Authors: Thomas McDermott
“Taylor I hope you don’t mind the change in plans. I had some business here and I knew that you were interested in my little laboratory so I thought why not kill two birds with one stone? That is what you say in America..no?” She laughed casually.
He assured her that she was indeed correct and greeted her in the proper French fashion noticing the most alluring scent coming off her body. It was probably some perfume that cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars per ounce. Whatever it was he found it very intoxicating like something from a dream long ago. She motioned for him to follow her back through the doorway from which she appeared.
“This is a fifteenth century estate that I purchased some years ago when I found the need for something outside of the city. The laboratory is underneath the structure as I didn’t want to lose the integrity and beauty of this old home. It’s quite charming don’t you think?” She didn’t give him time to answer and he followed her to a spiral staircase leading down into the ground. It was all very sleek and streamlined like her office downtown. She was absolutely a minimalist in her décor. The walls were lit from beneath and the soft lighting gave the whole place a slightly eerie look. Out of the blue he imagined that he was in a horror film being led to his doom. This was the part when the audience starts squirming and saying thing like: “Don’t go down there!” Celine continued talking. “It took three years to complete the labs and I must say that I was very impressed with how it all turned out. I’m sure you will be as well.” They arrived at the bottom of the stairs and they were in a large square hall with windows on every side. She directed him to the first window on the left. Inside were enormous metal vats with endless pipes and wires connected to them. A few men were inside completely covered in what looked to Taylor like the French equivalent of a biohazard suit. It appeared as if they were routinely monitoring the machines. They took no notice of the observers and Taylor wondered if it was one way glass and they had no idea they were being watched like monkeys in a zoo. Celine continued with the tour.
“Here is where we store the hybrid embryos before we extract the essential proteins. Feel free to use whatever I’m telling you for the article.” She smiled at him slyly. “If you have a recording device please feel free to turn it on. I don’t mind.” Taylor pretended to turn on the tiny piece of equipment which was already recording everything she had said. “We are experimenting with these hybrid chimeras to see which will produce the most efficacious of materials.” She was beginning to sound like a brochure. “Of course much of this research is considered controversial but as of yet there are no laws in existence as this technology is so very new. But then again all scientific discovery has been met with adversity since the beginning of man.” She laughed warmly before finishing her idea. “Of course it is illegal to grow the hybrids past a certain stage here in France as it is with most of the world. We comply with all the current regulations and have never been involved with anything illegal. The main reason for secrecy is the handful of religious fanatics who think that we are playing God.” She moved on to the next window which showed a room full of tables and test tubes and all sorts of medical looking equipment that Taylor knew nothing about. Now this looked more like a lab.
“And what happens in here?” He watched as a man and two women in white lab coats were taking samples from glass slides and placing them into a cylindrical machine.
“Here is where the product is tested for viable proteins and amino acid chains. These are so essential to our beauty products and we are trying to make a superior type of protein as well as collagen which is really just another fibrous protein found everywhere in the body. You’ve undoubtedly heard of collagen injections and the like from your starlets in Hollywood.” He nodded along with her.
“So this is the cure for aging? A superior protein? It is fascinating to say the least.” Taylor was so absorbed in watching the lab workers that he failed to see the look of mockery that spread across Celine’s face.
“Oh no! I didn’t mean to give you the wrong impression. This research that I’m showing you is already in use in most of our products. My cure for aging is something else entirely. I don’t think the cure for aging is something as simple as a super protein.” She smiled widely as he turned to face her.
“Then what is it? I mean aren’t I supposed to be doing an article on your new breakthrough? Why hasn’t there been any ads or buzz built around the launch? Why is all this being done in the dark? It seems counterproductive.” All of the questions he had been preparing for the last few days came flying out of his mouth.
“Ah I see. None of this seems logical to you I’m sure. Tell me Taylor, do you know what travels faster than anything else?” She was offering him a riddle as an answer to his questions. She was clever there was no denying it but now she was beginning to frustrate him.
“No I’m sure I don’t.” He admitted without even trying. Celine just stood there smiling at him as if he were a child who had no understanding.
“A secret Mr. Hamilton. Nothing travels faster than a secret…” She had raised one finger over her lips as if to quiet him. “The reason there’s no advertisement and there is no ‘buzz’ as you put it is because my cure is going to be a secret that will spread like wildfire. First across France and then across the world.” She turned and faced the opposite wall where there was another room altogether. It looked for all the world like an operating room. There was a table in the middle with I.V.’s and needles and all sorts of scalpels and such. It was strangely out of place and the room was empty of people and very dimly lit. He could not even begin to think what went on in here.
“This is our experimental room. It is in here that we try our cures and we can safely monitor the results. She looked proudly at the place.
“On whom do you experiment?” Taylor looked back at her with wonder on his face.
“Only the most willing of volunteers.: She laughed again and exposed her glowing white teeth. In that moment she looked like a predator about to pounce on its helpless prey. “Do you know that we have to turn people away everyday? The minute that there is news of an anti-aging study being conducted we have men and women lined up begging us even bribing us to become a part of it. It just shows how much the world is ready for such a thing.” It did all make sense to Taylor. Youth was the new black in today’s world. There was an epidemic of teenage starlets and models who had yet to see sixteen years of age before becoming multi million dollar moguls. It was pathetic to him to think that his country was so obsessed with something so fleeting and overrated. What did he know when he was so young? Nothing. Nothing at all. Celine was right though, the world was caught up in this fad and science continued to promise advances in the fight against aging. She was standing on top of a gold mine. The next window revealed a room that looked like a spa. There were stations set up with mirrors and it was filled with al sorts of beauty products and creams and powders. It was all decorated ornately and elegantly in stark contrast to the rest of the lab.
