13: Double Danger

If Verna had not been resting her head on his shoulder, he probably would have leapt up and strangled Wendy when she walked in still clad in smart navy shorts and deck shoes. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the look on his face. Fear crossed her face.

The man she walked with Verna recognized as Herman Schwartz, the dean of sciences at the UW. He recognized her too. “Hello Verna,” he said warmly.

“Hi.” She turned to Travis. “Trav, this is the Dean of Sciences at the university, Herman Schwartz. Herman this is Zane’s father, Travis Burns.”

Travis nodded.

“I’m sorry to be meeting you under such circumstances,” the professor said. Then he told them he was going to look for Ford, whom he called Anna.

Travis refused to talk to Wendy after he said, “You should have been there.”

Verna was more tolerant and told her all that had happened, leaving out the gravity of the virus’s potential damage in Zane’s body. She figured Herman could describe the impact.