Page 38 of Reinventing Cato
There were two men in there, both in their forties, wearing suits and ties. Cato would have been underdressed in his better trousers and dress shirt.
“Hi, I’m Matt Snyder. This is Elias Brooks. Can we call you Cato?” He held out his hand.
“That’s fine.” Cato put down his bag and shook the Americans’ hands. Not so bone-crushingly hard as Grant’s.
“Please take a seat,” Matt said.
Cato sat down.
“We’re thrilled to meet you.” Matt smiled at him. “Why don’t you run us through your life so far.”
I was born on a windy day on the seventh of…They meant his academic life but… “My interest in space started when I crawled onto the roof of my house to look at the stars. Scared my parents half to death.”
They laughed.
“How old were you?” Elias asked.
“Four. They locked the access door after that, but when I started to get pocket money, I had a duplicate key made.”Precocious? Moi?For a seven-year-old, it showed determination. “Though nearly slipping to my death aged seven put paid to that activity.”
“So you’re a rule breaker?” asked Elias.
“I see it more as a problem solver. Though my father didn’t agree. No pocket money for six months.”
They both laughed.
“I see you had a gap year,” Elias said.
“Yes. My parents insisted. It’s a family tradition.” Cato wondered how a year of him reluctantly digging wells in Africa was relevant to a job with NASA.
“Did you enjoy it?” Matt asked.
No, I didn’t. Not much, anyway.“It was very rewarding.”
“It sounds a really worthwhile thing to have done.” Matt looked impressed.
There were other things Cato would rather have done. Or at least done along with digging wells, but his parents had insisted he spent almost the whole year doing the same thing. Devan had built orphanages in South America. Griff had taught English to asylum seekers in Kent. And only for three months.Lucky bastard.
“Why did you choose to do computer science at Oxford rather than astrophysics?” Matt asked.
“I’ve always loved space, but I thought computer science would be more useful in the long run for coding and data handling.”
“Then you went on to do a masters in Moscow. Still in computer science. Why there?”
“Because I could speak Russian, but wanted to speak it better. I wanted to learn how to hack from the best so I could keep my coding safe and the Russians have some excellent programmers. I also wanted to taste a different life, do something challenging.”
Oh God, and he’d loved that. The challenge of it. Apart from not being able to be openly gay while he was there. Would NASA offer enough of a challenge?
“Then you went into banking. What made you leave?”
“Better to ask what made me start. I wanted money to pay for studying astrophysics, to fund my research, living expenses and trips abroad. I knew I could earn a lot—fast—and I did. After my masters in astrophysics, I moved straight to doing the doctorate at Cambridge.”
“You’ve been called brilliant,” Elias said.
“That’s very subjective.”
“You’re not going to tell us you’re brilliant?”
Cato laughed. “No.”But I am.
