FanStory.com - The Devil Fights Back by Jim Wile

FanStory.com
"The Devil Fights Back"

Chapter 1
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 1

By Jim Wile

Note to readers: This story is a sequel to my previous novel, Duel with the Devil. It won’t be necessary to have read that novel to understand what happens in this one. I’m writing it with new readers in mind.

Chapter 1

Charlotte, North Carolina
October 2025

Fran

As I downed my second double Stoli on the rocks, I looked up when I heard, “Mind if I join you, hon? You look like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders.”

The author of this remark is an attractive woman in her late 50s with shoulder-length, brown hair.

“It’s that obvious, huh?”

I was sitting at a table by myself in the bar of the Westin Alexandria hotel. I gestured to the seat across from me. She set her drink down, sat, extended her hand, and said, “Dana Padgett.”

“Nice to meet you, Dana,” I said, shaking her hand. “Fran Pekarsky.”

“Husband trouble?” she said, probably having noticed my wedding ring.

“No, nothing like that. He’s a rock. This is job-related.”

“What do you do, Fran?”

“I’m an IT security consultant.” This is a lie. I’m really an FBI field agent, but there are strict rules about divulging that information. In short, you don’t in casual conversation. And, of course, you never divulge anything about the work you are doing unless it is already public knowledge.

“So let me guess,” said Dana. “There’s some sort of computer virus wreaking havoc at some company, and you’re having trouble discovering its source?”

She’s amazingly close to the real problem—in theory, if not in practice. “Have you ever heard of kudzu, Dana?”

“Kudzu? Like the plant?”

“Exactly. Kudzu was brought to the United States in the late 1800s by a man named Frank N. Meyer. I believe a more fitting last name for him would have been Stein because of the monster he inadvertently created. He discovered it on his travels to Asia and brought samples back with him. People believed this fast-growing vine would be the perfect solution to prevent soil erosion. They also admired it for its attractive foliage and thought it would make a good ornamental vine. What poor Frank didn’t know was that this vine was pernicious and grew like a weed, taking over everything in its path and crowding out other species.”

“So, you’re faced with something spreading like kudzu, and you don’t know how to stop it.” She stated this as a fact, not as a question.

“Yep.”

“What’s the standard protocol in a case like that?”

“Find the bastard responsible and find out how he did it.”

“So how do you go about finding this bastard who’s responsible for spreading the ‘kudzu?’” she said, using air quotes.

“I have my suspicions, but that’s all they are at this point. I’ve got to figure out a way to confirm them. But that’s enough about me. How about you, Dana? What do you do?”

“I’m the assistant marketing director for Newman-Price Pharmaceuticals. I supervise all those pretty young things who advertise and sell our products to doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies.”

A little sexist perhaps to describe her pharma reps that way, but this gave me a clue about her personality. She seems like an unfiltered sort, the kind I actually admire in the politically correct environment of today.

This is something of a coincidence, though. Of all the fields she may have been in, it’s the one most closely related to my current problem. Strange! This triggered a thought that was only tangentially related to my mission and would be okay to discuss with her.

“Let me ask you: What do you know about a new painkiller that’s been discovered called Glyptophan? It’s supposedly non-addictive and promises to replace opioids. It’s just completed phase-1 human trials now.”

“I don’t know too much about the science behind it; that’s a little above my pay grade. But I do know that, if successful, it stands to put a major dent in my company’s business, as well as several other major pharma companies. Opioid painkillers are a big part of what we produce, and although we’ve been working on a drug like this because of all the problems with opioids, we are nowhere close to developing something like Glyptophan. The inventor is not too popular with us right about now. How do you happen to know about it?”

I didn’t want to divulge that it was my own brother who invented this drug. I was certainly proud of him and didn’t mind sharing this fact with most people, but she had just told me it stood to put a big crimp in her company’s business, and it just didn’t seem appropriate to go bragging to her about my brother.

I questioned her about it because I’d heard rumblings that Big Pharma was not at all pleased, and I wanted to get it right from the horse’s mouth. I suspect there might be some trouble bringing it to market and that there will undoubtedly be major efforts expended to discredit it.

In answer to her question of how I knew about it, I said, “I just happened to read an article online and wondered if it was the real deal.”

“Well, if it is, it will be one of the most sought-after drugs in existence. I only wish our company had gotten the license to manufacture it if it proves successful. I believe some small company here in North Carolina got it. Lucky bastards.”

Yes, indeed. If successful, the drug should be worth billions to them.

The conversation lightened considerably after that, and we discussed things such as our husbands and their foibles. My husband, Mike, is a Homeland Security agent, so I was not at liberty to disclose that either, and said he was a lineman for Duke Energy. That’s the story he’d told me when we first met. I did, however, admit to his propensity for talking with his hands and getting very loud when he’s excited about a topic.

