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It never failed, no matter how much he did for science, how many charities he founded or donated to, or how many scholarships he created. At the slightest hint of a scandal, the public was all too eager to forget all the good he'd done, especially when there was a juicy rumor afoot, and especially considering his past.
Anton had forced his expression to pure boredom and glanced down at his nails as he waited for the reporter to answer. There was a beat of deafening silence before they cleared their throat and spoke.
“Well, isn’t it true that you named the telescope for Amelia Corins?”
Anton looked up from his nails with a raised eyebrow. “Who?”
“The supermodel, Amelia Corins.”
“Never heard of her.”
“You were rumored to have been in contact-”
“Why would I name my tech after a supermodel I don’t know?” Anton leaned forward and steepled his fingers against his chin.
The reporter shifted, and for the first time looked unsure. “Her red hair?”
Anton cracked a wry smile and turned his face into his hands with a chuckle. “Are you serious?”
“Y-yes?” The reporter swallowed hard and looked like they wanted to be anywhere but here, with the eyes of the packed room trained on them.
“My team and I develop technology capable of examining the first galaxies in existence, and you think I named it after a woman’s hair color? We just lost billions of dollars of development, and that’s where you go?” Anton put his hands down flat on the conference table and leveled a glare at the reporter.
“It was speculated when you unveiled the name, and-”
“Do you know what infrared is? Ever heard of it? Red is an abbreviation for it.”
The reporter cleared their throat. “I see that now-”
“The next time one of you brings up a supermodel in these conferences, I walk. In fact,” Anton said, standing from his table with a jerk, “I’m leaving now. I have a flight to catch. It hasn’t been a pleasure.”
The room had erupted in a flurry of voices, all of them wanting to know his next move, where his flight was going, if he was going to sue Orion Star. He would have to prove that they had stolen RED, which was doable, but would be difficult considering the thief had wiped out the data server. He had hard copies and other fail safes, but it was still going to take some time before he had enough to take down Orion Star.
Anton had left the conference and made for the first bar he’d crossed paths with. It was a seedy thing, but he was glad for the dinginess of the bar. It meant it was practically deserted while he was there. He guessed it was too early, being just before noon, for many drinkers to be out, but here he was, drowning his sorrows in relative peace. Or as much peace as he could find. Just because the idiots in the conference hadn’t understood what RED’s loss meant didn’t mean those in the science community didn’t. He was barely through his first scotch when the emails started. By the time any respectable person thought to venture to the bar, his inbox was overflowing with condolences over RED’s theft. Each message had come with an invitation. But his thoughts had only gone to one person he wanted to discuss his loss with:Grace.
The precious few phone calls he’d exchanged with her had become treasured moments for him to find respite in. A conversation with Grace had a way of shifting Anton’s perspective, making him re-examine what was important. He’d meant to call her. At the very least an email, because he had asked her out, and that was what you did when you liked the woman that said yes to you. But things had snowballed until he found himself buried beneath well wishes and offers of assistance. Plus, it was, as Mindy pointed out, easy to be snowballed when you were drunk for most of the day.
Some condolences had offered him a place to lay low on a beach in South America, or even France; there had been an invitation to do a bit of Formula One racing in Brazil, a particularly tempting thought.
However, the most alluring invite of them all had come before his sudden need to disappear. He’d been considering it for weeks, had only just gotten up the courage to tell Grace when he’d asked her out. He hadn’t accepted the offer formally, but Grace liked the idea so why not? He had spent far too much time daydreaming about his science penpal than was healthy. And besides, the labs in Geneva were by far the most attractive perk of all the places he could run to, thanks to his-longtime-until-then-FaceTime-friend Lou Wright, who promised him a lab to work and play in, at CERN of all places. If there was one place that was going to get him over losing RED, help him remember he needed to get to work on the next big thing because he wasn’t donejust yet.It was going to be found in those labs.
The timing couldn’t have been more perfect for an utterly imperfect scenario.
For nearly a year, Lou and Anton had worked together on rehauling a telescope that should have been retired at least two decades before. Calling it obsolete was being kind. When Lou had reached out to him about ideas to improve it so she could use it for her research, Anton had hesitated, but then he’d learned what Lou and her ragtag band of scientists were trying to do.
Prove gravity functioned as a wave—and not just prove it,but predict its behavior.
It was ambitious, but doable with the right minds and resources. Intrigued, Anton had agreed to a video call with the diminutive astrophysicist, and by the end of it he had not only been impressed by her passion for the field, but he’d come to respect her tenacity.
It was no secret Lou Wright had been all but blackballed early in her career by the “old guard” of gentleman scholars who found her claims a tad too fanciful. Anton wasn’t fooled; he knew the woman intimidated them, which motivated them to push her to the fringes of the science community.
And for all of those reasons Anton hadn’t hesitated to help Lou or lend his resources to her cause. He would help her rebuild the grandest telescope in the hemisphere. If her research failed, it wouldn’t be for the want of technology.
In light of RED’s theft and Anton’s sudden urge to leave New York City far behind, the decision to join Lou for some hands-on work retrofitting the telescope had been a no-brainer. Now Anton was the one indebted to Lou for the little slice of heaven she had offered him. He’d accepted the email and had Mindy send one out to the research team that had created RED. They were hurting as bad as he was, and getting out of the city would be good for everyone. Whoever could come immediately was welcome to fly first class, the rest would follow when they made arrangements. He wasn’t sure how many would show up at the airport when they were due to fly, but the promise of a trip to Geneva had most of his team of science worker bees ready to ditch the city right alongside him at just after midnight. Most of them traveled light like him. A hastily packed carry-on bag slung over his shoulder and a copy of theNew York Timeswith his face plastered across the front of it tucked under his arm had been all he’d brought. Why he bought the stupid newspaper on his way through customs, he didn’t really know, but whatever.
Trauma, coping mechanisms and all that, right?
Eight hours and easily many more pity cocktails later, Anton had shuffled from the airport to the waiting towncar, and against his better judgment made a beeline straight to Lou’s labs. Why he’d done that and not opted for rest or caffeine he didn't know. At the very least he could have sobered up. He’d always been a bit of a lush, and old habits were hard to break, even when one became an astrophysicist.
