Trapping the Gazelle

Chapter 2

Kiera settled herself down on the couch with a sigh. Retying the bathrobe around her body, unwrapping the towel from her head, and running fingers through her copper colored hair. Kiera stretched out her left knee gently, grimacing a bit at the soreness.

"Thought the bath would have helped." Kiera said to herself moving her knee a bit more.

During her bath, she did notice a palm sized bruise on her left hip and a scraped elbow.

"All and all I believe I was very lucky." Kiera said lying back against the couch, but somehow she felt she was not lucky at all. Thinking back to the incident in the intersection. She could not understand why the vehicle missed her.

"Could the person have just not been paying attention?" Kiera said tapping her chin, "No I don't think so, and the person was flashing the lights at me. Well I better call the police and report it."

Kiera leaned over and picked up the phone from the coffee table. She pressed the number for the Saint Ives Police department and pressed connect. She waited a bit for the connection.

"Saint Ives Police Department," A male voice spoke over the phone, "This is Officer Jamison the duty desk officer, and how may I help you?"

"Good morning Officer Jamison, I'm Doctor Kiera Reid, and I need to report an attempted hit and run." Kiera explained.

"Give me a minute while I pull up the necessary documents." Jamison said and Kiera heard the clicking of keys, "Okay you said an attempted hit and run, correct?"

"Yes." Kiera replied while using the towel to dry her hair.

The Officer asked Kiera to explain what had happened. Having experience in investigations, Kiera was able to give an accurate detail of the incident. She wanted to give her insight into the incident, but knew the Officer would want only the facts.

"I did get a good description of the vehicle as well," Kiera said as she finished her statement and not waiting for the Officer to ask, Kiera explained, "It was a dark grey land rover, license plate W619 AKZ."

"That will help the detective," Officer Jamison said and Kiera could tell by his voice that he was impressed, "You seemed to have given statements before." Kiera heard him chuckle.

"It is not my first rodeo." Kiera replied, thinking back to her days in the CIA when she had to submit reports, which needed to be clear and consist.

"Did you seek medical help?" Jamison asked.

Kiera shook her head bringing herself back to the present, "No, I only received a few bruises."

"Were there any witnesses?"

"Steve Kop and Todd Ferguson were fishing at the pier when the incident occurred." Kiera answered.

"Thank you Doctor Reid, I will pass the statement onto the Detective and he might call you with further questions."

"Thank you Officer Jamison and have a great day." Kiera said and hung up the phone.

Kiera tossed the phone down on the coffee table and stood up stretching her knee again. It felt better, but still sore.

"Meow," Kiera heard Ginger announce.

"Don't give me that tone of voice, Mister." Kiera scolded, "It is not my fault that the person drove like a maniac."

Kiera saw Ginger give her a sidelong look, turn around, and pad off into the kitchen. Kiera took a deep sign, walked into her bedroom and dressed.

After dressing in some loose sweatpants and a t-shirt, Kiera walked into her office and glanced at the clock. She noticed the clock read 8 o'clock. Opening the laptop on her desk, she took a deep sigh and scrolling over to the Skype icon.

'Better get this over with.' Kiera thought as she sipped on her coffee.

She clicked on the icon and scrolled through the list of contacts until she found her parents number. Taking a deep breath she clicked the connect button and waited for the connection to go through. Holding her breath, she thought it would not connect. Suddenly her mom's face appeared on the screen.

"Hello Ma." Kiera said trying to keep the anxious tone out of her voice. She was not sure how they would take the news.

"Why are you calling so early today, dear?" Fiona asked with a skeptic voice.

Kiera noticed her mother eyeing her suspiciously, "I have wonderful news to share, so please get Da." Kiera smiled to make it less noticeable how anxious she felt.

"James be a dear and come over here, your daughter has news." Kiera saw Fiona look to her right and call out to James.

When her father appeared on the screen, he smiled wide. This reaction caused Kiera to smile wide. Kiera also saw her mom frown slightly. Kiera knew that Fiona and herself never saw eye to eye. James always said they were too much alike.

"Hi honey, what is the news?" James asked and gave Fiona a kiss on the cheek.

'Here goes nothing.' Kiera thought and took a deep breath.

"I'm engaged." Kiera announced holding up her left, smiling wider and feeling a tear form in the corner of her eye.

"Oh my," Fiona said, smiling and clapping her hands, "Who is the lucky chap?"

"Ryan," Kiera responded and swallowed hard. Because the smile dropped from her mom's face. Even though her mom felt Kiera was somehow responsible for the break up. Fiona came to understand what had happened and did everything in her power to villainize Ryan.

"Ryan?" Fiona asked flatly, "As in Ryan Westbrook."

"That is the only Ryan I know." Kiera retorted feeling heat rise in her cheeks.

"The Ryan who left you, never tried to contact you and left you broken..." Fiona said, but James cut her off.

"How did it happen?" James asked placing a hand on his wife's shoulder to calm her down.

"We found each other here in England. He explained everything to me and we are now engaged." Kiera said, but knew the explanation sounded false.

"What do you mean by found each other?" Fiona asked with a cautious tone.

"What does it matter Ma, I forgave Ryan and we are getting married." Kiera retorted feeling anger rise up in her. She felt her hands shaking with fury.

'I have to calm down." Kiera thought taking a deep breath to stop her hands from shaking.

"Your Ma and I are very happy for you two." James interceded again knowing the danger signs of his daughter. "We were taken by surprise. I'm sure you could understand."

