Orchid

'No, I'll probably increase it. My grandfather has always been too tight when it came to funding basic research. My own view is that Stonebraker needs to spend more, not less in that area. Long term, the institute projects are extremely valuable to us and every other company on the planet.'

Orchid grinned. 'An excellent corporate philosophy. Very forward thinking. Guess that's why they'll be giving you the big office in a couple of months.'

'I don't think it's my corporate philosophy that's going to get me that big office,' Rafe said. 'I think it has more to do with the fact that I won't let them give it to anyone else.'

Orchid sighed. 'There is that aspect of the situation.'

Rafe looked at Edward. 'I do have one question concerning Dr. Preston Luce.'

Edward got his laughter under control. 'What's that?'

'I understand that it was his connection to Orchid that got him into the right circles here at Northville. And I realize that he does have some charisma-talent. But I still can't see your personnel department hiring him without doing a basic background check.'

'Oh, Luce had excellent references,' Edward said. 'He came to the institute with glowing recommendations from his former employer.'

'True.' Anna grimaced. 'They were so good, that I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he wrote some of them himself.'

Rafe looked at Orchid. 'You said that he used you to get himself here.'

Orchid shuddered. 'Don't remind me.'

'How did he meet you?'

Orchid blinked in surprise. 'I explained that. We met through my marriage agency, Affinity Associates.'

'No, I mean how did he find you? How did he know where you were registered? Hell, how did he even know that you were from Northville and that he could use you? He must have learned a lot about you before he even went to Affinity Associates to register.'

'I see what you mean.' Orchid shrugged. 'He probably came across my file during the time he worked at ParaSyn. He was on the staff there for a while after I left.'

'Well, shit'

Edward gave him a faint frown of disapproval. 'I beg your pardon?'

Rafe sat up swiftly. 'It always comes back to ParaSyn, doesn't it?'

'What do you mean?' Anna asked.

'Here's my insider stock trading tip of the day,' Rafe said. 'Sell your ParaSyn shares first thing in the morning.'

'Why?' Edward demanded, baffled.

'Because something tells me there's a problem there.'

Edward frowned. 'How do you know that?'

'I just know it.'

Orchid did not press him for details until the next morning when they got into the Icer for the drive back to New Seattle.

'All right, time to explain the 'well, shit,' last night, Stonebraker,' she said as she buckled her seatbelt.

'Sorry.' Rafe eased the car out of the driveway. 'Guess that wasn't a very meta-zen-syn thing to say, was it?'

'No, but we'll leave that aside for the moment.' Orchid slid the passenger window down and leaned out to wave farewell to her parents.

She did not know what to make of the expressions on their faces as they stood watching the Acer pull out of the drive. A cross between acceptance and wistful concern, she decided. A very parental look.

It was almost as if they knew something about her future that she herself did not. Whatever it was, it worried them, but they had come to terms with it. She'd seen that look in their eyes on other occasions. The day she left Northville to find an apartment in New Seattle, for instance. She knew now that they had known then that she would never make her home in Northville.

Being the offspring of obsessive meta-zen-syn types could be trying, she reflected, not for the first time.

She finished waving and slid the window back into place. It sealed itself with a soft hiss.

'Why did you say it?' she asked as Rafe drove through the artfully arranged landscape of carefully situated homes and austere rock- and reflecting-pool gardens.

She realized she liked to watch him drive. He did it with the same fluid ease and controlled power that characterized all of his movements. It was probably some extremely primitive aspect of her own nature that caused her to savor such a simple and elemental aspect of a man.

'I said it because it suddenly struck me that everywhere I turn ParaSyn keeps popping up in our conversations.'

'It pops up a lot because of me. If you hadn't hired me to focus for you on this case, you wouldn't have come across any references to ParaSyn.'

'You're wrong,' he said softly. 'As soon as I started looking into Willis's background, I would have learned about the ice-prism project.'

'Yes, I suppose that's right.'

'Sooner or later, I would have made a connection to Morgan Lambert. That would have led me to the fact that Lambert and Willis had met at ParaSyn.' Rafe smiled abruptly, as though he had just been struck by a very satisfying thought.

Orchid eyed him suspiciously. 'Now, what?'

'It just occurred to me that even if I had never gone to Psynergy, Inc., to hire a full-spectrum prism, I would have met you eventually in the course of tracking down all of the people who had close ties to Theo Willis.'

'Hmm.'

'Funny how synergy works, isn't it?'

She made a face. 'Must be destiny, all right.'

'What? You don't believe in destiny? And here I thought you were the romantic type.'

'Forget the destiny stuff. Tell me why you're concerned about the ParaSyn connection.'

'I don't have anything solid yet.' Rafe guided the Acer through the relentlessly serene village of Northville. 'To get it, I'll need something that ties Quentin Austen to ParaSyn.'

Orchid watched the last Northville speed limit sign slip past the window. Rafe accelerated rapidly.

'What would such a connection tell you?' she asked.

'I'm not sure. But it would certainly prove very interesting.'

Orchid gazed out the windshield at the heavily wooded landscape. But she did not see the trees that marched down the hillsides to the banks of the North River. Other images filled her mind. Scenes of grueling focus sessions with mentally disturbed talents. Exhausting lab tests conducted by cold researchers who did not seem to notice or care about the stress they induced in their volunteer subjects. The eagerness of the experts to move from experiments with the mentally ill to focus sessions with the criminally insane.

With an effort she shook off the unpleasant chill. 'If our search for the missing relic leads to ParaSyn we may need to get inside.'

'We'll see.'

She took a deep breath. 'I've got the perfect excuse, Rafe.'

Rafe shook his head. 'Security at a place like ParaSyn is always very tight. I doubt that the authorities would grant a former research subject free run of the place. Especially given the fact that the project you were involved in was closed down three years ago.'

'I'm not sure I'd get free run of the place.' Orchid kept her attention on the serene view of the river. 'But I know they'll let me back inside. They've been trying to coax me back for a follow-up project for weeks, remember?'

Rafe gave her a raking glance. 'Forget it. You aren't going back there under any circumstances.'

'But if it means closing our case—'

His jaw was stone. 'You aren't going back to ParaSyn.'

'Not even if it means finding the missing relic?'

'That damn relic is not worth sending you back to ParaSyn. Besides, odds are it's nowhere near ParaSyn,