The question was followed by a long moment of silence as he looked away, into the forest, and appeared to wrestle with his thoughts. "You're very intuitive, Ally," he said at last "Maybe I didn't consciously set out to write about stem cells just because I knew Bartlett's Gerex Corporation was a leader in the field. But writing about stem cells automatically meant that I'd have to get close to him at some point. So was it an unconscious choice? If it was, then I wouldn't be aware of it would I?" "But why would you want to get close to Winston Bartlett?" "I guess that was your original question, right?" "Pretty much." "There are things about my past that I never told you. I could never decide exactly how to go about it. And truthfully, right now doesn't seem exactly the right moment either. You've got enough on your mind" "Want to give me a hint?" What could he mean? she wondered. It was clear that Stone Aimes and Winston Bartlett had some kind of holy war going on between them. "I'll tell you someday soon. But I want us both sitting down in a safe place when I do. It's going to be hard." He looked away again. "Someday soon I've got to tell my daughter, Amy, too. Maybe telling you would be a practice drill." "So what I'm learning is that I'm not crazy. This is about more than it's about?" She sighed. "Nobody's leveling with me. With Van de Vliet I have to worry whether he's telling me the truth every time he opens his mouth. And now you're holding out. It's like that joke about feeling like a mushroom. Everybody keeps me in the dark and feeds me bullshit." She was slowing down, pulling into an open space by the roadside. "Stone, I'm feeling a little dizzy. Maybe it's this conversation, but I think it's time you took the wheel for a while." "Hey, don't pass out on me now," he said, snapping into the moment. "I'm not sure I could actually find this place without your help." "Don't worry," she said, bringing the car to a stop. "I'm all right. I'm just a little worried about my reflexes." He got out and walked around, while she hoisted herself over into the other side. The evening commute had begun in earnest, so there was a lot more traffic than there had been that morning. But Stone turned out to be an aggressive driver, right on the edge, as though he were racing the clock. She gave him directions and then closed her eyes, hoping to rest. But all she could think about was Stone's refusal to tell her about something that loomed very large in his life. "Tell me if I'm bothering you and I'll shut up," he interjected after a few minutes, "but--not to change the subject--did you actually give anybody permission to stick a needle in you this morning? I mean, are you sure you understood what was going on at the time?" She shifted and opened her eyes, looking straight ahead.