"Well, I assure you, Gabe, while I may have mentioned nanotechnology as one of the interests of the administration, I am far from an academic expert on the subject." Lily surprised Gabe at that moment by once again ringing the tiny bell, as if she was dropping the subject altogether. "Maddy," she said to her servant, "is lunch ready?"

"All set, Ms. Lily."

"Good. We'll be there in just a minute. I know you've got business in town. You can leave for the day as soon as you've taken care of the dishes."

"Thank you, Ms. Lily."

"And Maddy, please call William at the stables and tell him we'll be ready to ride in thirty-five minutes."

"Yes, ma'am."

Gabe tried quite unsuccessfully to imagine himself so at ease dealing with servants. He couldn't even deal with his horses on anything but a strictly even basis. If Lily Sexton wasn't born into the role of mistress of the manor, she had certainly succeeded in the adaptation.

It wasn't until they were settled in at one end of her impressive dining room table that she finally brought the subject back to nanotechnology.

"I suppose if you've been studying, you have some grounding in the field," she said.

"Well, I know about the Eric Drexler talk that sort of started it all. And I know some of the very basic chemistry and a bit about the potential of the science and how it stands to impact all of our lives. But I really still don't know where speculation and potential stop and reality begins."

"Well, neither does the president, or any other government agency for that matter, from Capitol Hill down to the smallest town. It's one thing to be excited that nanosilver shoe disinfectants is becoming a new industry. It's another to try and determine what the effect of aerosolized or ingested nanosilver particles would be on human organs."

"So you think new public health laws are needed?"

"The president does, and that's what counts."

"But what happens if every governmental agency from Congress to the East Podunk City Council starts drafting control legislation—especially when they're operating with outdated or little or even no scientific information?"

"That's exactly what the president is trying to head off at the pass by forming this new cabinet post, centralizing control of the new sciences, and drafting well-thought-out, comprehensive legislation, with curbs on unbridled research. We know that industry and especially big pharma would always rather ask forgiveness than permission. We'll be trying to circumvent that without stifling creativity and without smothering what will probably be the most important development in our civilization since fiberoptics, and may turn out to be the linchpin of science for the next several centuries."

"The ability to construct beginning with atoms. That's some power," Gabe said, as much to himself as his hostess.