“Yeah, yeah, she’s got it, Ed,” snarked the older scientist. He nodded at Eva from his seat at the view screen for the giant scope. “Ma’am.”
“Guys, this is Eva Godfrey. Eva, this is Ed and Fred.” Drew gestured to the two scientists in turn. Ed gave a gracious demi-bow, while Fred had already returned his eyes to his task. “So what’s happening tonight?”
“On tonight’s agenda, we are once again looking for supernovae,” Ed reported. “And mainly, Fred’s doing something technical with the calibration on the spectroscope.”
“Exciting times.”
“The fun never stops, man. You want to use the small scope? Hayden’s not here tonight, nobody’s up there.”
“Nah, we mostly came in to warm up and take the shortcut back to the car. We were doing naked-eye observations tonight.”
Ed winked broadly at Eva. “Naked eye is still my favorite way to look at the stars too.”
“That’ll do, Ed.” Drew offered Eva his arm and bid the astronomers good night as he led her to a door across the long control room. From there, a featureless beige hallway led to a stairwell, and down a few flights of stairs they came to the front entry of the building. Exiting, Eva noticed the tidy brass sign by the entrance, reminding her of Ed’s welcome.
“Okay,” Eva said as they started following a walkway by the narrow road, aided by a flashlight Drew procured from his coat pocket. “So why is your name on this thing?”
“My grandfather’s name, actually,” Drew admitted. “He was an amateur astronomer, and after he retired he threw all his attention and a lot of his money into funding this place for the university. Hank DeWitt was another alum who worked on getting the big telescope built.”
“Your grandfather was a scientist? So I guess you didn’t follow in those footsteps?”
“Turn down that gravel path, it’s a shortcut,” Drew said, using the flashlight to point out the way. “No, he wasn’t actually a scientist, except as a hobby. He was a lawyer, and then later a law professor. My dad’s a lawyer too. My brother and I are the black sheep.”
She laughed. “I just realized, Drew, I have no idea what you actually do for a living. I mean I knew you didn’t only help Danny tie girls up, but I never thought about what you were doing the rest of the time.”
Drew took her hand, ostensibly helping her pick her way down the rough path. “I’m an enterprise architecture consultant.”
“Oh. I see.”
“We’re almost to the car. Watch your step. You still have no idea what I do for a living, right?”
“No idea, that’s true.”
“Say a company wants to find out what kind of technology they might need to implement their business plan. I go in and help define their goals and then help figure out what hardware and software they’d need for that. Work out sourcing options and all that. Mostly my minions go in now, though. I mainly supervise. And spend as much time as possible out of the office playing computer games and tying up pretty women.”
The path ended at the edge of the rough gravel parking lot where they’d left Drew’s car. The huge observatory dome was nearly invisible from this vantage point, showing only as a faint silhouette against the starry sky. In the darkness, Drew’s car and the handful of others would have been easy to miss without the flashlight.
“That sounds nice. The part about having minions, I mean. I could use some of those. What does the other black sheep do? Your brother?”
“Economics professor. Here at the university.” He opened the car door and held it for her, smirking.
“Your poor parents must be so ashamed,” she said coolly as she slid into the seat.
“We’re a source of constant disappointment,” he agreed, then shut the door and jogged to the driver’s side to get in and start the car. “So can I interest you in stopping somewhere for some fancy decaf latte or hot chocolate or something before I take you home?”
“God, yes,” Eva said, rubbing her hands together and then placing them in front of the quickly warming vents with a relieved sigh.
“Awesome.”
“That’s still on this same date, though.”
Drew sighed, resigned. “Gotcha.”
* * * * *
They had just sat down with their coffee when Drew got the call from Sheila. The reception was spotty, and he had to ask her to repeat herself to make sure he’d heard correctly.
“Hang on,” Sheila said, and Drew heard rustling and a lot of noise he couldn’t identify, before the signal cleared. “Is that better? I had to get near a window.”