2030_ The Real Story of What Happens to America - Albert Brooks [100]
As she was leaning over the bed, she thought how happy the President would be if she could just end his mother’s agony and his at the same time. She looked around for a switch, not that she would do anything. But the machines were so well hidden that she couldn’t even be certain where the power was coming from. At that moment the door opened and the doctor on duty, Sharim Soulazo, stood there with a big smile on his face. “Madame Secretary! To what do we owe the honor of your visit?”
“Who are you?”
“I’m Dr. Soulazo. I am the day manager of the facility and I’m also a stockholder.” He laughed a little at his joke. She didn’t.
“I told the President I wanted to see where his mother was kept. I am here to understand the situation. That is all.”
Dr. Soulazo was confused. Why would the secretary of the Treasury be concerned with the president of the United States’ mother?
“Did you know her?”
Susanna was annoyed by the question. She decided a quick lie would end the conversation. “Yes. I did. We were friends. She was a lovely woman.” Susanna then picked her bag up off the couch and made her way to the door.
“Do you want to know any specifics?” he asked.
“Like what?”
And then Soulazo gave her the standard speech. “She seemed to smile yesterday; she had a very good night. She seems better this week than last.”
Susanna couldn’t stand him.
“Thank you,” she said. “I’m glad she is getting on so well.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
As October 21, the date of the Immunicate stockholders’ meeting, approached, Max told Kathy how excited he was about driving to Dallas. Kathy didn’t share his enthusiasm for this particular road trip. She had seen Sam Mueller’s lecture and quite frankly did not want to sit through a boring stockholders’ meeting, but she didn’t want Max to go by himself.
“It’s almost a thousand miles. That’s a long drive. Do you really feel up for that?”
“You’re right,” Max said. “Let’s fly. We can rent a car when we get there.”
Now Kathy felt like she had to go. He was making it too easy. “I’m curious; what do you expect to find?”
“Kathy, I think Sam Mueller may be the key to everything.”
“How?”
“Imagine if the man who is most responsible for keeping people alive reversed his philosophy. Imagine that. If this guy were to say that fixing old bones was not as important as improving the lives of young people, wouldn’t that be amazing?”
“But that’s his business. Is he ever going to turn on his own discoveries?”
“That’s why we’re going. Someone must bring this to his attention.”
Kathy had to admit it was an admirable goal. How Max was going to get the master of living longer to acknowledge the inherent problem in it, well, that she didn’t know. But damn it, she admired him for trying.
When they arrived in Dallas, they rented the electric Kar, made in Korea. If you had enough money you would never buy a Kar, but it was fun to rent just to check in and see how the frugal half lived. Max was impressed. It could seat five comfortably, could go one hundred twenty miles an hour, and got almost three hundred miles on a charge. There was an optional engine switch that gave it the sound of an old-fashioned race car if that was what one desired, and there was also a mock shifting knob that emerged from the center console when the driver got in, giving the feeling of shifting through gears, even though it did nothing.
What the Koreans did so well, Max thought, were the seats. These were one-piece bucket seats stamped from resin and cushioned perfectly. They could be adjusted by rocking them forward or back—the seat back itself would not move independently, which saved a fortune in manufacturing.