MIND FIELDS (3 page)

  “As you can see, the new type II bots continue working long after the original type I bots have died.  We have synthesized a new membrane stabilizer that extends the life of these type II bots for days within the host body, and we are working on new techniques that could extend them for years.  This longer life not only allows them to function longer, but because we have so much more time to work with, they can be injected through a peripheral vein in the arm, and programmed to become active when they reach their target site.  The procedure is safer, quicker, cheaper, less painful and more effective.  It will eliminate the need for inorganic bots as they are used today.”

  The academicians in the crowd nodded in admiration, while the press corps feverishly took notes and photos.

  “With these long-life nanobots, we now hope to create bots that can perform many other tasks within the human body, tasks that take longer than simple clot-busting.  These new bots could theoretically be programmed to repair any damaged organ in the body without ever opening up the patient.  The implications are staggering.  This will be the next revolution in medical care.”

  JT Anderson listened intently to Dr. Fletcher’s presentation.  As he watched her speak, the passion in her voice reminded him of himself at the same stage in his career.  The thirst for knowledge had been unquenchable in those days, but had long ago been overshadowed by the thirst for power.  He had a knack for seeing things in a different way than most people when it came to science, and the aptitude to see those things long before anyone else.  He was here to see if there was more to nanobionics than even Dr. Fletcher herself realized, and he was not disappointed.

  Dr. Fletcher’s animated presentation explained the basics of nanotechnology so clearly that even most of the reporters in the hall could understand.  As the lights brightened and the screen retracted, she received a standing ovation from Paul, who knew that she had brought their lab work into the public eye in a positive light, the kind of enlightenment that was needed for a scientist to gain public acceptance.  The undercurrents created by rumors about the use of nanotechnology to somehow transform humans into machines and dehumanize our species threatened the future of the field, but Paul was sure that her presentation today had derailed much of the concern.  He joined her on the stage for the photos and interviews that followed.  JT Anderson slipped out the back and waited in his late model Ford for the parking lot to empty out.

  As the last of the crowd left, Paul took Sandi in his arms and held her tight.  “What a rush, seeing you up there like that.  You were awesome.”

  Sandi smiled.  It wasn’t hard to please Paul, at least not for her, but she too knew that the presentation had gone well.  She was as pleased as she was relieved that it was over.

  “Let’s go celebrate.  How about a couple of beers and a bucket of mussels down at Bertha’s?”

  She frowned.  “How about a picnic in the back yard?  You pop down to Lexington Market while I go home and take a nap.”

  “Deal.”

  He took her hand, and they headed toward the door at the back of the auditorium.  The door opened just as Paul was reaching for the handle.  The man in the Orioles cap smiled and held out his hand.  It startled Paul and Sandi for a second, but up close his outfit wasn’t much of a disguise.

  “Hi. I’m …”

  “JT Anderson,” Paul finished the sentence, as much with admiration as disdain.  Although Anderson’s ethics were not held in very high regard at the university, Paul envied his success.  It was tough getting by on an academician’s salary in a big city, and he always harbored a bit of resentment at the fact that the fruits of his labors would belong to the university no mater how great his successes.

  “Right,” said Anderson, taking off the hat.  “Not much of a disguise, huh?”

  Sandi laughed.  “All you could afford?”

  He just shook his head and smiled.  He couldn’t help but notice that Paul was still holding her hand.  “I see that I’m interrupting.  Let me get right to the point.  Would you like to sit for a moment?” He motioned to the back row of seats in the auditorium.

  “Thanks,” Sandi said, shaking her head in the negative, “but I’m too pumped.  I’ve never talked in front of that many people before, and now…well, it’s not every day that I get to meet the richest man in the world.”

  “Eighth richest,” he corrected.  “All right then, I’ll be brief.  I want you to come to work for BNI.”

  Sandi started to decline his offer, still altruistic in her academic endeavors, but Anderson waved her off.  “Both of you,” he added motioning to Paul as well.  “You’ll have your own lab of course, and whatever you need.  I’ll give you each a million a year for starters, as well as stock options.  You’ll have complete freedom to pursue your nanobionics research without the constraints of academic regulation or budget crunches. I’ve been there and I know what it’s like.”

He could still see the doubt in her eyes as she looked him over.  “Look, I know what people here say about me, but with rare exception it’s always out of jealousy.  I am first and foremost a scientist.  I did what I did for scientific freedom as much as I did for money.  If I had to work within the constraints of the university system, thousands more would have suffered before nanobot therapy was available for clinical use. BNI is a scientist’s dream.”

