‘You really have read my work.’
‘Yeah, and I know my alphabet too. It’s vital we talk.’
‘How do I know whether I can trust you?’
‘You don’t.’
‘Do you have a phone number?’
‘Don’t worry. I’ll find you.’
On the other side of the hall, Gabriel stepped tentatively into the auditorium. He was dressed in a brand new Hugo Boss suit he bought on credit. It was the first suit he’d worn and the formality of the outfit made him feel self-conscious—gauche even. Horribly aware of being the youngest there, Gabriel touched the invitation in his suit pocket to reassure himself. Xandox were his college sponsors.
A female rep hanging around the entrance scanned his name tag. She spoke briefly into a mobile phone then approached him.
‘Gabriel Mendalos? Welcome. The head of the Californian division is very keen to meet you.’
‘He is? I didn’t think he even knew of my existence.’
‘Of course I do.’ A long-haired friendly looking man in his late twenties, wearing a T-shirt printed with a cartoon of feuding microbes, put out his hand. ‘We track all our prodigies; after all, you are our future. Matt Leman.’
Gabriel shook his hand, embarrassed at being overdressed.
Taking his arm, Matt Leman lead him to the bar and, without asking his age, handed him a margarita. Gabriel, sipping the drink, gazed around: some of the faces he recognised from science magazines and pharmaceutical brochures.
‘Congratulations on the new laboratory position by the way,’ Leman slapped him on the back.
‘You know about that?’
‘Like I said, we like to track our investments. Professor Huntington is the top in her field. You’ll have access to the best research going.’
‘I know, that’s why I pursued the position.’
‘She got lucky, you’re going to be the best too soon.’
‘I’m only in my first year.’
‘Vision, Gabriel. You’ve got genius; you just need the discipline and vision to take you there.’
‘Really?’ Gabriel’s eyes narrowed. No-one had ever called him a genius before. He knew he had ambition but he was already aware that he lacked the flare of original thinking extraordinary research required—the kind of original thinking Julia was famous for. ‘Yeah, that’s all great hypothetically, but it’s a cut-throat arena—just look at all these guys totally stoked, all wanting to be immortalised for the next major breakthrough.’
‘All the more reason to keep your eyes and ears wide open. Trust me, you’re in the right lab, your…mentor, she doesn’t know what she’s sitting on half the time, but a guy like you—young, hungry, with a cutting-edge commercial sensibility, I just know you’ll be doing the right thing at the right time. Listen, if there’s anything that’s coming in—you know, results you want to brainstorm independently, ring me. I know Xandox would really appreciate the ongoing rapport.’
Half-appalled and half-intrigued, Gabriel watched as Matt Leman slipped his card into his breast pocket. ‘Now, is there anyone here you’d really like to meet?’ The executive put his arm over Gabriel’s shoulders and swung him back toward the reception room. Gabriel looked around; a man in his eighties stood beside the podium, towering over the men surrounding him with a supercilious air of power. Gabriel knew who he was immediately.
‘The area I’m interested in is biology and genetics. Take greenhouse, for example—why can’t we bioengineer a tree that’s genetically manipulated to absorb large quantities of carbon dioxide? I’m telling you, there’s money in greenhouse.’
‘What did you say your name was, kid?’
Julia, recognising the first voice, looked over to the podium, where she was amazed to see Gabriel conversing with Professor Marvin Bedelmayer as casually if he were his recruitment officer.
By the time she swung back to her companion, he had completely disappeared. Confused, she glanced around. There was no sign of him. Who was he? Obviously some disgruntled ex-Delta Force guy, but why come to her? Even if she did locate the mutant gene function, how did he think it was going to affect him and his friends?
Julia looked at the other delegates—they seemed oblivious to her encounter. For one bizarre second, she wondered whether the man had been a manifestation of her own imagination. Just then Gabriel’s voice travelled across the hall again, breaking into her thoughts. Determined to prevent what she perceived as professional suicide, she marched towards the podium.
Gabriel caught sight of her. ‘Oh, here comes my PhD advisor, Professor Huntington.’
Bedelmayer wiped a thin sheen of sweat from his face with a large handkerchief. He was grossly overweight and the temperature of the room was affecting him. He peered at Gabriel, a wry grin playing over his thick lips. ‘You look mighty young for a PhD, son.’