Jeff Buick - Lethal Dose

They found a room at the Fairfield Inn on I-64 despite the problem with not wishing to use a credit card. It had a lot to do with Gordon offering five thousand dollars in cash as a deposit. The manager tucked it away in the safe and gave them a big smile every time they entered the lobby. What the hell, some people just didn’t like credit cards.

Friday, September 16. Jennifer had missed Thursday without calling in to let them know she was okay. And now Friday. Her staff was going to be panicked at her disappearance. But what were her options? Call the office and let Bruce Andrews know she was alive so he could try and kill her again? Not a very smart idea. And with the information they’d garnered from their quick trip to the library Thursday afternoon, she and Gordon had amassed more evidence that pointed to Bruce Andrews as the guilty party.

The financial picture at Veritas was not what Andrews was painting. The company was in trouble. Millions of dollars in everyday expenses from almost every department with a research arm were being shifted over to R amp;D. The resulting tax credits totaled hundreds of millions of dollars. Even with the extra income the company was enjoying from the extended patents on metabolite-synthesizing drugs, the veil was slowly coming up on the fraud. Expenditures were through the roof. Despite the termination of the brain chip department, it still drew enormous amounts of the company’s cash reserves, something that puzzled both Jennifer and Gordon.

And there was no way the CEO of the company did not know what was happening. It was at his directive that the departments were realigning their finances to divert the expenses to R amp;D. Andrews was the conductor, his team leaders the unwitting orchestra. With the exception of Jennifer Pearce, who, for her tenacity, was now in fear for her life.

“Is there anything in either Kenga’s or Albert’s files that could point to them having been murdered?” Jennifer asked. Gordon had spent a considerable amount of time going over the two personnel files they had printed out on the library LaserJet twenty-four hours earlier.

He sat back in the chair and rubbed his eyes. “Nothing. These files are a total dead end.”

“That’s not a big surprise,” she said. “If there is any concrete proof that Andrews had them killed, it’s probably tucked away in some secure file we’ll never find.”

“Probably,” Gordon said. He flipped through a couple of pages on the small round table in the corner of the hotel room. “You know, the amount of money Veritas earns and spends is almost unfathomable. Income and expenses are all listed in the hundreds of millions of dollars. These figures are obscene.”

She rolled over on the bed, onto her stomach. “It’s big business. Huge, in fact. Hell, AstraZeneca pumped close to five hundred million into promoting Nexium. And that was just in its first year on the market. Once the market is established, the money keeps pouring in until the patent expires. And keep in mind that despite all the money they’re putting into it, Nexium is a dog.”

A puzzled expression crossed Gordon’s face. “Why year after year? Don’t the people taking these drugs ever get healthy?”

Jennifer laughed. “You’re missing the big picture, Gordon,” she said. “The major pharmaceutical companies aren’t looking for a cure. Their objective is to come up with a pill that treats the symptoms. If they actually cured the disease, that would eliminate an entire segment of the market. It’s sort of like Firestone bringing a tire to market that gets a million miles before the rubber on the treads wears out. Never going to happen.”

“So you’re not looking for a cure to anything, just a patch.”

She nodded. “It’s a little different with Alzheimer’s because it’s a disease that affects an aging population. Our client base has a high natural attrition rate, so if we come up with something that blocks the tangles and plaques in the brain that cause Alzheimer’s, we will still have a huge clientele needing the drug. And that’s despite many of our clients passing on from old age or diseases related to the aging process. Alzheimer’s is one disease where finding a cure is still a win-win for the company. That’s one of the reasons I chose to specialize in it.”

“So you could look for a cure, not just a pill.”

“Exactly.” She grinned. “I guess I’m just a do-gooder at heart.”

He rose and walked over to the bed and lay beside her. She cuddled into his side and they lay quietly for a few minutes. The television was on but muted. When the newscaster switched to a story covering the outbreak of the unknown virus, she hit the mute button so she could hear the report. The talking head was on location in Washington, D.C., and the outline of the White House was prominent in the backdrop.

“Yesterday afternoon the president met with J. D. Rothery, Under Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and head of the special task force assigned to combat this terrorist threat. Since May, there have been reported incidents of the virus appearing in Austin, San Diego, Miami, and Boston. Numerous radical groups have purported to be in possession of the killer virus, but to date the task force has not confirmed any of the claims to be legitimate. But to say that the president is taking this seriously is an understatement. The task force is an amalgamation of many talents. The full resources of the FBI, the CIA, and the National Security Administration are at Under Secretary Rothery’s full command.

“Last week’s sweeping raids of targets across the globe is now thought to be directly related to the virus crisis. Unidentified sources have indicated that the raids, which occurred simultaneously on at least sixteen targets in five countries, were an attempt to find the source of the virus. No word on whether they were successful, but it has been reported that Mr. Rothery is enlisting the help of the private sector in isolating the virus and finding a drug to eradicate it. But one thing is certain: This threat is building into a crisis that could result in a devastating toll on human life if not brought under control quickly.”

The reporter gave his byline and the broadcast returned to the studio. Jennifer touched the mute button again and the sound died instantly. “Now, that is scary,” she said.

“What is it?” Gordon asked. “What kind of virus?”

“They’re being very guarded about it, but from what I’ve seen and what I’ve heard, I think it’s a hemorrhagic virus of some sort.”

“What’s that?” Gordon asked.

“Ebola or Marburg. Both very deadly viruses that liquefy internal body organs.”

He twisted and pulled back from her a bit so he could look into her eyes. “I know what Ebola is. It’s like the plague. Holy shit. How can you be so sure?”

“They’ve given up a few details that most people wouldn’t be able to patch together. And the glimpses of the kids’ bodies as they brought them out of the quarantined house in Boston. The symptoms were exactly what would show if Ebola was present. It all adds up to a hemorrhagic virus.”

“Christ, that’s serious.”

She nodded. “Very serious. If some terrorist cell has Ebola in any quantity, we’re in trouble. It’s simple to introduce into a population, it spreads easily, and there’s no known cure.”

“There’s no drug to combat it?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. The virus is protected by a capsid, which also has a protective coating called an envelope. The envelope is composed of virus-encoded proteins, which we can’t seem to crack. We just can’t find a drug that can penetrate the virus and kill it. It’s what we call a Biosafety Level Four virus, and only a handful of labs across the country are equipped to handle it. You need state-of-the-art HEPA filters, and exhaust and ventilation systems with backup systems upon backup systems. You’re talking really nasty stuff.”