Robin Cook - Acceptable Risk

“It’s purely an anticipatory excitement,” Edward said. “The alkaloid could prove to be a great drug. If you’ve never done research it’s hard to comprehend the thrill you get when you discover something like this. It’s a real high, and we’ve been reexperiencing that high on an hourly basis. Everything we learn seems positive. It’s incredible.”

“Can you say what you’ve been learning?” Kim asked. “Or is it some kind of secret?”

Edward moved forward in his chair and lowered his voice. Kim glanced around the lab but saw no one. She wasn’t even sure where Eleanor was.

“We’ve stumbled onto an orally effective, psychoactive compound that penetrates the blood-brain barrier like the proverbial knife through butter. It’s so potent it is effective in the microgram range.”

“Do you think this is the compound that affected the people in the Salem witchcraft affair?” Kim asked. Elizabeth was still in the forefront of her mind.

“Without doubt,” Edward said. “It’s the Salem devil incarnate.”

“But the people who ate the infected grain were poisoned,” Kim said. “They became the ‘afflicted’ with horrid fits. How can you be so excited about that kind of drug?”

“It is hallucinogenic,” Edward said. “There’s no doubt about that. But we think it’s a lot more. We have reason to believe it calms, invigorates, and may even enhance memory.”

“How have you learned so much so quickly?” Kim asked.

Edward laughed self-consciously. “We don’t know anything for certain yet,” he admitted. “A lot of researchers would find our work so far less than scientific. What we’ve been doing is attempting to get a general idea of what the alkaloid can do. Mind you, these are not controlled experiments by any stretch of the imagination. Nevertheless, the results are terribly exciting, even mind-boggling. For instance we found that the drug, seems to calm stressed rats better than imipramine, which is the benchmark for antidepressant efficacy.”

“So you think it might be an hallucinogenic antidepressant?” Kim said.

“Among other things,” Edward said.

“Any side effects?” Kim asked. She still didn’t understand why Edward was as excited as he was.

Edward laughed again. “We haven’t been worrying about hallucinations with the rats,” he said. “But seriously, apart from the hallucinations we’ve not seen any problems. We’ve loaded several mice with comparatively huge doses and they’re as happy as pigs in the poke. We’ve plopped even larger doses into neuronal cell cultures with no effect on the cells. There doesn’t seem to be any toxicity whatsoever. It’s unbelievable.”

As Kim continued to listen to Edward, she became progressively disappointed that he did not ask her about her visit to Salem and about what happened to Elizabeth’s head. Finally Kim had to bring it up herself when there was a pause in Edward’s exuberant narrative.

“Good,” Edward said simply when she told him the head had been replaced. “I’m glad that’s over.”

Kim was about to describe how the episode had made her feel when Eleanor breezed into view and immediately monopolized Edward’s attention with a computer printout. Eleanor did not even acknowledge Kim’s presence nor did Edward introduce them. Kim watched as they had an animated discussion over the information. It was obvious Edward was pleased with the results. Finally Edward gave Eleanor some suggestions along with a pat on the back, and Eleanor vanished as quickly as she’d appeared.

“Now where were we?” Edward said, turning to Kim.

“More good news?” Kim asked, referring to Eleanor’s printout.

“Most definitely,” Edward said. “We’ve started on determining the compound’s structure, and Eleanor has just confirmed our preliminary impression that it is a tetracyclic molecule with multiple side chains.”

“How on earth can you figure that out?” Kim asked. In spite of herself she was impressed.

“You really want to know?” Edward asked.

“Provided you don’t go too far over my head,” Kim said.

“The first step was to get an idea of molecular weight with standard chromatography,” Edward said. “That was easy. Then we broke the molecule apart with reagents that rupture specific types of bonds. Following that we try to identify at least some of the fragments with chromatography, electrophoresis, and mass spectrometry.”

“You’re already beyond me,” Kim admitted. “I’ve heard those terms, but I don’t really know what the processes are.”

“They’re not that complicated,” Edward said. He stood up. “The basic concepts are not difficult to comprehend. It’s the results that can be difficult to analyze. Come on, I’ll show you the machines.” He took Kim’s hand and pulled her to her feet.

Edward enthusiastically dragged a reluctant Kim around his lab, showing her the mass spectrometer, the high-performance liquid chromatography unit, and the capillary electrophoresis equipment. The whole time he lectured about how they were used for fragment separation and identification. The only thing Kim understood completely was Edward’s obvious bent for teaching.

Opening up a side door, Edward gestured inside. Kim glanced within. In the center of the room was a large cylinder about four feet high and two feet wide. Cables and wires emerged from it like snakes from Medusa’s head.

“That’s our nuclear magnetic resonance machine,” Edward said proudly. “It’s a crucial tool with a project like this. It’s not enough to know how many carbon atoms, hydrogen atoms, oxygen atoms, and nitrogen atoms there are in a compound. We have to know the three-dimensional orientation. That’s what this machine can do.”

“I’m impressed,” Kim said, not knowing what else to say.

“Let me show you one other machine,” Edward said, oblivious to Kim’s state of mind. He led her to yet another door. Opening it, he again gestured inside.

Kim looked in. It was a hopeless tangle of electronic equipment, wires, and cathode ray tubes. “Interesting,” she said.

“You know what it is?” Edward asked.

“I don’t think so,” Kim said. She was reluctant to let Edward know how little she knew about what he did.

“It’s an X-ray diffraction unit,” Edward said with the same degree of pride he’d evinced with the NMR unit. “It complements what we do with the NMR. We’ll be using it with the new alkaloid because the alkaloid readily crystallizes as a salt.”

“Well, you do have your work cut out for you,” Kim said.

“It’s work but it’s also extraordinarily stimulating,” Edward said. “Right now we’re using everything in our investigative arsenal, and the data is pouring in. We’ll have the structure in record time, especially with the new software that is available with all these instruments.”

“Good luck,” Kim said. She’d derived only a sketchy idea of what Edward had explained, but she had certainly gotten a taste of his enthusiasm.

“So what else happened up in Salem?” Edward asked suddenly. “How’s the renovation going?”

Kim was momentarily nonplussed by Edward’s question. With his preoccupation involving his own work, she didn’t think he was currently interested in her puny project. She’d been just about to excuse herself.

“The renovation is going well,” she said. “The house is going to be darling.”

“You were gone quite a while,” Edward said. “Did you delve back into the Stewart family papers?”

“I spent a couple of hours,” Kim admitted.

“Find anything more about Elizabeth?” he asked. “I’m getting more and more interested in her myself. I feel as if I owe her an enormous debt. If it hadn’t been for her, I never would have come across this alkaloid.”