Chapter 8: Anjolie

Julie sat at her desk at uni, staring at her monitor, not really seeing anything.

Her brain was a whirl of emotions and thoughts.

Physically, that thing last night with Cassie had been lovely. She'd never felt such a sense of euphoria before, it was better than being stoned, and, although she thought that Cassie had taken advantage of her, kissing was actually very nice.

But also, for the first time, she saw how much Cassie really loved her, and it scared her, it really scared her.

She'd felt affection for Cassie, of course, but last night she had seen in Cassie's face that she was devoted to Julie, that she would give her life to Julie, that Julie was the one for her.

But Julie just didn't feel the same way about Cassie.

She'd love to have those feelings from last night again, it was true.

Last night was the first time in her life that she had understood, and it had been wonderful.

But she would never be able to return Cassie's mawkish adoration.

She felt dirty, she felt like a fraud.

Julie had finally seen the glaring dishonesty at the centre of her life.

Living with Cassie was fun, they had good times together, but Julie had always seen it as a temporary arrangement. Julie still expected that one day she'd fall in love with a man, or at least find one she could tolerate, have kids, buy a house, have a career, and Cassie would always be there, as a friend.

But nothing more.

Julie had always told herself that Cassie could find a real woman to love, a soul-mate, if she only put her mind to it.

But Julie and Cassie had been together for six years now.

Cassie loved Julie, and Julie did not love Cassie.

Cassie would never move on, not unless she was pushed.

I'm a total tool, aren't I? Julie thought to herself.

But these ruminations weren't achieving anything.

She did what she had always done.

She put her emotions aside, took a deep breath, and threw herself back into her work.

Julie worked in her office at Biological Science all the way through lunch, and intended to keep going all day.

She was interrupted by the sound of the door slamming downstairs.

It was obviously a stranger, someone who didn't know how to close it without the vicious spring slamming it shut.

She was about to get up to have a look, when a young woman let herself into Julie's office.

Julie hadn't seen her before.

The building was secure; she must have a security pass.

She was Indian, and introduced herself as Anjolie Lalitha.

Anjolie was beautiful: tall and slender with olive skin, big, brown eyes lined with Kohl, a womanly wisp of black hair over each temple, quiet voice, deferential manner, and a slightly goofy smile which showed all of her many teeth.

She was engaging without quite being smug.

She was dressed in a suit, completely inappropriate for a Saturday, and wouldn't have looked out of place in a corporate boardroom.

As they talked, Julie learned a little about her.

She was a doctor over from India to do her Ph.D. at the John Lyons School of Medical Research, another research school on campus. However, she had just moved into an office in the new hospital. Anjolie had obviously been diverted from her Ph.D. into some kind of side project.

Julie kept asking Anjolie what, exactly, she was working on, but she always managed to evade Julie's questions by the simple expedient of responding with another question of her own.

Anjolie began to ask questions, a lot of questions.

Julie quickly worked out that Anjolie wanted to know about the Taubett's operation, and realised that she was the only person left on campus with any kind of detailed knowledge of its operation.

She must be another one of Eve's minions, like me, thought Julie.

Julie then asked her, straight out,

"Anjolie, it's nice talking to you, but I can't really help you if I don't know what you're working on. Are you working for Eve Hunter?"

Anjolie simply shook her head with a smile, more a "not answering" than a "no", and asked her next question.

"Miss Julie, can you please tell me what energy the X-rays are using?"

Julie answered quickly, a little mystified.

"250kEv. Everyone knows that."

"Yes, of course. But what is the exact energy of the rays we are using? It is important to me. Nobody at the hospital seems to know."

Julie hadn't considered that the energy was important.

She browsed into the source-code repository at Physical Sciences., but the firmware for the Taubett machine was missing.

Julie was surprised. She'd only been looking at Stefan's image processing code for the Taubett machine just before the holidays.

Then she remembered.

The firmware for the Taubett machine had been removed from the main server for reasons of information security. It was now kept at the hospital, off the University network. The University wanted to make a lot of money from its commercialisation, and didn't trust their students.

Being a bit cheap, and quite small, the schools didn't actually have any scheduled backup system. Everyone who had any sense would back up their own computers by themselves.

Julie herself had bought a bunch of backup tapes with her own money, and she kept them in the room with the only tape drive, next door at Physical Sciences, where the Taubett machine had once stood.

They'd been there last week, when she'd done her last full backup.

She'd been conscientious, and had backed up the full source code repository, along with her own work.

"All right, Anjolie. Come with me. I know where we can find the information."

Julie hadn't met this woman before, and she was asking extremely detailed questions about the Taubett machine, with answers Julie herself didn't yet know.

This did sound a little suspicious, and Julie made sure that Anjolie followed her out.

Julie took her into the Physical Sciences building, and asked that Anjolie stand in the foyer while she went into the Taubett room.

The blue lino looked clean and new in the centre of the room, where the Taubett machine had once stood, and around the periphery had faded to pastel. On one bookshelf, a stack of backup tapes was still lined up, with Julie Smith written on six of them red permanent marker.

Julie gave Eve a ring on her mobile, trying to be discreet.

Eve answered immediately.

"Hello? Hello, Julie?"

"Eve, I'm here with Anjolie Lalitha. I'm sorry about bothering you on the weekend, but I need your advice. She's being a bit of a sticky-beak about the Taubett machine, and she won't tell me what she's working on. Do you know her? Should I be giving her this information?"

Eve responded, very business-like, but sounding just the slightest bit irritated.

"Thank you, Julie, you were right to ring. Don't worry about ringing me at any time of the day, or night, what you are doing is too important for any kind of delay.

"Yes, Anjolie is completely trustworthy, please give her any help she requires with learning the operation of the Taubett device. The Indians want to build one too. However, I must remind you again that the nature of Cassie's work is confidential. You're not supposed to know about that yourself, you know. There's no reason to tell Anjolie anything about Cassie. I'm glad you called, Julie, and I'm glad to hear that you can sometimes take your NDA seriously.

Julie flipped the phone closed, irritated by Eve's mild rebuke, and went to let Anjolie into the room.

She inserted the last tape from before the holidays into the reader, and her memory stick into the reader's PC. She copied everything she could: the source code, the documentation, and the last version of the firmware installer from before the move to the hospital.

The two of them went back to Julie's office, and Anjolie sat at Cassie's desk and made a copy of Julie's memory stick to her own.

They both spent the rest of the afternoon poring through the documentation.

The Taubett machine was the first diagnostic machine to use an X-ray laser, using the polymer glass to create the X-ray tube. That's what the windows in my apartment are made out of, thought Julie.

The use of the X-ray laser allowed the energy and direction of the X-ray beam to be controlled precisely, and it was a coherent source, which made the production of phase images much easier than before.

It also made the Taubett machine practical. Previously, the only other source of coherent X-rays of sufficient energy was from a synchrotron, which only worked very well if you had a whole building to put it in, and a lazy ten million dollars to spare. Real Australian dollars.

The energy of the X-rays wasn't specified anywhere in the documentation, but she eventually found it hard-wired into the source code of the firmware.