Chapter Eleven

Looking over the cube wall, Trapper stood quietly watching Leah work on what looked like engineering schematics, wearing slacks and her pink pig slippers. He moved to the door of the cube, and when she didn’t look up, he ventured further in to the front of her work table. Still, she didn’t acknowledge him, so he cleared his throat.

“Speak,” she said, continuing with her work. When he didn’t speak, she finally looked up. “Dr. McIntyre, wha…? She closed her mouth, and sat back in her chair. “I’m sorry. I don’t get visitors. My staff just tells me what they need, and I can usually answer them without breaking my train of thought.”

“I thought you were off on weekends,” said Trapper with a frown.

“Well, I was supposed to go fishing, but someone stood me up.” Trapper winced. “It’s alright, Dr. McIntyre. I didn’t want to go anyway.”

Taking a deep breath, Trapper said, “That’s why I’m here…to apologize. I got called in early and ended up in a three hour surgery. I tried to call your apartment when I got out, but I saw your car in the parking lot. Which brings me back to my first comment; why are you here?”

She swept her arms over her desk and looked down. “Isn’t that obvious?”

“We agreed on six hours a day, Monday through Friday. It’s Saturday.”

“You wanted me to relax. Believe it or not, this is relaxing.” She gave him a defiant look, and then bent back over her work. “The quicker I get it out of my head, the better I feel. And the less I think about other things,” she added under her breath.

“I thought you were a programmer. This looks more like an electrical schematic.”

She breathed in deeply, and put her pencil down, then sat back again. “It is an electrical schematic…of sorts…only there’s a lot more to it. This is an infrastructure schematic for all the hardware and cabling required for the new system. For the second phase, I have to put new computers in all the exam rooms, operating rooms, nurse’s stations and admitting. The third phase will put computers in all the non-essential areas like the kitchen and laundry.”

“What about the labs and pharmacy?”

“Those went in the first phase along with durable and non-durable equipment, imaging and the blood bank.”

“Where is all this…infrastructure?” he asked, pointing to the center schematic.

“Haven’t you noticed the new poles? No, I suppose you haven’t. You didn’t get one. We went through your floor. They aren’t really poles. They’re conduit.” She looked at him quizzically and asked, “Do you want to see it?”

“See it?” he asked with raised brows.

“Yes. This,” she said, pointing to the middle diagram from where everything originated.

Trapper smiled. He wasn’t about to turn her down if she was actually willing to share her work with him. “I’d love to.”

Rolling away from her desk, she kicked her slippers off and pulled on a pair of plain black rubber-soled shoes, then stood and led him out of her cube and around the back of her staff’s cubes.

“Nice shoes,” he said, chuckling.

“Uh huh.”

She left him standing in darkness while she went to turn on the lights, and while he was waiting, he listened to a constant, deep hum and an occasional sound that reminded him of the centrifuge in the lab spinning. Then he heard eight sharp clicks, and with each one a bank of lights came on, starting fifty feet away and stopping over his head. His jaw dropped slightly as he took it all in. It made him feel like he had just stepped into a futuristic science fiction movie.

“This…,” she said waving her hand in front of them, “…is what all those schematics are about. This is the hospital mainframe capable of processing millions of instructions per minute. These machines run hot, so the floor is raised and the ceiling is lowered to keep a constant flow of cold air circulating around them. These cabinets down the left side are the actual mainframe computer containing the central processing units. In the middle, the shorter machines are disk drives and over on the right are magnetic tape machines. We’ve even got a few machines over there that use cartridges that look similar to an eight track tape rather than reels. Not only is the floor raised for air conditioning, but all the cables that come out of these machines travel away from here under this floor,” she said, bending and pulling up a panel, revealing a space full of cable, conduit and flashing lights. “And over here, extra electrical lines come in to power these puppies as well as T1 circuits from the phone company. That’s how we send and receive files from insurance companies, the state and federal governments and several data warehouses, and that’s how you were able to look up Dr. Avery’s patients.”

Trapper closed his mouth and jerked his head toward her. “How did you…?”

“Every time you press the enter key, what you looked at, changed or deleted is logged, Dr. McIntyre. I get an audit report on my desk every morning of anything deemed unusual, and while we’re rolling this out, I trend how the computers are being used and who’s using them.” Wearing a satisfied smile, she headed back toward the light switches. “You like your new computer, don’t you, McIntyre?”

He harrumphed and scowled while her back was to him, but the minute she could see his face, he wore an insolent smile. When they arrived back at her cube, Trapper scratched his nose and said, “I have to admit; I have a new respect for what you do here.” Noticing her struggle not to smile, he added, “And you shouldn’t try so hard not to smile. It’s been proven that the simple act of smiling relieves stress.” The corner of her mouth turned up as she studied her diagrams. “Now, what time did you get in?”

“About eight. Why?”

“Because you’ve already worked four hours on a day you weren’t supposed to work.” She looked up at him wearing an exasperated glare, causing him to raise his hands in defense. “I know you said it was relaxing, but the idea is to get you out of this basement and into the light of day.” Walking around her desk, he held out his hand. “Come on.”

“Where are we going?” she asked, removing her rubber-soled shoes and putting her high-heels on.

Trapper looked sideways at her, doubting what he heard. Was she going without a fight? “Well, I thought we’d get some lunch, and then maybe go for a drive down the coast. I’ll rent a car with a convertible top, and we’ll take in the scenery.”

“Let’s go,” she said, standing.

“Wait a minute,” he chuckled. “This is too easy. What are you up to?” he asked, moving his hands to his hips.

“It’s quite simple. The quicker I can prove to you I can relax, the quicker you’ll drop me from your little project list. Now, let’s go relax,” she said, walking out of her cube toward the elevator.

Trapper hesitated for a moment, and then followed her. “You are not a project, Leah. Why is it so bad that someone is concerned about you?”

She pushed the button and faced him with her lips pursed. “If you were so concerned about me, you wouldn’t be holding the one thing I have left over my head.” The bell rang, and she stepped into the elevator with Trapper behind her.

“Don’t give me that,” he said with an edge to his voice. “You’re not going to lose your job if you take medical leave.”

“And what else am I supposed to do?”

“Read a book, play your guitar…go fishing.”

He hadn’t noticed she had moved right next to him and was glaring up at him. “Back up a minute. Play my guitar? How do you know I play guitar?”

Flaring his nostrils, he closed his eyes and moved a hand to his head. “It doesn’t matter. The point is… Nevermind. It doesn’t matter what the point is.” He faced forward and clenched his jaw. “I’m trying to save your life while you’re trying to find a way to kill yourself without being accused of suicide. If that’s what you really want, don’t let me stop you. The rest of us can all get back to normal and forget Leah Haverty ever existed.”

Leah backed away to the far corner where she stood quietly, looking at the wall to keep him from seeing her face. When the door opened, both stood still. “I don’t feel sorry for myself. I don’t feel anything,” she said softly.

The door closed, and both remained motionless. “Not true. You’re the angriest person I’ve ever met.”