Page 25 of Reinventing Cato
“I’ve been amused by you snoring.”
Cato clutched his heart. “No, tell me it’s not so. Please tell me I didn’t fart.”
Vigge didn’t say anything.
I hope I didn’t.Cato stared out of the window. “Where are we?”
“South of Birmingham.”
“Oh.”
“And yet again my amazing powers of deduction are suggesting a certain reluctance on your part to actually get to London. Don’t you want the job?”
That small part of him that felt the job wasn’t what he wanted had grown larger.
“You haven’t answered. Do I have to stop and waterboard you?”
“Is that in the policeHow to Interrogate Gorgeous Guysmanual?”
“Yep, right after pulling out fingernails, but before tasering nuts.”
Cato laughed. “You’re warming right up.”
“So do you want this job?”
“I wish I could just say yes, but… Everything I’ve done, almost in my entire life, has led to this point. I mean, NASA? In California? How can I not want it?”
“Are you wavering over the actual job or where it is?”
“This is going to sound crazy.” Which was why he’d not said anything to anyone, not even Devan. “I’ve spent twelve out of the last fifteen years of my life studying and researching. Not always astrophysics, but always with that in my head. When I was five years old, my teacher asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. My classmates put things like fireman and pilot. One poor sod put litter collector, and I wroteI’m going to do a doctorate in astrophysics. Perfect spelling as well. I was a bit of a prodigy.”
“You’re not sure you want to be in astrophysics anymore?”
Cato took a deep breath. “No, I’m not and that’s the first time I’ve said it out loud. Damn it, you’re good.”
Vigge chuckled.
“It’s not the money, though it’s pathetic compared to what my older brother earns, but I don’t care about that. I’m not driven by money. Why want more than the amount you need to live on and to buy the occasional treat? However, I’m aware I come from a privileged background, so money has never been an issue for me.”
“So if it’s not money, then what?”
“I’ve made some significant discoveries in my field, but exciting as it was at the time, it’s not enough. Nothing feels enough anymore, not in what I do, not in my life, and I don’t know why. I mean, you’re in a job that makes a difference. You solve crimes. You take bad people off the streets. What difference does my work make to anyone apart from a few other astrophysicists? I need a new challenge.” That was it, Cato thought. Hedidneed a new challenge.
“Wouldn’t the job in California offer that? New country? New friends to make?”
“Maybe. But to be honest, and there really is no point being anything other than honest when I’m sitting next to a human lie detector, that’s only part of the reason I’m not in a rush to get to London.”
“What’s going through your head?”
“The universal law of gravity.”
“Dare I ask why?”
“Every mass is attracted to every other mass. Gravitationally, we’re pulling very slightly on our surroundings. Everything is gravitationally attracted to us, even though that attraction is usually too small to notice.” Did Vigge get what he was saying?
“I’ve noticed,” Vigge said and Cato exhaled.
“Are we going to do anything about it?” Cato asked.
