by Bob Blanton
“Dr. Metra,” Marc said as he entered her office. “Do you know how your friend got aboard?”
“I lied,” a woman behind him said.
Marc turned around to see an attractive Indian woman standing there. She was wearing a typical tropical ankle-length silk skirt with a light-yellow blouse for a top. Two girls were hiding behind her; they were about ten years old, and they were wearing jean shorts and cami tops. All three of them were wearing sandals. It took Marc a moment to notice that one of the girls was using crutches to stand.
“Dr. Khanna, I presume.”
“Yes,” Dr. Khanna said as she stepped forward and offered her hand to Marc. “Please call me Dr. Sharmila.”
“Marc McCormack,” Marc said as he grasped her hand and gave it a shake.
“Please use my office,” Dr. Metra said. “I have rounds to make.” She rose from her desk and exited the office, closing the door behind her.
“Please have a seat,” Marc indicated a seat at the conversation seating that was in the corner of the office. Dr. Sharmila sat down, and her daughters crawled onto the couch where the picture books were that Dr. Metra’s assistant must have found for them. Marc took the seat opposite her. “Could you explain how you think we could help your daughter?”
“First, I would like to apologize for lying to your people,” Dr. Sharmila said. “I told them that my daughters were here to visit their grandfather. I knew that you were treating Dr. Ahluwalia here, so since he’s Indian, they assumed we were related.”
“Nothing that I wouldn’t do for my own daughter,” Marc said, waving his hand to dismiss the issue.
“Thank you for your understanding.”
“Again, how do you think we can help?”
“Your ex-wife and I are good friends,” Dr. Sharmila said. “I was working at UCSD medical when she came to work there, and we’ve gotten close.”
Marc nodded his head and rolled his hands to indicate she should continue.
“After she came back from here with her grandparents, we were having lunch one day. She was telling me how wonderful it was to have them back in her life. They were still staying with her at the time. Anyway, I broke down crying. It was difficult to hear such wonderful news right after Aalia started having to use crutches to walk. It broke my heart and her sister, Prisha’s, heart as well.”
“I can imagine,” Marc said.
“After I explained it to Linda, she was very understanding. I told her I would do anything for such a cure for my little girl.”
“Okay.”
“Linda asked me if I really meant that. I said, of course I did. She pressed me further, asking if I would give up my career in San Diego, my life in the U.S.,” Dr. Sharmila said. “I told her I would give up my life if my little girl could just be like her sister.”
Marc nodded his head, guessing where this was going.
“Linda said that she thought there was something more to your cure for Alzheimer’s than you were willing to say. She wouldn’t explain further, but said if I was willing to come here and stay, that maybe you would have some way to help my girl.”
“That’s a lot to take on faith,” Marc said.
“All I have left is faith,” Dr. Sharmila said.
“What about your husband?”
“I kicked him out,” Dr. Sharmila said. “He couldn’t deal with Aalia’s problem once it became worse. Somehow he thought it reflected on his manhood.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It was a reflection of his character,” Dr. Sharmila said. “I don’t want my girls exposed to such a poor example.”
“Would there be any issues with the girls being here away from him?”
“He doesn’t know where we are.”
Marc sighed. “Dr. Metra is looking into whether there might be something we can do for Aalia, but we don’t know yet. It could be a while.”
“We have her entire life to wait.”
Marc closed his eyes to think; after a moment, he nodded his head. “We could definitely use another doctor,” he said. “What was your specialty?”
“Orthopedic surgery,” Dr. Sharmila said.
Marc smiled, “Well, that is fortuitous. But Linda was right; this would be a one-way ticket. If we hire you and treat your daughter, you’ll need to sign an NDA and commit for at least five years. You wouldn’t even be able to tell Linda any specifics.”
“I am happy with that.”
“Okay, Dr. Metra says she very hopeful. She has done some previous research on genetic diseases. I’ll ask my lawyer to come to see you. Where are you staying?”
“We are at the Wellesley Hotel.”
“I’ll have her contact you there. Her name is Samantha Newman,” Marc said.
“I cannot thank you enough,” Dr. Sharmila said. Tears were streaming down her face.
“Please call if you have any issues or need anything.” Marc handed her his business card. “I only hope we can help.”
“I have faith,” Dr. Sharmila said.
Marc handed Dr. Sharmila and her two daughters off to Dr. Metra’s assistant, who then showed them off the ship. A moment later, Dr. Metra came back into the office.
“Well, how did it go?” she asked.
“Tough,” Marc said. “Do you think you’ll be able to help?”
“I am confident. It really is only a matter of time.”
“That’s good to hear. She’s an orthopedic surgeon.”
“She told me. That will be very helpful when we start the surgeries,” Dr. Metra said.
“I thought so. Keep me posted, please.”
“As always, Captain.”
Chapter 24
Soccer Friends
“Oh, quit whining,” Liz said. “You’ll have fun and get a chance to meet some new friends.”
“I know, but I’m busy,” Catie whined.