Dana is married to an investment banker who is a wine snob and, she said, makes the greatest show of ordering and tasting an expensive wine whenever they go out. To rub it in, she will often order a glass of the cheapest wine on the menu, just to watch his reaction.

Neither of us have kids. I am 40 years old and a little past my prime in that department, and Mike’s and my careers just weren’t conducive to raising a family.

I’m content to be an aunt, for that’s what I recently became since my brother Brian and my sister-in-law Julia, who we call Jules, gave birth to a baby boy in January. Johnny is now nine months old.

By the third double Stoli, I was finally feeling relaxed, which is something I haven’t felt since my troubles at work began. Dana and I told a few jokes, and the conversation was perfect to help relieve the funk I had been in.

“You know, Dana, this has been great meeting you. Thank you for stopping by and helping me take my mind off myself for a while.”

“I think the Stoli might have had more to do with it than meeting me, but I’ll accept your thanks. It was great meeting you too, Fran. Let me give you my business card. If you’d like to get together again, it has my phone number on it. I’ll be staying here another couple of days while my husband attends a conference.”

“I’ll give you mine too,” I said, as I dug a bogus one out of my purse. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

We said goodbye, and I left her there in the bar before taking the elevator back to my room on the eighth floor.

As soon as I got back to my room, the fatigue hit me. This has been a rough week full of surprises and thoughts that plague me. I undressed and stepped into the shower.

As the warm water cascaded over me, I tried to clear my mind by thinking of Dana and some of her funny stories. She’s a bit irreverent and sarcastic, but at the same time self-deprecating. She may strike some people as caustic and not afraid to say what she’s thinking, but I liked her honesty and sense of humor. I sensed a certain vulnerability about her too, as if when she was younger, she was hot stuff but had been taken down a peg or two by events in her life. Despite our age difference, I think I’ll definitely call her tomorrow. She was interesting and fun to talk to.

I stepped out of the shower, dried off, and wrapped my dirty blonde hair, which was just beginning to show a few grays, in a towel and began my fairly brief nighttime routine. I’m a big woman, and my looks are unremarkable. I’m extremely fit, though, which is essential for my job.

I was once a sheriff’s deputy, then a detective back in my home county in central North Carolina. Twelve years ago, I completed my college degree and joined the FBI. I’ve been a field agent in the Charlotte, NC branch ever since—until a few days ago when I was suspended.

Although physically tired, my mind wasn’t ready yet to give in to sleep, and, as I lay down on the bed, I began replaying the scene that gave rise to my suspension.

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of a new non-addictive painkiller.

Chapter 2
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 2

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 1: Fran Pekarsky, an FBI field agent, finds solace in a bar in Charlotte, North Carolina. Dana Padgett, an older woman, joins Fran at her table because she appears to need some companionship. They get to discussing their jobs, although Fran must lie about her real job, claiming to be an IT security consultant. In couched terms, she describes an event that is spreading like kudzu that is troubling her.

Dana is the assistant marketing director of a Big Pharma company. Fran asks her about a new opioid-like painkiller that is non-addictive and is currently being tested, and Dana tells her this new drug, if successful, would put a big dent in her company’s profits. Fran doesn’t reveal that the drug, called Glyptophan, was invented by her brother.

Later, back in her room, Fran muses about what’s troubling her, and we learn she’s been suspended from the FBI.

Chapter 2

Fran

It had been a typical Monday, and I was at my desk, researching a known link to a Mexican cartel responsible for smuggling fentanyl into the country, when my boss, whose name is Lou D’Onofrio, entered my office and said, “Francine, please follow me.”

I was leery of his tone. He was one of the few people who addresses me as Francine. To most, I’m just Fran, or Agent Pekarsky, or, to some old timers, Agent Fuckup.

This endearing moniker was given to me by my first partner on an assignment when I was a boot right out of Quantico. It wasn’t because I was known for fucking up, but rather because my initials are FKP for Francine Kendrick Pekarsky.

In fact, if anyone was a fuckup, it was him, the chauvinist asshole. Unfortunately, he called me that in front of others, and the name stuck for a while until the time I saved his ass in a gunfight, and everyone knew it. Although I’m rarely called that anymore, there are still a few old timers who do, but it’s more from affection now. They know what a competent agent I am. I’ve proven it enough times, and I no longer take offense to it.

I followed Lou to his office, and seated there at a conference table were two agents from the Inspection Division, whom I had previously seen from their occasional visits to the branch. The Inspection Division of the FBI is the equivalent of Internal Affairs in a police department. I don’t know these agents’ names, but they always come together, and some wit in the department began calling them Thing-1 and Thing-2.

