Chapter 33
We were in the parking lot 10 minutes before our appointment. “Aha”, I said, “so we got here in time!”. Brad looked at me with an expression half amused half confused, and got out of the car without answering my inexplicable exclamation.
At the reception we asked for Mark Gill, as McMurrich had instructed us to do.
“Have a seat, I’ll tell Dr. Gill you’re here”, said the girl at the front desk. She was the kinky type that even the guys who feel very intellectual can’t help staring at.
I caught Brad taking side glances at her, trying to pass unnoticed.
“You like her, don’t you?”, I asked winking
“Are you jealous?”, he teased.
“Not at all, as a matter of fact I like her too”, I smiled slyly.
Brad gave me an amused look, shaking his head. I was about to prod him again when I saw a man walking towards us with a resolute pace.
“You must be Iris and Brad. Mark, pleased to meet you”, he said, tending us his hand.
His hand shake was firm and curt, and his clear blue gaze direct. There was something authoritative in this man, but he inspired my curiosity for reasons I could not fully define. He was the type who could be on top of someone like McMurrich, I thought.
He’s her lover, I told myself without knowing why, and the idea fascinated me and revolted me at the same time.
“Why don’t we go upstairs to the labs”, he said, accompanying his sentence with a gest showing us to the elevators. The elevator we took was crowded, and we went up looking at our feet, in the embarrassed and vaguely claustrophobic silence that accompanies rides in elevators packed with people.
“This way”, Mark Gill told us once we finally reached our floor.
The neon lit corridors gave out the same feeling of FoodTech labs: scientific, aseptical, efficient and completely impersonal. We stopped in front of a door labelled as “Flow cytometry lab”. Mark Gill scanned his badge and we got in.
“You can leave your box on that bench”, he told me, and then walked towards a bulky machine and said, “I suggest we start from here”.
“We are looking at identifying some bacteria…”, I began.
Mark Gill cut me off nodding. “Dr. McMurrich told me about your scopes. Flow cytometry will tell us if we have more than one type of bacteria. After we sort this part out, we’ll run some assays to assess what are the main proteins in the bacteria present in your sample. How does this sound?”.
“Great”, I replied, feeling that this was the only answer someone like Mark Gill could accept.
“We appreciate your help”, added Brad, who had been silent up to that moment, “please let us know when we can pass by again”.
“Most certainly. We will have this done by the end of this week, I will call you once the analyses are completed”.
I nodded with a smile that probably looked like the one of a good high-school student.
Gill headed to the door, “The elevators are down this hall”, he said, giving us a second curt hand shake, “it was good to meet you”.
We were silent in the hallway and in the elevator, not as packed as on our way up but with a couple of other hosts. When we reached the parkade I felt finally free to talk again.
“Whoh, what a man of steel!”, I said as we walked to Brad’s car.
This time Brad agreed, “Yeah, not a very easy one to talk to”.
“I think he’s McMurrich’s lover”, I said.
“He could very well be, they pretty much deserve each other”, Brad replied.
I laughed, “I am pleased and surprised that for once you are not being so cool about someone”.
He shrugged, “I am not cool, I just like to mind my own business”.
“Which amounts to pretty much the same thing…”.
The sun was up high and hot in the sky, and after about an hour in the parking lot Brad’s red Hyunday was hotter than its color.
“I could easily use a day off”, I said.
“You bet, but McMurrich will not give us much time at this point. We should show Alice the paper you found yesterday and see what she thinks, perhaps she will find some inspirations to solve our quiz”.
“Sure partner, let’s get going”, I laughed.
“You’re odd today”, Brad laughed back at me, shaking his head and starting the engine.