Pia put her eye to the iris scanner and pressed the scan button. It was of the same design as other machines she was familiar with from the entrance to the building and her own lab. But this one gave an unfamiliar result: a harsh buzz and a momentary red blinking light. Pia tried again and the machine turned her down once more. Pia tried the door. It was locked, as she expected. She shrugged and turned back. So much for trying to check out the bridge.

Before reaching the door to her lab, she had an idea. She took out her iPhone, went to the settings, and made sure location services was on. Then she tried to map where she was in relation to other buildings. But there was no result despite there being a strong Wi-Fi signal. Being more specific, she went to the Maps app and put in Nano’s address. All she got was a blank. When she used double-tap to back out, she could see that the totality of Nano’s footprint was a blank. Apparently Nano had gotten into the Googlesphere and removed the information.

Pia was getting nowhere. She knew of no other entrance to Nano that was accessible from the main road besides the one she and apparently everyone else used. But there were other side roads in the area. Perhaps she could go outside and try to walk the perimeter of the facility to see what she could find. Pia was determined not to be thwarted, but tromping around in the woods at that moment was not a high priority.

Returning back to her own lab, she again looked to see if Mariel had been around. If she had, there was no sign of her. With some ambivalence, Pia wondered when the hell she was going to see the woman. Mariel had been less than pleasant that morning and had mostly ignored her at the hospital, but Pia had some questions despite what Mariel had said in the hospital parking lot. Whether Mariel would answer them or not, Pia had no idea, but she was going to ask them just the same.

Pia went to the lab bench area she used as her personal space, since she did not have a separate office. She had had yet another idea. The Chinese runner had yelled out his name and suddenly it popped into her head. Pia used one of the lab’s phones to call the main operator and asked to be connected to Yao Hong-Xiau.

“Could you spell that?” the operator asked.