“Isn’t snooping around Nano going to be dangerous? You saw those guards who came to my ER.”
Pia shrugged. “Maybe yes, maybe no. I don’t really know. But I am a Nano employee. If I end up being found in some area where I’m not supposed to be, I can just say I got lost, or I’m running an errand for Mr. Berman, now that I know him socially. The only other thing I can think of is to try to get him to invite me to participate in other aspects of Nano’s research efforts. The trouble is, I don’t know what it is, exactly, and I can’t tip my hand. My immediate boss, Mariel, has told me on several occasions how important secrecy is considered, even with the work I am doing. You see, I could be fired at any time. I’m helping them, but I am certainly not indispensable.”
“How do you know you’re not already working on the secret stuff?”
“What do you mean?” said Pia.
“I just mean you may not know all of the uses the projects you’re working on are put to. I mean, do you?”
“And I thought I had a cynical side,” said Pia, with a sarcastic chuckle. She hadn’t thought of that possibility. The microbivores seemed to have a benign purpose, but with the technology she was helping develop to counter the biocompatibility issues, she couldn’t be so sure. Pia was silent for a few minutes.
“I’m sorry,” said Paul. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“You didn’t upset me. I’m fine.”
“Okay. Good.” Paul came to a halt and gestured around them. “This is the turnaround. Let’s enjoy the view for a few minutes and head back.” They had emerged from the trees and reached a rocky ledge, which offered a striking view of distant mountains.
After another few minutes of silence, Paul spoke again. He wasn’t out of breath in the slightest. “So how do you want me to help you? I have a sense that this is where your monologue is leading. So just talk it through or is there something more concrete? I won’t do anything illegal, mind. And I’m not breaking in anywhere like you just told me George did with you.”
“I got it,” said Pia. “There is something you can help me with.”
“Okay, shoot.”
“When we first met, you told me you liked to play around with computer code, yes?”
“I may have said that, yes.” Paul sounded wary.
“Don’t worry, I’m not asking you to hack into anything. But I need to get past the iris scanners at Nano. When I tried to cross the bridge from my building to the neighboring building, an iris scanner wouldn’t allow me access. Is there some way I can dupe such a scanner without smashing it with a hammer? It has to be something that might look like the scanner made an honest mistake if I got caught.”
“Are these scanners manned?”
“What you mean?”
“I mean is there a security person standing there watching you when you stand in front of it?”
“Some but not all,” Pia said. “On the first floor of my building there are certainly security people, but they have never paid any attention when I go through the scanner. And when I tried but failed to get past a scanner blocking the door to the bridge from my building to the next, there was no security person.”
“I think I can help you, in that case,” said Paul. It sounded as if it might be illegal, but only if he was the one to break in somewhere he didn’t have a right to have access to. It also sounded like a fun challenge, the type he used to love when he was in high school. “My understanding is that an iris scanner uses mathematical pattern-recognition techniques that take advantage of the fact that people’s irises are as different from one another as fingerprints. I’ll tell you what, I’ll look into it for you.”
“Thanks, Paul, that’s great.”
“Listen, I don’t want to pour cold water on this, but it sounds dangerous. Do you think it’s a good idea?”
Pia rolled her eyes. Paul was channeling George.
“I’m going to try whether you’ll help me or not.”
“I figured you’d say something like that. I’ll see what I can find out.”
CHAPTER 25
Mariel Spallek made a point of checking her watch when Pia walked into the lab at 2:15. “You’re late,” she said. “I thought you said you’d be here by two P.M.” She turned her attention back to the ledger book spread out on her desk.
“You said two P.M., not me. You’re lucky I’m here at all, the way I feel. I’m certainly allowed a sick day.” Pia had reached the end of her rope with Mariel. She wasn’t used to taking the kind of aggressive manhandling and nitpicking that Mariel was subjecting her to without pushing back.
“I never take a sick day, and I don’t expect my staff to take any, either,” said Mariel without looking up. “Some days I feel better than others, but I come to work anyway, short of hospitalization. I expect the same from others.”
Pia conjured up a number of pithy retorts but thought better of saying any. She hoped she’d have an opportunity to tell Mariel what she thought of her at some juncture in the future.
For the next two-plus hours, Pia kept her head down and worked hard. Mariel had commandeered some more staff to help in the new space she’d gotten previously on the floor below. Pia got them up to speed, and they began to set up more biocompatibility experiments. The more experiments that could be run, the better the conclusions would be statistically.
What now began to bother Pia was that Mariel would not give up her tendency to micromanage, meaning everything had to be run by her, even the most mundane details. For Pia, part of the excitement of doing research was challenging herself first to get to a solution, and second to get corroborating data. She felt constrained by Mariel’s overbearing supervision of everything she did and every step she took. When she had a break, she again sought out Mariel, who was still engrossed in the same ledger book, no doubt compulsively going over details.
“Listen, Mariel, I know the work is going well, and you’ve got staff running tests that I don’t even know about in other Nano buildings. Are any of these other tests related to what I am doing, and if they are, wouldn’t it make sense to have some of the techs report directly to me? That way I can analyze what they are doing myself.”
“That’s my job, Pia. Your job is to be creative about the specific problems that we assign to you. What other people are doing is not your business.”
“Yes, okay, but who are they? Why can’t I at least talk to them? I’m slaving away here, and I have no idea what anyone else is doing. To me that is frustrating and seems like a recipe for redundancy.”
“Nano is a large, high-security company that is very compartmentalized because of security needs. There is a need-to-know policy with all our staff and all our research. You don’t need to know what other people are doing, nor do they need to know what you are up to. Ultimately it’s more efficient that way and certainly more secure. You’ll be informed if there is any redundancy. You concentrate on what you’re paid to do. If you knew Mr. Berman better, you would understand the way his mind works. He’s the father and supporter of Nano’s organization. I am his eyes and ears.”
And a jealous bitch, Pia thought but didn’t say. Instead she said: “You suggested on the phone he was not feeling up to par. Did he come in today?”
“He came in, yes. Of course. He’s a dedicated man, in contrast to yourself. Why do you ask?”
“I’m just interested, Mariel. Why are you giving me such a hard time about everything?”
Mariel stopped reading her ledger and looked up at Pia. She affected a flinty smile.
“I’m sorry if you think I’m giving you a hard time, but I’m really not. We’re all under a lot of pressure. That pressure comes from the top, and I have to act accordingly. My pressure is coming directly from Zachary Berman, and I assure you he’s giving me a much harder time than you think I’m giving you.” Mariel kept her smile fixed on her face, then looked back at her ledger. Pia marveled at how someone could smile with such great insincerity.