Dangerous by Default

49. The other shoe drops

The sun was cracking through the kitchen window, but Mina hardly seemed to notice. Caine had already come in and made pancakes, fried bacon, and fresh-squeezed tangelo juice; all of which sat untouched upon a tray on the marble counter. It was as if he had passed through the dreamstate she was in, noiselessly maneuvering in the background, the smells and light slowly changing around her but her mind and body fixed in a drowsy trance. And still, she had made no progress.

Her phone buzzed and she picked it up without thinking. Her voice was faint and distant.

"Hello?"

"Mina, hi. I'm glad you picked up. It's John Thorne." Mina's eyes scanned

that name, grasping for any sign of recognition in her memory palace.

Ah. Right. John Thorne, a board member of Dimensions and their second biggest

investor. Get your head together.

"Hi John. I'm assuming you're calling about the money. Is it done?"

"Yes, uh, the money transferred. You can feel relieved to know that there will be no gap in paying employee salary checks, which go out in 45 minutes. The cash is in the piggy bank, if you will."

"Thank god. This is great news, John. If you don't mind, I'm a little preoccupied at the moment. Let's speak soon."

Mina quickly hung up the phone. Her head fell onto her arms. Why was John Thorne calling me like this? I never speak to John Thorne. Oh right. Duh. Because my Chief Financial Officer quit. Mina's phone rang again. This time she looked at the name on the screen.

"Hi again, John! Did I miss something?"

"You hung up so quickly."

"Yes, look we have the money, what else do you want?"

"Mina, I'm here with the rest of the board members. We had an emergency meeting this morning."

Mina propped up on the edge of her seat. Emergency meeting of the board. Here it comes. The shoe is dropping.

"We received a distressing email this morning, Mina. From Ami."

"From Ami! What did it say? Is she ok? Where is she?"

"Mina, she's fine. Look. There's no easy way to say this. Ami resigned. She sent an email disclosing the nature of a secret project you've had her working on for the last two years. The project that's nearly bled the company dry. She can no longer in good conscience continue to work on a project that goes against her morals and the rule of law. She forwarded us documents. We are still going through it now."

Just like that, the words pierced through Mina's fog like a hot acupuncture needle. Her surroundings became solid. She was alert as ever.

"That's not possible, John. There's no way Ami could've sent that email. You have no idea what you are talking about. She's been kidnapped, John. I'm not supposed to tell you any of this, but a detective from the SFPD is looking for her. The email you received is from her captors."

"Mina, you've got it all wrong. She hasn't been kidnapped. Ami anticipated this kind of reaction from you. She needed to get away."

John cleared his throat as Mina clutched her phone tightly. His matter of fact tone was starting to scare her. Was this all part of red cloaks plan?

"Look, it really doesn't matter. We are still going through the documents now, but from what we've seen, you've violated multiple laws. You can't ignore FDA rules on conducting human trials, on an artificial womb of all things! We were required by our fiduciary responsibility to inform Pechaude of the development. Luckily his commitment to the vision of Dimensions has unchanged, pending one significant change."

Mina knew what was coming next. She placed the phone on the kitchen counter. She sensed Caine's presence hovering in the hallway.

"His investment in our Series C is dependent on your immediate removal as CEO of Dimensions. The board voted unanimously this morning. I'm sorry Mina, but you're fired. A security team member will come by later to pick up your laptop and your badge and to..."

Mina had already tuned out John's drawling voice when she noticed a flicker in the goo. She had dyed a few of the nanoparticles with an irradiated isotope to track them. The molecules kept returning to the same exact positions. The same positions as from when they were in the vial. She swirled the goo with her finger. Miraculously, the kaleidoscope pattern of color gradients swirled, then spun into their original shape. Like a self solving rubik's cube. Eureka!

The CO2 would keep fogging up the nanocameras, and prevent them from transmitting spatial images that could be reconstructed into a 3D map. They wouldn't be able to survey and regulate inside the artificial womb properly.

Unless you give the nanoparticles spatial memory!