Absolute Zero (25 page)

“What am I doing here? Is that what you were going to ask?” he responded as he took a step into the room. “Well, it’s my company, for starters. If I wish to pop in to a facility, I believe I’m well within my rights, eh?” He looked around the table, searching for an empty seat and finding none.

It was all he could do not to back track his gaze and focus on Anne. She was wearing a fitted blue shirt that only accentuated her bright eyes all the more. The hair that normally swept across her forehead and hid one eye was pulled back with some sort of clip revealing her entire face and making her look younger for some reason.

She was a sight. She was also distracting him, he realized as his eyes forced themselves to rest on Rand’s frozen expression of shock instead of her.

Movement from the corner of his eye caused him to switch his attention to Andrea as she pushed back from the table and stood.

“Here. You can have my seat, Sir,” she stated before grabbing her notebook and laptop.

He gave her a slight nod and a small smile as he walked over and sat down on the vacated chair. Anne watched as Ryan and Nancy both scooted in opposite directions to probably put more distance between them and the new arrival to the table. She wondered if it was done unconsciously on both their parts. It almost made her smile before she caught herself.

An uncomfortable silence still hung in the room before Rand cleared his throat. Andrea walked to the corner of the room, placing her laptop on the side table and stood next to it before Rand finally spoke.

“We’re, ah…this is our weekly update meeting,” he stated to McClellan before raising the packet in his hand as some sort of proof.

“Wonderful. Just pretend I’m not here. I’ll just observe,” McClellan stated. Anne held back the snort that wanted to escape at that statement. In fact, she could imagine many feet under the table were probably kicking the foot next to them. She observed a couple sets of rolling eyes and hoped that McClellan didn’t notice. She flicked a glance toward him and determined immediately that he would not have noticed.

Because he was looking straight at her. Again.

She quickly looked down to the screen in front of her wondering if the flush she was feeling creep up her neck was a manifesting itself on her traitorous cheeks. Probably. She wanted to groan in frustration but kept her lips clamped.

“Ok, so…” Rand started before McClellan’s voice interrupted him.

“Wait.”

All eyes snapped back to McClellan.

“I’m sorry, but you’re not actually planning on standing for this entire meeting are you?” His attention was centered squarely on Andrea, causing her to shift her weight nervously from one foot to the other.

“I, ah…”

“Go get a chair and bring it in,” he stated in a tone that implied she may possibly be the biggest dumbass in History, or at least it seemed that way to Anne.

Apparently Andrea didn’t move quick enough to suit him. He was pushing his chair back a second later. “Never mind, that was rude, eh? I’ll go get one. Carry on,” he stated over his shoulder as he wandered through the door.

All eyes centered on Rand as he shrugged his shoulders. His eyes were wide and a nervous looking grimace marred his expression before his features became stoic once again. McClellan was wheeling an office chair in the room causing a flurry of movement on the opposite side of the table. It was like the parting of the Red Sea to hastily make room for another chair.

What a ridiculous bunch of asses we must look like,
Anne thought. He was just a man, after all. Intimidating as all get out, but still…

Maybe she caught glimpses that no one else at the table had ever seen. Unless of course he sent
them
flirty texts, instant messages, bought them flowers, popped up at their houses for a visit…kissed them passionately.

Do not blush
, she commanded herself. This was undoubtedly going to be the most awkward hour anyway. She didn’t need to make it any worse by replaying their past encounters in her head.

Concentrate
. She had a fair amount of input in this meeting and she would not allow herself to get sidetracked by a set of intense blue eyes across the table. Blue eyes that once again were trained on her, she noticed before looking down again.

This was going to be the
longest
meeting.

*****

“So, I rewrote my abstract, which I’m still formatting but I hope to have it done tonight,” Carol stated before her eyes caught and held Anne’s from across the table. “We did determine that the cells I was planning on using were probably not the best option…”

Please don’t give me credit. Please don’t…
Anne sent out a silent plea to Carol. Already her name had been mentioned three times in the meeting from three other participants giving her credit for helping them. She purposely avoided looking at McClellan, almost certain that one of his dark brows would be raised.

“…so Anne and I came up with three compounds we’re going to study…”

Anne’s eyes involuntarily shifted to his and sure enough, his expression was exactly as she imagined.

Shit.
Shut up Carol, PLEASE.

It was a futile thought. Carol just kept talking, and he kept
staring
and in that moment, all she wanted to do was slink down her chair and disappear under the table, much the same as the last time she was in this room.

“Can I ask a question?” McClellan cut Carol off mid-sentence.

“Why do I employ any of you? Seems to me, all I need is Ms. Bennett. Tell me, do you ever get any of your own work done?” He was addressing her, his eyes glinting almost dangerously.

Oh. No.

She stared back at him, her mouth open but nothing came out, thankfully.

“Ms. Bennett? I asked you a question.”

“I’m…ah…” her pulse began pounding and her body warmed with his intense scrutiny.

Think. Wait.
What was the question? Oh god
…

“Ms. Bennett…”

“I’m just thinking of what I’m going to say before I actually say it,” she blurted before her eyes widened. That sounded so familiar. Apparently it was familiar to him too. Did she just imagine it or was that a ghost of a smile forming on his lips?

“That’s a first,” he commented quickly.

A snicker followed by a quick cough served as a reminder that there were other people in the room. For a moment, she almost forgot…

“Yes,” she replied.

“Yes, what? ‘Yes’, that’s a first or ‘yes’ you have time for your own project?” he responded in a cool voice.

