“That’s it! That’s what we get! Whoops, sorry, wrong number. We didn’t think of that! We were paying you to think of everything. It’s not as if stem cells popped out of the blue. What sort of company are you running anyway?”

“Okay, let’s not get worked up here,” Russell interjected. “Henry, Edmund apologizes—”

“Don’t apologize to me, apologize to them,” Henry said, indicating Isabel and Tom. Isabel glowered at Edmund, who eventually raised a hand to speak. It was about as contrite as he was going to be.

“Henry, listen, we need some fresh models run based on some new assumptions that I can e-mail to you in an hour or so, soon as we get back. We need to see how our cash flow is affected in these new scenarios. You’ll have to make assumptions as there is no real data available. We’d be very grateful if you could do it for us. And we need it right away. As you know, there’s provision in our contract—”

“Yes, Russell, I know,” said Henry. “In actual fact, I happened to take a look at our contract when you were on your way over. We’ll do the work for you, have it for you tomorrow, as soon as we can. As you know, Russell, there’s a mutual twenty-four-hour cancellation provision in the contract, under certain circumstances. I believe circumstances such as these cover the provision more than adequately. So consider this your notice.”

More deflated than they had been on arrival, Edmund and Russell didn’t have it in them to protest. They got up to leave.

Chapter 12.

12.

CASTLE TOWERS RETIREMENT HOME
PHOENIX, ARIZONA
MARCH 2, 2011, 11:50 A.M.

At her home outside Phoenix, Sally Mason sat on a bench next to the entrance making the most of the last of the morning air before the sun made sitting outside unbearable. Even though Sally had been born in the state and lived here all her life, the heat had always got to her. Sally was proud of the fact that she was a lifelong Arizonan. There’d been only about 450,000 people living in Arizona when she was born in 1933, and that was about the current population of Mesa, a place that was barely a dot on the map when she was growing up.