Micro

Chapter 3

Maple Avenue, Cambridge 27 October, 6:00 a.m.

One by one, all seven of the graduate students decided to take Vin Drake up on his offer. They collected data, they wrote out descriptions of their research, and they sent letters and information to Alyson Bender at Nanigen. One by one, they were informed that Nanigen would fly them to Hawaii; and for simplicity they would travel as a group. As October ran to its end, their days were devoted to preparations for departure. All seven had a lot to do—finishing experiments, getting their research projects in shape to leave them for a while, and, of course, packing. They planned to leave early on a Sunday morning out of Boston’s Logan Airport, with a connection through Dallas, arriving in Honolulu that same afternoon. They would, by general agreement, stay four days, returning toward the end of the week.

Early on a gray, cold Saturday morning, the day before the flight, Peter Jansen was in his apartment working at his computer. Erika Moll was there, too, cooking bacon and eggs and singing “Take a Chance on Me.” Peter abruptly realized that he had forgotten to turn on his phone that morning—he’d turned it off the night before, when Erika had unexpectedly shown up. He turned on the phone and placed it on his desk. A minute later, the phone buzzed. It was a text message from his brother, Eric.

He stared at the message. Was this a joke? Had something happened? He typed back:

He watched the screen, but there was no answer. After a few minutes, he dialed Eric’s number in Hawaii, but got his voice mail. “Eric, it’s Peter. What’s up? Call me.”

From the kitchen, Erika said, “Who are you talking to?”

“Nobody. Just trying to get my brother.”

He scrolled to the message from his brother. It had come in at 9:49 p.m. So it had arrived last night! Which had been afternoon in Hawaii.

Peter dialed his brother again, but again got voice mail. He hung up.

“Breakfast is almost ready,” Erika said.

He brought the phone to the table, set it beside his plate. Erika wrinkled her nose; she didn’t like phones at meals. She was scooping eggs onto his plate, saying, “I followed my grandmother’s recipe, with milk and flour—”

The phone rang.

He grabbed it. “Hello?”

“Peter?” A woman’s voice. “Peter Jansen?”

“Yes, speaking.”

“It’s Alyson Bender,” she said. “From Nanigen.” He had an image of the blond woman with her arm around Eric’s waist. “Listen,” she said, “how soon can you get over here to Hawaii?”

“We’re scheduled to fly tomorrow,” he said.

“Can you come today?”

“I don’t know, I—”

“It’s important.”

“Well, I can check the flights—”

“Actually, I took the liberty of booking you on one that leaves in two hours. Can you make it?”

“Yes, I think—what’s this about?”

“I’m afraid I have some disturbing news, Peter.” She paused. “It’s about your brother.”

“What about him?”

“He’s missing.”

“Missing?” He felt dazed; he didn’t understand. “What do you mean, missing?”

“Since yesterday,” Alyson said. “There was a boating accident. I don’t know if he told you that he bought a boat, a Boston Whaler? Anyway, he did, and he was out yesterday, on the north side of the island, and he had mechanical difficulties…there was big surf, crashing against the cliffs. The engines lost power, the boat drifted in…”

Peter felt light-headed. He pushed the plate of eggs away. Erika was watching him, her face pale. “How do you know this?” he said.

“There were people on the cliffs, they saw the whole thing.”

“And what happened to Eric?”

“He tried to start the engines. He couldn’t. The surf was high, the boat was going to be smashed on the cliffs. He dived into the ocean and swam…for shore. But the currents…he never made it to shore…” She took a breath. “I’m very sorry, Peter.”

“Eric’s a good swimmer,” Peter said. “Strong swimmer.”

“I know. And that’s why we continue to hope he’ll return,” she said. “But, uh, the police have told us that, well…The police would like to talk to you, and go over everything with you, as soon as you get here.”

“I’m leaving now,” he said, and hung up. Erika had gone to the bedroom and brought his bag, already packed for the following day.

“We’d better go,” she said, “if you’re going to make that flight.” She put her arm around his shoulder, and they headed downstairs to the car.