He had put the goggles on the hook that morning. They were used in the laser lab but he had wanted them here in imaging because it would allow him to secretly watch Goddard and Bechy and gauge their reactions.
'Okay, here we go,' Larraby said. 'Watch the monitor.'
The screen remained gray-black for almost thirty seconds and then a few pinpoints of light appeared like stars through a cloudy night sky. Then more, and then more, and then the screen looked like the Milky Way.
Everyone was silent. They just watched.
'Go to thermal, Brandon,' Pierce finally said.
Part of the choreography. End with a crescendo. Larraby worked the keyboard, so adept that he did not need any light to see the commands he was typing.
'Going thermal means we'll see colors,' Larraby said. 'Gradations in impulse intensity, from blue on the low end to green, yellow, red and then purple on the high end.'
The monitor screen came alive with waves of color. Yellows and reds mostly, but enough purple to be impressive. The color rippled in a chain reaction across the screen. It undulated like the surface of the ocean at night. It was the Las Vegas strip from thirty thousand feet.
'Aurora borealis,' someone whispered.
Pierce thought it might have been Goddard's voice. He flipped down the lenses and now he was seeing colors, too. Everyone in the room glowed red and yellow in the vision field of the goggles. He focused in on Goddard's face. The gradations of color allowed him to see in the dark. Goddard was intently focused on the computer screen. His mouth was open. His forehead and cheeks were deep red -maroon going to purple -as his face heated with excitement.
The goggles were a form of scientific voyeurism, allowing him to see what people thought they were hiding. He saw Goddard's face break into a wide red smile as he viewed the monitor. And in that moment Pierce knew the deal was done. They had the money, they had secured their future. He looked across the darkened room and saw Charlie Condon leaning against the opposite wall. Charlie was looking back at him, though he didn't have on any goggles. He looked out into the darkness toward where he knew Pierce would be standing. He nodded once, knowing the same thing without needing the goggles.
It was a moment to savor. They were on their way to becoming rich and possibly even famous men. But that wasn't the thing for Pierce. It was something else, something better than money. Something he couldn't put in his pocket but he could put in his head and his heart and it would earn interest measured in pride at staggering rates.
That's what the science gave him. Pride that overcame everything, that took back redemption for everything that had ever gone bad, for every wrong turn he had ever made.
Most of all, for Isabelle.
He slipped off the goggles and hung them back on the hook.
'Aurora borealis,' Pierce whispered quietly to himself.
29
They ran two more experiments on the SEM using new wafers. Both lit up the screen like Christmas and Goddard was satisfied. Pierce then had Grooms go over the other lab projects with him once more just to finish things off. After all, Goddard would be investing in the whole program, not just Proteus. At 12:30 the presentation ended and they broke for lunch in the boardroom. Condon had arranged for the meal to be catered by Joe's, a restaurant on Abbot Kinney that had the rare combination of being a hot place and also having good food.
The conversation was convivial -even Bechy seemed to be enjoying herself. There was a lot of talk about the possibilities of the science. No talk about the money that could be made from it. And at one point Goddard turned to Pierce, who was sitting next to him, and quietly confided, 'I have a daughter with Down's syndrome.'
He said nothing else and didn't have to. Pierce knew he was simply thinking about the timing. The bad timing. A future was coming when such maladies might be eliminated before they occurred.
'But I bet you love her very much,' Pierce said. 'And I bet she knows that.'
Goddard held his eyes for a moment before answering.
'Yes. I do and she does. I often think about her when I make my investments.'
Pierce nodded.
'You have to make sure she is secure.'
'No, not that. She is secure, many times over. What I think about is that no matter how much I make in this world, I won't be able to change her. I won't be able to fix her… I guess what I am saying is that… the future is out there. This… what you are doing…'
He looked away, unable to put his thoughts into words.
'I think I know what you mean,' Pierce said.
The quiet moment ended abruptly with a loud outburst of laughter from Bechy, who was sitting across the table and next to Condon. Goddard smiled and nodded as though he had heard whatever it was that had been so funny.
Later, during a dessert of key lime pie, Goddard brought up Nicole.
'You know who I miss?' he said. 'Nicole James. Where is she today? I'd like to at least say hello.'
Pierce and Condon looked at each other. It had been agreed earlier that Charlie would handle any explanations in regard to Nicole.
'Unfortunately, she is no longer with us,' Condon said. 'In fact, last Friday was her last day at Amedeo.'
'Really now? Where did she go?'
'Nowhere at the moment. I think she's just taking some time to think about her next move. But she signed a no-compete contract with us, so we don't have to worry about her showing up at a competitor.'
Goddard frowned and nodded.
'A very sensitive position,' he said.
'It is but it isn't,' Condon replied. 'She was focused outward not inward. She knew just enough about our projects to know what to look for in regard to our competitors. For example, she did not have lab access and she never saw the demonstration you saw this morning.'
That was a lie, only Charlie Condon didn't know it. Just like the lie Pierce had fed Clyde Vernon about how much Nicole knew and had seen. The truth was she had seen it all.
Pierce had brought her into the lab on a Sunday night to show her, to light up the SEM screen like the aurora borealis. It was when things were falling apart and he was desperately grasping for a way to keep it together, to hold on to her. He had broken his own rules and taken her to the lab to show her what it was that had drawn him away from her so often. But even showing her the discovery had not worked to stop the momentum of destruction that had enveloped them. Less than a month later Nicole ended the relationship.
Like Goddard, Pierce missed Nicole at that moment, but for different reasons. He grew quiet during the remainder of the meal. Coffee was served and then removed. The plates and utensils were cleared away until all that was left was the polished surface of the table and the reflection of their ghostly images in it.
The caterers cleared out of the room and it was time to get back to business.
'Tell us about the patent,' Bechy said, folding her arms and leaning over the table.
Pierce nodded to Kaz and he took the question.
'It's actually a stepped patent. It's in nine parts, covering all processes related to what you saw today. We think we have thoroughly covered everything. We think it will hold up to any kind of challenge, now or in the future.'
'And when do you go with it?'
'Monday morning. I'll be flying out to Washington tomorrow or Saturday. The plan is to personally deliver the application to the U.S. Patents and Trademark Office at nine A.M.
Monday.'
Since Goddard was sitting next to him, Pierce found it easier and more nonchalant to watch Bechy across from him. She seemed surprised by the speed with which they were moving. This was good. Pierce and Condon wanted to force the issue. Force Goddard to make his move now, or risk losing out by waiting.
