Bad Nerd Falling Read Online Free PDF

English,” Tia replied.
    “ I did.”
    “ What Maria is trying to
say, but isn’t doing very well, is that there’s a weird gene or
something in the de Leos line that every once in a while produces
men like Vlad.”
    “ It pops up randomly?”
Tilting her head like that, Tia looked more like a model at a photo
shoot than a scientist, but there was no doubt the woman was all
brains at the moment. She recognized that deep-thinking
face.
    “ That’s what genes do,
love.” Maria smoothed a hand through her already sleek
hair.
    “ So you think Vlad is a
throwback from another generation?”
    “ Oh no.” She shook her
head. “He’s definitely a man of this era. His skills are probably
pretty impressive—it’s just that he’s so complicated.”
    “ I’ve never understood
Vlad. He’s very different from my other children.”
    Her stomach twisted. “The problem is
he’s always been aware of the fact he didn’t quite fit in
here.”
    “ And Graham and I worked
very hard to make him feel like a part of the family.” Maria’s
voice was so sad her stomach twisted again.
    “ Did Vlad know?” Tia’s
innocent question didn’t ease the pain.
    Maria’s smile tried to wrench her
stomach or heart, she couldn’t figure out which organ, right from
her body. “Of course he knew.”
    “ Wow, and I thought
growing up with the Apes was bad,” Tia said, referring to her three
older brothers.
    ***
    Tapping out another command at the
main computer, Vlad watched the screen. Helena’s face filled it.
Then she turned and headed to the huge sterile hood. There were no
cameras there, because he didn’t want to compromise the sterility
and use of the hood.
    The entire purpose of the cameras was
to maintain the safety of the personnel who worked there. Not spy
on the lab staff, even if one of them was the woman he wanted above
all others. He yanked his attention from her and moved
on.
    He clicked another series of keys and
another camera scene popped up. Emerson was in the kitchen,
speaking with one of the many employees. No matter what time of
day, it seemed someone was up and about in the palace. It was a
vast place with as many priceless antiques as prestigious museums.
Most of these antiques had been passed down from generation to
generation, and yet were in pristine condition.
    Just these items, not to mention their
gems—some of the best in the world—made Rurikstan a very tasty
morsel. If you factored in all those and added his brother Maks’
genius with investments you had a formula for disaster. Thinking of
Maks caused more key tappings. Vlad next watched kids playing
together in the nursery.
    Apparently Tia had been surprised to
learn there was no formal childcare program here and she quickly
established a daycare like he had seen often in America. Now most
of the staff with children participated and it worked very well.
Emerson and Maks both had kids in the program. That left their
wives free to work or attend to other things on the days they chose
to participate. Emerson’s wife, Karis, was a nurse practitioner and
Sara, Maks’ wife, was a college professor. Sara returned to
teaching on a part-time basis.
    He typed the commands to return to the
lab cameras. One area of concern was the lab. In an attack, there
weren’t many escape routes for the lab personnel. They had to flee
across the hall for the nearest route. That wasn’t acceptable.
Frowning at the screen, he checked out each camera’s view and
reassessed every area of the lab. In the back corner there was a
storage closet that none of them much used because there was a
stainless steel table in front of the door.
    But one of the closet walls contained
a secret panel that emptied onto a small antechamber that in turn
offered at least two, but possibly three different escape routes.
Over the last week or so Vlad had seen every one of them use that
table, so the table was more important than the storage closet. Yet
hadn’t he seen at least one hazard