Massachusetts in autumn had clear skies and light clouds, with the vibrant fall scenery unique to cities in the northeastern United States. Vast stretches of beech, maple, and oak trees dyed the distant mountains in layers of color. Fiery red, tranquil green, and shadowy gray flowed amid the golden hues.
A Bentley pulled up at the entrance to Greylock Nature Preserve. Strange and Schiller, both dressed in suits, stepped out from opposite sides of the car. Schiller took a deep breath of the fresh mountain air, adjusted his cuff, and stamped his feet.
"Let's go." Strange pointed ahead. The two of them headed into the preserve.
"We bought a plot on the eastern side of Greylock Nature Preserve, originally intended for the Respiratory System Health Research Center. It's around four thousand acres..."
"That large?" Schiller asked in surprise. He calculated it in his head—it was nearly sixteen square kilometers. Then he asked, puzzled, "What were they planning to build here?"
"A research center dedicated to improving human respiratory health."
"Why would researching human respiratory health require such a large area?"
"You really asked the right person," Strange said, turning back to Schiller. "The last time I dealt with internal medicine knowledge related to the respiratory system was during undergrad."
Schiller sighed. "That only proves you must have had fairly impressive surgical skills."
Then he asked, "Why did they stop building it?"
"I heard it was because it was too close to the Nature Reserve, which violated certain provisions of some environmental protection act."
"Then that definitely wasn't the reason." Schiller shook his head. "My guess is that some important figure they expected to come here for recuperation unfortunately kicked the bucket early. Had construction already started?"
"Not yet," Strange said. "If they'd already laid the foundation, I wouldn't have bought