Page 49 of It Starts With A No

“He sleepwalks, so I need to be home to make sure he doesn’t burn the place down or something.”

Sleepwalks. She wondered if that was something that developed because of Holly Eolenfeld. Then, as before, a question nagged at the back of her mind. Did Mr. E know? Did he turn a blind eye to everything that happened?

Seth waved a hand in front of her face. “Are you in a food coma?”

“From a slice of cake? My appetite is way bigger than that.”

He grinned and cocked his head to the side. “This way to the robotic hand.” He strode toward the hallway flanked with doors and glass windows. “This entire wing of the building belongs to the robotics arm.”

“Is the pharmaceutical side of the business here too?”

He shook his head. “We’ve always treated the two arms as two separate entities. If the pharmaceutical side needs special equipment or machinery, the robotics arm will develop it. But we have separate management for the two different arms.”

“So all the cool stuff is here?”

“Not on this floor. The more sophisticated developments are upstairs, but the robotic hand is here.” Seth pointed to the first room on the right.

The glass window was frosted, so they couldn’t see what was inside despite the light.

“In there, they’re developing a motor-driven wheelchair controlled by thoughts.”

“You like things controlled with thoughts.” She cupped her hands around her eyes as she pressed up to the glass.

“Our brain is amazing. It’s the most powerful organ we have. Perhaps in time, paralysis may just be something that requires one to put on an exoskeleton to go about daily life. In time, people may not have to worry about growing old and weak.”

“That sounds wonderful.” She dropped her hands. “Do I actually get to try out the equipment or am I just looking?”

“They’re not toys.”

“Then how will I know if this is a Theranos situation? Maybe you’re just telling me it works when it doesn’t.”

“It works.”

She scowled. “Then you could’ve just showed me photos instead of dragging me down here.”

“How would you know if I downloaded the photos from somewhere else? Or I could photoshop them.”

She trudged forward.

“And you had a nice slice of cake.”

She shot him a bored glare.

“I’ll think about it.”

She peered over at him again, this time with a small smile. “That’s more like it.”

He continued down the hallway and gave a casual wave of his left hand. “They’re developing batteries here.”

“That’s not very interesting.”

“But necessary. Everything we have needs to be powered, and our current battery technology is one of the primary limiting factors for much of our equipment.”

“That’s why Iron Man needed that blue thing in his chest.”

Seth laughed again, and she shot him a glare.

He held his hands up in peace. “I’ve just never heard anyone say that.”

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