***** Vol.4 Chap.5 The first encounter *****
At exactly 3:00 pm the next day, JB showed up at the downtown Hilton. Frankly, she did not know with whom she was meeting or what to expect. But she calmed herself that there was always a first time for everything and she must learn how to contact potential donors to bring in big money to the institute.
Inside the cafe, a well-dressed gentleman sat at a table by himself. Next to him was another table occupied by some rowdy people engaged in a serious conversation. She thought this must be how business lunches were carried out and how deals were being made.
Without hesitation, she walked up to the hostess and identified herself saying she was looking for a Dr. Schmidtiz. The hostess promptly showed her to the table with the gentleman sitting there.
“Dr. Schmidtiz?” JB said as she approached the table.
The bespectacled man turned and smiled and stood up immediately. He took her hands warmly and shook vigorously. “Sit down, sit down.”
She sat down somewhat apprehensively.
“I am so glad you came.” The man said. “We have been looking for someone like you to help us in our research.”
She was flabbergasted.
“Er…What exactly is your research?” she asked with a surprised look.
“Let’s order something to drink first, shall we?” The man motioned for the waiter to come? “Champagne? Wine? Beer?”
“Draft beer, please?” She was being modest.
“Sherry,” the man told the waiter. Then they exchanged business cards. JB stared at the business card in awe.
“Er… Dr. Schmidtiz, what does PPTSB stand for?”
“Our organization is formally registered as ‘Perfect Progeny Through Selective Breeding,’ but commonly PPTSB.”
“Wow, that is a mouthful.” She quipped.
He began to tell her that the organization was trying to help patrons produce perfect offsprings with the proper genetic combinations. The company’s goal was to perfect a proprietary procedure for altering the genome from the parents so that the offsprings were guaranteed to be perfect in character.
He explained they had heard Dr. Abdulcizi’s presentation and knew that he had been successful in correlating genetic material with violent behaviors. So, the organization was interested if that technology could be used to provide early detection and to provide an adequate remedy for offspring that might exhibit violent behavior.
With his easy smile and smooth talk, she was put at ease immediately.
He further explained that they have collected many samples from parents and associated offsprings. For the sake of analysis, there would be no identifying information associated with the dataset
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The more he talked, the more she was salivating. She had been looking for a breakthrough in her research and this appeared to be the next frontier, a good application of what she had discovered so far. To her, this was a god-send and was exactly the kind of work that could propel her to the forefront of research into genetic decoding.
Hence, the more he talked, the more she was chomping at the bits, though she tried her best to hide her excitement.
“This sounds very interesting. I am sure my laboratory can accommodate the testing of this data.”
JB took the bait as she replied in a professional tone. Inside, she was doing cartwheels.
“That is great!” He was jovial, grinning, and clapping his hands. To celebrate, he called for another round of refill for the drinks.
“Because of the sensitivity of the data and the urgency of the time frame, we would prefer not to get the Institute involved for now. We had used other university facilities before, but the non-disclosure form was quite restrictive and they insisted that the research results must be publishable or made public.”
He continued, “This was not agreeable to the management of our organization at this point. As you know, confidentiality is of utmost importance and we do not want our competitors to have wind of what we are working on until such a time that we feel our procedure is safe and foolproof.”
“We prefer to contract with you personally for the work and deal with you directly and not with the monstrosity or the establishment with all their legal restrictions.”
“I think we can arrange that.”
Without thinking more, she was already hooked.
“Of course. We will reward you handsomely for your help and your work. Just give us a figure, please.”
Thinking that she could hire a few students on the side to knock out the project, she saw success, money, a new car…
Worse comes worse, I will do the programming myself. It is time for me to get a new car commensurate with my new stature.
“What time frame are we talking about?”
No more doubts. She took the bait, hook and sink and all.
“Two weeks.”
“That is quite urgent. I must finish an NSF proposal this week.”
“Okay. Three weeks. We must have the results in three weeks.” He replied.
“That is doable. Three weeks it is. How much reimbursement are we talking about?”
A little consulting would not help anyone. A new car, some posh furniture, a terrific home entertainment system flashed in front of her, though she knew she would not have time to enjoy such luxuries.
“I am authorized to advance two thousand dollars to you right now and another eighteen thousand dollars when we see the results.”
With her mouth opened wide, some quick mental calculation showed that she would get an equivalent of two months’ salary in three weeks. And best of all, she did not have to share all this money with the Institute on what they called overhead. What he offered was almost equal to an NSF grant for a year!
“Sounds good. When can I get the data?”
He handed a laptop to her.
“We prefer all programming to be performed on this laptop. This is the top of the line and is a real number cruncher. You may install whatever software you need to do your work.”
“Sounds good.”
“You have my number. Call me if you need anything else. If not, shall we meet here again in 3 weeks at this time?”
“Sure.”
“Remember, this is a highly confidential project and because of the sensitivity nature, under no circumstances can this data be made available to anyone other than yourself.”
“I promise.”
“Well, thank you so much for your help.”
Dr. Schmidtiz stood up and shook JB’s hands. Then he reached inside his jacket and pulled out an envelope.
“Oh, I almost forgot the advance money. Again, thank you so much for your help.”
“You are welcomed.”
JB was delighted holding that envelope in her hand.
“I got to catch a flight and get back, so I will leave first.”
“Okay. See you in three weeks.”
“See you in three weeks.”
He left presumably back to his room.
She also left, feeling that only the sky was the limit now.
A few minutes later, Dr. Schmidtiz entered the cafe from the lobby and approached the people at the next table.
“Well, what do you think of our kid?” he asked the other fellows.
“She will do. She is naïve and hungry. Good choice.”
“I think she can be recruited quickly.”