The chirp of her phone woke Sara in the morning. She stretched her arm out and plucked the phone off the bedside table. The screen showed a text from an unknown number. She blinked the sleep out of her eyes and read the text.
** Hi Sara... Linda Baldwin. Do you want to meet for breakfast? I'd like to meet before we drive to Perchuga Valley. Let me know. Thanks. **
Sara checked the time. 8 AM. She stretched under the covers, feeling the sheets pressing against her naked body. That's right. She'd gone to sleep naked...
Suddenly, she remembered the previous day. It wasn't just that she'd gone to sleep naked. She'd actually done a lot of things naked. The meeting at Pariva - naked. Drinks with Adam - naked. Sex with Leon, on a busy street...
Sara reached down and stroked her mons, feeling the novelty of her smooth skin. She wondered what she would wear to the Perchuga Valley that day. Something comfortable, something practical. One thing was for sure: she needed to start behaving herself. Hopefully, she'd gotten out all her crazy impulses the day before. The rest of the trip, she needed to be Dr. Sara Olson, serious and professional. And of course, always fully clothed.
She typed a text back to Linda. ** Breakfast sounds great. Do you want to meet at 9? ** She sent the text and climbed out of bed.
***
Sara walked into the Hilton's coffee shop. She wore a light blue tank top under a white button-up shirt, with khaki capris and her comfortable brown hiking boots. Her dark hair was tied back in a ponytail. She quickly found Adam sitting at a table with a slender blonde woman, presumably Linda. Adam waved at Sara as she approached.
Linda stood and offered her hand. She was taller than Sara, and wore a crisply ironed dark blue blouse and pants. She smiled in a way that seemed very practiced. "Hello, Sara. I'm Linda Baldwin. Should I call you Dr. Olson, or is Sara okay?"
"Sara's fine." Sara pulled out a chair and sat.
"Great. I never want to assume when I'm talking to a PhD. I know you've worked hard to get that title at the front of your name." Linda nodded towards Adam. "Adam tells me you've already met, last night?"
Adam grinned. "Yes, although she looks a bit different in her work clothes."
Sara flashed him the slightest hint of a smile, to let him know that she understood his joke but didn't find it funny. After considering the matter that morning, Sara decided she could probably count on his discretion. It was in his best interest to keep last night's adventure to himself. If he did start telling everyone, his behavior would look almost as questionable as hers. After all, he was the one that came to her room, and she certainly wouldn't have left the room naked if he hadn't been there to walk her out.
The waiter came. Sara ordered a Belgian waffle with strawberries, Adam ordered an omelette and Linda ordered oatmeal and black coffee. While they waited for their food, Linda made some light conversation, asking Sara about her education, her history with TTX Energy Solutions, her life in Chicago. It wasn't until the waiter delivered the food that Linda got down to business.
"Do you recall signing a nondisclosure and non-competition agreement as part of your employment contract, Sara? My records show that you signed one shortly after you started working for TTX."
"Yes, I recall."
"Great. Just to remind you of the contents of that agreement. The non-competition agreement says that you will not seek employment with a competitor for up to one year after you leave TTX Energy Solutions. A competitor in this case means any company involved in the manufacture of rechargeable batteries through the use of sagana sap, and broadly includes companies at all stages of the manufacturing process." She flashed a smile. "Including Pariva. Don't let them poach you, Sara. I could imagine them being very interested in a botanist with your education and experience with sagana trees."
"Right," Sara said. "I won't." The idea was flattering, but she doubted that Pariva would try to steal her away.
"There's also the nondisclosure portion of your employment contract, and honestly, Sara, I'm a little more worried about this part. I know that as an academic, you're driven to obtain data and information, and you may be accustomed to an environment where collaboration is encouraged. I must emphasize this: you are not here to collaborate with Pariva. You are not here to help them in any way. Your job is to inspect their trees, that's all."
"I understand."
"As an employee of TTX Energy Solutions, any patentable advances that you make are the intellectual property of TTX Energy Solutions with profit sharing as outlined in the agreement. So if you start casually chatting about a particular theory you have, and Pariva turns around and uses your theory to create the next level of sagana trees, that puts everyone in a sticky legal situation. Potential international lawsuit territory. I know you want to avoid that, so just be very careful what you say, all right? Don't give them any advice, no matter how much you want to, no matter if you see a mistake they're making that's ridiculously easy to fix. No advice, no help, period."
