The Fair & Foul (Project Gene Assist Book 1) (10 page)

Juliane rolled her eyes. “He has to continue the promotional tour. Surely someone as smart as yourself can comprehend that?”

Alan leaned against the door frame and said, “How convenient for him. Speaking of convenience, did you happen to stop by any of the campus stores on your way here?”

Scattered among the various ACI buildings were several independently owned and operated convenience stores placed to ensure that ACI employees had few reasons to leave the campus. All should have been closed for the evening hours ago. Puzzled, Juliane replied, “No . . ."

"And you haven't been home yet either?" Alan asked with a smug smile.

"I came straight here." Alan's smile deepened. "But you probably already knew that. Why don’t you go ahead and tell me whatever it is you came here to say?”

“Pity. You might as well go online. I’m sure you’ll find it soon enough.”

Hating herself, Juliane pulled out her phone to check the news feed. On the screen were a series of stories, many of which alluded to the presentation. “Looks like my emulator made the front page. Funny, I don’t see your presentation anywhere here. That must be terrible for you. I know how hard you must have worked.”

“Oh yes, terrible. Why don’t you read the article rather than just scan through the headlines.” Alan might as well have screamed 'I told you so.' The words were clearly written across his features.

Juliane clicked on a link at random. It mentioned the presentation in passing, but the heart of the article centered on speculation of Louis’s relationship with a mystery woman. There were a series of photos of the two of them engaged in several suggestive positions. The photos had been taken while they were enjoying themselves in the suite, not just in the dance club. Juliane felt the blood drain from her face. “How? Why? ” she whispered in horror.

“I suspect they used a drone just like anyone else. I did try to warn you after all."

Juliane opened another article link. More photos appeared, each worse than the one before. Exactly how many drones had been hovering outside? How could she have possibly been so unaware of her surroundings?

Alan reached out and touched her arm, his smile slipping. "You can’t possibly be surprised, Jules. I mean, really? How many times have the media done this to other women in your position? I’m only disappointed that you made it so easy for them. Hotels have drapes for a reason.”

She had enough of his smug attitude, even if there was truth in his barb. She was no longer his subordinate. They were equals, and it was past time he recognized it. Ice crystals began to permeate her bloodstream as her humiliation was replaced by anger. Alan took an unconscious step backward into the hallway. She had to take a calming breath before she could trust herself to speak again. Even then, her voice was hard as blue steel and sharp as a blade.

“What I do outside of these walls is my own business. I thought I had made that clear to you before.” Juliane’s voice took on a dangerous edge, an edge so fine it could cut a diamond.

Alan swiped a hand through his hair, and then back down along the length of his face. “I've been going about this all wrong with you. Jul—I mean, Juliane, you don’t understand. I don’t think less of you for having a little fun. I just think you can do so much better in your choice of company. You have to admit that you and I, on that last project, made a great team. Together, there would be no one to challenge us.”

He clasped his hands around hers. “We wouldn’t have to resort to such petty tactics to get noticed, forced to bow down to the powers that be for handouts. Always working under the threat that grant funding is going to dry up before a project is realized. You and I don’t need people like Louis Evans.”

Alan gestured at Juliane’s phone, to images of Louis pushing reporters to the side while casually saying no comment. “He might like to think of himself as a dragon, considering that silly crew team flag he displays everywhere, but people like him are worms. Good for helping fertilize a garden but not much else. People whose only contribution to the world is their family name on a building. We are better than that. You are better than that.”

The ice in her veins thawed to a trickle at his words, replaced by pity. She had thought the same things about Louis before she had gotten to know him better, before she had seen that eternal smile, listened to his carefree laugh or wrapped her body along his finely defined bulk. Her body began to hum at that last thought so completely she wondered if it might be audible.

“Alan, no, it’s you who doesn’t understand. I didn’t spend the rest of the time in Vegas with him just because of his money or his connections. I did it because I respect him and he respects me, something that you have never demonstrated.”

