Page 117 of Angel

My eyes shine and John nods. “I’m happy to give you the guided tour. We have thirty minutes before dinner is served. Follow me.”

He stands and I jump up fast because this is so exciting.

Jason follows, but I sense his reluctance and wonder about that. His father seems like a great guy, nothing at all as I imagined, and as we follow him down a hallway, we stop outside an elevator.

“You have an elevator in your home?”

Why am I impressed by that? I sound like a fool. I mean, we use an elevator to get to Jason’s penthouse every freaking day.

“Yes. It’s necessary.”

“Why?”

I’m so interested in this place, and as we step inside, he grins.

“I’ll show you.”

He lays his hand flat against the control panel, and I note it lights up and then some kind of spray hits us from all sides.

I jump and John grins. “Sanitizing spray. It kills one hundred percent bacteria and allows us to walk into the lab without gowning up first. It saves a lot of time.”

“Time is important to you.”

This is the second time he has mentioned it, and he nods.

“Extremely important. There are never enough hours in the day to achieve results.”

Jason adds, “My father is a workaholic. He only sleeps for two hours at night and one in the afternoon after lunch.”

“How do you operate on three hours’ sleep?”

I’m shocked and yet it explains why Jason can’t sleep. It’s unusual for him to go for a whole night without disappearing.

I asked him about that, and he told me it was a family cross to bear and now I understand.

The elevator door opens into a huge space. I can’t see the end of it. There are various glass fronted rooms all containing complicated looking equipment. The room is cold in some places, hot in others and it’s strange walking through the space adjusting to the temperature.

He explains, “Some of my work requires certain temperatures.”

He points to a space set up with various heat lamps.

“Under those covers are various phials where I am developing bacteria. The climate is controlled and adjusted to mirror every climate on earth.”

He nods toward a dark room where I can’t see inside.

“I call that the black hole. It simulates space, and I’m interested in learning the effects of the atmosphere on different bacteria. Some cancers have reacted well to the conditions, and I’m cross referencing that with various climates on earth. It’s a fascinating study.”

Now he is in his happy place. John is on fire. His entire face lights up, his enthusiasm infectious. Jason is quiet. I’m guessing none of this is new to him, but I am stunned. It’s as if I’m having a private tour around the mind of a genius.

Thirty minutes pass in a flash and as we head back upstairs, my respect for this man is immeasurable. He explained how he has developed cures for eighty percent of the cancers and infections he is working on, and many governments are actively in negotiations for supplies.

This is another world entirely, and one I will never understand. My job as an actress seems frivolous and with no meaning at all.

Jason is like his father. His mind overdeveloped. A genius even as his role in his father’s business was evident. All the codes for running the software were written by Jason. AI is playing a huge role in developing scientific research and I am blown away.

I will never look at AI in the same way again. Most of the time I am anti AI. It affects my livelihood and those of others in my industry as it replaces human creations. But this—this is where AI shines and its benefits cannot be denied.

Now I understand why they are billionaires and quite frankly, in my opinion, they deserve every single dime of it.