What’s she want now? he wondered. Speaking to his phone, he said, “I’ll take it… Hi Bana. What’s up?”
“Things are going okay in school,” she said with a self-deprecating chuckle. “I don’t think the money you spent on my tuition’s totally going to waste.”
“Awesome!” Kaem said, happy for her, though he was still waiting for the other shoe to drop. He felt sure some kind of request would come. He thought about teasing her about it somehow, but he’d decided that women didn’t like people giving them shit the way men seemed to. Therefore, he had resolved not to do it, but stopping was harder than he’d expected. Deciding—in view of the fact that he should have more money soon—to leave himself wide open for a request, he said, “Anything I can do to help?”
“Oh,” she said as if surprised by the offer. “No. I’m fine for now. I might need more money at some point, but I’m trying to be as frugal as you have been.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it.”
“Um, Dad mentioned that you gave a talk at UVA on Friday night.”
“Uh-huh,” Kaem said, waiting for her to ride him for it. Probably thinks I was pompous.
“I watched it.”
“Uh-huh,” Kaem said, still waiting.
“This is really hard for me to say…”
“What?”
“That…” Bana said slowly, “That I’m proud of you, brother mine.”
“What?! I was sure you were calling to embarrass me about it. Point out my mistakes. Tell me my pants were unzipped. Something like that.”
“I’ve been trying to figure out how to humiliate you over it. But it’s hard to do when… when.” She sighed, “I thought your talk was amazing, Kaem. And it’s cool that your silly theory’s what Mr. X based Stade on.”
“There it is,” Kaem said. “I knew you’d just have to give me shit for something!”
“I just complimented you!”
“For my silly theory?!”
“Oh. I meant for the theory I thought was silly. It can’t be silly if X has done all these amazing things with it.”
“Thanks, Bana,” Kaem said softly, wondering if there’d ever come a time that she’d learn he was X.
And how she’d take that.
***
As Dr. Will Jonas drove up to Staze’s building he pondered the way this unprepossessing metal building held the keys to what he thought would be huge changes in the field of medicine. He glanced over at Grace Penn. He’d met Simone Welch’s tall, good-looking wife back when Simone was first diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Grace had come to Simone’s appointment several weeks ago to tell Jonas that Simone had been stazed. She’d said she wanted to begin planning for the day Simone would be unstazed and treated with Arvinzamab, which would hopefully prove to be an effective treatment.
That night Jonas had watched Kaem Seba’s talk on the web, then gone to sleep, his mind whirling with thoughts of how stasis could change all of medicine, not just oncology. At first, he’d thought he was going to be in the vanguard of those changes as Simone’s treating physician when she was destazed. But then he realized that all the other ways it could be used to save lives shouldn’t have to wait a year for Arvinzamab to be approved.
He’d sent an email to Kaem Seba, but, unsurprisingly, the man hadn’t responded. The guy must be getting thousands of emails.
So, he’d contacted Grace and asked her if she could arrange a meeting at Staze so they could discuss how they would handle Simone’s destazing and treatment. He’d told Grace he also wanted to talk to Seba about some of his other ideas about ways stasis could save lives.
Strangely, as they arrived, a young man was entering the building with a dog on a leash.
When they got through the door themselves the young man and dog weren’t in evidence. Jonas could see they were in a smaller anteroom to the main building. A young man at a desk in the anteroom said, “Welcome to Staze. I’m Ryan, may I help you?”
Grace said, “Hi. I’m Grace Penn. Dr. Jonas and I have an appointment with Mr. Seba at four?”
Ryan said, “I’m sorry, Kaem’s gone home for the day.” He waited a beat for their faces to cloud over, then grinned and got up, “I’m kidding. He’s never out of here before five-thirty. Let me just see if he’s free.” The young man headed for the door to the rest of the facility.
Stunned by the informality, Jonas turned to get Grace’s reaction. She gave him a little grin, “I told you this was a small business. They didn’t even have a receptionist last time I was here.”
The door opened again and Ryan leaned out, “Come on in.”
As Jonas stepped through the door, he saw Seba crossing the room toward them. Hand out, he said, “Hi. I’m Kaem Seba. You must be Grace and Dr. Jonas?”
Jonas nodded, shaking the man’s hand. At first, he was surprised Seba was introducing himself to Grace, but then remembered her saying Seba hadn’t been there when Simone came in. It’d been some of Staze’s other people who’d actually stazed the sick woman.
Jonas glanced around the room. There were only five people there. Ryan the receptionist, now on his way out to the anteroom; the young man who’d entered the building in front of them, now coaxing his dog into the kind of wire crate a lot of dogs slept in; a stunningly pretty Indian woman at a desk; and a Latina lady of about thirty. No one old enough to run a business, he thought, suddenly conscious of his own age.
Seba waved to the Latina lady, “This is Sylvia Contreras, our legal counsel.” He frowned, “The only legal advice we’ve needed to this point has been in regards to