Lou sat down next to them and gestured for me to take a seat opposite the three of them. My pulse quickened. I had no idea what this was about, but the stern expressions on their faces were not a good sign.

Thing-1 began. “A new opioid has recently been found on the streets of eight major US cities. It goes by the name of Dipraxa, or just Dip for short. It’s a pill.”

I was stunned by this revelation. My heart began pounding now, and my throat dried suddenly at this news.

Thing-2 continued, “Six months ago, you provided the FBI with a drug, also called Dipraxa, to use on a captive who subsequently gave up information that led to the quashing of a major weapons sale. Could you tell us how that came about?”

I looked inquiringly at Lou. This information was highly classified and not to be shared, even with the Inspection Division, unless they were authorized to hear it.

Lou said, “I’ve seen the authorization to divulge this information. You are to answer their questions.”

I asked to get a glass of water before beginning. This was to give my heart a moment to slow and to add a little moisture back to my throat.

Once seated again, I began. “You are correct. I had been assigned to a special task force to try to coerce this information from the captive, but our methods to date had proven ineffective since the rules of enhanced interrogation had become so stringent. Torture was off the table, but I had a sudden brainstorm at a meeting of this team, and I informed the attendees that I knew of a substance that could be more carrot than stick and that could get him to talk.”

I took another sip of water and continued.

“The idea was that we would give him a newly developed opioid that was extremely addictive because of the immense euphoria it induces. Once he was addicted, we would withhold it, and he would give up the information we sought to be provided with more of the drug. It was that pleasurable and addictive.”

Thing-1 looked puzzled. “Granted, it would cause pleasure, not pain, but wouldn’t withholding it cause withdrawal symptoms that would be considered torture? How did that ever pass the smell test?”

“The drug is psychologically addictive but not physically addictive. There are no physical withdrawal symptoms when you stop taking it. You will mentally crave it, but that soon passes and leaves no permanent psychological scars.”

“How did you know about this drug, Agent Pekarsky?” asked Thing-2.

This drug, Dipraxa, with the same name as the one now found on the streets of major cities, was the precursor of Glyptophan, the one Dana and I had been discussing that has just completed phase-1 human trials.

“My younger brother, Brian Kendrick, invented it at home in his own laboratory. He didn’t start out intending to invent the ultimate opioid. He is a neuroscientist who suffered from chronic back pain due to an injury he sustained in a car accident when he was 16. He became addicted to OxyContin that was prescribed to him. In the next few years, he suffered two overdoses and nearly died both times.

“Thereafter, it became a goal of his to study biochemistry in college and learn enough to create a non-addictive painkiller. Dipraxa was the result. He tested it on himself, and it worked perfectly until it didn’t. At the correct dosage, it cured his pain without producing any euphoria—the thing that makes opioids so highly addictive.

“But one day, he accidentally took a double dose, which passed a threshold, and suddenly, he experienced the greatest euphoria he had ever felt, even on high doses of Oxy. It’s probably the most powerful psychologically addictive drug ever invented, and it turned him into a zombie. Once he began taking it, that’s all he wanted to do, and it was nearly impossible to stop. I say nearly, because he was able to quit with the help of his gem of a wife.

“Once he overcame the addiction, he figured out the problem with it and created version two—Glyptophan—which solved the euphoria and subsequent addiction problems, making it a highly potent pure analgesic that can target specific chronic pain such as back pain. That drug is currently undergoing human trials.”

Thing-1 said, “How did you convince your brother to give you some of the original drug, Dipraxa, without breaking confidentiality and telling him why you needed it?”

“I couldn’t at first. He wouldn’t give me any unless he knew what I wanted it for, and I wasn’t willing to tell him the reason.”

Lou broke in, “We received the necessary authorization to share the reason for it with Brian. Agent Pekarsky did everything by the book.”

I continued, “Only the team of agents assigned to the case and my brother knew about the decision to use Dipraxa, and I became the interrogator of the captive. It worked perfectly. We were able to extract the necessary information, which enabled us to catch the bad guys and prevent the weapons sale.”

No one else was ever supposed to know about this drug and what it was capable of. I even warned Brian once that if it got out to the general population, it would spell doom for mankind. He is an extremely disciplined and conscientious individual, and it nearly ruined him. Imagine what it would do to someone less motivated than him.

I knew what was about to happen now.

Thing-2 said, “Agent Pekarsky, our forensics lab has verified that the street drug Dipraxa is the exact same formulation as what you and your brother provided to the FBI. This drug is so widespread that we can only conclude a major producer has the formula. It’s beyond the scope of what your brother could produce in his home lab.”

