Unobtainium 1: Kate on a Hot Tin Roof by Niall Teasdale

already tried it.
    ‘You are not afflicted in the same manner as those Katheros was designed to treat. The metal, a few atoms of it anyway, is somehow bonded within your cells, within the very nucleus of your cells. Miraculous though Katheros is, it cannot work a sufficient miracle to cure you. In a way, that is unsurprising since it was derived from your blood with its remarkable ability to shed accumulated radiation.’
    Kate smiled. ‘So you may not be able to cure me yet, but your research into my nature has allowed you to cure others. I am… extremely pleased.’ Kate’s language skills and vocabulary had increased markedly in the thirteen months she had been at Rhidorroch. Her voice still carried the same husky, sensuous quality it had had when Charles had found her, which would likely forever preclude her from some circles of society, but she spoke with the confidence of an educated young woman now even if she was, technically, only six.
    She looked far older, perhaps eighteen. As predicted, she had grown another few inches, but that seemed to have finally stopped at almost precisely six feet in height. It still put her head and shoulders over most women and taller than many men. Her chest and hips had filled out as well, but her waist had remained narrow. She had allowed her hair to grow out; it was now past shoulder length and she habitually wore it pulled back into a ponytail, the fringe arranged artfully around her face. Kate had grown into a beautiful woman, and Charles had no end of worries over the virtue of his ward.
    She was, in fact, now his ward. Guardianship had been granted to him in May of the previous year, the day after Alfred Cooper had been sentenced to life in prison for his crimes. There had been a move to have him hanged, but there was insufficient evidence that he had played a sufficient part in the demise of Helen Brighton, and Charles himself had urged leniency hoping that Cooper might be persuaded to finally tell all about his experiments on Kate. On Katherine, according to the law; Kate had been registered with Somerset House under the name Katherine Felix, a reference to her cat-like eyes, which she found amusing.
    ‘I hoped you would be,’ Charles went on, smiling, ‘but there is one other thing which may make it more pleasing. When we create something new like this we register it using something called a “patent.”’
    ‘I know what a patent is, Sharles. Sir Barstow-Hall mentions them frequently. Often at dinner.’ She still called him ‘Sharles.’ He was absolutely sure that she could say his name correctly now, but she retained the affectation. Once when she had been apologising for pronouncing his name incorrectly he had told her that he rather liked the way she said it, and he was sure that that was her reason for continuing to do so.
    Charles decided not to comment upon his father’s habit of discussing business at the dinner table. ‘Well, good. I don’t have to explain what your name being on the patent beside mine means then.’
    Kate frowned. ‘Sir Barstow-Hall’s comments led me to believe that the patent was necessary for earnings to be made for an invention.’
    ‘Indeed. This will give you a small income for every bottle of Katheros sold. It will be modest, but it will be your own. I intend to do the same for any other invention I derive from studying you. I believe the most promising of those could very well provide you with a quite worthy income, if I can bring it to market.’
    Kate’s face lit up. Her smile still made Charles’s heart skip a beat or two. ‘Thank you, Sharles. This is most generous. Would my guardian accept a kiss on the cheek as, inadequate, recompense for this great kindness?’
    ‘I believe propriety would allow such a gesture, Charles,’ Antonia said, her smile just a little mischievous.
    ‘I… will accept your gracious offer, Miss Felix,’ Charles said, knowing his cheeks were colouring. He got to his feet as Kate did, but she