Fifty Degrees Below by Kim Stanley Robinson Page B

Generique and then Small Delivery Systems, where he was now.
    Possibly the futures market had taken notice of that.
    Caroline was now looking more relaxed, perhaps relieved that he was not outraged or otherwise freaked out by her news. He tried to stay cool. What was done was done. He had tried to secure Pierzinski’s work for a company he had ties to, yes; but he had failed. So despite his best (or worst) efforts, there was nothing now he needed to hide.
    “You said MIT,” he said, thinking things over. “Is Francesca Taolini involved with this?”
    A surprised look, then: “Yes. She’s another subject of interest. There’s about a dozen of you. I was assigned to surveil most of the group.”
    “Did you, I don’t know . . . do you record what people say on the phone, or in rooms?”
    “Sometimes, if we want to. The technology has gotten really powerful, you have no idea. But it’s expensive, and it’s only fully applied in some cases. Pierzinski’s group—you guys are still under a much less intrusive kind of thing.”
    “Good.” Frank shook his head, like a dog shaking off water. His thoughts were skittering around in all directions. “So . . . you’ve been watching me for a year. But I haven’t done anything.”
    “I know. But then . . .”
    “Then what?”
    “Then I saw you on that Metro car, and I recognized you. I couldn’t believe it. I had only seen your photo, or maybe some video, but I knew it was you. And you looked upset. Very . . . intent on something.”
    “Yes,” Frank said. “That’s right.”
    “What happened? I mean, I checked it out later, but it seemed like you had just been at NSF that day.”
    “That’s right. But I went to a lecture, like I told you.”
    “That’s right, you did. Well, I didn’t know that when I saw you in the Metro. And there you were, looking upset, and so—I thought you might be trailing me. I thought you had found out somehow, done some kind of back trace—that’s another area I’ve been working on, mirror searching. I figured you had decided to confront me, to find out what was going on. It seemed possible, anyway. Although it was also possible it was just one of those freak things that happen in D.C. I mean, you do run into people here.”
    “But then I followed you.” Frank laughed briefly.
    “Right, you did, and I was standing there waiting for that elevator, thinking: What is this guy going to
do
to me?” She laughed nervously, remembering it.
    “You didn’t show it.”
    “No? I bet I did. You didn’t know me. Anyway, then the elevator stuck—”
    “You didn’t stop it somehow?”
    “Heck no, how would I do that? I’m not some kind of a . . .”
    “James Bond? James Bondette?”
    She laughed. “It is
not
like that. It’s just surveillance. Anyway there we were, and we started talking, and it didn’t take long for me to see that you didn’t know who I was, that you didn’t know about being monitored. It was just a coincidence.”
    “But you said you knew I had followed you.”
    “That’s right. I mean, it seemed like you had. But since you didn’t know what I was doing, then it had to be, I don’t know . . .”
    “Because I liked the way you looked.”
    She nodded.
    “Well, it’s true,” Frank said. “Sue me.”
    She squeezed his hand. “It’s okay. I mean, I liked that. I’m in a kind of a bad . . . Well anyway, I liked it. And I already liked you, see? I wasn’t monitoring you very closely, but closely enough so that I knew some things about you. I—I had to monitor some of your calls. And I thought you were funny.”
    “Yes?”
    “Yes. You are funny. At least I think so. Anyway, I’m sorry. I’ve never really had to think about what I do, not like this, not in terms of a person I talk to. I mean—how horrible it must sound.”
    “You spy on people.”
    “Yes. It’s true. But I’ve never thought it has done anybody any harm. It’s a way of looking out for people. Anyway, in this particular case, it