Ben Watkins had returned from the board meeting that morning. He had slept all the way back on the plane, but he was still tired. He had been up most of the night before, reworking the timescales for the project as Grant had requested. He had delivered it to Grant’s office before he left. Rosanna Casarotto had been there. She had taken it from him with her usual demure smile.
“Your little problem has been solved,” she told him. She made it sound like he had an unsavoury medical condition.
Ben had thought about that on the way to the airport. Problem solved, just like that.
Three weeks ago at the hospital, Julia Connors had tried to convince Jayne Middleton’s parents of the benefits that would be gained if they gave their daughter’s body over to science. It was a well rehearsed approach. But they were both adamant that they wanted her back. In the end, Julia had settled for a temporary arrangement. It had all been in the report. So how could Jayne’s parents have been persuaded to give up her body so easily now? It was ludicrous. And then Ben realised that it was his own thoughts that were ludicrous. Rosanna Casarotto wasn’t employed by the Corporation for her diplomacy.
Ben sighed. He should have known. But nothing about his trip to the Corporation’s headquarters had gone as expected. Tyler’s coup had been as surprising as it was complete. Ben was now head of the project in name only. Tyler would take all the credit for it’s success. But Tyler’s manoeuvre had been so subtle, that if the project failed, Ben would still get the blame. Ben had to admire him for that, even if he did wish that he could boil him in a vat of oil.
The phone on his desk rang. Ben picked up the receiver and said, “Watkins. Yes?”
It was Rawlston’s voice that answered. “She’s awake, sir. I think you better get down here.”
“What language was she speaking when she first woke up?” Ben asked, ignoring Rawlston’s advice.
“Italian.”
“I’ll come down when Matthew calls me.” He put the phone down and sat back in his chair. Thoughtfully, he waited for Matthew’s call.
Download something that will give an immediate result, Ben had told Tyler, something that we can see has worked. After the board meeting, when Tyler had told him what he had done, Ben had been furious.
Tyler had far outreached himself. He had already attempted both the first stages of the project without the go ahead from Ben. If she awoke, and it worked, Jayne Middleton would accept her predicament as if she had volunteered for it. But to be sure that it had worked, and to satisfy Ben’s request, Tyler had also swopped her language memories around. According to Tyler, it had all been very simple. Just alter the length of the memory of each language so that to Jayne, Italian would now stretch back to her childhood, while English would be just a few years old.
Ben had been very dubious. He was sure that Tyler was meddling in things he didn’t really know enough about. He remembered what Matthew had told him, about how our memories were all inter- linked. He was sure that nothing about what Tyler had done was simple, and, to be honest, he was beginning to trust Matthew’s expertise in this matter far more than Tyler’s.
But now Jayne was awake. And, apparently, it was just as Tyler had promised. Like always. Tyler was far too confident, and now that he had Grant’s backing, it could only get worse.
Make that a very large vat of oil, Ben thought as the phone on his desk rang once more.