Human experimentation in medicine -- Fiction; Suspense fiction
She wasn't sure she knew the answer to that. Initially the job looked
like a lot of fun, but now she felt the interpersonal dynamics of
working in Bartlett's home were already a problem even before she
started.
Also, maybe it was just paranoia, but as she took the cab downtown from
the mansion on Gramercy Park, she got the impression that somebody was
following her in a black SUV. And the stress of that brought on a
tightness in her chest. But as she neared their office in SoHo, the
vehicle abruptly veered east. She had a nitro tab at the ready, but she
didn't have to pop it.
"There's good news and bad news. The good news is he's practically
handing us a sweetheart of a job, and dangling another--designing a
whole museum--in our face. The bad news is, I don't know why he suddenly
thinks we're so terrific. I mean, you and I know that but how did he
figure it out?"
Jennifer looked puzzled. "You mean he--"
"Oh, did I mention that his crazy wife showed up after he left and
essentially accused me of being a hooker? I suppose that comes under
the heading of bad news."
"Great. Does that mean she's going to start second-guessing whatever we
do?"
"The communication channels between Mr. Bartlett and Mrs. Bartlett
don't appear to be all that great. They live on different floors in his
place--which really is a huge old mansion on Gramercy Park, by the way--
and the job would be in his part, the lower level." She explained the
Bartletts' living arrangements. "He wants to redo the garden-level
floor. It was originally the servants' quarters. Like Upstairs,
Downstairs."
"So he's upstairs and she's way upstairs."
"And let's hope she stays there."
Ally fetched herself a cup of coffee, checked in with everybody to see
how they were doing, and then settled herself at her computer. She had
the latest program in computer-aided design (CAD) and she wanted to
program in the dimensions and layout of the space. And since she had a
copy of the blueprints, the first thing she would do would be to run
them through her flatbed scanner and incorporate them into the program.
She didn't get a chance to take any digital photos with CitiSpace's
snazzy (and expensive) new Nikon. But if the job went forward there'd
be plenty of time later.
Everybody's computers were connected to the Net via a broadband DSL
hookup and they were never turned off. Because of that, the computers
were vulnerable to being hacked so Jen had installed a firewall program
to keep out snoops.
She sat down and stared at the screen saver, which was an ever-changing
series of tropical beaches at sunset. She sipped at her coffee--this was
the one cup she allowed herself each day, always saved for the moment
when she felt she needed to be most alert--and reached to turn on the
scanner. The tightness in her chest that she had momentarily
experienced in the cab had completely disappeared and she felt
perfectly normal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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