Gridlock: A Scientific Thriller by Ziegler Alvin

Author:Ziegler, Alvin [Ziegler, Alvin]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Loma Vista Press
Published: 2014-01-06T06:00:00+00:00

Thirty-One

Wednesday, November 2

Berkeley, CA

Earlier that day Jude Wagner felt tire vibrations through his steering wheel. The narrow road to the Berkeley Marina skirted the heavily traveled freeway from Alameda County to San Francisco. Road construction caused fine dirt to blow across the windshield. He’d done this route for years although it drove its roughest today, calling for both hands on the wheel. He jimmied his coffee cup into the car’s plastic cup holder.

He’d be hanging out with Kate if the cancer presentation in San Jose didn’t take precedent. “The salt air will do you some good,” she told him with a grin. “Besides, Niles’s boat is a private escape for you.”

She had a point, and their last sail of the year would be brisk. Ultimately, Wagner gave in. It would be easier to get Niles’s buy-in on treating Kate with the Grid without her onboard anyway. Most of all, Wagner would need Roger Knowlan’s blessing and help. Clearly Wagner also needed to regroup to get a firm handle on what he was recommending.

Wagner arrived later than he’d promised. Could he be too late for Kate also? It was still uncertain how far her condition had deteriorated. He must not see his sister’s diagnosis as a replay of their mother’s death. If Mom had lived another fifteen years, genomic medicine could have identified her susceptibility to breast cancer tumors before onset. It could’ve granted her many years of life. Wagner shrugged off his morbid reminiscence. Wagner wished Kate didn’t think he was sugarcoating reality. Nothing else rivaled the Grid. His eyes twitched from fatigue. He took more coffee, but the pseudo-therapeutic properties of caffeine had its limitations. It slightly reversed the effects of that red wine he had the night before, but it didn’t change the facts. Wagner couldn’t tow all of these lines alone. He needed help, even if the best he could get would be Niles’s advice.

Wagner swallowed the last of the coffee, crushed the cup and cranked up the volume to the comedy opera, Le Nozze di Figaro, on his car stereo. He didn’t get a word of Italian, but the ethereal melody soothed his mind.

Art heals, his mother loved to say.

If only, he thought.

Niles had insisted that they put sails to the wind no later than 8:45 a.m. so he would have time to pack before his evening flight. It was 9:30 when Wagner pulled the Mazda into the parking lot. By now the cover would be off. The halyard would be hooked to the sail and ready for hoisting.

Niles opened the security gate on the dock to let him in. “Punctuality is a hallmark of good character.”

“Screw good character.” Wagner stepped aboard the boat. Sure enough, she looked rigged and ready.

Niles shrugged. “Nice attitude.” He’d assumed the role of project taskmaster with Wagner immersed in antivirus work. Though Niles was too nervous to go near the Stanford campus and too stir crazy to prepare for his trip to Switzerland sitting in his hotel room.

“Hey, I brought CDs to break in the new on-board stereo.

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