Research
“Maybe you should call Mrs Williams,” Tomoe said, placing a hand on her husband’s shoulder.
“I was thinking that, but I don’t think Dr. Kimishima would appreciate being called over such a trivial matter.” Erhard looked out of the window. The sunlight filtered into the office through the blinds, illuminating his red eyes. Even after being freed, seeing the sun made him think of how beautiful the world could be.
“It isn’t trivial, Erhard. Countless lives hang in the balance. She would want to help, I’m sure.”
“We don’t know that.”
“But it’s worth a shot, no?”
Erhard sighed, and moved to pick up the phone on his desk. He punched in the number for Naomi’s household, and let it ring.
“Hello, this is Navel Williams speaking. How may I help?”
“Hello, Mr Williams. May we speak to Naomi?”
The man on the other end of the line seemed surprised. “Oh - um - yeah of course. Who’s calling?”
“Erhard and Tomoe Müller from Resurgam First Care.”
“Oh, the doctors. Right, give me two seconds,” Navel put the doctors on hold. Erhard put his face in his hands as the irritatingly preppy hold music came on. Tomoe rubbed his back and sat down beside him.
“It’ll be fine. I’m sure Dr. Williams told her about it already,”
“Yeah.”
The music stopped, and the line crackled as it changed to the speaker.
“Tomoe? Kid?”
Erhard took his hands away from his face. “Dr. Kimishima.”
“Good afternoon. How can I help you?”
“We’ve confirmed that Post-Rosalia exists,” Tomoe began. “One of our doctors - Harrison Blaylock-Vaughn - collapsed in the corridor earlier. He showed no symptoms prior to the collapse; so either he was hiding it extremely well or there genuinely were no symptoms.”
“I see. And you called me because?”
“You lead the research for the cure last time.” Erhard said. “How do you think we should go about this?”
Naomi was quiet for a while. They heard a shout of ‘Oh my GOD dad, really?!’ in the background, and a deep laugh from someone else.
“I apologise, it seems my husband can’t stop being childish,” Naomi covered the mic with her hand. “Aaron! Stop shouting, I’m on a work call!”
Tomoe laughed. “It’s quite alright, Dr. Kimishima. We know what it’s like.”
“I’m sure. As much as I’d like to catch up, we do need to address the matter at hand.”
“Yes. What do you propose we do?”
“I think you should send some of the kids back to Mexico. We didn’t pick up everything from Albert’s lab when we were there.”
“You’re proposing...we send some of the doctors to Dr. Sartre’s lab?” Tomoe asked.
“Yes. I’m aware that you have created a ‘Trauma Team’ for this? Kind of like the Special Disease Counteraction Team at Caduceus?”
“Yes.” Erhard thought for a second. “That’s a good idea, actually. Thank you Naomi.”
“It’s no problem. And Erhard?” Erhard’s hand hovered above the ‘end call’ button. “Keep my son safe.”
“I’ll do my best, Dr. Kimishima.” He ended the call. Tomoe looked at him, lost in thought.
“Who do we send to Mexico?” She asked eventually.
“I was thinking that we send Dr. Blaylock-Vaughn. She could do with the distraction from her brother’s illness, and her analytical mind could be useful.”
“And who else? We can’t send her alone.”
“Evie Stiles, obviously. The CIFM gave her to us, and her expertise in the investigative field could prove helpful. And...” Erhard trailed off.
“And?”
“You won’t like this, but I was thinking of sending Hana. I could give her information, and a map. I wouldn’t really trust anyone else. Juliet’s too young and we just promised Mrs Williams that we’d keep her son safe.”
Tomoe nodded reluctantly. “She’s our only choice. I swear, if anything happens to her-“
“She’ll be okay.”
“She better be,” Tomoe turned and put her hand on the doorknob. Her kimono swished and for a second, Erhard was transported back to the day that he met her. The spell was quickly broken when she turned around. Her face was no longer youthful, but weathered with years of seeing life and death. Like any doctor’s would be.
“Will you tell them?” Erhard asked.
“If you wish,” Tomoe replied. Erhard nodded, and his wife left the room.