Alan pulled his head back as if he had been slapped. “I’ve always respected you. Why do you think I asked you to join my team? It’s because I respected you that I couldn’t make it easy for you. I could have gotten half a dozen girls from one of the lesser departments to stand there and look pretty on a stage if that was all I wanted. Someone just bright enough to keep her mouth shut when she didn’t know the answer so as not to embarrass me. But I needed someone with the potential to equal me one day. Only a person like that could challenge me.”

“Someone with the potential to equal you . . . one day? Alan, I believe I passed that point quite some time ago.” The faint lines on Alan’s forehead began to knit. “I can see you are confused. Louis acted as my spokesperson. He may have done most of the talking, but it was my invention. I wasn’t the prop this time, he was. I’m really sorry you didn’t get the chance to witness him live in action. He was glorious in the role. He has an air about him, a raw energy you just want to connect with. With his talent and my drive, we could reshape the world.”

As the words gushed out of Juliane’s mouth she realized that she meant every word. She suddenly couldn't wait to get back to the privacy of her apartment. She would call up Louis and describe in detail all the wonderfully wicked things she would like to do the next time he visited. So lightheaded in her own testimonial, she hardly noticed as Alan’s face darkened. “Jul—Juliane, I would be surprised if he saw your relationship quite the same way. He is using you.”

“We’re using each other.”

“You aren’t thinking with your brain.”

The conversation had gone on entirely too long. She didn’t want to hurt him, but he wasn't giving her another choice. “If you had just had the past few days I had, you wouldn’t be either.”

Alan’s shoulders slumped. The images that came to mind as she thought back on her time with Louis softened her edge. “I’m sorry. That was cruel. But you and I are never going to have anything other than a professional relationship. He loves me Alan." Louis hadn't said the words precisely, but the connection they experienced together couldn't be described as anything else. She had heard the truth in the words he groaned in passion and listened as he whispered joy into their pillows. "We’re just waiting for the right time to let the rest of the world know.”

Alan straightened abruptly. “Don’t apologize. I know that sometimes it’s better to destroy and rebuild rather than try to salvage something. But you misread my intentions. My interest is purely professional. If you want to pursue this distraction”—Alan waved his hands in the air, gesturing at the Internet news still streaming in compromising images—“then, as you say, that’s your business. I just don't want you losing your focus. Especially not now.”

Alan pulled out a slip of paper showing an Internet link. “Your little stunt may have made the front pages here, but there is still real news happening in the world.”

Juliane typed in the link on her phone. Her eyebrows rose as she started to scroll down the opening paragraphs. Her anger evaporated as quickly as it had arrived. “Is this saying what I think it is saying?”

“Indeed.” Alan once again spoke with the calm authority and confidence that she once had so admired. "Obviously these so-called journalists aren't half the subject matter experts they think they are. They see this as a more efficient means of altering biochemical bonds, but I thought you would see the bigger implication, and you just proved me right. With your algorithms at our disposal and my subatomic experience, we can create a device that can manipulate particles as tiny as the Higgs Boson on command. The competition wouldn't stand a chance! We could do this. Together. This is why I came here. I need you on my team, and I need you now.”

Juliane thought about Alan’s offer for a minute. The article had snapped her out of lust-filled thoughts, and she once again was in a position to weigh the pros and cons. Even so, Juliane knew her decision had been made the moment Alan made his offer. She would take it, even if it meant working with him again. “Fine. But we're equals now. I get to pick members of the support staff.”

Alan released a breath. “Done. I’ve already started soliciting resumes. I will send their files to your office in the morning."

It had been several weeks since she had accepted Alan’s offer, and they were still no closer to identifying a suitable candidate to complete their team. Each day Juliane would find another printed stack of resumes on her desk to review. A matching stack would appear on Alan’s desk. Out of an unspoken agreement, she and Alan interacted at a bare minimum beyond swapping notes. The few times they did speak, Alan was more humble and considerate, but there had been little consensus between the two of them.

