Read Online Heart Stopper by R J Samuel - Free Book Online Page B

informal with each other, an attitude encouraged by Daniel, but obviously not by James from now on. “This is an extremely serious matter. It is a breach of the security of this clinic, of our research partners, and most of all,” he used a JR monogrammed handkerchief to wipe his brow, “of the strict security standards of TechMed Devices.”
    “It went right out of my head when I f...” she corrected herself quickly, “When Daniel died.” She was discovering she really was no good at this business of secrets; she’d almost said when I found Daniel .
    “I understand we have all been through an incredibly difficult time, in fact, are still going through it. But this happened before he died.”
    “James, sorry, Dr. Reddington, it was the first time I’ve ever done that. I couldn’t explain what I felt was wrong with the figures and - ?”
    “ Felt ?”
    “Yes, I still can’t really explain it. I didn’t get a chance to go through the papers what with Tara’s birthday and then Daniel...” She added, “And my flu over the weekend.”
    “ Felt , Dr. Joseph?”
      “I’ve always had this thing for figures and their order. It helps my coding. I see the numbers as pictures, images, paintings. There’s a flow and an order that is really quite beautiful,” she hurried on when she saw his expression, “well, I was looking at the code from the Program Controller II, and I felt this, this... bump… Like you’ve got a bit of blackberry seed stuck in between your teeth and your tongue seems to go to it no matter what you’re doing...”
    “Priya...!”
    “Sorry, I need to look at the code again before I can say whether there is a concrete reason to worry. You can understand, can’t you, why I couldn’t go to Daniel without looking properly?”
    “I certainly can if you were going to regale him with stories of blackberry misadventures.” James almost smiled as he said it. Priya was relieved to see the slight thaw.
      But he continued almost immediately, “However, we still have a major breach of security.”
    He planted his elbows on the desk and rested his face in his hands. He stared at the folder open in front of him. “Leave the files with me, I need to look through them and see what has been exposed.” He looked up at her and she squirmed at the annoyance in his eyes. “You know I’m also going to have to tell Gerry and Valerie and see what they think should be done.”
    James frowned. “And Daniel’s grandfather. I’m going to have to fill him in. I guess he’s the one who’ll take over Daniel’s role.”
    Priya asked, “Can I have a copy of the file? I could look through it and see if I can find anything.”
    James looked at her for a long moment and then nodded. “Obviously, even I won’t be able to save your job if you take the copy out of this building.”
    Priya said, “I’m really sorry, James, I’ve never done anything like this before and I definitely won’t again.”
    “You may not have the chance to, Dr. Joseph. You may not have the chance.” His voice was tired as he came round the desk to usher her out of his office.
    ∞
     
    It was 8 pm and Priya was exhausted. Daniel sitting there dead, his unseeing gaze, Reyna’s accusing stare, Catherine’s questions, unknown hands violating her possessions, and now a possibly imploding career. The events of the past week were blurring into a haze of images, all bad. This didn’t help her in her quest to analyze the figures from the study. She hadn’t realized how reliant she was on the use of imagery that she’d described to James. And the numbers were just not cooperating. They seemed strangely reluctant to be painted onto the canvas. She sat twirling her pen, balancing its arc on her thumbnail.
    She was staring at the jumble of numbers on the screen, when Aidan walked in. He hesitated when he saw her.
    “Sorry, I was just looking for Tara,” he said.
    “She was off today. Can I help you?”
    “No, no, it’s okay.