Albert took Kim into each of the bathrooms in the servants’ wing and took off the fronts of the access panels. In each he pointed out the rusted pipes.
“Can it be fixed?” Kim asked.
“Of course it can,” Albert said. “But it will take some doing. It might take me and my boy a week.”
“Do it,” Kim said. “I’ve got some people staying in here.”
“If that’s the case I can get water to the bathroom on the third floor. Those pipes look pretty good. Maybe no one lived up there.”
After the plumber left, Kim walked over to the lab to let the men know about the third-floor bathroom. She’d not been to the lab for some time and was not looking forward to the visit. They’d never made her feel welcome.
“Kim!” David called out excitedly. He was the first to see her come through the door that led from the vacant reception area into the lab proper. “What a nice surprise.” David yelled out to the others that she was there. Everyone, including Edward, dropped what they were doing and came over to greet her.
Kim felt herself blush. She did not relish being the center of attention.
“We have fresh coffee and donuts,” Eleanor said. “Can I get you some?”
Kim declined but thanked her, explaining she’d just had breakfast. She apologized to the group for bothering them and quickly told the men about the resolution of the plumbing problem.
The men were pleased and assured her that using the bathroom on the third floor was not an imposition. They even tried to talk her out of bothering to make any repairs.
“I don’t think it should be left the way it is,” Kim said. “I’d prefer it be fixed.”
Kim then started to leave, but they wouldn’t allow it. They insisted on showing her what each one of them was doing.
David was first. He took Kim to his lab bench and had her peer through a dissecting microscope while he explained that she was looking at an abdominal ganglion preparation that he’d taken from a mollusk called Aplasia fasciata. Then he showed her printouts of how Ultra modulated the spontaneous firing of certain neurons of the ganglion. Before Kim could even figure out what she was looking at, David took the printouts from her hands and led her into the tissue-culture incubator. There he explained how he evaluated the tissue cultures for signs of toxicity.
Then it was Gloria’s and Curt’s turn. They took Kim downstairs to the animal area. They showed her some pitiful creatures: stressed rats and stressed monkeys that had been raised to have severe anxiety. Then they showed her similar animals that had been treated with Ultra and imipramine.
Kim tried to appear interested, but animal experiments disturbed her.
François took over from Gloria and Curt and led Kim into the shielded room where the NMR machine was isolated. He tried to explain exactly how he was attempting to determine the structure of the binding protein for Ultra. Unfortunately, Kim understood little of his explanation. She merely nodded her head and smiled whenever he paused.
Eleanor then took over and led Kim back upstairs to her computer terminal. She gave Kim a lengthy explanation of molecular modeling and how she was attempting to create drugs that were permutations of Ultra’s basic structure and that would potentially share some of Ultra’s bioactivity.
As Kim was whisked around the lab, she began to notice that not only were the researchers friendly, they were also patient and respectful of each other. Although they were assertively eager to please her, they were content to wait their turn.
“This has been most interesting,” Kim said when Eleanor finally finished her lecture. Kim started to back toward the door. “Thank you all for taking so much of your valuable time to show me around.”
“Wait!” François said. He dashed to his desk, picked up a sheaf of photographs, and ran back. Breathlessly he showed them to Kim and asked her what she thought of them. They were brightly colored PET scans.
“I think they are-” Kim searched for a word that wouldn’t make her sound foolish. She finally said: “Dramatic.”