?” he said.

  “Next month’s pay check?”

  “You’re on!”

  They slapped hands and then Rawlston turned to leave. “Ben will be back tomorrow,” he said as he walked to the door. “It will be up to him to decide what to do. But if that music stays on, I’m telling you, I’ll be spending your pay check next month.”

  “Nuts!” Julia replied, and turned up the volume on the monitor before Rawlston could say anything more.

  Rawlston paused at the door to glance back at her. She was already dancing on her chair again. He shook his head in dismay and left.