Lou said, “Agent Pekarsky, I’m suspending you pending an investigation into how this happened. You are not to become involved in this investigation in any way. You will now turn over your firearm and credentials to me.”

I had known this was coming as soon as I heard that a drug called Dipraxa had been found on the street, and I set my gun and credentials on the table. “Sir, I understand the need for this, but let me assure you, my brother and I had nothing to do with it. I wish you would let me help investigate.”

Lou softened a little. “Look, Fran, you’ve worked for me for a number of years now, and you’ve proven your merit time and time again, but surely you understand the conflict of interest involved if you were assigned to investigate. You cannot be involved in this. I can’t emphasize that enough. This will be a paid suspension of indeterminate length. You are still employed as an FBI agent and still bound by all the rules and regulations pertaining to your position. Are we clear about this?”

“Yes, sir.”

So, what am I going to do with my time now, just days after that meeting where I was suspended? Why, investigate, of course.

Chapter 3
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 3

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 2: Back in her hotel room after meeting Dana in the bar, Fran thinks back on her suspension from the FBI: She is summoned by her boss, Lou D’Onofrio, to his office, where two agents from the Inspection Division are there to question her. They tell her a new opioid-like drug called Dipraxa has hit the streets of eight US cities. Fran is shocked because this was never supposed to get out. She explains to the agents that she was part of a task force that used this drug to elicit information from a captive. It was invented by her brother and is highly addictive. It was the precursor to Glyptophan that Fran had discussed with Dana, and Glyptophan had solved the euphoria and addiction problems that Dipraxa has.

Lou suspends her pending an investigation as to how it got out. He tells her she must not involve herself in the investigation due to conflict of interest. The chapter ends as Fran decides to investigate anyway.

Chapter 3

Marie

“For Christ’s sake, Corinne! No vibrato here in measure 20. This is a baroque piece. Just straight tones.”

“I’m sorry, Dr. Schmidt. I just forgot.”

Did I detect a slight smirk on her face? No respect from these young ones. “And drop the ‘Dr. Schmidt.’ It’s just Marie. We’re not so formal here in these rehearsals.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Smartass. She does it to needle me.

I’m the principal second violin of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. That means I’m the leader of the second violin section. Big fucking deal! I should be a first violin. In fact, I should be the concertmaster because I’m better than that old fart. But he’s held the job for the last hundred years or so and plans to drop dead before he’ll ever retire.

That’s the thing about musicians in a major orchestra. Once you receive tenure after about three years of probation, you’ve pretty much got the job forever unless you really start screwing up.

It’s not like it was in high school where you could challenge someone for their chair. Auditions for chair placements are periodically held, but that’s only within the section, so there’s no way for me to become a first violin, no less concertmaster, unless a specific position opens in that section.

In the 13 years I’ve been in this orchestra, there have been only three retirements among the first violins. I auditioned each time for the positions but got beat out. They’re supposed to be blind auditions, meaning they can’t see you while you’re playing, but I’m convinced they know who’s playing, and that’s what’s holding me back. They don’t like me. Well, screw ‘em. I still make decent money, and I get to command these idiots in my section.

“Alright, folks, let’s take it again from measure 16, and no vibrato this time.”

When the section rehearsal was over, we were done for the day, and I headed back to my upper west side apartment just a few blocks from Lincoln Center, where we play. As I approached my apartment building, our new doorman saw me coming and opened the door for me.

“Good afternoon, Ms. Schmidt.”

He’s a young fellow and has only been employed here for a week or so. “It’s Dr. Schmidt, as I’ve told you before.”

“Oh, that’s right. Sorry. So, what kind of doctor are you? No, let me guess—pediatrician?”

He must be joking. Another smartass. “Does this look like a doctor’s bag?” I said, pointing to my violin case. “I have a doctorate in music. I’m a musician in the New York Philharmonic.”

“So, what do you play? No, let me guess. I’d say… you’re the tuba player.”

That’s actually amusing, considering what I’m carrying. I’m quite small and slender too. I don’t think I could even lift a tuba. I know he’s joking. I think I like this kid.

“Uh, close. I play the violin.”

“Darn. That was my second choice.”

“I’m sure it was, Cecil.”

“It’s Cedric, ma’am.”

“Whatever.”

I waited what seemed like ages for the elevator to my apartment on the tenth floor. I began punching the button again after a minute. I know it doesn’t do any good, but it feels good to do it. So does cursing at it. When it finally arrived, I stepped in, and naturally, it took forever for the door to close again. I started hitting the door-close button, and nothing happened. I realized I’d been hitting the door-open button by mistake. Can’t they use better symbols on these damn buttons? Finally, it closed and started up.

