Two more days of rest had to be endured by Kate before she could leave the hospital room behind and go up on deck to walk in fresh ocean air.
She'd walked along the corridor and back, several times each day, using a walking frame, complaining about having to wear the boots.
"They're working on it, Kate."
"Where in the world are we?" Kate asked, adding, "You have air-conditioning on so it must be hot outside..."
"Yes, we're lingering in the North Pacific Ocean, above the equator, between the Mexico and Hawaii. It's a great place to remain cloaked and out of the way of either sea-going vessels or aircraft but we're still in reach of other facilities if they need help. One of the safest oceans in the world is the Indian Ocean. They've never been disturbed when they retreat Pioneer there."
"You call this the vessel, Pioneer, but what is it exactly?"
"It's what we call an ultra-modern, floating laboratory, Kate, where we can test new inventions and not be disturbed. Your father will love it here..." Lifting his hand to his ear, he blocked the other to listen. After a minute he took his hand away and said, "We have good news for you, Kate. You can now remove your boots because adjustments have been made to our vessel's cloaking system that includes your feet as well. I confess, I found your watch and gave it to Richard —they used its technology."
"Great! I'll be able work out in the gym, won't I?"
"We'll see. One step at a time, Kate."
To walk up the stairs, wearing sneakers, without Diana's help, made Kate feel she was making good progress. The weakness she'd suffered from had gone. Diane was her constant companion and helper while Joe was given duties elsewhere.
Richard spent time with her whenever he could and their friendship progressed more positively than previously. He shared with her that he'd never been through an 'escape' experience on foot before, only in some training a few years ago. "To stay somewhere in the wilds, such as that in cave, for a whole night, it was all new to me."
"Welcome to the real world. I feel I've been running all my life, not so much physically but emotionally and spiritually. I still don't know who I am. But, yes, that chase from my home to the ocean, it was a test of all our endurance."
Unable not to banter him, Kate couldn't help joke about that trek and said, "I remember your face, Richard, when we had to jump in the river and wade, it was as though you'd been told you could never eat ice cream again. Oh, yes, I remember how you wrote and told me that you often had ice cream for breakfast..."
"You've never tasted ice cream until you've eaten the ones I have in our freezer here, Kate. I have it shipped from New Zealand."
"I'm sure you have chocolate flavor amongst them. I'll have to taste it and give you my opinion."
"How about now?"
"It must be supper time in less than an hour..."
"I can eat ice cream anywhere, anytime," Richard said.
"If you want it now, I can go with that," she said, smiling at him.
Sharing ice cream with Richard felt so right to Kate. He watched her while she tasted the 'double chocolate' flavor.
Seated on high stools at a bench in the cooks' alcove of the modern stainless-steel kitchen, with a spoon each, they chatted about each of the flavors that Bernie, the uncrowned king of the kitchen dished for them on narrow oblong plates.
The kitchen was a buzz of activity; preparations for the evening meal for all on board were in progress, enough for over fifty meals in two sittings to be served in the mess hall.
"Mmm, caramel. I don't know if I like this one more, at least I like it as much," Kate said.
"Nothing's better than double chocolate."
There were flavors of banana, peach and tamarillo, all made from real fruit. Raspberry, boysenberry and more.
"Why do you need so many?" she queried.
"Why not?" he asked, his mouth full of kiwi-fruit ice cream.
"Green?" she asked as though shocked. "It's my favorite color, but you know that already..."
The memory of that day... her not so green eyes... it hit her like a cold draft of wind then she suffered cold of another kind. "Ahhh! No. Brain freeze!"
"Put your tongue up on the roof of your mouth and flatten it out up there as long as you can, that's right, and tip your head back. Press your tongue as hard as you can and it's warmth will fix it..."
"It worked!" Kate said, opening her mouth to say more... but Diana burst into the room, followed by Joe.
"Richard, come please. We have news."
They left the kitchen and Diana sat on the stool, taking up Richard's spoon and tasting the ice cream, one half-spoon at a time, working her way along the different scoops. "The chocolate's all gone," she said, glancing across at the closed door.
"Here," Kate said, pushing Richard's plate away while moving hers to take its place. "Eat mine, I've gone off it for now."
Richard, with Joe behind him, stepped back in the room. "We need to leave, Kate. We'll all go, all four of us." He looked at Joe and said, "Tell Kate what you told me."
"I'm sorry Kate, I truly am." He stepped over and put an arm around her shoulder, moving so that he could look into her eyes, "It's your father, Kate. He mixed a cocktail of drugs that he drank and he told the doctor there that he has four, or five hours at the most before he dies and that all he wants, is to see you, and to see Richard, before his passing."
"He knows I'm alive?" Kate asked, wondering how he could know that. She couldn't absorb this news. He wouldn't die, surely not... she looked across at Richard.
"I wanted the best for him so asked Doctor Foreman to explain about your ashes not being you. Your father has known that you're alive since he came conscious and he said, before this happened, that he hoped he could see you soon. I believed it to be helpful to his recovery to know that you were not in that box in the ground."
Shock and disbelief flooded her. She couldn't find any words to say... then without thinking she asked, "Surely there's hope, do tell me it's not hopeless, that there's an antidote."
"I can't tell you that Kate, but that they're doing their best. As you know, Kate, when it comes to drugs and science, your father knows what he's doing. We can only hope that he will survive. You can come now, Kate, or not. It's your choice..."
"Yes, but can I make it in time? Four hours, only four hours... it's impossible all the way from here... You said he's in the mainland..."
"We can be there in one hour if we leave now."
"Yes, I want to see him."
The four of them boarded an SF-pod with Richard seated before the controls. As they had six-seats other than the pilot's, Richard had requested for an extra pilot with two more men to travel with them as he had a specific request from Kate's dad and would like it to be handled at the same time.
The pod was enclosed and the front from where Richard piloted had the only visible view of the outside.
The pod docked into the bunker, a little over an hour from where Kate's father lay. It had been an hour of sorrow for Kate. The man she had been victimized by, was dying. She had been beaten by him and forced to comply, to obey him, to endure his treatment, the experiments he had planted into her and removed from her at his will.
But she had depended on him as a child, believing him, that without him, she would die. She had never wanted to die, no matter what pain she had gone through. All she wanted, was to live, to please him and for him to approve of her. Then she had not only met Amma, but her body had grown passed the need of all the adjustments to compensate for her growth spurts.
She had been tied to Erick Northcote by the ties that bind a victim to the victimizer and it had been mistaken to be some kind of love that Kate imagined a daughter would have for a caring though distant father.
She now felt, even before she left the pod, that her heart had been broken and she, like him, might be better off dead. After all, he had told her again and again that she would never be able to live on without him.
If he died, she must die too.