“Well, you’re going to have to find a way to make a couple of hours of soccer fit into your daily schedule. Your father didn’t seem negotiable on the subject.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Catie looked around the soccer field. There were three groups, the under ten group, her group ten to thirteen, and then the fourteen and older group. Each huddle was just forming as the players and their parents arrived. She felt a little conspicuous as the only white girl on the field. And having light brown hair made her stand out even more. The other girls weren’t avoiding her, but they weren’t coming over to say hello either.
“Hi.”
Catie turned around and saw two girls. She was sure they were twins; they looked so much alike. One was slender and athletic looking, the other was using crutches to walk and seemed smaller, but Catie figured that was because of the crutches.
“Hi, I’m Catie.”
“We know who you are,” the one with crutches said.
“You do?”
“Sure, I think everybody knows you. Whenever you go by, somebody points and says there’s Dr. McCormack’s daughter,” said the other twin.
“They’re right, he’s my father. Are you joining the team?” Catie asked, pointedly looking at the twin without the crutches.
“We both are.”
“You are,” Catie said. She was a bit surprised that the one with the crutches would be joining the team.
“Yes, Dr. Metra says I’ll be able to play in a month.”
“I’m glad to hear that. She’s a great doctor.”
“We think so. Our mother is a doctor and works with her now.”
“Oh right, Dr. Sharmila,” Catie said. “I remember my father mentioning her.”
The twins giggled. “I bet he was mad.”
“No, he wasn’t mad,” Catie said. “He was talking to Uncle Blake, and he said something like, Linda, that’s my mom, sent me a doctor today. I’ll have to return the favor.”
“Mummy will be happy to know he wasn’t mad,” one twin said.
“Where are you living?” Catie asked.
“We live on Banyan Way.”
&
nbsp; “Hey, that’s just down the street from us,” Catie said.
“Cool, what position do you play?” the other twin asked. Catie had to look to see which one was talking. Their voices sounded identical, and they segued between who was speaking so smoothly that she didn’t notice they had switched, without looking.
“I like to play second striker,” Catie said. “And you?”
“We like to play winger,” they both said together, or at least it looked that way to Catie.
“Here comes your coach,” Liz said. “I’ll be right over here, have fun.” Liz looked across the field at the two members of their security team who were using cricket bats to pitch the ball between them. They were looking pretty inconspicuous, which was the plan.
◆ ◆ ◆
After practice, Catie and the twin who was playing ran over to Liz and the other twin. “Well, that wasn’t so bad,” Liz said.
“I guess not,” Catie said.
Catie turned to say goodbye to the twins, but they were engaged in an argument with an older Cook Islander. “Do we have to go shopping?”
“No shopping, no food tonight,” the woman said.
“But we have homework.”
“Plenty of time for homework after dinner.”
“Aww.”
“Ask your mother if you can come over to my house,” Catie said. “You’re close to us, and Liz is taking me home right now.”
One twin had her cellphone out immediately and was texting her mother. “She says it’s okay,” she said, showing the older woman the message.
“Okay. But you behave yourself,” the woman said.
“We will.”
They all got into the car, and Liz drove them home. The twins pointed out the house they were living in when they drove by it. When they turned the corner into the compound, both twins gasped.
“You live in a mansion,” they said.
“It’s a big house, but there are seven of us,” Catie said.
“Well, there are three of us,” the twins said.
“But I’m the only kid. We have to have six bedrooms for us, and I bunk with Liz.”
“Oh, that is a big family.”
“We’re not exactly a family, well three of us are. My Uncle Blake lives here, my dad, Liz, Samantha, Fred, and Kal. We all work for MacKenzie Discoveries.”
“Even you?”
“Yes, I do.”
“What do you do?”
“I work on some designs, picking out the interiors for our jet, things like that,” Catie downplayed her work, not wanting to sound like she was bragging.
They established that the twins were going to St. Joseph School; they were ten years old; they were both in the fifth grade. They both wanted to be doctors like their mom, and they both hated math. It was 6:30 when Dr. Sharmila stopped by to pick them up. The twins were just finishing their homework and were asking Catie about what TV shows she liked to watch. They wouldn’t believe her when she said she didn’t watch TV, but the discussion was cut short when their mother showed up.
“They were nice,” Liz said after the twins had left.
“Yeah, they’re kind of cool, but weird. Sometimes it feels like there is only one of them, but in two bodies.”
“I know what you mean. When I was listening to you guys, it really seemed like there was only one girl visiting, they sound so alike. They’re in perfect sync when they’re both talking, and they seem to finish each other’s sentences.”
“Yes, and did you notice they never seem to talk to each other. It’s like they’re telepathic.”
Chapter 25
Board Meeting – Feb 4th
“I’d like to call this board meeting of MacKenzie Discoveries to order,” Marc said.
“My, my, aren’t we getting fancy,” Blake laughed.
Marc gave Blake an indelicate finger salute, “I’m just trying to be in sync with our fancy new boardroom,” Marc said. He swept his hand around the dining room in the mansion they were renting.