Once inside my apartment, I headed right to the liquor cabinet and made myself a martini. Very dry. I downed it fairly quickly and made another.

While I was pouring the second one, my cell phone rang. It was an unfamiliar number that said the call was from North Carolina. This was October of an off-year election year. I got the occasional political call, but nothing like last year, so I decided to answer it.

“Hello?”

“Hello, Mother. It’s Julia.”

I was silent. What do you say right off to your daughter, whom you haven’t spoken to in 13 years? Oh, I’ve kept up with her a little from afar, but I haven’t seen her in person nor communicated with her in any way since that one afternoon in 2011 when she was a sophomore at Juilliard.

At the time, the bad feelings had been building for a while between us, and we finally had it out that afternoon. She cursed me and stormed out with her drug addict boyfriend, and that was that.

I’ve had years to brood about it, and I still feel justified in what I said to her. She was throwing her life and talent away with that boy. She was a drug addict herself, and I could just picture the two of them bringing each other to ruin together. She was so talented and deserved much better.

I had trained her in the violin since she was three years old. She was superb—a more natural and gifted player than even me, although I never told her that.

And this boy was corrupting her. Why, he even took her bowling, and she smashed her finger right before her audition for Juilliard. I mean, really. Bowling?

My husband and I divorced about a year later, and we’ve occasionally talked in the intervening years. He fills me in on what she’s been up to. Plus, I’ve heard about her enough through my job—enough to know that she’s doing alright for herself.

I’ve occasionally been tempted to pick up the phone and call her, but those hateful words at our parting have always held me back. And she’s never called me either… until now.

“Hello, Julia. Is it your father?”

“No. He’s fine. Mother, I want to invite you to the christening of Brian’s and my baby son, John. Your grandson. He’s nine months old now.”

I haven’t spoken to her father in over a year, so this I hadn’t heard about. I knew she married that boy, Brian Kendrick, and they were living in Charlotte, but this was news that I’d become a grandmother.

I didn’t know what I was feeling right now. God, I needed another martini!

“Mother, I’ve thought about our last time together often over the years, and I think maybe it’s finally time to try to get past it. There’ve been some major changes in Brian’s and my life lately, and I’m ready to put aside the differences you and I had. I think you might enjoy getting to know your grandson too.”

“When is it?”

“It will be on Sunday, November 9—about two weeks from now. I checked the schedule of the New York Philharmonic, and there’s nothing going on then. I hope you can come.”

Would I go? Should I go? I don’t know yet.

“No promises, but text me your address in case I can make it.”

“I will. I really hope you decide to come, Mother.”

“We’ll see.”

Chapter 4
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 4

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 3: We meet our third main character, Dr. Marie Schmidt, who is a violinist in the NY Philharmonic Orchestra. She is a snob, crude and impatient, and a thoroughly unlikable person. Following a section rehearsal, she returns to her upper west side apartment, where she receives a phone call from her estranged daughter, Julia. They haven’t seen or spoken to each other in 13 years following a falling-out they had when Julia was a college sophomore.

Julia is married to Brian Kendrick, who is Fran’s brother, and now has a nine-month-old baby who will be christened in two weeks. Julia extends an invitation to Marie to attend the christening and to try to mend their relationship. Marie is unsure if she will attend but asks Julia to text her her address in case she does.

Chapter 4

Fran

Sleep continued to elude me as I worried if I had the right guy in mind responsible for Dipraxa’s appearance on the streets. My boss, Lou, had told me to stay away from this investigation. I have great respect for him and usually follow his orders, but you don’t become a top agent without occasionally disobeying your boss. I’ve learned that it’s sometimes better to ask forgiveness than permission. Unless you’ve got a real by-the-book hardass for a boss, this can often work in your favor. Lou hasn’t come down too hard on me for this in the past because it usually has led to a break in a case.

So, when suspicion falls on me and it comes to a question of my integrity or that of my brother, I’m willing to disobey orders. Plus, I’m pretty sure I know how this release of Dipraxa to the general population might have happened. I think there’s a mole in the FBI, and I strongly suspect who it is.
Since so few knew about the decision to use Dipraxa to extract information from our captive, the most likely candidate would be from those assigned to the task force. I knew all of them from having worked various assignments with them over the years.

There were two other possible candidates who also knew about Dipraxa—the head of the Charlotte office forensics lab and a good friend of Brian’s who helped him develop the theory behind the drug. I would add them to the list of suspects if need be, but I had a much likelier candidate in mind to investigate first.

