Nano

CHAPTER 56

Jimmy Yan never ceased to amaze Zach Berman. Berman was barely able to keep his eyes open while Jimmy sat in the VIP area of this expensive nightclub in Mayfair, deep in conversation with a stunningly beautiful Chinese woman who was at least six inches taller than he. The other woman, who had sat down next to Berman when they arrived, had lost interest and wandered off a half hour previously. The club throbbed with beat-heavy music and was thronged with young, attractive men and women. Try as he might to join in, Berman just wanted to go to bed.

“You are not enjoying yourself?” asked Jimmy, shouting to be heard above the noise.

“I can hardly hear you,” said Berman, cupping a hand to his ear.

“But you like places like this. We went to places much like this in Milan.”

“I know. But it’s late, and I’m tired.”

What Berman truly wanted was to have Pia there by his side. Try as he might he couldn’t get her out of his mind, knowing she was back at the vicarage wasting away. He had fully expected to have heard through the Chinese doctor that she wanted to see him, but it hadn’t happened. Berman had asked the doctor directly, but he had insisted that Pia had not said anything of the kind. It was, in Berman’s mind, a kind of Mexican standoff, both accustomed to getting their way. He cursed her doggedness while recognizing it was part of her allure.

Berman yawned, and he covered his mouth to try to conceal it. There was no doubt he was tired. He and Jimmy had been on the go all day. The difference was that Jimmy still looked as bright as he had that morning. They had driven in an official car from the vicarage in Chenies to the Olympic site in east London where the international championships were taking place, a journey of forty miles that should have taken an hour but took three in nightmarish traffic, which was bad by local standards.

Jimmy Yan took Berman to the apartment where the marathoner Yao Hong-Xiau was staying. Berman had been pestering Jimmy relentlessly to be allowed to see the man who carried his future on the soles of his size-eight shoes. Lying on the bed in his small apartment room, Yao seemed calm and well prepared. He didn’t go out much, he told Zachary and Jimmy, there were too many distractions, and he was sticking to his light training schedule and resting.

Later, Berman told Jimmy that Yao was right about the distractions. London was in full summer mode. Jimmy had abandoned the car with its driver in Stratford, where the championships were taking place, and had taken Berman on the Underground — the London subway, something Berman hadn’t done since he was an undergraduate at Yale on the grand tour — back into the center of the city. The small subway cars were packed with people. Berman heard a multitude of tongues, and two-thirds of the occupants appeared to be tourists. A busker started singing a Sinatra song, badly, and was shouted down by a gaggle of Australians clutching beer cans.

The narrow sidewalks of central London were bursting with tourists and Londoners. Groups of armed police stood on major intersections, and local cops tried to keep the pedestrians out of the street. Rock music blared from storefronts, and the aromas of a hundred cuisines filled the air. It was a hot and sunny day, and Berman wondered what had happened to the famously bad English weather.

“Jimmy, what are we doing here?”

“This is Leicester Square, in the middle of London. It is fun, no?”

“No. I’ve never seen more people in my life.”

“I am Chinese, at home I see more people every day. Come on.”

Jimmy grabbed Berman’s arm and steered him through narrow side streets to a doorway. A small sign, in Chinese, hung above the door and Jimmy pushed Berman through.

“We are in Chinatown. Best Chinese food in Europe right here. These people are from my province.”

Jimmy obviously knew the proprietor, who bowed three or four times. The food, when it came, was incredibly spicy, and unlike any Chinese food Berman had tasted.

“Is it too hot? I asked them to tone it down, for a Westerner.”

“It’s good,” said Berman, chewing a piece of fiery meat. “But it is spicy.”

“I want to take your mind off that woman. She is not going to come around, you know.”

Why did Jimmy think that? The rooms at the vicarage were probably bugged, Berman realized, and Jimmy probably knew of Pia’s response to his entreaties.

“She will come around,” Berman said. “She has to. Look, Jimmy, I appreciate your being discreet about her, with your bosses.”

“Who says I haven’t told them?”

“I trust you haven’t. Nothing has happened to this point to jeopardize our enterprise. The only fallout from snatching her out of Boulder is a couple of guys who went to the Boulder police and asked a couple of questions. They are not getting anywhere. In fact, they’re the ones who may be in trouble, not us. As far as anyone knows, Pia’s in the wind.”

Jimmy shrugged. Berman knew Pia meant nothing to Jimmy. But while the deal was in the balance, she could remain as his guest. The marathon wasn’t for another two weeks, so there was ample time for Berman to wear her down. He’d never failed before.

Now, many hours after lunch, with more sightseeing and an endless dinner, Berman was calling it a night,

“As you wish,” said Jimmy. “The car is outside if you want to go back. My friend and I were discussing Chinese agricultural policy. Seriously. I’ll come back later.”

Jimmy turned back to his new companion. Good for you, thought Berman, but I’m done. He wondered how much of what he was feeling was because of Pia or if it was because it was half past two in the morning. Berman had a sense that his feelings for Pia were not just carnal, otherwise he would have made sure he could possess her as soon as they had reached the vicarage. He wanted her recognition that he was a pioneer and that they could build this company together, with Berman at the helm and talented scientists like her alongside. The Chinese phase would be over soon, and there would be no more need for clandestine experimentation. It had been necessary to jump-start the program, to get the capital funding, but now everything was going to be aboveboard. Pia could take the NIH on a tour of Nano herself if that would placate her.

A new rhythm thudded its way into Berman’s head as the disc jockey started a new set. Berman could see that Jimmy wasn’t about to leave anytime soon, so he got up from the leather couch, thanked the man for the enjoyable day, and made his way through the crowd of pretty people toward the exit.