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‘Of course. Forgive me. Kaia, Alfie and Ben are our design and ideas team. Ben’s alter ego is the only dangerous thing around here and all you really need to deal with him is a pin...’ Gabriel gestured towards the inflatable gorilla.
‘I’ll bear that in mind.’ Clara turned to Kaia, smiling. ‘So your work is with rescue teams?’
‘Partly, but not exclusively. If we have a good idea about pretty much anything, Gabriel lets us run with it.’
‘Sometimes they come up with nothing. But sometimes they hit gold.’ Gabriel grinned.
It all sounded a bit haphazard. This must be one of the high-risk projects that Gabriel had referred to. But if the Dream Team was as good as he obviously thought they were, then giving them free range opened up the possibility of new ideas and outside-the-box thinking. Sometimes unconventional and head in the clouds was exactly what it took to come up with undreamed-of results.
‘You might find the project that Kaia and Ben are working on interesting, they’re looking into 3D printing to make prosthetic limbs.’
‘I’ve read a little about that, it’s got some great applications. This is one of the projects that falls slightly outside your core interests?’
‘It has all sorts of applications...’ Gabriel shrugged. ‘It’s not a new idea, but it’s something that Alistair and I were both passionate about and Kaia and Ben felt they had something unique to add to what’s already out there.’
Clara was having difficulty working out whether the team’s activities were an exercise in chaos or an inspired leap of faith. When she looked into Gabriel’s face, she saw only the leap of faith.
‘Kaia will be happy to show you...’
He turned to Kaia and she nodded. Clara hesitated. Much as she wanted to see what Kaia was doing, her responsibility was to keep her eye on Gabriel. ‘You’re staying here?’
‘Yes, Alfie and I have a few things we need to talk about.’
If she was going to give in, she may as well do it gracefully. ‘Okay. I’d love to see what you’re doing, Kaia.’
CHAPTER FIVE
GABRIEL DIDN’T WANT to think about his reasons. Wanting Clara’s genuine interest, her real opinions, instead of just a reiteration of her company’s policies, wasn’t logical, but he wanted it anyway. And as she looked at Kaia’s designs, it seemed that her defences were dropping. The brittle smile that she used on him so frequently was replaced by a softness that he was fast beginning to crave.
He was the watcher now, instead of the watched. It actually felt good that no one seemed to be taking much notice of him. Gabriel jumped as Alfie spoke.
‘I can’t find a way to make this work any better...’ He was rolling his finger thoughtfully over the trackpad in front of him, turning the wireframe image on the screen.
‘Perhaps that’s the answer you’re looking for, then. There’s no guaranteed answer to any of the problems we set you.’
‘Yeah.’ Alfie couldn’t take his eyes from the screen. Something was still bugging him.
And in a world where everything he’d thought was concrete seemed to be crumbling, and the only thing that Gabriel was completely sure of were his beliefs, there was only one question to ask.
‘Do you believe you can come up with something better?’
‘Yeah, I do. I haven’t made any solid progress, though, and I can’t see a good reason to spend any more time and money on it.’
And yet... Gabriel could tell that Alfie wasn’t satisfied.
‘I’ll worry about the cost. If you believe in it, that’s reason enough to run with it for a little longer. Touch base with me at the end of next week, and let me know how you’re doing.’
‘Yeah, okay. Thanks...’ Alfie’s attention wandered back to the wireframe rendering on the screen, and Gabriel’s gaze was drawn to Clara.
Kaia had just put one of the prototype prosthetic limbs into her hands and she was turning it over, inspecting it carefully. The look on Clara’s face told him that she knew exactly how much this would mean to a child. To hundreds of children, if the dream could be translated into a reality.
He wondered what had made Clara give up medicine. She was very good at her job but it didn’t seem to hold much passion for her. He knew that a paramedic’s life could be hard, and was often taxing, but Clara didn’t seem to be afraid of hard or tax
ing. Being a doctor was one of the things that gave Gabriel hope and a reason to be alive, and yet Clara had turned her back on her medical career. Despite himself, he very much wanted to know why.
* * *
The package from her head office had been delivered straight into Clara’s hands, as was customary with anything important. She’d had a brief chance to look at the contents while Gabriel and Alistair were talking over lunch, and the news wasn’t good. Clara’s stomach tightened into knots at the thought of having to deliver this blow.