A year ago, Alan would not have had the patience to keep his promise and would have hired the candidates from his own list regardless of her wishes. In truth, she was a little surprised that he had stayed true to his word for this long. The lack of forward progress had to be chafing on him.

It was chafing her as well. As little as she minded irritating Alan, each day they didn’t have their full team gave the competition a chance to reach proof of the concept first. She and Alan couldn't be the only ones who understood the greatest potential. She would not be reduced to a 'me too.' Time was running out. They were running out of the option to be choosy.

Louis had been away nearly all of this time. Juliane told herself that was a good thing. She was troubled by how often her intellect left her whenever he was around. However, as much as she knew she shouldn't want distractions right now, she ached for him all the same.

Louis, on the other hand, seemed much more capable of separating business from pleasure.
It's so unfair
, she thought. She fought the urge to issue the command to dial his number. She reminded herself that he was a newly appointed CEO trying to launch new technology. It made sense that he would be constantly pulled away. At first he had been doing the publicity tour. Then, he was conducting factory audits and negotiating commercial dealings. She still had high hopes that one day she would be able to integrate her algorithm into Alan's biologic network access, but that was still months if not years in the future. The ACI would expect an income stream long before then.

Thanks to the praise the headset prototypes she used during the presentation had gathered, the ACI believed they had a product ready for the market. As a result, approvals for continued investigation into integration had been placed on the ACI’s back burner while their more immediate needs were addressed. Those needs all centered on developing better, slimmer, more marketable, and, most importantly, more profitable next generation network access gadgets. The stack of resumes had waited on her desk as Juliane brought the ACI's mass market product development team responsible for determining that design up to speed.

Louis had spoken truly regarding the media’s reaction to their work and their relationship. She was forced to change her phone number twice before removing it altogether from public records. It proved to be the only way to get a minute’s work done in between interview requests. The building's hidden entrance was only a moderate obstacle. She had arrived one morning to find the hallway outside of her office polluted by roving gossip reporters. Juliane had told herself that she would be featured on all the major networks one day; she had just hoped it would be for her work rather than her relationship. Shortly after that morning, she had been moved into a new location offering more privacy.

Determined to prevent a similar occurrence, and to further protect her identity as well as the sensitive nature of her work, she demanded that a fake name be used on the hallway nameplate and directory. Her day-to-day contacts within the ACI had moaned about accommodating each of these requests, but she didn't hear any complaints about the additional publicity her notoriety had brought to the organization. If anything, she was convinced that they were partially responsible for at least a few tips-offs to the media about where to find her.

Just as the frenzy began to die down, Louis would materialize somewhere close to the campus, launching another flurry. The media seemed to know when he was nearby even sooner than she did. She had told Louis exactly how little she appreciated the interruption these unplanned visits caused to her routine. She had even used tiny words for his benefit, but if anything, he had made an even greater point of appearing in the most unexpected places. It was almost as if he enjoyed throwing her off balance.

Most unprofessional thoughts about Louis's preferred strategy for working his way back on to her good side filled her thoughts as she arrived at her office. She realized that she although she hadn’t turned the key, the door swung open without effort. She could have sworn that she had secured her office the night before, and she worried for a fleeting moment that someone might have stolen sensitive documents. Then she saw him. Louis was comfortably sprawled in her desk chair as if her chair was located in his home rather than her office. His feet rested on top of the stack of applications, and Juliane felt her pulse quicken as she took in the sight.

She tried to maintain an expression of annoyance. This was her place of business. It was her sanctuary. How dare he let himself in like he owned the place?
Okay
, she conceded,
perhaps he did own it, but really?
How hard would it have been to call her first? Louis, as usual, seemed not only impervious to her displeasure, but even further relaxed. He stretched even further in the chair as she shut the office door, calling to mind images of other calisthenics they had enjoyed together. Her unruly body tingled with anticipated pleasure.