The Perfect Pathogen Read Online Free Page A

tonight?” 
    There
were moans all around. It was the beginning of the school year and the teachers
had been piling on the homework. The kids seemed to complain every evening. Rob
thought back to when he was in school and it seemed there just wasn’t as much
homework back when he was a kid. But maybe that was just his mind forgetting
the bad parts and remembering the good parts, as our memories seem to do.
    “Well,
you can all take thirty minutes off and then it’s down to work, which means TV
goes off and you go to your desks.”
    They
all agreed reluctantly, but they knew dad wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Better to just agree than to suffer the consequences, ridiculous as the
consequences may be.
    At
about a quarter past seven, Rob received a call from Katie. “I should be home
in about forty-five minutes. Do you need me to get anything?”
    “Only
if you want something special for dinner. I don’t guess you want to have
chicken nuggets and fries, like we had.”
    “No,
I think I’ll just stop at Subway and pick up a sandwich.”
    “How
is the lady in the hospital?”
    “Not
too good. I am a little concerned. We can talk about it when I get home. I have
about a thousand emails I need to go through also, so I expect to be up late.
Luckily I don’t have any lecture to prepare for tomorrow.”
    “How
did your presentation go today,” asked Rob.
    “Pretty
well. I got a lot of positive comments and only about half of the audience fell
asleep. Not bad for this group, if you know what I mean.”
    “Well,
you can tell me more when you get home,” Rob said. “See you in a little while.
Love you.”
    They
both hung up and Rob thought it was time to check on the kids’ progress on
their homework. He went into Hope’s room to see how she was doing. He was
always amazed at the diligence with which she did her work. She was busy
working on an assignment to design a presentation that would explain the
advantages and disadvantages of doing business with a make believe company. She
liked to show her work to her dad, and she hoped that someday she would be a
successful business person like him. Based on his quick review of her homework,
Rob felt she was well on her way. It seemed there was nothing she couldn’t
master, given the opportunity and time. Indeed, Rob had designed his work and
life around giving Hope every advantage that a normal kid has, and it was
paying off.
    Rob
and Katie were planning on moving Hope into the new independent living facility
at the Center as soon as it was finished. It was actually Hope’s idea to build
the living units on the site of the training Center. She hoped to move into an
apartment in the Center of Prince Frederick early next year. This would give
her access to the stores, library, theater, and swimming pool facility. It was
her dream to live on her own. Well sort of. She didn’t want to actually be on
her own completely, for she had a friend in a wheelchair who was paralyzed
below the waist and the two of them wanted to share an apartment. Rob thought
it was a good idea for her to have company and they both could help each other
out. They each had their own strengths that complemented the other’s
weaknesses.
    Rob’s
musings were interrupted by a phone call. He thought that maybe Katie had
forgotten to tell him something.
    “Hi,
this is Doctor Howard at University Hospital. I would like to speak to Dr.
Katie McMann. I promised I would call her if the patient’s condition changed.
Please have her give me a call at her earliest opportunity.”
    “Any
message?” asked Rob.
    “No,
just have her give me a call. Thank you. Good bye.”
    The
doctor hung up the phone and Rob was left holding the receiver in his hand,
assuming that the lady from the conference had taken a turn for the worse.
    A
few minutes later Katie walked in. “What a busy day,” she said. “I thought it
would never end.”
    “Well,
it hasn’t,” said Rob. “Dr. Howard at the hospital called. He would