"Right. I understand."
"We want to be friendly, as business partners are, and we're going to enjoy Pariva's hospitality. But we can't be too friendly. Keep Pariva at arms length. All business. Okay?"
Sara kept her face expressionless as she recalled being bent over naked on a busy street while Leon Papega had sex with her from behind. Leon Papega, Pariva's Project Director and the man in charge of the Perchuga Valley sagana orchards, the very orchards they intended to drive to after breakfast. She had the feeling that Linda would have an aneurysm if she found out about that particular tryst. She hoped that she could intercept Leon and caution him to keep it to himself. Melepria were so open-minded about nudity and sex that she could imagine him casually mentioning it in a conversation. "Okay," she answered Linda. "All business."
"Did you know Leon Papega has offered us the use of his guest cottage while we're there? We'll still have our rooms here, but we can use the cottage as our home base while we're visiting the valley."
"Yes... he did mention it. Is it big enough for all of us?" Sara asked.
"He says it has four bedrooms."
"Four bedrooms? His guest cottage has four bedrooms?"
Linda smiled. "Sagana money, right? Mr. Papega does very well for himself."
Sara took a sip of her orange juice, hoping to hide her disappointment that she wouldn't be in the guest cottage by herself. She'd hoped to spend some time with Leon while she was there, but now it seemed like she would be under constant scrutiny. Leon's plans to show her some of his experiments with the sagana trees would no doubt be squelched by Linda and her concern for the intellectual property of TTX.
Sara told herself to be patient. This was her first trip to Meleprija, and she shouldn't expect to be given the same independence that Dr. Chen enjoyed, at least not yet. Once she had established herself as dependable, then she'd no doubt be given a bit more freedom. For now, she just had to make sure she carefully fulfilled her responsibilities and avoided any trouble. She would have other trips to Meleprija, other opportunities to get to know Leon better.
She just had to be patient.
Hopefully, Leon would be patient as well.
***
Sara was in the process of slinging her three bags over her shoulders when her room phone rang. She let the heavy bags pull her onto the bed as she answered the phone.
It was Leon. "I'm five minutes away from your hotel," he said cheerfully. "Will you meet me by the front entrance? I will drive you personally to the Perchuga Valley."
"Okay. Have you talked to Linda and Adam?"
"No. Will you tell them?"
"Yes, I'll tell them," Sara said. "See you soon!"
Sara picked up her bags and headed downstairs. She would definitely let Linda and Adam know when Leon arrived. But for now, she wanted the chance to speak to him alone.
Leon waved at Sara as he pulled up to the front of the hotel in a large black SUV. The SUV had fat all-terrain tires and the side was flecked with splashes of dried brown mud. Leon hopped out and walked over to her. He was wearing clothes now, a button-up short sleeved shirt and slacks, and Sara was surprised to find she was a little disappointed.
"Good morning!" He smiled at her, greeting her with a quick hug. "Shall I put your things in the truck? Are the others coming?"
"Yes... I'll call them and see if they're almost down." Sara let Leon take her overnight bag and her field kit, while she followed him to the back of the vehicle with her laptop bag. "Leon!" she whispered urgently, stepping close to him. "I need to talk to you."
Leon lifted her bags into the vehicle like they didn't weigh anything. "Yes? What is it, Sara?"
"What happened yesterday... between us..." She hesitated. "Can we not mention it to anyone? Especially Linda and Adam? I could get in trouble if my company found out."
He looked surprised. "You mean our sex? Why would you get in trouble?"
"Because they might think that if you're having sex with me, that you have some influence on me, and then they might decide that calls into question my inspection of the sagana trees..."
He started to smile, as if he thought she was making a joke. "But our sex was outside of business, yes? Why would they think it would affect your work?"
"I can't explain. I just know they might think that, and it might affect their perception of how I'm doing my job..."
He considered her words. "Okay. I will not speak of it."
"Thanks." She looked down at the ground.
"You still look troubled?"
"There's another thing," she said. "They've told me I shouldn't talk to you about my research, or anything you're working on, or look at your experiments. Linda says it's a potential intellectual property issue for us to share knowledge."
"What?" Leon frowned. "What does that mean, share knowledge?"
"It means everything. It means the only thing they want me to do with sagana trees is to inspect the Kokaya orchard deal. I'm prohibited from doing anything else or looking at anything else."