“Yes, I have time for my own project,” she stated quietly.

“Good. Let’s hear about it.” He folded his arms across his chest and sat back in his chair. If she wasn’t mistaken, the look on his face was almost smug. She itched to remove it.

With her palm.

Hard.

“Umm,” she looked to Rand. Technically it
was
his meeting after all.

“Go ahead, Anne. You were next anyway. Thanks Carol,” he added, giving the other woman an acknowledging nod.

“Ok,” she swallowed back the sudden lump that decided to form in her throat.  A small cough seemed to help. She stared at the screen in front of her. She would not look up.

“I’m waiting on the stem cells I ordered so I can continue Discovery. Point of admin requires samples from the Pons instead of the Pre-frontal Cortex like I originally asked for. They’re actually easier to get, so I should think I can continue this week. If I get the results I suspect I’ll get, I’ll be ready to draft my IND within the next two months.  The research was pretty far along, but not ready for Pre-Clinicals yet. I’m going to supplement with Niacin as a promoter, we’ll see if that helps sustain…”

“What are we talking about here?” McClellan’s voice rang out causing her to finally take a breath.

“What?”

“What is this? What’s the classification?” he asked, causing her eyes to reluctantly leave her screen and settle on his.

“Second generation anti-psychotic, but not exactly, it’s…unique.”

“Behavioral medicine?” This time his eyes traveled to Rand.

“I had Anne take over Ron’s research. They have similar backgrounds; I assume that’s why he hired her.”

“That’s not our core competency,” McClellan stated in a bland tone.

“No, but from what Anne tells me, this could be rather revolutionary in the treatment of extreme aggression,” Rand answered in a calm voice.

“That’s not our core competency,” he repeated in the same tone, almost as if he were speaking to a child. It made Anne fidget in her seat.

“I realize that, but it doesn’t necessarily mean we can’t explore it,” Rand fired back quickly.

“Sure, but you’re not equipped for that research here,” McClellan shot back without missing a beat.

“Right and I know that,” Anne interjected. “I came up with a list of equipment. I also did some price comparisons. I’ve listed out the options,” Anne supplied.

“Oh? And what are we talking here?” he asked.

She bit back her initial retort. There was an underlying current of condescension in his voice that had the distinct ability to rile her like nothing else could. She blew out a small breath to calm her breathing.

“We’ll need a low speed centrifuge, biosafety cabinet – Class II, we need another cryogenic freezer, and…”

“Stop,” he interrupted, “I meant cost, Ms. Bennett. What’s the cost?” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table in front of him.

“Eighty-three thousand initially,” she stated before holding her breath, waiting for either a blow up or a blow
off
. She wasn’t sure.

“Eighty-three? That’s all?” he asked with barely concealed sarcasm. “Oh! But you said ‘initially’. What does that mean?”

“It means that’s the equipment I would need but if we replaced the equipment that was…um…lost, it would be an additional twenty-four thousand.”

“And where were you going to get this funding?”

His eyes were fastened on her but she slid her gaze to Rand. She certainly hoped
he
had the answer to that one.

After his mouth opened and closed twice, she realized he didn’t have a ready answer for that.

“You didn’t budget for it
this
Fiscal, so you’ll be waiting for another seven months? Is that correct?” McClellan asked.

“We were going to come up with something,” Rand stated nervously.

“Something as in asking me to pull over a hundred thousand dollars out of my arse?” McClellan snapped.

Anne shifted her attention to McClellan, pretty much the same as everyone else at the table. She didn’t know him very well, but the impending storm wasn’t far off. She had experienced it herself…

“No, if necessary, we could move some funding from other projects that are already approved.” Rand countered before his voice changed to something more…soothing. “We don’t need to talk about this right now, why don’t we talk this out between the two of us?”

“There’s nothing to talk about. You’re not doing it,” McClellan stated with an air of finality. “I’ve approved all capital expenditures for this year. You don’t just shift funding around to suit your whims and you most certainly don’t sneak around replacing equipment that was destroyed but didn’t feel the need to inform me of.” He sat back in his chair and Anne could tell by the way he gripped the arm rests on the chair that he was seriously perturbed. The veins were practically popping through his skin.

At least
she
wasn’t causing it this time, she thought.

“So, this is some kind of punishment?” Rand asked quietly.

“Please,” McClellan huffed. “Grow up, Rand. It’s called business. You want something? You go through the normal channels. Maybe you could come up with something else?” he asked, feigning deep thought by tapping his forehead with his finger. “I’ve got it! Your employees are so fond of food, why don’t you have a bake sale?” he stated with a grin.

“Now you’re being ridiculous,” Rand bit out, his normal demeanor changing in the blink of an eye.

“No,
you’re
the ridiculous one, but we won’t waste anyone else’s precious time discussing this in here.” Suddenly his attention was focused back on Anne. “I’m sorry Anne, is there anything else you wanted to say?” His voice was almost…gentle. She wondered if anyone else in the room picked up on that.

She bit her lip but released it quickly. “Well, it
would
be helpful to replace some of the equipment. We’re sharing right now, but it’s not exactly efficient…” she stated before his previously non-threatening expression began to darken. “But, in all fairness, the need for the equipment wasn’t exactly known at the time of budget requests, right? I mean…” from the way his eyes were boring into her, she realized this was most likely a moot point. “Never mind. That was all I had…” she finished in a low voice.

“Is there anything else?” McClellan asked Rand. Rand’s response was a shake of his head and a firm set to his lips.