They had stared at each other, and he had seemed as stunned as she was. Then a dread came upon her and she bottom dropped out of her stomach. Had Nathan, in his zeal actually…? What would it do to her image to be eliminated for her teammate’s cheating? How could he…?
Nathan shook his head, ever so slightly, but emphatically. She made an instant decision to trust him. “And your evidence o this is?”
Tom started to speak, but Garrett beat him to it. “There is no way you should be able to do all these things you are doing, man. And I’ve seen you popping things when you think no one is looking.”
Everyone’s eyes shifted back to Nathan, who responded with a slightly sour smile and pulled a small plastic box out of his pocket. “You mean my Tic Tacs?” One of the somber people held out her hand gravely, and he surrendered the case. “They are wild cherry, by the way,” Nathan added. Ariana bit her tongue. She had bought him those at the Denver airport on the first day of the race when he had complained that flying gave him a dry throat.
Tom continued resolutely, “As you can imagine, this is a serious charge, and has never happened before on the Fantastic Race. We can clear this up right now. We have officers from the special investigation squad here. To satisfy everyone,” his eyes flickered to Garrett, and though his voice was calm and neutral, Ariana could tell he was strained at best and doing his best to hide it. “… that there is nothing involved. We would like to get urine and blood samples from Nathan and search him and his backpack.”
Ariana burst out, “And after the Customs of how many different countries hae searched everythin time afta time, just what do you think you will be findin?”
“It’s okay,” Nathan had said, standing up. “I will be more than happy to cooperate in any way to clear this up.” His mouth was talking to Tom, but his eyes were locked on Garrett’s.
“The results will be back by the start of the race tomorrow morning.”
Without any conscious thought, Ariana had found herself on her feet also. “We will both be cooperating with this little…,” she had wanted to spit out the word ‘farce,’ but she hesitated long enough to substitute, “…investigation.”
Tom’s eyes were troubled. “You weren’t part of the accusation.” His eyes flickered to Garrett and back to Ariana.
Ariana disregarded Tom and took a step toward Garrett, making him take a backward step and surprising him. She had radiated more concentration than Superman piercing steel with his x-ray vision. “Oh, and if Nathan is takin something to make him run faster, jump higher, leap farther, how then do ya think I keep up without takin a double dose, then?”
Everyone seemed at a loss for words. Seizing the initiative in the awkward moment, she had grabbed the female police officer’s sleeve and led her out of the room. “Come on, darlin, lets get this over with.”
They had gone up to her room. Searched everything, found nothing. A drug-sniffing dog had been bored. In the bathroom, the officer had taken a blood sample, and witnessed her peeing in a cup. After the indignity of a body search, she had chased the woman out of her room and taken a long, hot shower to help make her feel clean again. She had just been toweling her hair dry, more roughly than usual, when there had been a quiet knock on her door. When she peered through the peep hole she had seen Nathan. She fought with herself, but finally relented and opened the door a crack on the security chain. “We should be getting some rest now. The start is scheduled to be early and we are first off.”
He had inclined his head gravely and said, “Thank you for believing in me. I would never do anything to embarrass you. Never.” He had turned away, and any words she might have uttered stuck in her throat. Taking a shaky breath, she had closed and locked the door; wanting to call out after him, but feeling too vulnerable to be that honest.
They hadn’t said much when Nathan called for her in the morning, and the other racers had glanced at them, but not said as much as, ‘good morning,’ whether from awkwardness or suspicion, or sympathy, it was impossible to know. They had sat down across from each other and begun to eat quietly. She hadn’t felt hungry, with her stomach tied in a long chain of knots, and had toast and tea. Nathan’s plate was likewise sparsely filled.
The silence in the room seemed broken only by the hissing of the heaters below the buffet trays, and that dragged on. Then Tom came in accompanied by a tall officer in a police uniform, with dark hair streaked with grey in a distinguished fashion, and a salt-and-pepper mustache. They stopped by Ariana and Nathan’s table and Tom cleared his throat. The officer handed him a sheet of paper from an official looking envelope. “Everyone might as well get closer, because I am only going to read this once.” He held the paper up to show everyone the official seals and signatures, and then he turned it around and read, slowly and distinctly. “In the matter of checking Ariana Collins and Nathan Moore for the use of illegal or performance enhancing substances; both blood and urine samples were taken from the subjects and analyzed by two independent technicians in the crime laboratory of the Singapore police department. No substances of any kind of an illegal or performance enhancing nature were detected. Traces of legal medication were found in both subjects which matched those, and only those, provided by the Fantastic Race organization which had been pre-approved for the said subjects. Since the aforesaid legal medications are covered under privacy laws, they are not listed herein. Both the persons and possessions of the aforesaid persons were thoroughly and professionally searched and no item of an illegal or performance enhancing nature were found. The department considers this matter closed.” Tom lowered the paper. “As does the Fantastic Race.”
As the paper had been read, Garrett’s face had gone from triumphant grin to strident disbelief by way of ugly embarrassment. Jeremy had looked like he would rather be anywhere else. The other racers broke into polite and relieved murmurs, and one or two clapped.
The police officer departed and Tom looked at Ariana and Nathan and said, quietly. “I hope that you understand that we had to do that, and nipping it in the bud was the only way.”
“Is the buffet still open, then?” she had said.
Tom blinked and looked flustered. “Yes, of course, your start isn’t for -,” he glanced at the clock, “thirty-eight minutes.”
She had smiled up at Nathan and said, “They have Belgium waffles under one of those covers, and they just better have blueberries, because I ha got my appetite back.”
Nathan’s joyful chuckle had buoyed her up as they had flown through the entire leg.
The noise around her spoiled her reverie, and Cassie was shaking her shoulders. “Seven o seven times! Team Number One! Oh, that is sooo wonderful, Ariana!”
“Yes, it tis tisn’t it,” she murmured, getting up and walking toward the bus, wanting to crawl into her bunk.