Janna shook her head "no." "The first thing we knew was some guy in a decontamination suit just rushed us off when we went to Ann's office. She was in high school with the two of us, and I wanted to talk to her about her job." That was close enough to the truth.
Lee wiped his face with his hands. "You do have a knack for turning up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Okay, I'm going to tell you what I know...but it's against my better judgment. Ann Vivane has apparently been working on a way of harnessing the power of pi."
Janna gasped and Mark slowly nodded his head, almost as if he expected that answer. Janna turned and glared at him.
"You suspected her all along, didn't you?" she said, her hands clenching in her lap.
He had the decency to look shamefaced as he admitted, "I knew she was working on something like that several years ago. That's what our falling out was about. She was always an intense person, but after she left school and we got in college, things went worse. We started hanging around with these people who wanted to not study mathematics as a pure science, but find ways it could be applied. That was all well and good, but some of them wanted to harness the power for monetary value, not for altruistic motives. That's where she and I split apart."
"You could have told me," Janna said, trying to be calm.
"Why? You said you just wanted to ask her questions about her job for background for a book. You didn't say anything about us walking into anything else."
Janna turned away from him and looked out the window, over her cousin's stony profile. There was nothing she could say ... nothing that wouldn't reveal her secret. And, she would not risk anyone else getting hurt because of her secret.
Lee wiped his face with his hands. "You do have a knack for turning up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Okay, I'm going to tell you what I know...but it's against my better judgment. Ann Vivane has apparently been working on a way of harnessing the power of pi."
Janna gasped and Mark slowly nodded his head, almost as if he expected that answer. Janna turned and glared at him.
"You suspected her all along, didn't you?" she said, her hands clenching in her lap.
He had the decency to look shamefaced as he admitted, "I knew she was working on something like that several years ago. That's what our falling out was about. She was always an intense person, but after she left school and we got in college, things went worse. We started hanging around with these people who wanted to not study mathematics as a pure science, but find ways it could be applied. That was all well and good, but some of them wanted to harness the power for monetary value, not for altruistic motives. That's where she and I split apart."
"You could have told me," Janna said, trying to be calm.
"Why? You said you just wanted to ask her questions about her job for background for a book. You didn't say anything about us walking into anything else."
Janna turned away from him and looked out the window, over her cousin's stony profile. There was nothing she could say ... nothing that wouldn't reveal her secret. And, she would not risk anyone else getting hurt because of her secret.
Ahem.
ReplyDeleteWaiting....
*taps foot*