Pia whipped out the cell phone and without looking back placed the image of Berman’s eyes in front of her own. There was a reassuring beep. A green light flashed. It worked the first time. Pia swung open the glass door and was about to march through.

“Dr. Grazdani.”

It was Russ.

“Yes,” said Pia, knowing there was nowhere to run to.

“Welcome back.”

“Thank you, Russ,” said Pia. “It’s nice to be back.”

Pia scuttled away, slapped the elevator call button impatiently, and boarded the moment the doors opened. The whole time she was worried she’d hear her name being called out a second time. She breathed a sigh of relief when the doors closed and the elevator began its smooth ascent. Once she arrived on the fourth floor, she wasted no time walking down to her lab. Again she used the phone trick and again the scanner cooperated. A moment later she was in her lab.

Although she was tempted to wander around to look at the experiments under way and get a sense of what was going on with the mammalian experiments, she felt she didn’t have the time. Berman might well be madder than hell, as well as sexually frustrated, and possibly might react by making her persona non grata. She doubted it, knowing what she did about the man, but she couldn’t be sure and wanted to get in as much searching around Nano as she could in case it was the last time she would be able to get in the facility.

Knowing that there were security cameras all over Nano, Pia understood she couldn’t just wander around in her lab coat and jeans, looking out of place. Many employees wore scrubs, as in a teaching hospital, and she wanted at least that much anonymity. Pia found a set in Mariel’s office that were a bit too large but she put them on anyway, topping off her disguise with a surgical mask and a hood.

•   •   •

A FEW MILES AWAY, on a bedside table in an upscale apartment, a cell phone trilled. A text was delivered. A couple of minutes later, the phone sounded again, and this time a hand reached out from under the bedclothes and picked up the phone to check it. Whitney Jones was irritated at having forgotten to mute the phone when she’d turned out the light. The fact that it had rung wasn’t unusual. Her phone number was linked to numerous systems across the whole company that alerted her to certain people’s movements, but the only person who really mattered was Berman, and if he wanted to reach her, he could use the house phone, which he did on a regular basis. Sometimes it was for the most trivial of reasons, including that he couldn’t sleep.