by C. A. Farlow
Peter’s shout cut through her thoughts and jerked her back to the present, “We pay you plenty and always provide first-class on outbounds and returns, so no bitching.” Peter always switched into CEO-mode when push came to shove and it always caused Lauren to push back.
“Bitching, really, you want to go there? How can you be thinking about another project before this one is complete? If we find what I think we’re going to find in these samples, we’ll need to get the Malay government involved. Probably collect more samples to verify the results.” Lauren knew the cores would show high-levels of contamination. “The indigenous people are potentially being exposed to debilitating levels of arsenic and lead. Not to mention all the acid runoff that’s stripping the jungle vegetation. Catastrophic erosion and mudslides during the monsoons are devastating the landscape. Think about our priorities and promises in Sarawak, Peter, before we jump on something else. Hangin’ up now.”
She almost disconnected the call, when she heard Peter’s softened voice, “Why do we do this to each other? This new project can wait. Please tell me how the Sarawak project wrapped up. I have your last report on my desk. Sounds like you found the landslide area and got good samples.”
Lauren hung up the phone. Pointing out their corporate responsibilities had broken through Peter’s Kevlar exterior, and he’d quickly reverted to his honey-sweetened “oh, poor you” persona. It happened every time he pushed too hard and forced her to push back to keep the focus on their project priorities. He knows he can’t do this without me. I’m one of the best fieldworkers he’s got. If not one of the best in the environmental community. My work has provided some of the most important baseline data on groundwater contamination and its impact on humans and the biosphere. Its stopped corporate actions and led to forced remediation. Why is he such a pain in the ass?
Lauren returned her focus to the darkening mountains beyond her window. Her earlier conversation with Peter piqued her curiosity though. What had Peter said? Something about Mount Zirkel and particulate emissions from power generation stations. I think I’ll have a quick surf through the web, and see if I can figure this out before Peter calls back. And he will call back. I give him less than thirty minutes.
Lauren sat in front of her computer, lost in thought about the newly found Mount Zirkel when the phone rang again. Without looking at caller ID, Lauren said. “Yes, Peter?”
“Look, I’m sorry about earlier, but this is a big deal. This is our first opportunity to work in the United States. We need to make a decision now. We’ve got less than an hour to fax the Sierra Club that we’ll take the project and provide them with the data. Then they can issue a public statement about our study. That should stop CP&E from releasing their construction plans until the study is complete. And hopefully our findings will halt all future construction. Now, let me start at the beginning...”
Her foray through the web had produced some interesting but disturbing facts. Mount Zirkel—center point of the Mount Zirkel Wilderness Area—was located approximately one hundred and fifty miles northwest of Denver in Routt County, Colorado. It sat along the spine of the Continental Divide within the northern Rocky Mountains. The pristine wilderness area was located about twenty miles from the town of Steamboat Springs and formed the northeastern edge of the Yampa Valley. It was considered one of the last homes of brown bears in the continental United States, and contained an indigenous population of rare wild golden trout. But the latest news releases on the area gave Lauren pause.
Chemistry composition data gathered from the snowpack along the Continental Divide in that area showed alarmingly high levels of sulphur-based pollutants—presumed to be created from burning coal in the large electrical generation stations upwind. But the high acid snow readings disturbed her more. Like acid rain, acid snow is created when emissions from burning fossil fuels react with water and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, producing carbonic acid. The acid accumulates in the frozen snow and is released in a concentrated rush during spring thaws.
The acid levels recorded in the Yampa Valley were high enough to damage vegetation and contaminate the surface and ground water. It could easily be poisoning indigenous flora and fauna. It might even be high enough to dissolve exposed marble and limestone, tarnish and corrode metals, and etch glass on buildings. The minute levels of uranium and lead in the smoke-stack ash-fallout could even be responsible for an increase in cancer-related illnesses in the human and animal populations in the Yampa Valley of northwest Colorado. Lauren was shocked to learn that her “backyard” was being so grossly impacted by CP&E operating coal-burning electric power plants in the Yampa Valley.
“So, that’s about the size of it. CP&E doesn’t want to spend the money to convert their power generation stations from coal to cleaner burning natural gas. We take this project, install the monitoring equipment, do the data analysis for the Sierra Club, and they report the findings to the general public. I hope our data would help the environmentalists show the public that coal burning is the primary source of the contamination measured in the area. Then they can stop additional construction and force either a complete plant shut-down or a conversion. Any thoughts?”
Lauren snapped back to the present and realized she hadn’t heard a single word Peter said. She was still contemplating the data that streamed across her monitors.
“I’m sorry. My brain is still on the other side of the International Date Line.” Lauren stalled knowing full well that Peter had already decided to take the project. It was too big an opportunity to miss.
“Come on Lauren, I need your help on this one. You’re the only researcher that Geodynamics has that can design the project from the ground up, so to speak. This’ll be a huge deal, and I know you’re the one to make it happen.”
