long moment before he pushed to his feet. He hadn’t gotten there, he told himself, by cracking at the first sign of a problem. He would have coffee, he would get paperwork done, and he would find a way to make this work without Dru Metcalfe and his offer. This afternoon, before he returned to the hospital, he would call him and tell him as much.
He wasn’t sure if it was adrenaline or purpose that sustained him, but he managed to make his way to the coffee machine and began to measure beans out. He had barely finished grinding them when one of his aides entered.
“Excuse me, Senator? Two men are here to speak to you about a medical device.”
How quickly the blank check was getting called in. Tad gave a bleak smile. It looked like he’d tell Mr. Metcalfe off sooner rather than later.
“Send them in,” he said over his shoulder. He heard their footsteps as he shook the grounds into the filter and said, “I’ll be with you in a minute.”
“Thank you for having us here, Senator.” The line sounded rehearsed. “We have something truly groundbreaking to discuss with you today, something we believe will transform your life.”
“Are you lobbyists or are you missionaries?” He poured the water into the machine, put the lid down, and pressed the brew button. “Because your presentation—” He turned and stopped in surprise.
The two men who stood there weren’t lobbyists or if they were, they were the worst he’d ever seen. Instead of tailored suits, they wore dark-colored jeans bunched around the ankles rather than hemmed appropriately. One of them wore a button-down shirt and tie with a modicum of grace, but it looked like the shirt had been pulled hastily out of the back of his closet without being pressed. The other wore an unseasonable sweater, probably to hide a t-shirt.
Interestingly, both of them looked as exhausted as he was.
Tad considered them for a moment. “Aren’t you two a little young to be piranhas for the DC elite?”
The one in the sweater looked at the one in the tie before he answered. “We’re not piranhas, sir. We’re engineers.”
“Sometimes considered a close cousin,” the other one joked with a flash of real humor, “but you’re probably thinking of the team over in legal. We hate those stuck up bastards.” He waited to see how the joke would land and when Tad didn’t respond, he cleared his throat. “Senator, we think we can help your son.”
“Really.” Tad told himself there was no way this was good news. He decided to sit before he swayed too obviously on his feet and pulled his office chair out before he gestured to the two other chairs in front of his desk. “Sit. Right upfront, you tell me what you want in return.”
“Uh…” The two men looked at each other.
“It’s a piece of ICU equipment,” the one with the tie said.
“It helps patients in comas,” the other one added.
They wouldn’t be straightforward either, would they? He resisted the urge to tell them to go away.
“Okay, first, who are you? You in the sweater, what’s your name?”
“Jacob Zachary, sir.”
“And you?” Tad nodded to the one in the tie.
“Nick Ryan, sir.”
“Well.” He leaned forward on his elbows. “Mr. Zachary. Mr. Ryan. Let me tell you a little about myself. I’m not a fan of long presentations. I’m also not a fan of quid pro quo deals. So if that’s what you have for me today, you should do us both a favor and walk out that door, are we clear?”
Jacob looked like he wanted to do exactly that, but Nick leaned forward.
“Senator Williams, please hear us out. We’ve made a device that does all the normal functions of ICU equipment. It’s called a pod.” He pushed a piece of paper across the table at him. “It can monitor blood pressure and heart rate, provide a specific amount of oxygen, all of the normal stuff. It merely has something normal ICU equipment doesn’t have—a way to engage a patient in a coma. A way to stimulate brain waves and jumpstart the brain’s process of healing. We think it could work for your son.”
Tad looked at the two of them. There wasn’t anything practiced in these words, and he liked to think that what he saw on their faces was sincerity.
“Sir, my grandmother just died in the ICU,” said Jacob. “She’d had a stroke, she wasn’t waking up, and—”