“See? What’d I tell you?” Cate said immediately to Harm once they were outside. “So I’m going to those hot springs. Sounds like a good place to soak. And the lady the same as said I’m totally okay.”
“What the lady didn’t realize was that you’ve got a head harder than rock and can’t be trusted to show good judgment.” But Harm was back to ribbing her. His whole mood eased after she’d been given a decent bill of health. He hooked an arm around her shoulder as they strolled up the street toward the waterfall and springs.
“So now we can concentrate on murder and madness,” she said with satisfaction. “Now
Cate didn’t argue. Right then, although she’d never admit it aloud, she felt too darned weak to walk all the way back to the boat. She figured the short trek to the springs was all she could handle.
That didn’t mean she wasn’t going to help him, though.
He didn’t have a choice in the matter.
Chapter 8
Harm climbed on the rock behind Cate and stopped dead still. The harbor and town were nice enough, but no one would guess the view beyond the slope and into the trees.
The trek wasn’t long from the P.A.’s place. The splash of a silver waterfall was always in sight, tumbling over rocks and glistening off pines, but the sudden path leading to the shaded glen was like a step into a mystic paradise. Pools carpeted the rocky landscape, a half dozen or more. Warm, fragrant steam rose from each one. Ferns and pines caught the occasional ribbon of sunlight from above. Spears of light reflected on dripping ferns and moss, the magic interrupted only-only-by the raucous sound of men’s laughter.
A few other people were wandering around, but Ivan, Hans, Yale, Purdue and Arthur had staked out one sizable pool next to the waterfall. They whistled and hooted hellos the instant the newcomers were spotted. Cate, in spite of the bandage on her head, started laughing. “Well, if this isn’t a skinny-dipping paradise.”
Harm scowled. It was. The captain had advised the guys to bring bathing suits and towels, but that didn’t mean they had-and the drifts of steam floating above the water was hardly concealing. Worse yet, Cate pushed off her shoes and started tugging off her jacket.
“Wait a minute,” he said with alarm.
She shot him a grin. “Afraid I’m naked under this, handsome?”
That’s exactly what he was afraid of. She hadn’t done much yet to convince him that she wasn’t fearless to the point of foolhardy-not to mention that he didn’t want anyone seeing her naked but him.
A path of slippery, wet rocks led to the pool. Harm was never less than a step behind Cate, stripping as fast as she was, hustling to keep up with her. As she shimmied out of her pants, he saw with relief that she wore exercise shorts and a T-shirt. It was a long way from the neck-to-toe covering he wished she were wearing, but at least the essentials were shielded. And the guys, of course, were looking.
Before he could stop her-not that he could have-she’d edged over the rocks and into the pool. “Harm…” She reached back for his hand, which just happened to be right where she could reach it. He steadied her as she sank in, right up to her neck. She released a long, blissful sigh.
“Wow. This feels like total heaven and then some…especially on some of these bruises. I’m never leaving. Maybe someone can bring us food and drink up here.”
The guys started a steady round of joking, but the serenity of the place eventually quieted everyone. The ceiling of green pines, the warm springs, the impossibly fresh air seemed to melt everyone’s stress. Even Harm unwillingly started to relax. Cate’s nearness could have worn down a stone. Her knee kept brushing his, her shoulder, as if she were deliberately staying in touch with him, communicating underwater something private and real…
At least until she suddenly piped up with a question for the group. “Hey, you guys, while we’re all together, I want to hear some more about this cancer drug you all created.”
He figured he’d misheard her. Someone had pushed her from the top deck last night. She couldn’t possibly be thinking about baiting a bear.
“Seems crazy to talk about work on a gorgeous day like this,” Purdue said lazily.
“Especially when we’ve got a half-naked goddess among us,” Yale concurred.
Harm leveled his youngest employee with a razor-sharp stare, but Cate only chuckled. She leaned back, closed her eyes. “You’re right about the goddess, guys. But I lost my family so young. Maybe it wasn’t from cancer, but I relate to how awful it is to lose loved ones. How helpless you feel when you can’t do anything about it. Even how angry. And yet your team picked a couple of the toughest cancers…”
“That was Dougal’s doing. Harm’s uncle,” Arthur shared. “He lost his wife to cancer. That was his motivation.”
“And for the rest of us,” Purdue said, “it wouldn’t have been any fun to pick the easy cancers to work with.”
“There are easy cancers?”
“Not easy.” Yale was starting to rev up now. It was always hard for him to resist talking about his favorite subject. “Most people don’t have a reason to understand cancer-that it isn’t one illness or one thing. It’s a whole class of diseases. The only thing they have in common is that a bunch of cells suddenly grow out of control. The key answer is always why. We know environment and heredity are primary factors, but there’s more to it.”
Purdue picked up the thread. “Basically, there are four main kinds. Carcinomas are malignant tumors that grow from a base of epithelial cells. They’re the most common. They’re like-breast, prostate, lung, colon. Then there are sarcomas. Those are malignant tumors that grow from connective tissue.”
“Then there’s lymphoma and leukemia,” Yale interjected. “Essentially, those emanate from blood-forming cells. And then there are germ-cell tumors. Those come from totipotent cells…”
“Okay, okay. Overloading,” Cate said. “You’re getting too complicated for me. Just go back to one of the cancers you’re working on. Like pancreatic. What makes that one different?”
Even Arthur got into it now. “For one thing, it’s one of the toughest to cure. It’s also one of the worst killers. It’s just plain ugly.”
Cate nodded. “Now, you’re talking language I can understand. But what makes that cancer so hard to cure?”
“Three things,” Purdue said. “All about the cells. They’re tiny and they grow like weeds and they hide. Actually, it’s the hiding factor that’s always been the worst problem.”
“But you guys found an answer for that?”
“Exactly.” Yale leaned his head back. “It’s complicated. But to put it in basic terms, what we discovered was a chemical that turned on those sucker-small cells. They grow neon bright when exposed, even through dense tissue.”
Harm held his breath. None of them talked this way to outsiders, primarily because of security and privacy. And they shouldn’t. But Cate was somehow able to charm money from a beggar…and he hungered for the chance to hear how each of the men responded.
“So how’d you all find this formula where nobody else could?” Cate asked.
“Initially, it was Dougal’s breakthrough-Harm’s uncle. He didn’t have the formula pinned down, but he established the breakthrough idea. Then when he got ill, Purdue took over some of the lab work. Then me. Took a while before we were getting consistent results. Then we started the real trials.”
“Which was…when?”
“Over the last two years. The compound passed every damn test we could put it through. We have it. We
Arthur said, “I’m roasting here. Think I’m getting out, wandering back toward the ship.”
The comment came out of the blue, stopped the discussion cold-and started an exodus. Simultaneously, the guys started to move, standing up, groaning when their flesh suddenly contacted cool-cold fresh air. Instead of joining the others, Cate leaned her head back and closed her eyes.