Lauren’s brain had skipped ahead of Peter’s pleading and was already well into synthesizing the project plan. “Stop whining, I’ll do it. But I’ll need the best for this and that means I need Jamie. We’ll need to order and assemble the monitoring stations. I can’t use anything off-the-shelf. It’ll all need to be custom builds. Looking at the topography of the wilderness area, it looks like there are a string of high-altitude alpine lakes that would be perfect for surface and subsurface monitoring, as well as sediment sampling, but only if we can get there at the earliest opportunity. And permitting for setting up these stations will take a while.”
“Jamie is on the way. I’ll call my buddy at the Sierra Club now. You complete the timeline and equipment procurement lists. And I’ll have the permits in hand within the week.”
Lauren scoffed. “That’s impossible! Jamie’s still in the jungle, collecting the control group cores. No way he can be here before next week. And how the hell are you going to get permits for a wildness area project in a week?”
“Because I already called him. Jamie will arrive in Denver tomorrow. I’m not going to waste my two best fieldworkers on a project that won’t meet its deadlines. I want the completed report on my desk by the fifteenth of March.”
Lauren felt manipulated and her irritation spiked. “No way. Jamie’s samples are the key to the whole Sarawak project. If we don’t have a control group, we have no idea what the normal soil composition is away from the gold mine operations.”
“You let me worry about the control group. Just get the project design plan completed by Jamie’s arrival tomorrow. I’ll fax a copy of the Sierra Club proposal to you later tonight.” Peter slid quickly into his locker room persona. The guy was absolutely schizophrenic. “Look, I need my best players on this. You’ve got an unlimited budget. No equipment malfunctions will be tolerated, so assemble triple equipment and recording redundancies. I don’t want CP&E attorneys crawling through a procedural loophole just because we rushed the project and lost data accuracy. Triple backups for everything.”
Lauren was stunned—triple redundancies, unlimited budget. Did she hear that right? Is this the tight wad who sent me to Sarawak with ten-year-old equipment and a handheld calculator?
“That is going to cost a small fortune. Are you sure you want the data reliability that tight?”
“If I could get it tighter, I would. Now I’ve got to go. Later.” Peter hung up.
The dial tone finally caught Lauren’s attention, and she slowly cradled the receiver. Triples. I haven’t done triples since my dissertation. This is a really big deal. And it’s in my backyard, dammit! Plans began to crystallize, and Lauren lost herself in this new project. Lauren didn't realize how much time had passed until her stomach reminded her she really needed to eat.
Chapter Two
JAMIE GILCHRIST ARRIVED AT the loft in much the same state Lauren had, exhausted and not sure of the time or place. Strains of a light piano étude reached out from behind a massive steel door, and enfolded him in soft music. Was that Chopin? Lauren must really be in a state if she’s listening to that.
Jamie had known Lauren for over ten years. They’d worked together on three major projects for Geodynamics—the last two with Lauren as project leader. Working for a woman was not on Jamie’s top ten list of ways to enjoy himself, but it’d been different with Lauren. She was the best in her field, graduating top of her class from Stanford with a Ph.D. in environmental chemistry, and this after earning an M.D. from Johns Hopkins in environmental oncology. All completed by the tender age of twenty-five. A child prodigy was what Jamie always thought. Most others called her a freak or a weirdo, he thought they were frightened by her genius.
As a co-worker, Lauren pulled more than her weight and always approached projects from a unique perspective. Her creativity and raw genius brought a freshness to project work that had re-awakened Jamie’s intellectual curiosity. Something he hadn’t thought would happen, after twenty years in a business that routinely crushed curiosity under a mountain of mundane.
As far as Jamie was concerned, Lauren’s true talents were exhibited when she was project leader. She was fair, thorough, but demanding. This was the result of her desire that everyone do their best and excel in their accomplishments. That was all she asked—their very best. Lauren set the example by giving one hundred and fifty percent of her time, energy, and effort to the project, and more importantly to her team. She was always first up in the morning and last to retire in the evening. Jamie smirked. But the thing he liked best was the way she manhandled Geodynamics upper management. Or should that be woman-handled? His foggy brain didn’t have an answer for that one. What gave him pause outside this massive steel door was that he realized that he knew very little of Lauren. Lauren the scientist and team leader he knew well, but who was Lauren the person?
Knocking lightly, Jamie wasn’t prepared for the apparition that opened the door. Gaunt and looking like she hadn’t slept in weeks, Lauren was dressed in a Stanford sweatshirt sans sleeves, running tights and mismatched socks, one of which was inside out. Her auburn hair hung from a single ponytail, strands curling around her face. Her tall frame was bent and she looked like she lost ten pounds. Weight she couldn’t stand losing without looking starved and drawn. The only feature unchanged was the brilliance in her green eyes. The portals to the soul. Today Lauren’s burned bright with intelligence and enthusiasm; their brilliance contrasted sharply with the dark circles beneath them.
“Great, you’re here,” Lauren said. “I’ve got the plan with budget faxed to Peter. I‘m waiting for the go-ahead to proceed, and then we’re ready to start the major acquisitions. First let’s…”
Jamie interrupted once he realized he wasn’t processing her words, he held up his hands in surrender. “Hold on, hold on, I can’t begin to think about this new project until I’ve had a shower, food, beer, and sleep—preferably in that order. You’re sounding more like Peter every day. You know that? Never taking time to relax, just work, work, work. For that matter, when did you last eat or sleep?”
