Nano

CHAPTER 59

Pia couldn’t keep track of the days but she knew she hadn’t seen Berman in a long time. The only people she did see were the doctor and the same guard who never looked her in the eye. The slot in the door had been pulled back once and she could swear it was Whitney Jones standing out there, but she never came into the room. Pia’s arm was doing a little better, but she felt very dulled and listless. How long was Berman going to torture her this way? Her muscles felt flabby from lack of use.

It was on the sixth day since his last visit that Berman returned.

“What do you want?” she said. She thought she detected a slight smile on his lips, which just angered her that much more.

“How about a walk?” he asked as if this were the most normal thing in the world for the two of them to consider.

“If it’ll get me out of this room, sure,” said Pia. She had tried to keep flexing her arms and legs in basic Pilates moves but she knew she would be stiff if she walked any distance.

The guard undid the shackles that attached Pia to the bed and bade her to stand. She felt terribly weak, and her head throbbed, but she was able to remain upright if she placed her hand against the wall. The guard helped her to the door as Berman stood outside, where a walker was waiting for her. Pia felt better — perhaps half human, as she grabbed hold of the walker and shuffled after Berman.

“I am truly sorry about this, Pia. I only wish you had been more cooperative. You must realize I am laying a lot on the line keeping you here like this.”

Pia was alarmed — Berman seemed to be talking with a grave finality.

“Where are you taking me?”

“For a walk, I told you.”

A heavy door opened from outside and they walked out into the back garden of the vicarage. It was fifty yards long and shaded all around by thick woodland. A high wooden fence corralled the lawn, which was encircled by a path, with benches at all four corners.

“I want you to get your strength back,” said Berman. “Have you thought about our conversation? Did you read the material I left for you?”

“Of course I thought about our conversation. And I read the material. Sure, it’s very impressive. Nano in 2020 will be the biggest medical researcher in the world. But you’re neglecting some important aspects of your less than glorious past.”

“Pia, I implore you to look beyond that. The bodies you saw, those people were going to die anyway — pointless, anonymous deaths. I think of them now as pioneers of a kind. Because of their sacrifice, we will be able to make these incredible medical advances.”

“That’s ridiculous and you know it. It’s not a sacrifice if you’re made to do it.” It felt good to be walking, so Pia pressed on. She wanted to keep this conversation going. Berman spoke again.

“Do you remember how excited you were when you first came to work at Nano? The enthusiasm with which you talked about your work was truly infectious. When you came over for dinner with that boy, you and I talked about the possibilities of what we are doing. And this is a whole new world of possibilities. A new frontier for medicine. It’s going to open up treatments and cures for thousands of maladies. And you know something else: it is going to save money. Nano is about to enter a new era. I’m done with respirocytes and athletes. We can move on to legitimate experimentation and development using animal models first and then humans. Can you imagine injecting a few cc’s of respirocytes into a drowning victim? Or what about people with debilitating COPD who can’t breathe enough to climb a single flight of stairs. They’ll be cured with respirocytes. The good we are going to do in the future will be a thousand times greater than any harm we did in the past. Ten thousand times more! We have no need for the kind of experimentation that was required to develop respirocytes fast enough for our Chinese backers. And to tell you the truth, on some level I now regret it.”

Pia glared at Berman.

“Bullshit. You’ll still do whatever it takes.”

“I see that you may not believe me, but it’s true.”

“You wanted to take shortcuts so you could save yourself.”

“What do you mean?”

“You told me about your mother, who’s living with Alzheimer’s. The literature you gave me focuses a lot on Alzheimer’s. You’re terrified you’re going to see signs of it in yourself and you’ll do anything to find a cure.”

“It’s not guaranteed that I’ll get the disease, but, yes, the chances are high. Both my parents struggled with it, and it was tragic to see my father go as he did. Now my mother is going downhill quickly. And I do have the gene associated with an increased risk, meaning I’m facing a double whammy. So, yes, I’m focused on Alzheimer’s research as well as infectious disease. Is that such a bad thing?”

“So you admit it. Of course it’s a bad thing, when you’re killing people in order to do it.”

“Ten people, perhaps, and they were criminals, convicted felons who were scheduled for execution. They would have died anyway if our program had not existed. And we didn’t intend them to die, that was not the goal. In reality all we affected was the date of death.”

Pia had promised herself that she would adopt a more conciliatory tone with Berman if she got another chance to talk to him. She had to give in, she saw that, or who knew what would happen to her? If she didn’t agree to Berman’s terms, there was no chance of her making it back to the United States. She even knew there was a deadline — the marathon at the athletics championships. But when it came to it, she couldn’t help herself. She found herself saying things she knew she shouldn’t. It was a bad habit, to say the least.

Pia suddenly felt physically exhausted but she wanted to keep walking. It had been almost a week since she had gone to see Berman at his house, as near as she could figure. It felt like ten years. Pia wondered: if she pretended to relent to Berman, would he take her home. Perhaps she could promise him the physical favors he so craved once they were back on American soil, but knowing him as she did, she doubted it very much. She knew she was powerless to do anything while she remained a prisoner here.

“How much longer are you going to keep me here like this?”

“How much longer are you going to resist the inevitable?”

“Perhaps forever.”

“I have said the consequences for you would be disastrous.”

“Can you at least get me a cell with a real bathroom? Or is that how your mother is, soiling herself in a diaper? You like the women in your life to be degraded, is that it, Berman?”

Pia steeled herself, ready for Berman to strike her. But he didn’t. Instead, he stopped walking. Pia looked at him and his face was thunder.

“You’re lucky you’re so pathetic yourself. I’m sure you are aware that I could have had my way with you if that had been my only intent. The fact of the matter is that I’m protecting you from our hosts, taking a risk, I might add, that their patience might run out. But that doesn’t mean I have to protect you forever. Think about your situation again. What are you going to do, climb that wall over there?”

Pia looked at the enclosure surrounding the garden. It was an impossibly huge fence, especially in her weakened condition. Even if Berman said to go climb, she wouldn’t be able to do it. Pia knew Berman was right. She was trapped with little hope of rescue. The only person who might guess that she had been abducted was Paul, and what could he do, especially since there was no way he could know for sure what had happened to her?