Michael Palmer - Side Effects

The tape ran through a few parting formalities before going dead. Jared snapped off the machine and sat, looking at his wife in absolute wonder i would have broken, " he said. "Pardon?"

"If those things had come down on me like they did on you, I would have cracked-killed someone, maybe killed myself. I don't know what, but I know I would have gone under. It makes me sick just to think of how isolated you were, how totally alone."

"That's where you're wrong. You see, you may have had doubts about me, and justifiably so, but I never had doubts about you, so I wasn't really as alone as you might think."

"Never?"

Kate took her husband's hand and smiled. "What's a doubt or two between friends, anyway? " she asked.

Though it was barely eight-thirty in the morning, the humidity was close to saturation and the temperature was in the mideighties. August in DC. It might have been central Africa. Silently, Kate and Jared crossed the mall toward the Hubert H. Humphrey building and what was likely to be the final session regarding her petition to the FDA for action against Redding Pharmaceuticals.

The hearings had been emotional, draining for all concerned. Terry Moreland, a law-school classmate whom Jared had recruited to represent them, had been doing superb work, overcoming one setback after another against a phalanx of opposition lawyers and a surprisingly unsympathetic three-man panel. One moment their charges against the pharmaceutical giant would seem as irrefutable as they were terrifying, and the next, the same allegations were made to sound vindictive, capricious, and unsubstantiated. Now the end of the hearings was at hand — all that remained were brief closing statements by each side, a recess, and finally a decision. "Yo, Kate! Jared! " Stan Willoughby, mindless of the sultry morning, trotted toward them carrying his briefcase and wearing a tweed jacket that was precisely six months out of phase with the season.

He had attended all the sessions and had testified at some length as to Kate's character and qualifications. "So, this is going to be it, yes?" he said, kissing Kate on the cheek and shaking Jared's hand warmly. Over the months that had followed the arrest and resignation of Sheila Pierce and Norton Reese, the two men, Willoughby and Jared, had formed a friendship based on more than superficial mutual respect. In fact, it had been Jared who suggested a year or two of cochairpersons for the department of pathology, and who had then cooked the I dinner over which Willoughby and Kate had come up with a working arrangement for dividing administrative responsibilities. "We can't think of anything else that could go wrong-I mean go on-this morning, " Jared said. "You were more correct the first time, " said Kate. "Most of this has been pretty brutal. First, all the threads connecting that animal Nunes to Redding Pharmaceuticals evaporate like morning dew. Then, suddenly, Carl Horner gets admitted to Darlington Hospital with chest pains and gets a medical dispensation not to testify. I don't know. I just don't know."

"We still have the notebook and the tape, " Jared said. Kate laughed sardonically. "The notebook, the tape, and-you neglect to add-a dozen earnest barristers asking over and over again where the name Cyrus Redding or Redding Pharmaceuticals is mentioned even once."

"Come, come, child, " Willoughby chided. "Where's that Bennett spirit?

We've made points. Plenty of them. Trust this old war horse. We may not have nailed them, but we've sure stuck em with a bunch of tacks."

"I hope you're right, " she said, as they spotted Terry Moreland waiting for them by the steps to the Humphrey building. The gray under Moreland's eyes and the tense set of his face spoke of the difficult week just past and of the ruling that was perhaps only an hour or two away. "How're your vibes? " Kate asked after they had exchanged greetings and words of encouragement. Moreland shook his head. "No way to tell, " he said. "Emotionally, what with your testimony and Ellen's account of her ordeal, I think we've beaten the pants off them.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem as if we have a very emotionally oriented panel. When that fat one blew his nose in the middle of the most agonizing part of Ellen's testimony, I swear, I almost hauled off and popped him one. Watching the indifference creep across his face again and again, I couldn't help wondering if he hadn't already made up his mind."

"Or had it made up for him, " Jared added. "Absolutely, " Moreland said as they pushed into the air-conditioned comfort of the office building and headed up to the second floor. That sort of thing doesn't happen too often, I don't think, but it does happen And all you have to do is look across the room to realize what we're up against. Hell, they could buy off St. Francis of Assisi with a fraction of what those legal fees alone come to."

The hearing room, modern in decor, stark in atmosphere, was largely empty, due in part to the surprisingly scant media coverage of the proceedings. Moreland had called the dearth of press a tribute to the power of Cyrus Redding and the skill of his PR people. Redding's battery of lawyers was present, as were two stenographers and the counsel for the Bureau of Drugs. The seats for the three hearing officers, behind individual tables on a raised dais, were still empty. Moreland and Stan Willoughby led the way into the chamber. Kate and Jared paused by the door. Through the windows to the north, they could see the American flag hanging limply over the Senate wing of the Capitol. "I don't know which is scarier, " Kate said, "the pharmaceutical industry controlling itself or the government doing it for them. I doubt Cyrus Redding's tactics would make it very far in the Soviet Union."

"I wouldn't bet on that, Dr. Bennett."

Startled, they turned. Cyrus Redding was less than five feet from them, wheeled in his chair by a blond buck who looked like a weightlifter. The words were the first they had heard the man say since the hearings had begun. "I have many friends-and many business interests-in the USSR," he continued. "Believe me, businessmen are businessmen the world over."

"That's wonderfully reassuring, " Kate said icily. "Perhaps I'd better submit an article to the Russian medical literature on the reversal of the bleeding complications of Estronate Two-fifty."

"I assure you, Doctor, that all I know of such matters, you have taught me at these hearings. If you have a moment, I was wondering if I might speak with you."

Kate looked at Jared, who gestured that he would meet her inside and then entered the hall. Redding motioned his young bodyguard to a bench by the far wall. "I suspect our hearing to end this morning, " he said.

"Perhaps."

"I just want you to know what high regard I have for you. You are a most remarkable, a most tenacious, young woman."

"Mr. Redding, I hope you don't expect a thank you. I appreciate compliments only from people I respect."

Redding smiled patiently. "You are still quite young and most certainly naive about certain facts."

"Such as?"

"Such as the fact that it costs an average of sixty million dollars just to get a new drug on the market, often, quite a bit more."

"Not impressed. Mr. Redding, because of you and your policies, people have suffered and died unnecessarily. Doesn't that weigh on you?"

"Because of me and my policies, dozens of so-called orphan drugs have found their way to those who need them, usually without cost.

Because of me and my policies, millions have had the quality of their lives improved and countless more their lives saved altogether. The greatest good for the most people at the least cost."

"I guess if you didn't believe that, you'd have a tough time looking at yourself in the mirror. Maybe you do anyway. I mean, a person's denial mechanism can carry him only so far."