Penthesilea's Wish [Vol.1]

Chapter Thirty-eight

Professor Simons had spent the rest of the day trying to secure a meeting with the UC Berkeley Administration, both to halt the security breach in his research and to try and determine who on the Board of Regents might have leaked their preliminary excavation at Bixby. There was no one else, the professor surmised, who knew the particulars of their work. No one else who could have allowed the information to fall into the hands of Cal's most historical rival institution across the San Francisco Bay, Stanford University. He was finding this was not an easy task.

The Vice Chancellor's Office in charge of research with whom he had worked in the past was not being cooperative. He was reminded that his project was earmarked "Urgent and Confidential" and was being funded through the President's Office of the University's Board of Regents. Due to the discovery's possible incendiary nature and its immediate need for funding, Simons' knowledge of the UC infrastructure advised him to go directly through the Board of Regents President's Office. It was this coordinating center which was equipped and ultimately designated for such requests from any of the state's nine premiere universities in the UC system.

Upon inquiring to the Office of the President, where he had made direct and confidential contact with Dr. Derek Williamson several weeks earlier, where funding was granted, he was informed that the Board President was now currently on a speaking engagement in Boston and would not be back in his office for three days. However, when he inquired as to which of the Board of Regent members had been assigned to the ad hoc steering committee regarding the project for immediate funds, he found the President's secretary at the other end of the line surprisingly cooperative. To learn their names and titles, she told him, he would only have to appear in person at the UC Administrative offices of the President in Oakland, sometime during their office hours and verify his own title and relation to the project as its primary supervisor. By mid-morning the following day Professor Simons was on his way to Oakland, a half-hour's drive to the south of Berkeley's campus.

"Good morning, Dr. Simons, and thank you for calling ahead with your inquiry." It was a well-dressed and attractive receptionist, looking a bit like a student who quietly escorted him through a lobby with polished floors, into a secondary series of offices and meeting rooms. Seated at a larger desk in front of him was a middle-aged woman with carrot-colored hair. She officiously asked the professor for his identification and proof of his affiliation with the Berkeley campus, both of which she photocopied. He was also asked to sign a document verifying his request which was stamped and dated. Following these directions, the secretary placed the release form in a file and spoke unaffectedly. "I will now get you the information you requested, professor."

The stout woman left her desk and approached a wall of file cabinets. She opened an appropriate drawer and perused the files. Within several minutes she was again at the copy machine making him a facsimile of a page.

"It seems your project was given a high priority by a three member committee of the Board three weeks ago," she said. "And that was with the President's participation. This document delineates the installments of funds over the next three months, and lists the names of those Board members which approved the amount and is inclusive of the dates of your preliminary study, professor."

Professor Simons took the photocopy and looked at it. He could see his name mentioned as coordinating advisor, and indeed there were three names below the President's with titles and signatures. Two of these Board members were women's names, as he had hoped, yet also feared.

"I see there is mention of a 'strict confidentiality' clause on that form," the secretary added in a cautionary tone. "I'm sure you are aware of that?"

"Yes." The professor was still looking over the document as she spoke. More specifically at Dr. Williamson's final endorsement.

"This is a formality which is usually . . . yes . . . I see that you requested that yourself, Dr. Simons. It ensures that during the time of the preliminary grant of funding, the members you see here, assigned. . ." she pointed at the paper with the top of her pen, "along with the President, of course, are not allowed to discuss or share any details of this study . . . either within the UC system or outside of it. Isn't that what you had specified, professor?"