“I don’t think we are going to find anything out at Nano. They are extremely security conscious.”
“We have to cover the bases,” said George. He sounded more decisive than Paul remembered. “Perhaps they don’t know what car she was driving. Anyway, if we strike out at Nano, we’ll go by her apartment again.”
“Security would have noted what car she arrived in…”
“Okay,” said George, raising his voice. “I know. But we have to look.”
They rode the rest of the way in silence. Neither man thought it would be easy to get past the first security gate on the road into Nano, and both were right.
“We’re here for a job interview,” said George, talking past Paul, trying a line he had thought up on the way over on the first line of security at a gatepost by the main entrance to Nano.
“There are no interviews scheduled for today,” said the guard, an efficient-looking older man. “They always let me know to be prepared for people who need temporary ID, and there’s none today.”
“It’s unofficial. An informational interview with Whitney Jones, in Mr. Berman’s office.”
“I know for a fact that Whitney Jones is not here today. Can I see your driver’s license, sir.”
“What do you need that for?”
“Everyone who comes in here has to show ID. And you, too, sir,” the guard said to Paul.
Paul and George looked at each other. If they showed their ID, Nano would know they had been here. If they didn’t, they’d be turned away immediately. George shrugged and dug his license out of his wallet. Paul followed suit. The guard retreated into his small cabin and picked up a phone. A line of cars had formed behind Paul and a couple of impatient drivers were honking at him.
“Look, George, we should take this to the police,” said Paul.
“It might not hurt to let Berman know we’re around.”
Paul said nothing. The guard put down the phone.
“Pull in over there,” he said, indicating a cut-out to the right of the guard post. He handed over the driver’s licenses. As soon as Paul parked, a black SUV drove up and a man in a suit got out of the passenger side.
“Can I help you fellas?” He was younger than the gatepost guard, fitter, more athletic, and much more intimidating, despite his smile and casual syntax.
“We’re here for an interview,” said Paul.
“There’s no interviews today, Dr. Caldwell.” The man knew exactly who Paul was. “Better check your calendar, I think you got the wrong day. You can drive out through the same gate.” He indicated the same guard post, where the exit barrier was now raised. The security man had one more thing to say.
“Have an excellent day, gentlemen.”
CHAPTER 51
“Hello, Pia.”
Berman stood in the doorway of Pia’s underground cell and looked at her lying on a dirty, bare mattress staring at the ceiling. He could see that she was chained to a ring secured to the brick wall. She looked very small and defenseless, and with her broken arm he knew how vulnerable she was. But this was the woman who had taunted and humiliated him and put what was to be his crowning life’s achievement in jeopardy, and he felt that by rights he should be very angry with her. He certainly had been angry in Boulder the other night. He wasn’t used to being toyed with and dominated, in any sense of the word. It wouldn’t be unjustified for him to exact some revenge on this woman, perhaps even the ultimate revenge.
“Aren’t you going to say anything?” Berman asked.
As his anger burned, Berman realized he wanted a reaction from Pia, any reaction. Again he was flustered by the mixture of frustration and desire that he was experiencing. He had never felt anything like it, or so he told himself. Despite all the evidence that he could see before him of a defenseless woman, he was as nervous as if he were the prisoner. In a strange, irrational way he almost believed that Pia could have the upper hand over him if she so chose. He knew such an idea was ridiculous, but that was how he felt. Berman moved into the room, and the Chinese guard pulled the door shut behind him and locked it. It was better now that the guard wasn’t watching him, but still Berman was uncomfortable.
“Pia, I’m sorry it has come to this, but you must understand you left us with no choice. You came to my house and tricked me. And it wasn’t the first time. I started to think I was more than just drunk that first time you came, and eventually I figured out what you had done, but I decided to give you the benefit of the doubt. I was hoping that on Sunday your motivation was more sincere, but I now realize it was all a charade so you could photograph my eyes for you to trespass onto Nano property.”
Berman paused, but there was no visible reaction from Pia.
“You used the photographs to gain access to a restricted area and you stole a sample of blood from a sensitive physiological preparation. You had also obtained a blood sample from a previous occasion that Nano had taken the time and effort to obtain a court order to confiscate. We also know you used Nano equipment unauthorized to examine these samples. These are very serious matters.”
“Mengele,” said Pia, very quietly.
“I’m sorry, Pia, I didn’t catch that.”
“Do you know who Josef Mengele was?”
“Of course, he was a Nazi doctor in the concentration camps—”
“That’s who you are. A modern-day Mengele.”
“Pia, that is ridiculous, but I can understand that what you saw requires some explaining on my part. It is not what it seems.”
“Some explaining! You bastard.” Pia sat up and gave Berman a look of pure hatred and anger. Berman stepped back, even though he knew Pia was restrained. For him she had an intense power that was deeply unsettling.
“Where the hell am I? You have me chained to a wall in this medieval dungeon like something out of Robin Hood. You really are a pathetic, impotent little man.”
Berman’s face reddened. “I don’t think you are in a position to make that kind of judgment. You’ve never given me a chance to show you who I am, personally or professionally. I am on the verge of leading the greatest scientific medical breakthrough of the last fifty years. Maybe a hundred. And here is the issue in a nutshell. I want you to join me as I suggested back in my home. I want you to join us. I’m making you an offer of a lifetime.”
Pia laughed a mirthless laugh. She shook her head. “Sure you want me to join you? That’s why you have me chained to the wall in a dungeon.”
“You wouldn’t listen to me the other night at my house. You never listen. It’s always about your agenda. If restraining you is what it takes to get you to hear me out, then so be it. And I needed to make sure you wouldn’t spoil everything at the last minute. Right now I just want to talk to you.”
“Do I have a choice?”
“Unfortunately, no. But I ask you to think about what I am saying as a scientist, a researcher, a doctor who is interested in helping save millions upon millions of people, not someone who is immature and controlled by sentimentality and knee-jerk delusions of ethics.”
“I suppose my ethics are ‘reflex,’ as you suggest, especially if I think there’s something wrong with carving people up and keeping them half-alive in tanks.”
“You are a good scientist, potentially a great one. Mariel Spallek said as much, and I trust her judgment, especially in light of your polyethylene glycol suggestion for the microbivores. But she also said that you can’t help interfering in areas that shouldn’t be of your concern.”
“Isn’t that what a good scientist should do? Be concerned? Isn’t that what Robert Oppenheimer implied when he looked back on his career as the father of the atomic bomb?”