Read Unobtainium 1: Kate on a Hot Tin Roof for Free Online

instructed, that would be… thirty roentgens of exposure.’ Rotham quietly marvelled at the fact that Charles could just work that out in his head. ‘It’s not certain death, but she should be badly burned, nauseous… I’m going to go back in and check on her.’
    ‘Sir, I think that it would be wise–’ He stopped as a red light appeared above the door. ‘The reactor room door has been opened, sir.’
    Charles stopped pacing and looked up at the light. ‘All right, you know what’s required. We’ll need to isolate her if she’s giving off too much radiation, which I’d rather not do, but I think she’ll understand.’
    Rotham picked up a Geiger counter, the head mounted on the end of a six-foot pole, and waited. A minute or so later Kate emerged from the tunnel, dressed in her new, white shift, and turned dutifully to close the door.
    ‘Kate,’ Charles said, ‘just wait there for a moment. This is Mister Rotham and he is going to check that you are not… He’s going to make sure you did not bring any of the light out with you.’
    ‘Radiation,’ Kate said seriously as Rotham extended the pole out towards her.
    Charles smiled. ‘Indeed. I really must stop treating you like a child. You clearly have a good memory. Rotham?’
    Rotham was frowning at his instrument. ‘Uh, she appears to be clean, sir.’ He scanned the probe up to Kate’s head and then down to her feet. Then he shook the box as though he was having trouble believing what he was seeing. ‘ Too clean, if I may be so bold. The instrument is reading the background of this room, always a little higher than outside, but nothing from Miss Kate. It’s as though she had never been in the reactor room.’
    Charles walked over to Rotham and took the device from him, peering at the set of gauges on the top. He turned it off, back on again, waited for it to warm up, and peered once again at the needles.
    ‘You continue to astound me, Kate,’ Charles said, handing the box back to Rotham. ‘By rights you should be burned and sick, if not dying, but you seem to be completely unaffected.’
    ‘Burns could show up later, sir,’ Rotham pointed out.
    ‘Indeed, but that does not explain this total lack of apparent contamination.’
    ‘Agreed, sir, but I’m an engineer, not a physicist. I’ll leave the explanations to you, if you don’t mind the presumption.’
    Charles chuckled. ‘I do not, Mister Rotham. Thank you for your assistance. Come, Kate. We’ll get you back to the hospital and have you watched for a few hours. I will attempt to find a more permanent home for you now that we know what is required. I believe that there is only one place we can put you, and I am afraid that I will have to do some persuading to make it work.’
    Royal College of Surgeons, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
    ‘There are no signs of ill effects from the exposure,’ Wilberforce said. ‘I consulted one of our experts in the field and he professed disbelief. I assured him that your estimations were correct, and he agreed that you of all people would know. He believes the young lady to be either lucky beyond all women, or blessed by God Himself.’
    ‘Perhaps God did look down upon Cooper’s work and decide that it could not be allowed to stand,’ Charles allowed. ‘Sadly, He did not have more hand in Kate’s nature than He does in any of us. I swear that her father will pay for his detestable acts, but that is for another day.’ He looked around at Franklin, who was attending the hospital because Charles had requested he be there to give his opinion on Charles’s plans. ‘Inspector, you said that you had some news?’
    ‘I do, sir, and it is as disquieting as the young lady’s miraculous health.’
    Charles frowned. ‘Please, continue.’
    ‘We got a name from Cooper. Kate’s mother was named Helen Brighton and, on searching our files, we discovered the name. A known prostitute, I am sorry to say, even though she was barely eighteen. She was known to