You can thank the seat belt that saved your life for that belly ache.”
“What happens with the broken bones?”
“For the ribs, nothing. They’ll hurt for a while and you’ll just have to take it easy. For the collarbone, we’ll put you in a brace that will keep the bones in place while they heal. You’ll need to wear it for a month or so.”
“When can I go home?”
“The head injury gives me the most concern. We’re keeping you overnight for observation.”
Sula sighed. She was ready to go now. The crowded room with the white walls made her claustrophobic. She hated being pushed around in a wheelchair, hated having decisions made for her, but she couldn’t work up the energy to protest. She hurt all over, despite the Vicodin. She felt weak, as though her body were operating under extra gravity. Every movement was a slow struggle.
After another hour, Ron came back with a padded-strap harness-like thing. “We need to get your shirt off. Would you like me to get a female nurse?”
“No, we’re okay.” Sula unbuttoned her short-sleeved denim shirt, which now had a small tear in the sleeve. She got her right arm out okay, but Ron had to help her with the left side which was attached to the broken collar bone.
Ron stood behind her and looped the brace into place. As he tightened it, her shoulders pulled back into a good-posture position, and Sula cried out with the pain.
“Sorry. I know that hurt.” Ron came around to help her get her shirt back on. “You’re lucky those cyclists saw, or actually heard, your accident.” He shook his head. “Cell phones. I thought they were the end of civilization when they first got popular, but they have saved so many lives.”
A brief memory of the yellow-clad bikers standing around as she was loaded into the ambulance came back to her. Followed by another image of the emergency technician touching her forehead. She didn’t remember much else between crawling out of the truck and arriving in the emergency room.
Apparently, she had managed to hike back up to the road, but she didn’t remember doing it.
“How are you doing? Do you need another pain pill?”
“Yes, please.” Not only was her shoulder throbbing, she wanted to stay a little fuzzy. It would keep her from thinking too much about Rudker. About the fact that he had tried to kill her and had threatened her son. If he would kill her, then he would kill Tate if she reported him. Even if they arrested Rudker, he would be released on bail. She had no proof he was the one who’d forced her off the road. She’d been too preoccupied to even notice his Jeep behind her. Rudker was rich and he had “a friend in the department”-as he had bragged. She was charged with stealing from Prolabs, and the police might think she was blaming Rudker as a payback.
“Here you go, honey.” Ron was back with another Vicodin. Sula sat up and reached for it. “Do you have any kids Ron? You seem like you’d be a good dad.”
“A daughter, but she’s in college now.” He looked sad, and Sula was sorry she’d asked. He seemed so nurturing, she wanted to pour her heart out to him. The thought surprised her. It usually took her a while to get comfortable with people. Even then, she didn’t talk about herself much.
“Let me know if you need anything else.” He patted her hand.
“Find out when I can go home.”
“Okay.” Ron left and Sula lay down and closed her eyes to wait.
Chapter 32
Late that afternoon, Rudker drove up McBeth and passed by the scene of Sula’s accident. There was nothing to indicate anything out of the ordinary had taken place. He wanted to call the hospital to find out what had happened to her, yet he hesitated and he didn’t know why. He didn’t like having ambiguous feelings. Or being afraid of anything. As he headed back into town his cell phone rang. “Rudker here.”
“It’s Pete Zamanski.”
Rudker was immediately alarmed. Zamanski was Prolabs’ head IT guy, and he had never called him outside the office.
“Why are you calling me on a Saturday night?”
“I’m in the building installing an upgrade. I have to do this when no one’s using the server.”
“What’s going on?”
“We have a security problem.”
Rudker’s panic escalated. “I’m on my way in. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
That’s what you get for getting cocky, the voice taunted.
“Shut up!”
Rudker entered the building, rode up to the second floor, and strode to the large office space housing the IT offices and computer servers.
Zamanski was twenty-nine, prematurely bald, and borderline genius. He was also excitable as a puppy and his enthusiasm made Rudker twitchy. Just being in the same room with the geek and all his monitors and servers and cable lines snaking across the floor made Rudker uncomfortable. Yet a possible security breach demanded his attention.
“What’s the problem?” Rudker stood near the door.
“A hacker has been into our database.”
“And did what?”
“He accessed clinical trial records.” Zamanski’s eyes never left the main monitor.
“Which ones?”
“He searched the entire database but only opened files relating to Nexapra studies.”
Rudker’s blood pressure spiked, making his ears ring. “What files?” He thought he’d erased the Rios entries immediately after Warner approached him with the genetic data. Has something gone wrong?
“Research sites, clinician names, and contact information.”
Sula, that little bitch. Why wouldn’t she stop? “Anything else?”
“I believe he also took a look at our payroll data but nothing was tampered with. It was spying pure and simple. No worms or viruses left behind.”
“Any patient files?”
“Not that I’ve determined.” Zamanski looked perplexed. “He didn’t look at any R amp;D data either, so I don’t think it was a competitive intelligence mission. I’m stumped about who or why. It’s not the work of your typical hacker.”
“How did he, or she, get in?”
“A Trojan horse.” The IT guy blushed a little. “Through an e-mail to you.”
“Me?”
“Yes. I told you to let us run a full filter on your e-mail, but you said no.”
“Fix the problem, whatever it is. I don’t want this to happen again.”
Rudker left the IT department and walked out of the building with a clear sense of purpose. Using the stolen cell phone, he called information and got the number for North McKenzie. He dialed the hospital.
“A friend of mine was in an accident this morning and I’m trying to find out if she’s all right.”
“What’s her name?”
“Sula Moreno.”
It was a good five minutes before the woman came back on. “She’s been admitted for overnight observation but she’s fine. A few broken bones and some bruising. She should be going home tomorrow.
Rudker was disappointed but undeterred. Sula had thwarted him for the last time. He would not walk away from her until she had taken her last breath.
Chapter 33
