Her boss was a controversial figure in the scientific world. She was known for offering young women the kinds of jobs that tended to be reserved for mature men, but she was also known for loving publicity and suing the hell out of anyone who offended her. Oh, she called it protecting her patents, but some of those suits had little ground to stand on in Noelle’s opinion.
“And what kind of projects do you work on?” Charlotte Taggart was a gorgeous woman, light to her husband’s dark. She wore a power suit and some killer heels, her strawberry blonde hair in an elegant bun.
“I’m actually working on helium.” She totally knew what came next. If she’d concentrated on a lesser-known element, she wouldn’t always have to explain. If she told someone she was studying ways to make a stronger magnet by using neodymium, most people’s eyes glazed over and they were back to talking sports or what movies they’d seen lately pretty damn quick. But everyone knew helium.
“Like balloons?” Kyle asked, his lips quirking up.
Hutch’s eyes were suddenly on her, studying her intently. “Seriously? Are you looking for alternatives?”
“Alternatives?” Kyle asked.
“Is this about the helium shortage?” Big Tag proved he’d actually read up on her. Or he knew more about science than most people.
“Shortage is in the eye of the beholder,” she said. “Some people think it’s merely a break in the supply chain and the fact that the new big deposits have been found in countries like Qatar and Russia, and sales can be influenced by political situations. Every couple of years something goes wrong and anyone who requires helium to run their machines gets nervous. We’re in one of those times when it’s a bit of a scarce resource. The price has gone up significantly in the last few years. But the truth of the matter is helium is a nonrenewable and vital resource. You think peak oil is a problem, meet peak helium.”
Kyle frowned. “Okay, I’m going to get the award for dumbest guy in the room when I ask this, but why are we worried about something we use for kids’ birthday parties?”
Hutch shook his head. “It’s way more than balloons. Helium is a cryogenic element.”
She bit back a laugh at Kyle’s expression, which told her Hutch was talking way over his head. But not hers, and she thought it was sexy that he understood what she was working on. It made her want to talk about gas chromatography and whether or not nitrogen was the solution. They could start slow and move on to more complex scientific conversations. But she remembered where she was and what she was doing. She also remembered he was kind of an ass. “He means helium is an element we can use to cool any number of systems. Helium has a low boiling point which means we can easily turn its natural gas state into liquid. Liquid helium remains in that state all the way to absolute zero.”
Hutch sat up straighter. “That’s zero on the Kelvin scale. It’s more like negative 450 Fahrenheit. Should I explain why we would use Kelvin?”
Taggart shook his head like a father dealing with obnoxious kids. “We know you’re a smarty pants, Hutch. You don’t need to dunk on him.”
Kyle ignored them both. “Does this have something to do with quantum computing?”
So Kyle kept up with the state of technology. “Among other things. Liquid helium is used to cool magnets in machines like supercolliders and medical imaging. It’s important, and my lab is trying to refine a process that allows us to use less helium to do the same job. We’re also trying new techniques to better recycle the helium we use. It’s important to do that and to store it properly because if helium leaks out, it floats to the upper atmosphere and we have no way to recover it.”
“So what you’re saying is you’re working in a high-tech field where your research could make people a lot of money,” Kyle surmised. “Hence, you being worried someone might have accessed your laptop. You’re worried about corporate spies.”
“She should be worried about spies of all kinds. The technology she’s working on is the kind governments would be interested in obtaining for themselves,” Hutch added. “When did you first start to worry someone was messing with your computer? Is your laptop where you keep the majority of your research?”
“I have some of it on my laptop, but the majority stays on the systems in the