“It is nice,” Samantha said. “And a little more convenient than the Mea Huli.”
“Hey, I liked meeting on the Mea Huli,” Catie said.
“Yes, it was nice,” Samantha said, “but it added a couple of hours to the meeting since your father is so paranoid about being listened in on that we had to go out five miles before we could talk business.”
“Hey, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” Marc quipped. “And we have had some eavesdroppers before.”
“Are we going to use up the whole two hours we’re saving, arguing?” Liz asked.
“I think not,” Marc said. “Blake, you start.”
“Our manufacturing building is up, and we’ve completed the characterization of the polysteel process. We start production on Monday.”
“That was fast,” Liz said.
“Yeah, the process dialed in right away. It just took the week, and I think half the time was spent running the test a second time just to verify results.”
“Do we have enough workers lined up?” Marc asked.
“Yes, we’re going to start with just one shift on one line until we iron out how to move the material around and resolve any other logistical issues,” Blake said. “We’d like to avoid any industrial accidents.”
“How are you going to handle the islanders’ tendency to decide that today’s a better day for fishing than for work?” Fred asked. “As I recall, that drove the businesses in Hawaii nuts.”
Blake and Kal laughed. “Kal, why don’t you explain.”
“Sure, what we’ve done is hire two pools of workers, regular staff who are on the schedule and about half as many temporary staff. If a regular staff member decides they’d rather go fishing today, they call into the office, and we pull in a temporary staff person to substitute for them.”
“What happens if the temporary staff guy also thinks it’s a good day to fish?”
“We just call the next one; that’s why the pool is fifty percent of the regular staff size. The temporary guys get a thirty percent bonus for days they work.”
“Why wouldn’t they all decide to be temporary?” Fred asked.
“Three twelve-hour shifts a week guaranteed, versus trying to hope you get two temp days a week isn’t a good bet. People have to eat. The temp staff is mostly made up of the wives, brothers, or kids from the regular staff. Makes a good household income,” Kal explained. “A lot of families are interested in doubling up, one takes the first three days and the other one the second three days. We’re considering letting regular workers do one temp day a week, when they’re off shift, to augment the temp pool.”
“I like it,” Marc said. “Sam, do you see any issues?”
“No, Kal worked with me to set it up,” Samantha said. “The government really likes the idea.”
“Moving on,” Marc said. “What about battery production?”
“We’re shifting them to the same schedule and rules that Kal came up with starting Monday,” Blake said. “Workers are really excited about that. We have one hundred fifty thousand batteries ready to ship out.”
“That’s an impressive ramp up on the batteries,” Marc said. “I hope you threw a small party for the team.”
“Small party, I threw a big party,” Blake said.
“My mistake, big party. Do you have anything, Kal?”
“Some of the workers are really pushing us to get the dorms added. They like the idea of coming on day one, spending two nights, and going home on day three. The forty-five-minute commute on the ferry is a bit much.”
“That would make the ‘I’m going fishing today’ syndrome less of a problem,” Fred added.
“Sounds good,” Marc said. “Blake, can we expedite the construction?”
“Already on it. We’ve poured the concrete pad, so it will go up fast.”
“Catie?” Marc said.
“We have a big battery order from Tesla, but we need to get another customer. The phones, pads, and notebooks look promisin
g, but I think we have to do an in-person visit to close the deal. We’re eventually going to need more customers than I can find via the internet; I’m not sure how to do that. We could take the batteries to a trade show, but who would we send?” Catie said. “Same thing about visiting the tech companies, who goes?”
Samantha and Fred were really impressed with all that Catie was handling, but the rest knew she was getting a lot of help from ADI. Of course, they also knew that ADI couldn’t do it all, especially thinking of things like trade shows and tech reps.
“That’s on my list,” Marc said. “We need a salesperson to do the meet-and-greet part. Working through the internet works pretty well to start, but we really need someone who can walk in and close the deal. Trade shows are a great idea; otherwise, we might miss a big market we never realized existed.”
“And why aren’t we selling batteries to GM and Honda?” Liz asked. “They also have electric cars.”
“Because I want to start an electric car company,” Marc said.
Everyone was taken aback. “What, are you crazy?”
“No, just hear me out,” Marc said. “I want to start a company; we’ll be majority owners, but I want to get someone else to actually run it. I want to locate its manufacturing in second-world countries exclusively. Force the G7 to import from them since only Tesla will be competing with the same quality product. We can reign in Tesla by limiting their batteries, that will force them to stay in the high end.”
“I like this,” Samantha said. “Balance out the world’s wealth a bit more equitably.”
“What about third-world countries?” Catie asked.
“We have to walk before we can run,” Marc said.
“You do know that first, second, and third world are outdated terms,” Samantha said.
“They are?” Catie asked.
“Yes, it’s better to think of them as high income, upper middle income, lower middle income, and low income,” Samantha explained. “Those terms are less politically loaded and more accurately show where the wealth disparity is.”