Michael Crichton - Drug of Choice

“Yes, yes, all that’s down here,” Washington said, tapping the sheet. “Cancer drugs numbered JJ-4225, and AL-19. Controlled double blind clinical trials involving forty and sixty-nine subjects, respectively. Is that it?”

“Yes,” Clark said, frowning. He had filled out no application. He had certainly never written down—

“Well, that’s fine,” Washington said. “Just fine. Undoubtedly you’re curious about the work you will be doing, if you choose to join the team here.”

“As a matter of fact, I am.”

“You’ll understand if I can’t be too specific,” Dr. Washington said, scratching the tip of his nose. “We are not a secret organization, but we do need to be careful.”

“You do a lot of government work?”

“Heavens, no! We don’t do any at all. We used to do government work, but that stage is past. Entirely past.” Dr. Washington sighed. “Your work will concern the interaction of organ systems with chemical compounds which affect multiple bodily systems. In most cases, one of the systems will be nervous, but this will not be invariably so.”

“This work is drug-testing, then?”

“In a manner of speaking.”

“I’m not sure I understand.”

“Well,” Washington said, “take my own work. I’m a bio-physicist, myself. I’ve been working on stereochemical interactions of allosteric enzymes. Very challenging.”

“I’m sure. What sort of—”

“Enzymes? Those affecting tryptophan metabolism. Effects upon thyroid, brain, and kidney…precisely the kind of multiple system situation I was describing.”

Clark said, “Can you tell me a little more about the company itself?”

“Yes. We’re a new company, just started two years ago. As you can see, we’ve grown enormously in that period. Advance has a total staff of 207, including fifty secretaries. We have nine divisions, each involved in some broad question of the application of science to man. We are working in electromagnetics, enzymes, ultrasound, peripheral perception. A wide variety of fields.”

“Where do most of your contracts come from?”

“We are a private research and development firm. We make our services available to private industry. But mostly, we work for ourselves.”

“For yourselves?”

“Yes. That is to say, we exploit our own developments. To that extent, we are unique among firms of this type. But I believe that we represent the way of the future—we are the R and D team of the future. Right here, right now. We do everything: we develop, we apply, and we exploit. Do you follow me?”

“I follow you,” Clark said. In fact, he did not understand it at all.

“I’d like,” said Washington, “for you to meet with our president, if you have the time. Better than anyone else, he can tell you about Advance, and what it stands for.”

“That would be wonderful.”

“Good. I’ll try to arrange it.”

He got up from behind his desk and went to the door. “I won’t be a minute,” he said and left, shutting the door behind him.

Clark was alone.

Immediately, he got up and went around behind the desk. He was looking for the paper that Washington had been reading from; Clark’s application. But he did not find it. Indeed, behind the stack of books and pamphlets, the desk was bare.

He opened the drawer to the desk and looked inside. The first thing that he found was a small tuning fork, like the one in Sharon Wilder’s purse.

The second thing was an odd sheet of paper:

WILDER, SHARON (ALICE BLANKFURT)

INDICES:

SYLONO .443

Psycho-sexual .887

LIENO .003

Dermo-phonic .904

CRYO .342

Hyper-sthenic .887

SUMMARY: Initial work with this model reveals satisfactory assimilation of basic parameters with excellent prognosis for future interaction in K-K. There can be no doubt that—

He heard a noise outside, closed the drawer, and resumed his seat.

Dr. Washington returned. “Sorry about the delay,” he said. “Dr. Blood will see you immediately, if that is convenient.”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

He nodded to the door. “The guard will take you there.” Washington extended his hand. “Good luck, Dr. Clark. I hope you’ll be joining us.”

“Thank you,” Clark said.

Dr. Harvey Blood, president of Advance, Inc., had the largest desk Clark had ever seen. It was curved, bean-shaped, and nine feet long. The surface was brightly polished mahogany. Dr. Blood sat behind his desk, and his face was mirrored in the polish. Clark noticed that the surface was unmarred by pen, paper, or intercom.

“Well, well, well!” Dr. Blood stood, a stocky, red-faced cherub with black unruly hair. “So you’re Dr. Clark.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Sit down, Clark. Roger, is it? Let me tell you something about our company, Roger.”

Clark sat.

“I won’t give you a sales pitch, Roger. I’ll just give you the straight dope. We’re a young company, and a growing company. We’ve been in existence for less than five years, and already you can see how we’ve grown. By the end of the year, we will employ more than three hundred people.”

“Very impressive, sir.”

“It certainly is,” Blood said, with a smile. “But we’re not stopping at three hundred. We’re not stopping at three thousand. Far from it: we are going to expand indefinitely.”

“Indefinitely?”

“Yes. Look here: what’s the largest corporation in America today?”

Clark shrugged. “General Motors, I suppose.”

“Right! And what does General Motors do?”

“Makes automobiles.”

”Right again! And what is so great about making automobiles?”

“Well—”

“The answer,” Harvey Blood said, “is that there is nothing very great about automobiles. They are a terrible product. They are destroying our landscape, ruining our cities, poisoning our air. Automobiles are the curse of the modern world.”

“I suppose if you look at it—”

“I do, I do. But now I ask you: what could a corporation do, if it manufactured some product which was not destructive, ruinous, and poisonous? What limits would there be?”

“None.”

“Exactly! None. And if that corporation went even further, to the point where it manufactured positive, healthful, beautiful products and instilled the desire for them, where would it all end?”

Clark said nothing.

“You see? You see how perfect it is?”

Clark could not understand how this was related to enzymes involved in tryptophan synthesis. He said so.

“Look here,” Blood said. “We haven’t got a use for tryptophan yet. But we’re working on it. We’re developing it. That’s what we do here, develop things. We take raw, crude scientific innovation, and we produce applications for it. We innovate, we cogitate, we initiate—the three pillars of our advancing firm.” He chuckled briefly. “You see, Roger, we are specialists in putting knowledge to use. We accumulate useless information, and make it useful. We innovate, cogitate, initiate.”

“I see.”

“And we pay extremely well. I don’t know if you were told, but starting salary for a person of your qualifications is 49,500 dollars.”

“Very reasonable.”

“A well-paid employee is a happy employee, Roger.”

“Yes.”

“I won’t beat around the bush, Roger. You’re thinking of working in our biochemical division, testing drugs. That is one of the most exciting divisions we have. Our people are engaged in testing and applying new compounds in ways previously undreamed of. We are working on the frontiers of research.”

It occurred to Clark that he still had remarkably little idea about the company, and the job they were offering him.