Free Whitewash by Alex Kava

students. Sabrina, according to Anna, was constantly using glass vials that Anna had set aside for herself, or documenting results using a substandard method. For some reason Sabrina had rubbed Anna the wrong way from the second she arrived at EchoEnergy. O’Hearn had once joked that with Sabrina’s arrival, Anna was no longer the only beauty in their group of mad scientists. And Sabrina couldn’t help wondering if that was true. Anna certainly treated Sabrina as if she was the spoilsport.
    “His secretary said my name was on the list,” Sabrina offered, trying to defend herself when it looked like Anna was waiting for an explanation.
    “The list?” At this, Anna turned to O’Hearn, crossing her arms over her chest. “There’s a list?”
    O’Hearn simply shrugged and swung his chair back to face the computer screen like it didn’t matter to him one way or another. Pasha had already wandered off to complete his work. Anna looked around at both men, then threw her hands in the air as if the situation was hopeless. Without even a glance at Sabrina, she stomped off.
    Sabrina slipped back into Lansik’s office. While on the phone she had seen a file folder labeled Tour Briefing. It was right there on his desk when she replaced the phone, straddling his in-box pile, tempting her, daring her. It wasn’t like Sabrina to touch anyone else’s belongings, let alone take them, but she found herself thinking that if Lansik had gotten her into his mess, he certainly couldn’t complain about her taking a peek and utilizing the same information he had planned on using.
    She slid the bulging file folder that included a spiral six-by-nine-inch notebook inside her briefcase. She’d return it later, after the tour. Then she escaped her colleagues to find refuge at a small bistro table in the EchoCafé, the same table in the corner by the window where she sat every day for lunch.
    Same table, same time, same lunch. Her brother used to call her a slave to her routine, claiming it was too rigid for her to ever really enjoy life. This from a guy who couldn’t hold a job or maintain a relationship for more than six months. She might be boring, she argued, but she had a career she loved, money in the bank and a roof over her head. More than Eric could say for himself. Though how would she know? She hadn’t seen him in over two years.
    Over her usual egg salad on wheat she glimpsed one or two of Lansik’s notes, his chicken-scratch handwriting almost impossible to decipher. She hadn’t taken more than two bites of the sandwich. She knew she was eating only to settle her nerves, and she wasn’t sure why she was nervous.
    She had done formal presentations all the time when she worked at the university, some of them—not many—impromptu. And she knew the thermal-conversion process backward and forward. It had fascinated her enough that she insisted on knowing every aspect. She could do this tour. So what was bothering her? How unexpected and sudden it was or the fact that Lansik had chosen her above the others?
    Sabrina had met the CEO of EchoEnergy, William Sidel, only once. Well, she hadn’t actually met him. O’Hearn had pointed him out to her at one of their employee-appreciation events. Sidel had been patting a lot of backs and making everyone laugh, but he never seemed to make his way over to the group of scientists. O’Hearn claimed it wasn’t personal, but simply that he avoided them so he didn’t have to pretend to know what they were talking about. According to O’Hearn, William Sidel was an incredible entrepreneur when it came to getting investors and lobbying the government, but the man had no idea of, or interest in, the day-to-day process.
    Sabrina stopped at the lab to stow her briefcase, almost making her late. Now, as she hurried to Reactor #1 to meet the man who had recently made the covers of Forbes, Time and Discover magazines, Sabrina wondered if she should have also stopped at a restroom. At least to