Spheria Read Online Free Page B

wiggling bodies, one sat firmly immovable, staring intently at him: the blond gentleman. Max tried to place where he’d seen him, but before he could figure it out, David interrupted at the microphone.
    “That is all the time we have for questions. If you have more, you can talk to Max at the cocktail party on the third floor immediately following our last speaker, who I am proud to introduce now…”
    #
    “Those will kill you,” came a deep Australian voice.
    Max snapped out of his reverie and turned around. Towering over him stood an unnaturally blond man, exuding confidence and authority.
    “Mr. Neilson, sir,” Max stuttered. “P-Pardon me?”
    “Those e-cigs, we don’t know if they’re safe.”
    “It’s just vapor, harmless.”
    “They said the same thing about tobacco seventy years ago. We think everything is safe until we know better, but then we learn everything kills you. Have you ever heard of the Radium Girls?”
    “I don’t believe I have.”
    “It was around the beginning of the twentieth century. These sheilas worked in a factory making glow-in-the-dark analog watches by painting the numbers with radium. Some of them thought it’d be cool to paint their teeth as well so that their smiles would glow in the dark. They learned the hard way that it wasn’t such a great idea when they all developed mouth cancer. We just don’t know enough about how the universe works. You, of all people, should be aware of this, Mr. Moreau.”
    Max contemplated his e-cigarette, squinted his eyes, and drew another breath of vapors.
    “Regardless,” snickered Graham, “I didn’t come here to save your life, Mr. Moreau.”
    “Please call me Max.”
    “Very well, Max. As I was saying, I didn’t come here to save your life, but I did come here to see your presentation. Not specifically yours, of course. I didn’t even know you'd be here and even if I had, I wouldn’t have heard of you. You see, I tend to go to these types of things for my own amusement: the TED conferences, the Summit Series, Learning Without Frontiers, etc. Sometimes, like now, I find attractive business opportunities. This one, however, is more than that. You said something that touched a nerve in me.”
    “Really? What was that?”
    “Insect.”
    “Insect?” Max echoed, puzzled.
    “Exactly. You see, I’ve had an idea for a long time. I realized, when you said that word, that your technology would be perfect for it. This moment is exactly why I've been building my fortune.”
    Max was a little confused, but he understood ‘fortune.’ “So you want to invest?”
    “Invest? Yes and no. I want to fund the development and use of your Qubes. I want exclusive rights. I have a fantastic idea that’ll make these, well, glow brighter than you can imagine. I will fund further development with $50 million and make you the technical leader of my project. You'll have a wild ride. But you have to promise me one thing.”
    Max was too shocked to respond right away. He looked at his e-cigarette but didn’t take a drag. Instead, he shook his head and asked, “What’s that?”
    “That you will under no circumstances sell the technology to the military. That woman in there who asked about malicious intent was a grant developer who works for me. Her name is Dana Carter. In a way, she was speaking on my behalf. I would prefer that this technology doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. And by wrong hands, I mean anyone who might turn it into a weapon.”
    “I think the government could do some great things with this technology,” Max countered. “NASA could calculate cheaper ways to get off earth. Design materials for a space elevator, for example. Why would I want to exclude that? Why would you want to exclude that?”
    Graham leaned back and uttered a deep booming laugh. “A space elevator happens to be another one of my projects. But I want to start with something more esoteric. Listen, I'm offering you a job, and some initial funding to expand