Kevin Glazer, who also worked out of the Charlotte field office and was on the task force with me, was my first choice. About a month after the successful completion of the Dipraxa op, my husband Mike and I were celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary with a special night out at Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Charlotte. We had a table by the window in front, and I was glancing out the window when I saw Kevin exit from a Porsche 911 that he’d pulled into the valet drop-off area. He was wearing what looked like a very expensive tailored suit, and he escorted a beautiful young woman into the restaurant.

Kevin was a GS-13-level agent who probably made $80k a year. He was divorced and often complained about the alimony he had to pay. Plus, he had a kid in college. He wasn’t rich by any means, and what I observed was incongruous. The Porsche 911 is a $100k car. But maybe he had recently come into an inheritance. Or perhaps he had even borrowed the Porsche and the suit from a friend to impress the woman. I didn’t give it any further thought at the time, but a few days ago, while thinking about possible suspects, this event came back to me.

Kevin was smart enough not to drive the Porsche to work or wear his fancy suit, but five months later, I now had my suspicions about him. Plus, I never particularly liked him nor had much respect for him as an agent. He was sloppy and lazy. Not that that would make him guilty of passing classified secrets, but I couldn’t think of a more likely candidate on the task force than he.

Although I had some computer skills, I needed the help of an expert to confirm my suspicions. I certainly couldn’t ask anyone at my office for help, so I thought of a friend of mine, Patty Mattson, who I’d originally met at college. As it turns out, she is a real IT security consultant, like the kind I told Dana Padgett I was.

We see each other often, and she knows I’m an FBI agent. I remember well the conversation I had with her over lunch just a few days ago because it struck me what a loyal friend she is.

“Patty, I’m in trouble at work. I can’t tell you the details, but I’ve been suspended pending an investigation. I can’t just sit around, so I’m investigating on my own, although I’ve been forbidden to do so. I have a strong suspicion who’s responsible, but I need help proving it and clearing my name of any culpability.”

Patty is an attractive blonde, who is a southern belle type. Her looks and her strong yet endearing accent belie her extraordinary hacking skills. She’s certainly not the stereotypical image of a speed-typing, socially inept, computer geek you see in movies. She is deliberate and genteel and very sweet.

“Ah’m so sorry to hear about your troubles, sweetie. What can ah do to help you? You know ah will if ah can.”

“It’s nothing you haven’t done many times before, and with your skills, I’m sure you can do it anonymously. I don’t need you to hack into any secure government databases or anything like that; I just need someone’s private cell phone call log from their cellular company.”

“We’ll get this figured out. Don’t you worry. We’ll just go back to ma office after lunch and get you what you need.”

I was on edge, but we had a pleasant lunch together. Later, back at her office, I gave her the name Kevin Glazer, and she was able to produce the list I needed, complete with the names and addresses of the other parties, within 10 minutes. She’s incredible.

“Thank you so much, Patty. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this. You’re an amazing friend.”

“Oh, sweetie, bless your heart. This was nothing. Don’t trouble yourself about it. Ah just hope you find what you need from it to clear yourself. You let me know if you need anything else.”

That evening, just three nights ago, I found what I needed to confirm my suspicions. I was looking for an incoming call from a northern Virginia area code shortly after the conclusion of the task force. Sure enough, there was a call from a Brittany Edwards of Springfield, Virginia about two weeks later.

I looked Brittany up on social media and found out that she worked at the US Patent and Trademark Office, or the USPTO, whose central headquarters was in Alexandria, Virginia, just a short commute from Springfield, where Brittany lived. This is exactly what I was hoping to find because, from talking with my brother, I was positive the patent office was the only other reasonable entity that knew about Dipraxa.

Brian had originally filed a composition of matter patent with the USPTO for Dipraxa after his initial testing of it. This was before he had begun testing it on himself. Once he realized how harmful it was, he rescinded the patent, but that wouldn’t erase it from their database.

My guess is that Kevin Glazer figured out there might be a patent for it. He either already had a contact in the USPTO named Brittany Edwards, or he made her acquaintance with the intention of using her to get him a copy of the Dipraxa file. From the information I had given the task force, he knew the name of the drug and that my brother, Brian Kendrick, invented it. This much would enable Brittany to locate the patent file.

But Kevin made a serious mistake. He should have had Brittany call him on a burner phone instead of his regular phone, but he was far from the sharpest knife in the drawer, and he was sloppy, as I said before.

Then again, I might have been totally wrong about him. It wasn’t conclusive proof by any means. Britanny might have been an old friend or girlfriend who just happened to live near Alexandria, but my instincts told me no. The fact that she worked at the USPTO is what clinched it for me. It’s what I was hoping to find, but to prove that it wasn’t just confirmation bias, what I really needed was direct evidence of the crime.

