As Pia approached the desk, she heard her name being called. It was Paul Caldwell.
“You’re still here. I thought you had abandoned us with the rest of the Nano contingent.”
“My phone,” said Pia, showing it to Paul. “I left it behind.”
“Are you okay? That was a weird experience.”
“Sure, I’m fine. But it was weird, as you say.”
“Hey, how about we get a coffee in the hospital coffee shop,” Paul suggested. “Now that things are back to the usual emergency room stuff, the team here can handle it. I want to hear more about this Nano place. It must be very exciting if things like this are going on every day.”
“Hardly,” Pia said seriously. “At least not in the section I work in. It’s a research facility, and nothing exciting has happened since I’ve been there for almost two years.” As Pia spoke she realized that a lot of things could be going on at Nano that she would have no idea of, given the size of the facility and the staff.
“I’m teasing,” Paul laughed. “But I’m not teasing about the coffee idea. What do you say? I’d like to hear how you happened to come out here to Boulder rather than start your residency.”
A red flag went up in Pia’s brain. Although she was ravenously hungry, having missed a meal following her attenuated run, she couldn’t but help wonder about Paul’s motives. He was a man, a good-looking man, but she had had quite enough of men since she’d been a young girl in foster care. Perhaps more important than her need for food, she was really curious about the Chinese runner’s situation. She wanted to find out what Paul might be thinking as to his diagnosis. And she wasn’t excited about getting back to Nano quite so quickly and having to face Mariel. With such thoughts in mind, she decided to ignore the red flag, at least for the time being.
“What do you say?” Paul repeated. He could tell that Pia was miles away.
“Okay, sure,” Pia said. “Would they have something to eat as well as coffee?”
“Absolutely,” Paul stated. “But for food I’d recommend the cafeteria. A much bigger selection.” He motioned for Pia to follow, and together they went to the hospital cafeteria, still bustling with its lunchtime crowd.
Paul guided a tray past the food selections, and Pia absentmindedly placed a prewrapped egg salad sandwich and a bottle of water on it. She was not a finicky eater. She tried to pay, but Paul would have none of it, saying her money wasn’t good at his hospital. They took a table in the back of the room.
“So where do we start?” he said, taking a sip of his coffee. It was the only thing he had selected.
“What do you mean?” Pia asked, unwrapping her sandwich and opening the water bottle.
“I mean, that was pretty intense, right. You obviously know that woman who showed up. And what exactly is this Nano place? I don’t know anything about it.”
So Pia told Paul Caldwell about her work and about Nano. Paul had cycled on that same mountain route that she used for jogging, but he had no idea what went on inside the sprawling complex. As Pia talked, he began to think she didn’t, either.
“Your specialty is salmonella?”
“I did a lot of work on salmonella,” Pia said. “It’s what got me the invite to come out here to try to solve a problem that salmonella and other flagellated bacteria cause with a new way to fight sepsis through nanotechnology.” Pia stopped herself, remembering what Mariel had told her about secrecy. But Paul was an ER doctor — what interest could he have in nanotechnology, other than a professional curiosity?
“Go on,” said Paul. As he listened to Pia, Paul reconfirmed that she was undeniably gorgeous, with exotic features and lovely skin. He knew she had an athletic runner’s body, having caught a glimpse of her in her spandex when she’d first come into the ER and before she’d been given the white coat she was still wearing. And she was a medical researcher, operating on some technological frontier he knew almost nothing about. He was enthralled with her. But he sensed she was aloof and not completely comfortable talking with him. He wondered why. There were lots of things he wanted to talk to her about, but he restrained his usually ebullient and talkative side and concentrated on the medicine. He didn’t have to pretend. That, too, fascinated him.
“Tell me,” Paul said when there was a pause in the conversation. “Have you been taking advantage of the great Colorado outdoors? That’s what lured me here.”
“I have,” Pia said. “Mostly running, but I have been biking a bit, too.”
“No skiing?”
“Some. I at least tried it. It’s more of a commitment than I’m willing to make. How about you?”
“Skiing, mountain biking, running, even mountain climbing. I can’t get enough. It’s a major reason I’m in emergency medicine. When I’m off, I’m really off, and I’m out there doing something. Maybe we can hook up sometime and go for a run or something. I have to say, I like you.”
“That’s nice,” Pia said noncommittally. She wondered if coming to the cafeteria had been a good idea, remembering the red flag issue.
Pia’s reaction to his innocent offer to get together was hardly encouraging, so Paul quickly turned the conversation to their recent shared experience.
“So this runner you came in with. You said when you found him he was unresponsive. How long would you say it was that he wasn’t breathing?”
“I have no way of knowing,” said Pia. “All I know is that he wasn’t breathing when I examined him. And I couldn’t feel a heartbeat, not until I had done CPR.”
“And yet the neuro seemed fine, and the EKG was absolutely normal,” said Paul. “Very curious, to say the least.”
“He recovered as if he had been sleeping. I know no Chinese at all, but it didn’t sound as though he were slurring his words when he woke up. And he had full motor function. Immediately he tried to get up.”
“If you had to guess how long he’d not been breathing, what would you say?”
“I saw him on the ground from quite a distance, and noticed he hadn’t moved. I mean, it had to be fifteen, twenty minutes at least. I know that sounds impossible.”
“It would be very interesting to get some follow-up. Since he’s somehow associated with Nano, do you think you could ask about him? Do you think he works there?”
“I haven’t the slightest idea,” Pia said. “He didn’t strike me as a scientist, for some reason. But my boss said he was a representative of the Chinese government, whatever that meant.”
“That woman is your boss?”
“I’m afraid so,” Pia admitted. “Actually my direct boss. I have to work with her every day.”
“My sympathies,” Paul said.
“Actually, she’s not that bad. Professionally, she’s very good at what she does. She’s trained as a molecular biologist and oversees most of Nano’s bio-research. She’s very helpful with my research.”
“I’m glad she’s not my boss,” Paul said, making an exaggerated expression of disgust. “She’s so bitchy. And that hairdo…”
Pia couldn’t help but reflect on Paul’s choice of an adjective to describe Mariel. Accurate as it was, it seemed somehow out of place.
“If you can find out anything about him, I’d appreciate hearing,” Paul said.
Pia finished her sandwich, and Paul could see she was lost in thought again.
“Let me drive you back to work,” said Paul. “It’s the least I could do, after all your help.”