CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
“I have good news!” he announced in his usual bombastic way. “You’re going to be on TV, Clarissa.”
She just looked at him.
“You, too, Lucy.” Of course.
“Why would anyone want to put us on TV?” Mom asked, as if she knew nothing. In all the days in the no-bugs treatment room, Lucy had found out that Mom knew pretty much everything that was going on, including her and Lucy’s central roles in it. What Daniel hadn’t told her, she got from Dr. Tung before Lucy arrived. And Lucy told her the rest.
“You’re famous, Clarissa,” Arthur said without a trace of irony. He didn’t care what she found out, Lucy realized. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have left Lucy alone with Mom these last precious days. He was that sure that the two of them would go back to their imprisonment in Richmond, and anyway Mom was going to die soon. She wasn’t getting any better, even with the proper drug regimen. Arthur had to know that it was now or never for his exculpatory video. And then he’d have Lucy to rape as long as he cared to and finally toss off to some feral bachelor as a wife. They were never going to get a chance to tell the world that he’d been in the process of letting the cancer kill his wife when her death suddenly became a political liability and he had to try to save her.
For the hundredth time, Lucy mentally implored the Rescue to come and, well, rescue her and mom soon. Sylvia Giffords might be happy with an issue but Lucy had learned never to underestimate what Arthur was capable of. “People remember my brother in the blue states, and they seem to be asking what became of you,” he lied blandly, obviously not caring if Mom believed him or not. “We have an election coming up, so we’re just going to do a little video to put on the internet. You’re fine, right?”
Mom nodded.
“And so glad that Lucy’s back, so we’re just going to reassure all your old comrades that their enemy didn’t harm their hero’s wife. Happy, as well as can be expected, enjoying your reunion with your daughter. You can do that, right, Clarissa? The reunion means the world to you.” There was no mistaking the threat behind his request.
Another nod.
“Good. We’ll have the video team come to your room after your treatment and see about setting it all up. Maybe we’ll do it in the patients’ lounge.”
They had to tell Tung the party was over today, Lucy realized. However useful her disappearance was to Sylvia Giffords, Arthur was going to whisk them back to Virginia and she’d be right back where she started from. But surely the Rainbows wouldn’t let that happen. If nothing else, Evan would have a conniption. She was guessing he was already pretty upset with the risk they were running with her and mom, hanging out here in Maryland while they made propaganda hay out of her disappearance.
The tall, bearded man fussing with the infusion machine looked up.
“Ah, you’re here,” he noted as Lucy wheeled her mother into the radiation room where the treatments always were.
“Where’s Dr. Tung?” Lucy fought to keep the hysteria out of her voice.
“I’m Dr. Goodman. Dr. Tung couldn’t come today.”
Couldn’t come? Today? Lucy avoided looking at mom, for fear of revealing her rising sense of panic.
“Why not?” she asked as innocently as she could. “We loved Dr. Tung.”
“I have no idea,” Dr. Goodman responded. “The clinic called the service I work for in D. C. and asked me to do the infusion. She’ll probably be back tomorrow.”
Lucy sent a silent prayer that tomorrow would not be too late. Where was Judy Tung? Had they caught her? Was the lovely gracious woman who risked everything for the Rainbow Road now in some black site cell in Virginia, the red state right next door? Or did she really just have the flu? Did the Rescue stay in touch with her every day, so they already knew she had gone missing and would they finally -- finally -- come and get Lucy out while they were still in Maryland? She couldn’t believe it when she heard Dr. Tung say they were in Rockville. Because they had to be out of Virginia to get a regular, daily supply of the mix of medicines mom needed so she wouldn’t die before they made their video. But the minute they crossed into Virginia, Lucy – and Mom -- were doomed. How could the Rescue be so careless with her?