I had a basic plan for tomorrow, but it would be risky, and I might not even find what I’d be looking for. The uncertainties behind the plan were what kept me awake, and I continued going over the details in my mind until I eventually drifted off.

Chapter 5
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 5

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 4: Fran decides to ignore her boss’s orders and begins to investigate on her own. She has a theory of the case and visits her friend Patty, a computer expert and hacker, who provides her with a list of phone calls for Fran’s chief suspect, Kevin Glazer.

Fran discovers a call to Kevin from a woman named Brittany who works at the US patent office, which confirms Fran’s suspicion that that’s how the secret of Dipraxa had gotten out—from Brian’s initial patent on it. Fran surmises that Brittany copied Brian’s patent file and gave it to Kevin for money. Kevin probably then sold the secret to an interested buyer. Now she must come up with a plan to prove it.

Chapter 5

Dana

When Fran Pekarsky left the bar, I decided to have one more drink before leaving myself. I signaled to the waitress for another cosmo. It would be my fourth. I needed to be a little drunk to be in the mood for the return of my likely randy husband in an hour or so. He was out with some of his friends from the conference this evening, probably at some titty bar where he’d be getting himself worked up for later.

Although I’m still reasonably attractive for a 58-year-old, he looks well beyond his 60 years. His hair is thinning rapidly, and, as his hairline retracts, his belly expands. We used to have pretty good sex together, but it’s no longer a high priority with either of us most of the time. Tonight, though, will likely be an exception, at least for him, so I must prepare for the ordeal.

It was nice to spend time with another woman. I enjoyed Fran’s company and was happy I was able to help lift her mood. I’m not sure I believed her story about being an IT security consultant. She didn’t look the part at all. She was quite buff, and I could tell she was packing* from the slight bulge beneath her jacket. I notice these things because I pack myself.

None of these little cans of mace or pepper spray for me. Some guy attacks me—I plan to disable him permanently. I think she was a cop of some sort, probably a police detective, maybe even a Fed.

And that question about Glyptophan. That was out of the blue. Funny she should have mentioned it, though. I knew a fair amount more about it than I let on.

My company, Newman-Price, is one of the five largest pharmaceutical companies in the US, but our financial picture isn’t so good right now. In the past year, two of our biggest sellers were banned by the FDA for a string of deaths in each case. Our legal staff spent a fortune in attempting to prove these deaths were not caused by the drugs but were due to other risk factors and comorbidities in the patients who died. They may have even been right about that, but the end result was that both drugs were taken off the market.

One of our vice presidents came to the marketing department the other day and sat me and my boss down with the following announcement:

“Look, guys, there’s a new analgesic drug called Glyptophan that just passed phase-1 trials with flying colors. This drug promises to replace opioids as the number one painkiller for severe pain—both acute and chronic. We can’t let that happen. We just lost our top two sellers, and our opioid is now our number one seller. If we lose that, we’re going under.

“Now, here’s what we’re going to do: I want you to instruct your sales reps never to mention Glyptophan, but if their customers bring it up, they are to say that the side effects from the human trials were terrible and that the drug will never make it through the human trials and come to market.”

I interrupted him and said, “I read about that trial. According to the article, all 80 participants experienced tremendous pain relief, and the side effects only began at the highest range of doses. Isn’t that to be expected in the phase-1 trials of any new drug? That’s one of the main purposes of the phase-1 trials—to see what the maximum tolerable dose is.”

“Whose side are you on, Dana? I know that, and you know that, but our reps and our customers don’t need to know that. As far as they’re concerned, they just need to know there were bad side effects. That’s all I want the reps to say, capisce?”

He left then. I turned to my boss and said, “That’s awfully devious, even for him, don’t you think?”

“C’mon, Dana. That’s the only way to succeed in this business. We’ve been beaten to the punch, but we’re not going to go down without a fight.”

“That’s just—”

“Look, Dana. To quote a famous slogan: ‘Just do it.’”

I knew then that if I wanted to keep my job, I had to comply. It’s no wonder Big Pharma has the reputation it has.

When I finished my fourth drink, it was time to head up to my room. Now I finally felt numb enough to face Romeo when he returns in a little while.

Marie

After some real soul-searching, I decided I would make the trip to Charlotte to attend the christening of my grandson. What did she say his name was? John? I think that was it. How original! Probably one of the most common names there is if you include all the Juans infesting the country now. I wouldn’t mind if that orange-haired dictator in the White House kept that particular promise—to round ‘em up and send ‘em back. Not just the Juans, of course, but all of ‘em. I didn’t vote for the man, but I sure agree with that policy.

