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“Lovely to meet you at last—we’ve heard so much about you.”
Alan grins at my wry look. “You’d better get used to hearing that. This is my office through here. Would you like a coffee?”
“Please.”
“Jade?”
“Coming right up, sir.”
“Thank you.” He leads the way to the office at the far end. It’s the biggest one, of course, bright and spacious with a view over the lawns behind the building. A large desk stands at an angle to one side, and at the other end a light-gray sofa and chairs surround a low coffee table. Paintings of seascapes decorate the walls. “Rowena’s,” he says, referring to his daughter.
He puts his briefcase on his desk and says, “You can leave yours here if you like. It’ll be safe.”
I put mine by the chair in front of his desk. “Come with me,” he says, “and I’ll introduce you to the team while we’re waiting for our coffee.”
He leads me back out and along the line of offices. Five of them are occupied, and I get to meet the men and women who help him run the firm—the heads of the financial, scientific, commercial, people and culture, and marketing departments. They all shake my hand warmly and say they’re looking forward to talking more when we meet up for lunch in the boardroom.
The last office is empty. Alan takes me in, though. It’s a good size, with an attractive view, very light and spacious.
He turns to me with a smile. “This would be yours, if you decide to stay.”
My eyebrows rise. “You’d want me up here?”
“Of course. You’d be an important part of my senior leadership team, Titus.” He claps me on the back. “Come on. Jade will have got the coffee ready by now.”
I follow him out, taken aback by his comment. I’d assumed that if I were to move here for the two years he’s requested, I’d be based with the rest of his engineers in the main computer room. I certainly didn’t expect to become part of his management team. I know how important my AI program is, and what potential it has for the medical industry, but even so, it’s difficult not to be flattered by his words.
My stomach flutters, and I brush my fingers over Heidi’s tie pin. I’ve spent a long time traveling alone, and I’m used to coping on my own, but I wish she was here with me today.
We spend twenty minutes chatting over coffee while he tells me a little about the structure of the company, and then he takes me on a tour. We walk through a large portion of the office building, exiting at the rear and then walking across to the laboratories. After showing me around these, he takes me through the manufacturing facility before leading me back into the last section of the office block: the computer rooms.
“She’s not a patch on Marise,” Alan says when he shows me their main computer, referring to Mack’s supercomputer back in New Zealand, “but she’s smart, and she’s getting smarter. Due in no small measure to our resident genius.”
He introduces me to Elliot, the engineer who runs their computer science department. Two geeks fluent in computer code, we hit it off immediately, and Alan soon wanders off, leaving us to chat for an hour about NZAI and the Stork program.
Eventually Alan returns, and I say goodbye to Elliot reluctantly and follow Alan out. “Last bit,” he says, and he leads me across to the front entrance and out of the building. Turning right, he takes me on a short walk to the private hospital.
“This is where we run our clinical trials.” He takes me inside.
It’s cool, clean, and smartly decorated in pastel colors no doubt meant to relax and reassure the patients. He signs us in, and we’ve literally just sat in the waiting area when a woman comes out of one of the doors and walks over to us.
“This is Dr. Meera Pawar,” Alan says. “She’s a reproductive endocrinologist, and the head of the fertility clinic.”
“Mr. Oates,” Meera says without Alan saying my name, “I’m so very pleased to meet you.”
“Likewise, and please, call me Titus,” I tell her.
She beams. “Come this way, Titus, and let me show you around our clinic.”
Meera is proud to show their facilities and introduces me to dozens of people—more reproductive endocrinologists, embryologists, sonographers, nutritionists, and of course the all-important nurses and administrative staff. Everyone stops what they’re doing to greet me, perpetuating the feeling of being royalty.
“We really look forward to working with you further,” she says when our tour comes to an end.
“Goodbye.” I head out with Alan, who gives me a regretful look as we start walking back to Acheron.
“Sorry about that,” he says. “I have made it clear that it’s not a foregone conclusion.”
“It’s okay.” I smile, even though my stomach flips. I’m starting to dread the thought of the coming discussion we’re going to have later.