Sandi was speechless.  It was a tempting offer, but she was just making a name for herself in academics.  He stood for everything that she was against in science.  She didn’t want to privatize her work; she was doing it for the public good, not for the highest bidder.  “Thanks, Dr. Anderson,” she said looking him straight in the eye, “but no thanks.”

Paul was flabbergasted.  He’d been struggling to make ends meet for years.  Sure, the work at Hopkins was exciting and he was proud to be a part of such a prestigious institution, but this was J.T Anderson, for God’s sake.  An opportunity like this usually comes around never in a lifetime for most people, once in a lifetime for the luckiest amongst us, and it was about to walk out that door.  He grabbed her arm.  “Sandi!”   He turned toward Anderson.  “Could you excuse us for a moment?”

Anderson nodded, and Paul pulled Sandi outside the door to talk in private.

“Look, Sandi, I know how you feel about BNI, but think about this, would ya?”

“What’s there to think about, Paul?  We’re on top of the food chain now.  There’s no place better than Hopkins.  We’ve got all the support we need right here.  That’s how we got to this point in the first place.  Do you really want to spend your time answering to a board of directors and stock holders?”

“All the support we need? Are you blind? I know that you’re still pretty naïve when it comes to the business side of biotech, but look around you.  We get by with generation-old equipment that’s barely adequate to run our experiments, and it’s a fight to get the grant money even for that.  Anderson is giving us the opportunity to work with state of the art stuff.”

“Yeah, but Paul…”

“Listen, I’m just asking you to think about it, that’s all.  If we say no now, Anderson walks out that door and with him goes a once in a lifetime opportunity.  Just give it a day.  Sleep on, OK?  For me…for us.”

“Well…” she hesitated.

“Thanks.  It’s the right decision, you’ll see.”  Paul turned back toward the door.

“Hey,” Sandi grabbed his arm.  “I said I’d
think
about it.”

Paul nodded and smiled at her.  They walked back in to the auditorium.

JT Anderson saw the hesitation in Sandi’s eyes.  “I know it’s a big decision.  Why don’t you sleep on it?  Here’s my card.”

He handed them a business card and tipped the bill of his baseball cap ever so slightly.  “Great work, Doc.”

Sandi couldn’t help the smile that crept across her tense lips.  JT Anderson could be very charming.  She found herself liking him in spite of her desire not to.  She nodded and walked out the door.

“Thanks, JT,” Paul said reaching out to shake Anderson’s hand.  “You’ll be hearing from us real soon.”  He hesitated briefly, and then hurried off to catch up with Sandi.

Paul could hardly contain his excitement.  He loved working at Hopkins, and had never really thought about doing anything else, but ever since JT Anderson approached them his mind had been racing at the possibilities.  He led Sandi out of the red brick building holding her briefcase in his right hand and her hand in his left. The fragrance of summer was in the air. School had been out for about a week, and the campus was quiet.  Paul loved the solitude that followed the hectic academic year. The sun peeked through the tall trees that lined the walkway to the faculty parking lot behind the auditorium.

He was trying desperately to think of a way to sway Sandi’s mind, but couldn’t find the words.  The silence between them seemed to be building a barrier that was getting thicker by the minute, and he decided to start on neutral ground. 

“Great presentation, Sandi.  You did a hell of a job in there today.  I can’t wait to see the headlines in the Sun tomorrow.”

Sandi walked in silence.  She knew Paul too well.  He was not much for small talk, and this was small talk.  She realized what he was doing.  She couldn’t believe that he was seriously considering selling out to private industry.

“So what should I pick up at the market?  Got a craving for anything special?”

“Some pasta salad would be nice.  And if you can scrounge it up, I’d love some cider.” It was tough to come by apple cider this time of year.

They hardly said a word on the short drive home.  Paul dropped her off and watched as she ascended the four red brick steps leading up to the small wood porch in front of their house.  Once she was inside, he headed down to Lexington Market to pick up lunch.  It wasn’t going to be the relaxing afternoon he had hoped for, but he knew that if he could only find the right words there would be more to celebrate than either of them had imagined when they woke up to start this day.

By the time he pulled into the small one-car garage behind their row house, Sandi had set the picnic table that rested in the filtered shade of the dogwood trees out back.  He put the bags down and gave her a kiss.

“Looks good,” she said, obviously still preoccupied.

He laid out the food and poured two glasses of apple cider.  They sat down next to each other, and Paul took her hand.  He had been struggling to find the words that would help her to see things his way, but he didn’t know where to start.

Sandi looked down at her hand, her fingers intertwined with his.  “I thought I knew you better than this.”  She fought to hold back the tears.

