The Games

Vidonia Joao stepped through the hatch of the small aircraft and into the direct glare of the Southern California sun. She paused at the top of the platform and turned her face into the hot breeze. It had been a long flight on short notice, but despite the heat, it felt good to be in the open air again.

Long black hair fanned out behind her, exposing the planes of an unusual face.

Her ancestral pool was broad and shallow, drawn from the oldest sailing routes across the North and South Atlantic. It was the kind of face sometimes seen in Caribbean markets or metropolitan fashion shows—places where the world’s cultures mixed and matched and made their own thing. Soft brown skin, full lips, a long, high- arched nose.

She cast her dark eyes into the glare and saw a tall blond man waiting at the bottom of the stairs. Silas? she wondered. She shouldered her travel bag and descended in a series of bounces that drew the man’s eye to places other than her face.

“Dr. Joao?” the blond man asked. His face was scorched deep red by the noonday sun.

Her white teeth flashed affirmation.

“I’m Benjamin Wells, head cytologist at Helix. We’re happy you decided to join us.”

“Happy to be here. It will be nice to step out of the classroom for a while.” Her accent was soft, subtle, something she’d worked hard to smooth out in the eleven years she’d been an American citizen.

“Well, glad to oblige you. You’ll certainly be doing more than teaching here.”

“That’s what I’ve been told, but it’s still not clear what exactly I will be doing. Opportunities in industry aren’t exactly common in my field.”

“Dr. Williams wants to brief you about that when we get to the compound. If you’ll follow me,” he said.

And as simple as that, the introductions were over.

Vidonia followed him across a dozen yards of hot tarmac to a low, sleek limousine. The driver nodded as he took her bags, and the bite of the air-conditioning was welcome on the bare skin of her calves.

“Any jet lag?” Benjamin asked once they were on their way.

“Not too bad.”

“Good, because Silas will want to see you as soon as possible.”

“The sooner the better. Are we stopping by the hotel first?”

“Hotel? I guess you are still in the dark. You’ll be staying at the compound. This is a blue-level project, and they take security pretty seriously around here. For your own safety and the safety of the program, all consultants are to be on-site for the duration.”

“How many consultants are there?” This was getting more interesting by the minute.

“Counting you?”

“Yeah.”

Benjamin looked up, as if counting to himself. After a moment of contemplation, “One,” he said.

“One?”

“Yep.”

Vidonia reclined deeper into the leather seat and let the view through the window wash over her. The limo was making good time, cruising in the commercial lane while the rest of the traffic struggled along bumper to bumper.

They were high in the air, and the elevated highway gave a breathtaking view of the city. Low rectangular buildings sprawled away in all directions, and in the distance, glittering spires stretched toward the sky. There were no trees or green of any kind. It made her sick for her childhood. But that was so long ago now. Long ago and far away, and she the better for it, she told herself.

Twenty minutes later they descended the skyway, and the landscape around the thoroughfare had opened up considerably. The urban sprawl had given way to something else. The broad steel buildings they drove past were now spaced farther apart, crouching on huge park-size swaths of grass. Here, at least, green had taken a foothold.

“This is the technical district,” Benjamin said, when he noticed her interest.

It reminded her of the poem Where Science Lives, all those steel buildings on their neat little parks. The straight roads and ordered landscaping. Looking out at that, it was easy to imagine that science belonged here and might have little use in places where the roads weren’t quite so clean and orderly. Places where dirty children begged at the corners.

Ben revealed his discomfort at her continued silence through his fidgeting and an occasional awkward glance. She knew the type, always looking for the next interaction and confused about what to do in its absence. An unusual temperament in a scientist. She decided to put him at ease. “Was I hard to find?”

He shook his head. “Not really. But I did a lot of research before I contacted you. You’re near the top of your field.”

“You give me too much credit, really,” she said. “But even if I am near the top, why not contact those at the summit? Why me?”

“That’s rather complicated.”

She looked at him, waiting.

“You’ve managed not to attract a lot of attention from those outside your area of specialty.”

“Or much in it,” she said.

Ben smiled. “Your absence isn’t likely to require a lot of explanation in scientific circles.”

“Oh, I’m beginning to understand,” she said. “So you mean I’m good, but I’m not so good that I’m going to be missed.”

“Something like that.”

When they arrived at the compound a few minutes later, the scale of the place shocked her. The facility was enormous and sprawling—a maze of winding roads that took them past several suites of buildings and parking lots. Ben took her directly to the research lab. They parked and entered the building. She said nothing as he led her down the long halls and carded her through the checkpoints.

When she stepped through the door of the research lab, she looked around for a moment, unsure why he’d brought her there.

“This would be your lab,” he said.

“This?”

“Yes.”

“This would all be for my use?”

“Yes.” Ben motioned her forward.

The lab was something she hadn’t expected. She let her fingers play over the smooth, silver benchtop that ran along the wall. She gestured to her left.

“A CAT scan,” Ben responded. “That’s basic. We also have X ray, thermal imaging, and internal photo time- lapse. But the rest we thought best left up to you.”

“I can order other equipment?”

He nodded. “Silas wants the lab designed around you. Let us know what your needs are, and they’ll be provided for. Whatever you want, within reason. And my experience has been if it’s not completely crazy, then it’s within reason. They believe in keeping the talent happy around here.”

“And the computer system?”

“Tandem link, virtual imaging tied from different ports of scan. It will do.”

“Yes,” she said, impressed. “That will certainly do.”

She sank into a swivel chair and let it run a slow circle. What was she getting herself into?

“How much control do I have?”

“All and none. You’ll have the freedom to do what you feel is necessary, but ultimately, you answer to Silas. What he says goes. Oh, and you can’t publish until after the Olympic Games. We’ll need you to put that in writing before you begin.”

“Eight months. That won’t be a problem.”

“Still interested?”

She looked around at the gleaming equipment. “Very.”

“Good, then it’s time you met Silas.”