“Ah. This is our beauty spa. This is where the subjects are shown by beauty professionals how to utilize the products properly as they are so unlike any other products and require some training. It is the subjects favorite part. They are pampered and treated to massage as sort of a thank you for participating.” She seemed very pleased with herself.
“This is incredible Celine. I’ve never seen anything like this! Are all beauty companies operating like this doing research in remote locations to keep their secrets safe?” He sounded like an excited school boy.
“I don’t know nor do I care what anyone else does. I am only interested in the way I run things.” Her voice rang with smugness.”Like you I follow my instincts and go with them. So far it has proven successful. I see no reason to change now as my company’s stocks just rose again for the third time this year. But come, let’s go back upstairs and make ourselves comfortable in the house above and continue our interview in a more pleasant environment.” Her voice regained the calm and purring quality that Taylor was beginning to suspect was well rehearsed. They left the underground laboratory back up the spiral staircase made of brushed steel and as they rose Taylor noticed how toned and fit Celine’s gorgeous calves were as her heels clicked loudly at each step. Once above ground she led him to a large and comfortable room with an enormous stone hearth that looked like field stones dragged in from some nearby river. There were floor to ceiling windows as it looked like Celine in her renovation of the place left the front of the house unchanged and literally removed the entire back wall of stone and brick and replacing it with modern glass. It was an architectural triumph as the interior had the shabby elegance of old country estates but the glass wall pulled the whole thing into the twenty first century. Outside the windows there was a large rectangular shaped pool with perfectly spaced lounge chairs of thick yellow and cream striping with a blue umbrella between each pair. Beyond that the backyard just meshed into the French countryside with a million flowers and things growing waist high until it all butted up against a dark and menacing forest. It must have looked that way for hundreds of years. Inside there were overflowing chairs and sofas in various floral print with and chintz covered pillows with homemade looking throws tossed sporadically on the furniture. It looked like the photo spread of one of those design magazines featuring a home in Provence. This was the first time that Taylor had seen anything other than sleek and glossy and modern from Celine and noticed she looked a bit softer in these surroundings and more like a woman than at any other time he had seen her. She pulled her hair out of the loose knot at the base of her neck and shook the curls all about scrunching them as she flipped her hair about. The effect was stunning. She looked like the mistress of some country estate contend with cutting flowers and arranging them perfectly and not at all like the high powered professional she really was. For the first time since he had met her Celine seemed completely at ease.
“Would you like something to drink?” He thought he noticed a little smirk at the corner of her mouth as if she too knew the unbearable thirst he was experiencing.
“I’d love some water please. I’m afraid I’m hooked on that mineral water you had sent to my room at the hotel.” He was hoping she wouldn’t make him beg for it but at this point he was willing to say or do anything for one precious sip.
“Of course. Of course. It’s my own special brand I bottle from the source of a mineral spring right here in France. I own the rights to it. It is wonderful isn’t it? I find that I cannot abide any other water after discovering this font. There is truly nothing like it in all the world and I should know.” She pushed a button on one of the small tables in the room and slowly began to pull off her black pumps. She sat at the nearest comfortable chair covered in a fabric of yellow and green lilies and arranged her feet underneath her. It was unlike any interview he had ever conducted. Taylor had the feeling it was she who was interviewing him and it threw him off his game. After a few minutes a woman entered the room who was clearly a servant. She was dressed in a traditional maid’s costume that was both frumpy and overstartched. She was middle aged with a large nose and her salt and pepper hair pulled back in a severe bun. This was the first person employed by Celine that Taylor had met who was not beautiful. Maybe she really let her guard down out here in the country and it could mean an opportunity for him to get more information from her but he had the feeling even relaxed and unawares that Celine was hyper vigilant. He just had to be very tricky about it.
“Sophie. Please get us some L’eau Jeunesse. I believe Mr. Hamilton would like some ice.” The woman grunted and nodded and walked out of the room brusquely.
“I’m afraid Sophie has no manners you mustn’t mind her.” Celine gestured for him to join her on the accompanying chair. “I just couldn’t live without her. You know she anticipates my needs before I even realize I have one and she works harder than any other employee I’ve got. So, she may not be too civilized, here in Orleans it is not such a crime as in Paris.” She laughed and threw her head back. Taylor couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she was. Sure he had found her striking but here in the country it appeared that she had undergone a transformation. She even looked younger than she had the other day. He liked this side of her and wished silently that she would let him write about her. She would create a lot of interest without a doubt. The world would want to know who this beautiful and mysterious woman was. But this is exactly what she did not want. She wanted to be the silent power behind the company that was taking the lead in the industry. He could understand that but how long would she be able to remain anonymous especially if her product did what she claimed. If she had found the cure to aging it would only be a matter of time before the world would demand to know who Celine D’Aumont was. It seemed to Taylor that she was simply postponing the inevitable.
“So your water has a name. What does it mean? I’m afraid I don’t speak a word of your beautiful language.” He relaxed into the soft chair that swallowed him up. He too wanted to kick off his shoes but didn’t dare.
“L’eau Jeunesse?” It’s really a little play on words. It literally means young water bringing to mind the ever elusive fountain of youth that mankind has been searching for since the beginning of time. Clever don’t you think?” Her voice lilted upwards at the end of her sentence and she didn’t wait for him to answer. “Maybe it’s a little too obvious but I can always change it. For now it fits just right.” With that the maid returned with a blue glass pitcher filled with water. There was also a small silver ice bucket carved with elaborate fleurs de lis and two cobalt blue drinking glasses.
“Thank you Sophie. Just leave it there.” Celine pointed to the round table between them and Taylor noticed for the first time the figurines of Marie Antoinette and a few other characters from France’s history decorating the table top. Sophie set the service down and looked to Celine for further instruction.