Paul couldn’t believe the resolve in her voice.  They’d been living together for nearly a year now and had dated twice that long.  He was sure that they had the perfect synergy,  that she understood what made him tick.  He knew that she was not a big fan of private sector research, but he couldn’t believe that she was so close-minded about this.  He wanted to share his discoveries with the world every bit as much as she did, but what was wrong with making a buck off of it?  What was so wrong with being able to live the good life?”

He tried to convince her while they ate, to make her feel the way he did about this. “I want more than this, Sandi.  I want more than this for us.”

“More?” She was incredulous.  “You’re a professor at Johns Hopkins, for God’s sake.  You run the most prestigious lab at the university and you’re only thirty-one years old.  It doesn’t get any better than this.  I’ve got everything I want right here.”

“Look around you, Sandi. Look at this place.”

“I have looked.  It’s perfect.  This has been the happiest year of my life.”

“No,” he said, “it’s not perfect. 
We’re
perfect.”  He motioned to the house.  “Sure this place has a lot of character, and it’s been great for what it is, but open your eyes. There’s a whole world out there.  I want more. It’s not just for me, but for us, for the family that I want us to have.”

Sandi looked up at him, her face wet with tears.  “I thought we were perfect too … but now …” her voice trailed off.

Paul couldn’t believe what he was hearing.  She was willing to write off their entire relationship, a chance to build a life together that most people only dream of.  Sandi came from a wealthy family, and he knew that she took great pride in having made a life for herself that was not based on money, but he didn’t realize how strongly she felt about this.  He had come from a very different background.  This was one of the things that had attracted her to him in the first place, his simple roots.  He’d come from a large family in West Virginia.  It was a tight-knit family, but one that never had much in the way of material wealth.  His father had raised them on a coal-miner’s salary.  Paul was the most financially successful of his siblings, and was thankful for what he had.  He had been satisfied, no...happy, with his life, but now he had an opportunity for even more.

“Look. Sandi, I never talked about this because it never occurred to me that we might get a chance like this.  I’m a realist, and I never wish for something that’s not within my grasp.  But this is within our grasp.  We’ve got the chance to lead the kind of life I never dreamed was possible.  It’s a chance for me to give my kids, the kids I want to have with you, the things that I had never had.”

“Is that what this is about?”  Sandi was angry. “The money?”  Her lips were quivering.  “I could understand the lure of having BNI help to propel your research to the next level, but what do you need more money for?  What don’t you have that we need to be happy?  I
did
have those things when I was a kid, and I watched my dad struggle to get those things.  I watched him suffer as those things slipped away from him, and I watched the pain in his eyes when my mother blamed him for losing those things.  I
don’t
want those things, not for me or my children.” She pulled away.

Now Paul was getting angry too.  He could feel it welling up inside of him.  He rarely got angry, but when he did, his anger took control of him.  He knew that what he was about to say was the wrong thing, but he could not stop himself.  “Poor little rich girl.   The only reason that the money’s not important to you is that you’ve always had it.  You can’t stand the thought of a little prosperity, can you?  You enjoy partaking in ‘the poor life’, huh?  Well let me tell you about the poor life.” He saw the look of pain on Sandi’s face.  He realized that he had gone too far.

Neither of them said another word as they cleared the table.  The day had not gone the way that either of them had planned.  As they climbed the back steps toward the kitchen, Sandi swayed and started to fall.  Paul dropped the dishes and grabbed her, lowering her gently to the ground.  She was woozy, but still conscious. 

“Hey, you O.K.?”

“Yeah,” she mumbled.  “I just need a little sugar.  I guess I didn’t eat enough today.”  She had taken her usual daily insulin injection the night before, but in all the excitement of the day, she had eaten little for breakfast and almost nothing for lunch.

Paul sat next to her on the steps, holding her steady.

“I’ve got it,” she said pulling away.  “Just get me a packet of sugar, would you?”

“Sure.”  Paul got up slowly, making sure that Sandi could steady herself O.K., and then ran inside to grab a sugar packet.

A few minutes after getting her blood sugar up, Sandi felt much better, but the stress of the day had gotten the best of her.  She went up to bed while Paul finished cleaning up. 

__

That was the last meal they would have together.  After a meek attempt at changing Sandi’s mind once more at breakfast the next morning, Paul called JT Anderson to set up a meeting.  Anderson had anticipated the call and met Paul for lunch that day.  By the time that Paul had returned home, Sandi was gone along with most of her things.  Mr. Coffee sat on the counter as a dour reminder to Paul of what he had given up.