Mariel swallowed hard. She was shocked. A minute earlier she was enjoying Berman’s undoubtedly jealous response to Pia’s guest, and now he was inviting the man and Pia to his home, a place where Mariel had never been invited.

“Tell her that she and her houseguest should arrive at eight,” Berman continued. “But make sure she realizes it is a social event. Tell her it has to be tonight, because the rest of the week I’m going to be busy charming the socks off our important Chinese visitors.”

Mariel got to her feet, clutching her clipboard against her chest. She looked Berman right in the eye but didn’t say anything. She knew Berman was taking advantage of her and deliberately humiliating her. Here she was, one of the principal people of Nano and key to its biomedical R&D program, and he was treating her like a gofer, asking her to arrange some weird, sick rendezvous. From sore experience she knew what Berman really wanted.

Without another word Mariel headed for the exit. Before she got there, Berman called out to her, and she stopped without turning around.

“So you’ll pitch it like I described, okay? A social event among friends. And it has to be tonight.”

Mariel hesitated, thought about turning around and telling Berman to do his own personal errands, but she didn’t. Despite his behavior toward her, she was still enamored of the man. Instead she shifted her resentment and spite to Pia, the bitch.

10.

ZACHARY BERMAN’S HOME, BOULDER, COLORADO

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013, 8:20 P.M.

George whistled and shook his head in disbelief as he and Pia sat in her car in the cobblestoned turnaround of Berman’s imposing post-and-beam timber home.

“What a house! It looks more like a hotel than a private home. This nanotechnology stuff must really pay off.”

All that day while Pia was off at work, George busied himself on the Net, reading about nanotechnology in general and microbivores in particular. He’d become something of an armchair expert. He’d even made it a point to read the article by Robert Freitas that Pia had suggested he’d find interesting.

“It’s such a waste since his family isn’t even here,” Pia said. She was as impressed as George, especially with all the rough-hewn masonry and soaring gables. Set at the top of a wide stone staircase, it dominated the environs like a medieval castle.

“Were you surprised at the invitation?” George asked. He had been nonplussed to have been specifically included. He had no sense of what role Berman played in Pia’s life, and no idea what to expect. The one thing he knew for certain, if push came to shove, there was no way he could compete on a level playing field with a man with his resources.

“I was more than surprised. I was shocked,” Pia admitted. It was the last thing she’d expected, especially since she’d ignored Berman’s increasingly insistent texts the day before. All day she had worried that Berman would suddenly appear in her lab and there’d be a confrontation. But it hadn’t happened. In fact Pia hadn’t seen him all day. When she’d asked, she was told that he was involved with a luncheon for a newly arrived contingent of Chinese guests.