Fall from India Place (On Dublin Street 4)

By the time she landed at O’Hare on Wednesday morning, she was feeling energized and excited, looking forward to the Gersbach demonstration that afternoon. She’d thought the device was fascinating before, but now that she’d become familiar with it on a firsthand basis, she was enthusiastic in a way she’d never before been about a product.

She was brimming with excitement for the Gersbach meeting because of the product, but she was ten times as thrilled at the idea of seeing Kam again.

Brigit and Otto Gersbach came for the demonstration in Ian’s office, but Lucien and, of course, Kam were expected to come as well. Lin was seated in her usual chair at the gleaming cherrywood conference table in Ian’s office, casually showing Ian, Brigit, and Otto the Reardon device, singing her praises without a hint of artifice. They were all fascinated. Everyone stood when Kam and Lucien entered the room.

“Hi,” Lin said breathlessly to Kam after she’d greeted Lucien.

“Hi,” he returned, as Otto Gersbach shook Lucien’s hand and they exchanged hellos. He looked wonderful to her, not to mention extremely handsome in a dark gray suit with crisp white dress shirt and black-and-silver striped tie. She met his stare, smiling when she saw that familiar knowing gleam in his silvery eyes as he looked down at her. Her lips brushed against his jaw.

“They already love the watch,” she whispered quietly near his ear.

“That’s because you’re making it look so good,” he murmured back before he lightly kissed her lips. It wasn’t a professional kiss, technically speaking. For the first time in her life, Lin could have cared less about professional appearances.

The demonstration went well. She explained to the group about her experience wearing the watch, telling them that once she understood what her stress looked like on the display screen, she could take proactive steps to lower the indicators on the bar graph. Her progress in controlling her body’s stress response grew exponentially with all the regular feedback. She showed them all in real time how she could control potentially negative stress responses by merely focusing on her breath or doing a brief centering exercise.

“It’s like having a constant mirror for your body,” Lin explained. “It’s hard to learn when things are invisible, but when you see your responses visually or audibly”—she switched the control panel to audio for a series of feedback beeps—“it becomes instinctive to understand and learn from the feedback. I had no idea how my body responded so adversely to landing in an airplane, and don’t even ask me about my response to two caffé macchiatos after a sleepless night,” she said, glancing at Kam fleetingly and repressing a small smile when she saw his knowing look.

Lin had never seen Otto so smitten and enthusiastic about a product. He insisted that Kam come to Geneva sometime soon in order to show the product to the rest of the Gersbach board of directors. After the demonstration was complete, Kam broke the news that he’d decided not to sell his product wholesale, but would consider a royalty use of his product by Gersbach. Otto wasn’t pleased about this development, but was starting to come around when he saw how steadfast Kam was on the topic.

Lin’s phone began to ring. “Excuse me for just a moment,” she said quietly when she saw the caller identification, getting up from the conference table and going to the far side of Ian’s extensive office.

The call was from Emile Savaur, Richard’s partner. Lin took it because she’d been worried by a conversation she’d had with Richard while she’d been in California. His “flu” was not getting better the way it should have if it were a typical bug.

According to Emile, Richard had gotten worse. Emile had taken him to the hospital, and much to his concern, they’d admitted Richard.

“I’ll meet you over at Northwestern Memorial as soon as I finish up with this meeting,” she said. Emile had tried to tell her it wasn’t necessary, but when she insisted, he’d sounded relieved.

“It was Emile calling about Richard St. Claire,” Lin told Lucien when she returned. Lucien was good friends with both Emile and Richard as well, having known the two men since his days in Paris. Everyone seated at the table quieted and listened to Lin. “Emile has taken him to the hospital and they’ve admitted him. They say he has pneumonia.”

“Is it serious?” Lucien asked, his brow creasing in concern.

“It sounds like it,” Lin said. “I’m going to head over to the hospital as soon as we’re done here. I won’t be back. I have class tonight,” she reminded Ian. Her gaze transferred to Kam, who nodded in understanding. Had he guessed that she hoped he’d meet her after her dance class like he had last week?

“I’ll go with you,” Lucien said.

“I’ll call you in a little bit,” Kam told Lin. She gave him a grateful glance. She hated having to leave when she hadn’t seen him for days, but it would just delay their personal reunion a few hours.

The meeting came to an end as Lucien and Lin gathered their things, and the Gersbachs extracted a promise from Kam to go to Geneva for a few days the following week.

•   •   •

“Do you know Richard St. Claire?” Kam asked Ian once they were alone in his office.

Ian nodded. “He’s a nice guy. Young and healthy, too. Seems strange that something like this could happen.”

“Some of the newer respiratory viruses can be dangerously virulent,” Kam replied.

“The meeting went well. You were right: that device is a linchpin, a flagship product, not a means to an end for building capital. You’re going to be able to name your terms with Gersbach and any number of other companies.”