"Yes Da, I do understand and I'm sorry Ma for acting defensive." Kiera apologized and sipped her coffee.

"We have to have an engagement party then." Fiona suggested, "I'm thinking we should have it here at the ranch."

"Ma you don't have..."

Fiona interrupted her, "You are my only daughter. I want to do this for you too."

"We really don't..."

James interrupted her too, "Let your Ma do this, it is important to her."

Kiera pushed her glasses back up and sighed, "Okay, but can you please keep it small." Kiera pleaded.

"Of course dear," Fiona replied as she smiled genuinely. "How about a Christmas day engagement party outside, the weather as been perfect here and we can set up a tent."

"I think that would be wonderful." Kiera nodded wiping a tear that slipped down her cheek.

"What is wrong dear?" Fiona asked with a concerned voice.

"Nothing, I'm really happy and I can't believe that we found each other again." Kiera said in a choked voice.

"Dear," James responded, "True love always finds a way."

"You're father," Fiona sighed shaking her head, "always the hopeless romantic."

"That's what brought us together." James responded with a warm smile and a kiss on her cheek.

Kiera saw her Ma roll her eyes, the smiled too.

"What are you working on now?" Kiera asked changing the subject. "You seemed excited in your last email."

Fiona answered right away and her eyes brightened with enthusiasm, "We are working on a new strain of bacteria."

"What new strain of bacteria?" Kiera asked giving them an interested look.

"Remember the virus I told you about in the last email." Fiona asked impatiently.

"Right the virus, but now it's a bacteria." Kiera repeated, but sounded confused.

"Well we were able to modify the genetic makeup of the bacteria." James explained, "The virus was proving to be unpredictable and resistance to change. So we changed tact and decided to work with bacteria."

"What are you talking about?" Kiera asked feeling her head spin with confusion over the information.

"I really do not know how she manages." Fiona sighed, but was also smiling, "The daughter of two renowned genetic scientist and she does not even know the difference between a virus and bacteria."

"Well biological science was not my forte." Kiera replied, "What are you doing with the bacterium."

"We are trying to program the bacteria for a specific person, race, or gender based off their genetic makeup." Fiona explained over the laptop and continued, "Then we can place the bacteria strain into a person. The altered bacteria can be programmed to remove abnormities in that person by embedding itself into the host's DNA."

"What abnormities could this bacterium remove?" Kiera asked, slowly understanding.

"Anything that genetic in the host or their offspring," Fiona answered, "For example removing physical or mental disorders and possibly rare diseases. It can be a cure for the people now and in the future."

"Or it could be used as a weapon?" Kiera probed, as she slowly understood the implications of their research.

"A cure," Fiona corrected, "Not a weapon my dear."

"But it could be used as a weapon." Kiera pressed on, "Since the designer bacteria can be used to target the genetic road map of a specific race, person, or gender."

"Yes dear, any bacteria or virus could be used a weapon for bioterrorism." Fiona sighed answering her daughter's train of thought, "The difference is we designed this strain of bacteria with a failsafe."

"What kind of failsafe." Kiera asked leaning back in her chair. She pinched the bridge of her nose trying to wrap her mind around the whole idea of this new bacterium.

"We can't talk about that right now over an unsecured line." Her father explained, "I would be happy to explain it to you when arrive at the ranch."

Kiera sensing that her parents wanted to response to this indirect question. She answered with, "We can be at the ranch in about two weeks. It will be great to see you both."

"We can't wait to see Ryan again." Fiona replied with a sigh of relief and a warm smile.

"It has been quite a long time." James added and Kiera saw he too looked visibility relieved.

"It will be wonderful," replied Kiera, "I can't wait to tell Ryan. By the way anything from my blood test from a few months ago."

"I thought we emailed those results to you." James replied scratching his head.

"I did not get anything about it. I believe the last one you sent me was a cat playing a keyboard." Kiera replied with a smirk.

"James," Fiona rolled her eyes, "I told you to stop sending those videos."

"They are funny and are daughter loves them." James protested.

"Yes da they are funny, but the test results?" Kiera inquired.

"Your results were good my dear," Fiona answered quickly, but Kiera had the sense that they were hiding something.

"What are you not telling me?" Kiera asked giving them a stern look.

"It was nothing," Fiona said, but Kiera knew it was something, "The proteins count in your blood was a bit low." Fiona explained and continued before Kiera could ask anything, "It is nothing to worry about, and it could be a number of things. You suffered severe stress on your last assignment with the CIA. We will take another round of blood in two weeks when you come to the ranch. Don't worry about it."

"Oh, okay." Kiera replied slowly, "Are you sure it is okay?"

"Yes dear," James added, "You are not in any danger from the low proteins."

"Well we have a lot of work to do," Fiona said, "So we will see you and Ryan in two weeks." Her mom and dad blew her kisses. Kiera blew them a kiss back and disconnected. When the call disconnected Kiera closed her laptop. Taking a deep breath, she felt something wet on her upper lip. Touching her lip with her fingers, she looked and saw blood on her fingertips.

"Damn," Kiera said standing up and walking towards the bathroom, "It has been a while since I had a nose bleed."

Pulling out tissue and holding it to her nose she thought about her parent's new research. It really did sound fascinating, but potentially dangerous in the wrong hands. Wiping her nose, she discovered that it had stopped bleeding. Her stomach growled and she realized that with everything going on this morning, she had not eaten breakfast yet. Limping into the kitchen, she made breakfast for herself.