Jamie’s comments slowly penetrated Lauren’s accelerated mental state. “I’m not hungry, and for your information I do not sound like Peter!” Truthfully, she couldn’t remember when she last ate, and sleep was the furthest thing from her mind. She had a new project to get off the ground and none of their standard equipment or procedures were adequate. The project had occupied her completely for the last twenty-four hours.
“I bet this is what you looked like in grad school when you were prepping for your comps and dissertation defense,” Jamie said.
Lauren was jerked back to reality by Jamie’s reference to her personal life. She never shared anything about herself with her staff, maintaining a rigid boundary around her personal life at all times. Looking down, Lauren saw what she was wearing and realized that her personal boundaries may no longer exist. “Sorry about that. I guess I’ve been preoccupied with project planning and design. Let me show you your loft.” She pointed to the metal door across the hall. “We can both clean up and then think about some food. I’m afraid we’ll need to go out; there’s nothing here to eat.”
“No problem. Remember I’ve eaten your cooking and though I survived to talk about it, I don’t care to repeat the experience,” Jamie joked.
Lauren laughed. “Let me get the key and we can get going then. I wouldn’t want to poison you after all the gourmet food you had on your first-class flights.”
While completing the project plan, Lauren had made arrangements with her building superintendent to sublease the loft across the hall. She told Jamie that the building management was only able to provide a bare minimum of furniture, and anything else he needed he could order from the rental places in town. Although they would be working together to complete the project preparations and construct the sampling equipment, leasing the other space would provide both of them with much needed privacy. It didn’t take a genius to realize, that though he had scaled her personal walls, she was only going to let him in so far.
Chapter Three
LAUREN TRIED AGAIN TO reach Sharon and Susan. She knew that she wasn’t the best at communicating and often went months without contacting her friends. But where could those guys be? She had tried their Steamboat Springs number at least twice a day for the last four weeks. Lauren started to leave another message when the machine cut-off.
“Hello, how may I help you?” A woman’s small voice echoed through the receiver.
“Oh, hi. I’m Lauren Beckwith. I’m trying to reach Sharon or Susan. Do I have the correct number?” Did they even live in Steamboat anymore?
“You have the right number. I’m Suzie, Sharon's niece. I’m housesitting for them. They should be home from Europe in the next couples of days.”
“Great. Would you please let them know that Lauren Beckwith called and that I’ll be in Steamboat for a project in late December? I was hoping to spend a couple of days with them before I begin my fieldwork in the area.”
“No problem, I’m sure they’re planning on spending the holidays in Steamboat this year. I’ll have them return your call when they get in.”
Lauren ended her conversation with Suzie and pivoted her desk chair to face the windows. As she contemplated the view, she reviewed the month of frenzied activity. Amazed by the amount of work they completed in such a short time, Lauren realized they worked well together as a team. But something nagged at her. She realized she had started to feel companionship with Jamie and looked forward to seeing him throughout their frenetic days. This realization brought Lauren up short. She’d never allowed herself to get close to anyone. She projected an image of the perfect Ice Maiden—cool, calculating, unsmiling, aloof. She’d heard this term whispered behind her back when she visited Geodynamics’ corporate headquarters in New York City.
What happened? The mountains didn’t seem to have an answer for her today. Lauren wasn’t one to dissect her feelings either. She kept as rigid a boundary on those as she did on her personal life. But something was happening. Was it the closeness of working day after day with only one other person? Was it the thrill of designing a new project and creating equipment and software from scratch? Or had she relaxed her guard? Being at home was making h
er soft. She shook her head ruefully and chuckled quietly. Yeah home.
But if Lauren was honest with herself, she knew it was something else. Something more. A kinship was forming with Jamie. He was becoming a friend. Why is that? She realized it was the fact that Jamie accepted her as she was, without comment or criticism, without a desire to outdo her. He wasn’t threatened by her. Jamie was secure enough in himself that he didn’t need to compete with her. They were professional equals and truthfully, intellectual equals. And most importantly, their relationship lacked the backstabbing and posturing she experienced at school or in the boardroom. A refreshing change indeed.
Just as Lauren began to acknowledge the comfort she felt with Jamie and her own feelings, the front door banged opened and Jamie rushed through. His entrance was always the same, ignoring the stairs he leapt off the landing and vaulted over the couch. Usually sliding on the hardwood floors coming to a stop in front of her desk. Today was no different as he ended his slide with a plop into a chair. “Hi, how’re things?”
“Things could be better if you’d choose to arrive at the agreed upon hour so we could get our work done, and move these piles out of my living room.” Lauren’s gesture encompassed the ever-growing stacks of electronic equipment scattered about. “It looks like a Radio Shack is having a yard sale in here.”
He grinned. “Life’s too short to continuously immerse one’s self in work. Don’t you ever want to get out of here. Even for a brief walk in the sun?” But even as he admonished her, he rose and started to sort data cables into one of the large ABS-plastic equipment cases.
