Робин Кук - Cell

“What? Catch up on old times? Truth is, George, I don’t have a lot of friends out here. Colleagues, yeah, I got plenty of those. But I have been working nonstop, twenty-four-seven — we both know what that’s all about. I’m realizing I need people I can relax around, where there is no competition to get a particular project done. I don’t have too many such friends here.” She laughed again. “Actually, I don’t have any at the moment. So, what do you say? No pressure.”

George studied her face. As far as he could tell she was sincere, which was sad in one way. It sounded as if she didn’t have much of a life. But he was in that same sad boat. “Sure,” he replied. Her vulnerability was not only appealing, it was her saving grace.

“Great! I’ll text you my address. It’s in Santa Monica. How about Saturday? One o’clock okay?”

“Well... I am off Saturday,” George conceded.

“Keep it in mind. A friend date. We’ve been down that other road, and it didn’t work. And... there’s one more caveat. You cannot mention Pia Grazdani. I do not want to even hear her name. Deal?” She smiled. A genuine warm smile.

“Deal,” George said. Her warmth was infectious. It made George want to be around her.

“I can even pick you up if you want. The company has, in their infinite wisdom, bequeathed me a brand-sparkling-new Porsche Carrera to show their iDoc gratitude.” She smiled again.

George shuffled his feet and changed the subject. “Is iDoc really that good? I mean, there were some pretty bold statements made in your presentation. Were you exaggerating a bit for the sake of the potential investors?”

“We were not exaggerating in the slightest. iDoc is truly fantastic. Maybe even better than we explained. To be perfectly honest, we actually held back to a degree.”

“In what way?”

“Well, for instance... and how is it that you can turn me into a shameless blabbermouth?” She wasn’t looking for an answer to her question, and George noticed that she had grasped his arm again. “Our beta-test group is using smartphones just like the one you have in your hand, Mr. Nomophobe.”

“Nomophobe?” George questioned. “What the hell is that?”

“It’s the fear of being out of mobile phone contact.”

George did have his phone in his hand. He had the ringer off but wanted to be sure to feel the vibration if Claudine texted him.

“What we could have added to the presentation was a solution that we have come up with during the iDoc beta test. The problem with the smartphone is... well, it’s not a problem so much as an inconvenience that has the potential to become a problem... is the battery . iDoc runs constantly with its vast array of wireless sensors. Batteries run down, fast . Our beta testers need to recharge all the time. Three times a day plus charging it overnight while asleep. While that isn’t a deal breaker, it is an inconvenience.”

“So what’s the solution to that?”

“Graphene,” she whispered.

“Graphene?” George replied, matching her hushed tone. “Never heard of it.”

“It’s been around since the sixties. It’s not like it’s a secret, even though I’m trying to keep this between us because we’re presenting iDoc to investors as it will run today, not tomorrow. Anyway, it’s also not a secret that we’ve established close relationships with the world’s major smartphone manufacturers. We became aware of graphene’s potential by accident. UCLA discovered a process to make a nontoxic, highly efficient energy-storage medium out of pure carbon. Graphene. It’s a ridiculously simple technology and Amalgamated helped fund their efforts in finding a way to mass-produce it with small embedded electrodes.”

“You lost me.”

“It’s a supercapacitor. It charges much more rapidly than a chemical battery. It’s high density, in that it can hold a lot of electrons, and we can make it one atom thick. Long story short, the technology will have the capability to charge a smartphone from zero percent to one hundred percent in one second. Flat.”

“Seriously?”

“Absolutely. Smartphone models with graphene-based batteries will begin rolling out this fall.” She looked around; still, no one was within earshot. “Now, that is a secret of sorts. As co — patent holders in the technology, we’ve asked manufacturers to not release any information about it until we go wide with iDoc. We want to overwhelm the public’s perception that iDoc is revolutionary. The new battery technology coinciding with iDoc’s release will reinforce investors’ assessment that a new paradigm has been entered. And it will also help serve to get any non-smartphone users into stores to buy new ones.”

“And if you can’t afford a new phone?”

“We’ll subsidize it. Or, more accurately, Obamacare will subsidize it. That’s another bit of holdback, too.”

“How can—”

“Everyone in the beta test loves iDoc, George. It’s better than a real doctor. For all the little things patients want to talk to their doctor about and can’t because that doctor is unavailable. The acceptance of iDoc was immediate. It will change medicine. We’re talking health care, not sick care, as Bradley alluded to during the presentation. Let me give you a personal example of how this works. Recently I woke up with a sore throat. My first concern was strep, as a friend of mine had been diagnosed with it. I dropped a saliva sample onto the designated location of my phone’s touchscreen and asked iDoc for an analysis. Within so many seconds, strep was detected in the flora of my mouth. iDoc emailed a script to my local pharmacy and the prescription was waiting for me when I arrived. I was subsequently contacted by iDoc at later intervals, unprompted, asking to monitor my saliva again. Might have forgotten, but iDoc did not.”

“But what about this call center? Isn’t that cheating? Because real doctors are the backup?”

“Not at all. iDoc has been learning. Learning fast . Just as Lewis Langley reported. iDoc is using the ‘real doctor’ backup at a significantly lower rate now than at the beginning of the beta-test period.”

“Where is this call center located?”

“Upstairs on the seventh floor of the neighboring building, which houses Amalgamated’s home office. Would you like to see it? I’d be happy to show it to you.” She was enjoying this. Her tendency to show off was taking over.

“You can leave here?” George motioned to the crowd of investors.

“Yeah. The sad reality for me is that when it gets to crunch time, these hedge fund guys would rather talk to a man than a woman. They’re more than happy to make small talk and hit on me, but serious investment talk is reserved for Bradley. I think they believe that I’m some sort of a PR front man.”

George scrutinized her. If she resented the sexism, she wasn’t showing it. She just seemed to be acknowledging a fact.

“Okay. Why not? Let’s check it out,” George said.

George followed Paula into the Century Towers. The building was sleek, modern, high-tech, and oozed prestige. Paula reminded him that it also had an unfortunate nickname, the Death Star, a reference to Star Wars and the ultimate weapon in the Galactic Empire’s arsenal. The name had nothing to do with Amalgamated. The building was bestowed the moniker because its lobby bore a striking resemblance to the interior of the film series’ Death Star and because Hollywood’s top talent agency, so secretive and powerful that it literally terrified everyone, including many of its clients, had taken up residence in the tower. Paula said that Thorn didn’t mind the nickname. In fact he hoped its suggestive powers would cause employees and vendors to pledge their loyalty to him. A fantasy, of course, but Thorn liked to indulge in them from time to time.