No Time to Die by Kira Peikoff Read Free Book Online Page B

what I’m talking about. I can tell you want to.”
    She hugged the book to her chest gratefully. “ ‘Why’ was my first word,” she said. “My grandpa is forever proud of that.”
    Gramps . She couldn’t wait to go home and collapse into his arms. He would be the air above water.
    â€œI should go,” she said, sliding off the examining table. Her feet dropped to the floor with a shaky thud.
    â€œCall me when you’re ready to go forward, or if you need anything at all,” Dr. Carlyle said, handing her a card emblazoned in black with his personal contact information, including his cell phone number. “I’m going to recommend your case to my colleagues at NIH. The Undiagnosed Diseases Program—you might have heard of it.”
    She smiled. “That’s how I found you. I did my research, too.”
    â€œThen we’re a good team.” He patted her shoulder as she walked to the door. “I’m looking forward to hearing from you,” he said. “Assuming you do want to proceed,” he added. “You do, don’t you?”
    She turned around to face him, but he held up a hand.
    â€œDon’t feel pressured to answer just yet,” he said. “What you choose to do with your body is obviously up to you.”
    â€œIs it?” she asked. “If I’m really only fourteen?” Every time she spoke the number felt like an aftershock.
    His frown deepened. “That’s a good point. There’s no legal precedent . . . I suppose your parents would need to sign off going forward . . .”
    â€œForget that,” she declared, straightening her spine. “I’ll set the precedent. I’m still my own person and I’ll make my own decisions.”
    Dr. Carlyle raised his white eyebrows. “Well then . . .”
    She grabbed the doorknob, still facing him. His eyes shone with worry as his mouth opened, then closed.
    â€œMy whole teenage life,” she said, “I’ve wanted nothing more than to get to the bottom of this. You think I’m going to stop now?”
    He exhaled. “Even if your family . . . ?”
    â€œLeave them to me.” The strength in her own voice stunned her—she hadn’t known any was left. She pushed open the door, still holding the textbook close to her chest.
    â€œTake good care,” he said. “Call me anytime.”
    â€œI will,” she promised, stepping out into the deserted hall. “Bye.”
    They shook hands, his palm swallowing hers. Her grip was firm nonetheless. Then she walked down the hallway on wobbling knees, trying not to stumble. As she rounded the corner, she glanced back. Dr. Carlyle was watching her like a starstruck pedestrian, mouth partly open, his eyes ablaze.
    He smiled sheepishly when she caught him, making no attempt to hide his fascination. A prick of nervous excitement struck her then, similar to the feeling she got before boarding a plane. Whenever apprehension about flying overcame her, she’d think of Gramps’s favorite poem—Tennyson’s “Ulysses”—and remember to summon her sense of adventure for the trip ahead. “I will drink life to the lees,” she’d tell herself. “To follow knowledge like a sinking star, beyond the utmost bound of human thought.”
    There was no better time to apply it. She mustered up a smile for Dr. Carlyle, absolving him of embarrassment. He grinned back, electrifying the hallway with a tacit message that made her shiver, for she knew it could be true. Tucked into her body, inside her bones and skin and muscle, was a secret written in a language as universal as it was cryptic. Not just any secret, but one sought for all of time—the answer to the primeval mystery of why we age and die.

CHAPTER 5
    Washington, D.C.
10:20 A.M.
    L es’s cab crawled across town from Southeast back to the committee’s headquarters in Northwest for an