Read Online Unsaid: A Novel by Neil Abramson - Free Book Online Page B

He takes three steps toward Cindy in the Cube. Cindy watches him closely. “Cindy,” Jannick says at the same time he signs, “what is your favorite food?”
    Cindy just stares at him.
    “Let me try again,” Jannick tells Wolfe. “What is your favorite food?” Jannick asks as he signs, this time more slowly.
    Still no response from Cindy.
    “Hmm. Did I get the signing right, Frank?” Jannick asks. “Did I ask her what I intended?”
    Frank, who looks like he would prefer to be anywhere but here, simply nods.
    “How about another question, then,” Jannick says. “A simple yes or no. Cindy, do you like peanut butter?” Jannick asks and signs.
    Cindy is painfully silent.
    “Perhaps she just doesn’t like you,” Wolfe tells Jannick half jokingly.
    “I guess it wouldn’t be the first time I was rejected,” Jannick says. “But we do know she likes Frank, right? He’s worked with Cindy since the beginning. What do you say, Frank? Give it a try?”
    Frank looks to Jaycee for guidance. They both know that Frank will be no more successful than Jannick. “This is very disruptive and unfair, Dr. Jannick,” Jaycee says. “Cindy has no reason to use your language with you.”
    “How about because I asked nicely?” Jannick asks. “What’s the magic word? Please? Okay, Cindy.” Jannick turns back to Cindy and says and signs, “Please.”
    Jaycee’s face turns bright red. “When you are done hijacking my demonstration, Scott, I would like to show Congressman Wolfe—”
    “—that your work cannot be replicated?” Jannick scoffs. “That you’ve spent the last four years of the government’s money creating a technology that no one else can use and, therefore, is proof of nothing? I warned you about this, Jaycee!”
    Jaycee spins on Jannick, forgetting Wolfe and the demonstration. “She speaks to me! Why isn’t that enough?”
    Jannick pulls out a folder and waves it in front of Jaycee’s face. “Because the grant agreement you signed says it’s not enough. Because the testing protocol
you
designed to ensure the validity of the experiment requires more. You can’t change the rules at the end of the game.”
    Wolfe’s aide whispers to him again, and Wolfe examines his watch with exaggerated deliberateness. “I’m going to need to get back to the city, Doctors. It’s been an interesting experience and I assure you, Dr. Cassidy, the committee will give your materials a careful vetting when I return to DC. Why don’t you join me for the drive down, Scott, and we can review budget issues.”
    Wolfe’s aide escorts him out of the lab and into his car before Jaycee has the chance to protest.
    In his now empty and silent office, Joshua begins the process of closing for the day. He does a last check of the animals in the back cages to make sure that everyone has enough food and water for the night and that all the post-surgical cases are stable. Then, moving to the front of the office, Joshua shuts down the computers and one by one turns off all the lights.
    Prince, an enormous tortoise-striped tom tabby, follows him around the office. Prince was the tiniest of strays when Joshua first found him. He was so sick looking and scrawny that no one wanted to adopt him. The fact that he had lost one ear and an eye in some street battle didn’t help his adoption chances, either.
    After a while, Joshua stopped trying to place the cat and accepted the fact that Prince was a fixture of the office. Every night before he left, Joshua put out a clean litter pan, a bowl of dry cat food, and a dish of fresh water and gave Prince roaming rightsthrough the office. This arrangement apparently was agreeable to the cat, as he soon became a feline behemoth able to push open the heaviest of the office doors.
    Prince meows and rolls on his huge back on the reception desk. Joshua obliges him with a belly scratch for a few moments, but then something by the door catches Joshua’s attention. His hand freezes in midair. There it