Fifty Degrees Below - Kim Stanley Robinson [86]
She glowered less viciously. “So?”
“So, you’ll need to get government approvals, government funding—”
“It’s no different than the drug stuff.”
“Except for the customer. It won’t be individuals, if I understand you right. It can’t be. So it’s not like drugs at all.”
“Not that part. We know that.”
“So, well, you know, you’ve got to have some government agencies on your side. DOE, EPA, OMB, Congress, the White House—they’ll all have to be on board with it.”
She waved all that away. “We’re talking to the Russians.”
This was news to Frank, and interesting, but he ignored it for the moment and said, “But if you had NSF behind you, you’d be set to get the rest of the U.S. government behind you too.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying I’m working on this stuff. I’m saying there’s a committee at NSF that’s working with two billion dollars in this year’s budget alone.”
There. He had said it.
She was determined not to be impressed. “So?”
“So, that’s two billion dollars more than Small Delivery Systems has.”
She cracked up despite herself. “You’re headhunting me. Or rather, you’re headhunting Yann.”
“I am. You and Yann and Eleanor, and whoever else is working on this.”
She stared at him.
“You and Yann could stay together,” he heard himself saying. “Maybe the institute could be paired somehow with UCSD, and you two could move back to San Diego.”
She was frowning. “What do you mean?”
“Well, you know. You wouldn’t end up with job offers in different places. That happens to couples all the time, you know it does. And you guys probably aren’t done moving.”
She laughed abruptly. “We’re not a couple either.”
“What?”
“You are so stupid, Frank.”
“What do you mean.”
“Yann is gay. We’re just friends. We share a house here. We share a lot more than you and I ever did. We talk instead of fight and fuck. It’s very nice. He’s a really good guy. But he has his boyfriends, and I have mine.”
“Oh.”
She laughed again, unamused. “You are such a . . .”
She couldn’t think of a word that fit. Frank couldn’t either. He waited, staring down at the battered wooden table top. He was such a—a what? A something. Really, there was no word that came to mind. A fool? A mess?
Was he any more of a mess than anyone else, though?
Maybe so.
He shrugged. “Did you . . . know about Yann in San Diego?”
“Yeah sure. We were friends, we went out. It was nice not to have to think about guys. People left us alone, or went for Yann. He’s a sweet guy, and this stuff in math—well, you know. He’s a kind of genius. He’s like Wittgenstein, or Turing.”
“Hopefully happier than them.”
“Were they unhappy?”
“I don’t know. I seem to remember reading they were.”
“Well, Yann seems pretty happy to me. He’s really smart and really nice and he pays attention to my work.” Unlike you, her expression said. “And he and Eleanor and I are getting good results.”
“I’m glad. I really am! That’s why I came down here. I wanted to tell you about this, this possibility, of federally funded work.”
“Why not talk with the Small Delivery management?”
“I want the new institutes to be in full control of their scientific results. No private trade secrets or patents.”
She thought that over.
“What about with public universities?”
“Like UCSD and a federal lab, you mean?”
“Yeah.”
“I think that would be okay. I wish there was more of it. And there will be. We’re trying a bunch of things like that.”
Marta nodded, interested despite herself.
“We’ve got the go-ahead,” Frank said. “The go-ahead and the budget.”
Now she was pursing her lips into a little bloodless bloom, her sign of serious thought. “San Diego.”
“What?”
“You said UCSD.”
“Yes, that’s right. I’d have to recuse myself because of my position there, but it makes so much sense, Diane would run it through, I’m sure. Why? Do you want to move back there?”
She gave him another look. “What do you think?”
“I thought you liked it here.”
“Oh for God’s sake, Frank. We’re in Atlanta, Georgia.”
“I know, I know. I thought it looked pretty nice, actually.”
“My God. You’ve been out here too long.”
“Probably so.”
“It’s warped