“And what about my private life? Is that on candid camera too?”
Abbey laughed. “Don’t worry, AJ, your personal life is not of any interest to us. If it bothers you, then when you’re off work, turn off your phone. We’ll give you a pager, and you’ll be on call… like a doctor,” Abbey said. “But I think that after a couple of weeks, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without our T3 system.”
“What’s next, James Bond camera glasses?” he quipped, trying to defuse his nerves.
“The boy’s quick, Jack,” Abbey said, turning to Briggs.
As they walked through Level Zero, AJ scrutinized the work around him. A myriad of projects were underway in disciplines as diverse as chemistry, material science, electronics, and robotics. He paused, mouth agape at a clear glass cylinder measuring ten feet tall and four feet in diameter. Inside were bees, except they were not like any bees he had ever seen before.
“They’re my newest prototype. Do you like them?” Abbey placed a hand on the enclosure. “Go ahead, step closer. Get a better look.”
“How do you prototype…” he stopped mid-sentence. The bees inside the glass were not actual bees, but rather robotic impersonations of bees. “Those aren’t bees!”
“They’re not real bees, but they don’t know that. They fly like bees, navigate like bees, work collectively like bees. They even sting like bees.”
“What is it with you people and bees? Why are you making robot bees?”
“The applications are practically infinite. They’re perfect little infiltrators. I can use them to collect reconnaissance — put eyes and ears in places where people can’t go. Or, I can program them to deliver drug injections to uncooperative targets. And with twelve of these little guys working together, I have a small, infinitely configurable, mobile antennae.”
“Unbelievable. Tim would love this! Tim wouldn’t believe this,” he mumbled. “Any other robot bugs on the loose around here I should know about?”
“Yeah, spiders. They’ve been in the field for twelve months. Maybe you’ll get to see them in action,” Abbey said.
Briggs spoke up. “Okay, show-and-tell time is over. Time to get moving. Say goodbye to the Queen of the Nerds. We’ve got work to do. Let’s go see your lab.”
“Nice to meet you, Abbey,” AJ said as he turned to follow Briggs to the elevator.
“Likewise,” Abbey replied with a grin. “Gadget Girl, out.”
“Here we are,” Briggs said, motioning to a dark room with a partially closed door. A shining new nameplate was attached to the wall next to the doorframe and etched into its surface were the words: AJ Archer — RS: Bio.
AJ shot Briggs a quizzical look. “I was expecting to be working in a lab.”
“That’s right. You will be. This is your lab,” Briggs said. “Go on. Take a look inside.”
AJ hesitantly pushed the door open and stepped across the threshold. The lights in the room brightened automatically upon entry. The windowless workspace was semicircular, with an expansive brushed stainless steel desk that graced the full curvature of the facing wall. Three black leather task chairs were parked underneath the overhang of the desk. Rich, brightly colored computer images suddenly illuminated on the wall panels in front of him. The images appeared as if they were projected, but he saw no projector in the room. Upon closer inspection, he found no LCD monitors, no plasma screens, no seams or bezels — the light simply emanated from the wall, in tidy 16:9 aspect ratio windows.
“OLED fabric wall covering. Infinitely configurable. Multitactile, pressure sensitive. Pretty cool, huh?” Briggs remarked.
AJ dragged his fingertips along one of the images, lightly caressing the surface. The window shifted, repositioning with his touch.
“Cool,” he mumbled and then turned his attention to the desk. Neatly positioned before two of the task chairs were wireless keyboards and wireless trackball mice. In front of the third chair rested a sleek notebook computer, screen open. “Do these control the screens on the wall?”
“Yes. And the notebook computer is yours to keep. It’s linked to our cloud servers so you can always access all of your files, whether you’re in or out of the office.”
“Nice.” Then his giddy schoolboy grin slowly morphed into a bewildered stare. “This is a cool command center, but it’s not a lab. There’s no stuff here. No microscopy, no analyzers, no batch bioreactors, no centrifuges or microbial storage… nothing, but a very shiny desk.”
Briggs laughed loudly. “Archer, you’re in the big leagues now. We’re not hiring you to stain microscope slides; we’re hiring you to direct, analyze, and interpret lab work performed by others.” Briggs pressed the “0” button on his mobile phone.
“C. Remy. How may I help you, Mr. Briggs?” a woman’s voice resonated from hidden speakers in the ceiling. Her tone was placid and calming.
“Coordinator, I’m here with our new hire, Mr. Archer, in Bio Lab One. Can you please bring Bethesda online so Archer can see his laboratory,” Briggs instructed.
“Yes, Mr. Briggs. Bethesda biolab coming online now,” C. Remy said.
As fluidly as the nightly news transitions from the anchor desk to a remote camera on location, the screens on the wall switched to camera views inside a bustling microbiology laboratory. A young, handsome Asian man entered the camera frame labeled “Bethesda” and took a seat in front of what AJ surmised was a webcam.
“Bethesda, online.”
“Dr. Kim, say hello to AJ Archer, our new RS: Bio. Archer has been doing some intriguing work at BU under McNamara. We expect he’ll be subcontracting a sizable chunk of your laboratory capacity in the coming months. We expect great things from him.”
“Excellent to have you aboard, Mr. Archer. I read your thesis last night after I heard the news you’d been hired. Intriguing work you’ve been doing. When you’re ready, we’ll make the resources available for whatever you need,” Kim replied.
“How did you,” AJ started to ask Kim, but then turned to Briggs instead. “How did he get my thesis? It hasn’t been released for publication.”
Briggs ignored him. “Very good, very good.”
“I can support an STO this morning if you like,” Kim said.
“Thank you, but we don’t have time for that today. Besides, Archer is a quick study… and I know you’ll set him straight when he screws up.”
Kim chuckled politely and signed off.
“Will that be all, Mr. Briggs?” the voice from the ceiling asked.
“Question: Have Archer’s phone and ID card been activated?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Very well. Then that is all, Coordinator,” Briggs stated. His hand disappeared into his pocket and then reappeared holding a mobile phone. He tossed it to AJ. “Here you go, the only phone you’ll ever need again.”
AJ turned the sleek mobile phone over in his hands. “Is this Abbey’s handiwork too?”
“Of course.”
“Want to give me the rundown?”
“Sure. Think of that phone as your own personal command center. GPS, video camera, wireless ready — on all bands and protocols. Multitactile touch interface. For hands-free operation, there’s a wireless ear bud. It pops out of the left side, here at the bottom. It fits down in the ear canal, completely hidden so you don’t look like some government spook with a curly wire hanging down your neck. It is a little tough to fish out at the end of the day, so use the magnet on the tip of your stylus. You already saw the dentist for your mike, which is voice activated, so you don’t have to mess with that. The unit is designed so that you can leave it in your pocket, or in your bag. Just jiggle the phone and the voice command software will sound a tone in your earbud indicating the phone is ready. If you need a Coordinator, just press the ‘0’ button. Coordinators are always available to assist you, twenty-four seven, but don’t abuse it. The first Resource I hear tasking a Coordinator to order him pizza is going to have his butt kicked by me personally. Got it?”