My phone pinged then, indicating a text. It was from Julia, who just sent me her address and a few details about the christening.

That’s another thing. When did she get religion? She never got it from her father and me. I’ve always been an atheist. Robert claimed to be agnostic. Must have been that drug addict husband of hers who brainwashed her. And now they’re going to fill that poor child’s head with a bunch of religious nonsense.

Look at that address too: 1441 Mauney Farm Rd. in Cherrywood, North Carolina. Where the hell is that? They must’ve moved from Charlotte. I had to look the place up on Google Maps. I opened the app, typed in the address, and switched to satellite view. Holy shit! The place is out in the boonies! Is that a barn just down the road?

I zoomed in on their address and switched to street view. I was surprised; their house is actually pretty nice for a locale like this! It looks new and modern and large. Here in New York, say, in Westchester, that house would cost around $3 million. I wonder what it’s worth down there? I know Julia makes a good income as a soloist, but this house is something else. She’s just full of surprises. Maybe that addict husband of hers is a big-time drug kingpin now.

Well, I guess I’ve made up my mind to go. My curiosity has gotten me, if nothing else.

I used to be the concertmaster of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra for a number of years before moving to New York, so I thought I knew the area pretty well. Their home isn’t too far from Charlotte, but I’ve never heard of this dinky Cherryville. Why on earth did they choose to move there?

Several days later, I texted Julia back and told her I’d be coming. I sent her the trip itinerary and told her I’d rent a car at the airport. It’s 30 miles from the airport to her house—too far for an Uber. She offered to pick me up at the airport, but I said no. I may want to visit a few old friends while there, so a rental car would be best. I planned to stay for a few days.

Julia offered to have me stay at their house, and I did take her up on that because there are no decent hotels anywhere near Cherryville.

I’ve decided I will be gracious when Julia apologizes to me for what she said 13 years ago. I guess there’s no point in carrying this on any further, and maybe it’s time for a reconciliation after all.

In two weeks, I was packed and ready to go. I planned to stay with Julia for three days—if we could last that long together.

I phoned Cedric at his desk downstairs.

“Yo, Ms. Schmidt.”

“It’s Dr. Schmidt, Cecil.”

“It’s Cedric, ma’am.”

“Whatever.”

This is a little game we play now. “Did you get me the cab like I asked last night. I’ll be down shortly.”

“Yes, ma’am. It’s waiting for you now.”

“Make sure he doesn’t leave, would you?”

“I’ll plant myself in front of it, Ms. Schmidt.”

“Thank you, Cecil.”

Author Notes * packing - a common term for carrying a concealed gun

CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Thing-1 and Thing-2: Two agents from the FBI's Inspection Division, the FBI equivalent of Internal Affairs.

Kevin Glazer: Fellow FBI agent whom Fran suspects is a mole who stole the formula for Dipraxa.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's.

Picture courtesy of Playground-v3

Chapter 6
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 6

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 5: Dana reflects on what a good time she had talking to Fran, although she suspects she isn’t an IT security consultant, but a cop or a Fed instead. She also wonders about Fran’s out-of-nowhere question about Glyptophan. We learn that Dana didn’t share all she knew about it, as she thinks back on a recent visit by a vice president of her pharmaceutical company. He had instructed her to tell her sales reps to essentially lie about it and tear it down because of the economic threat it poses to their company if successful. Dana is very conflicted about this.

We then switch to Marie who has decided to accept Julia’s invitation to the christening of her grandson, Johnny. She plans to stay with Julia and have it out about their estrangement from each other 13 years ago. She expects Julia to apologize to her for the hurtful things she said at the time, and perhaps then they can put it behind them.

Chapter 6

Fran

At 7:30 AM, I parked my car half a block down from the apartment building in downtown Charlotte, where Kevin Glazer lived. The residents parked in a lot next door, and I had already spotted his car when I drove through it a few minutes ago. I would wait until he left for work before going up to his apartment and breaking in.

Brittany Edwards, who worked at the patent office, had made a number of calls in the intervening months since that first time, so I figured this was now a routine thing. She was probably stealing patent info regularly for Kevin, and he would need a secure way to get it to his accomplice wherever that might be.

I was hoping to find a satellite phone in his apartment, with which he would receive his instructions and send his stolen data. Satellite phone calls are capable of being highly encrypted and are much more secure than cellular calls. I was also hoping to find the Dipraxa files somewhere on his computer.

Fortunately, I didn’t have too long to wait for Kevin to leave for work, and I observed his car drive out of the lot a few minutes after 8:00. I was wearing a jacket that advertised an appliance repair company, and I carried a toolbox, pretending to be there to repair an appliance, should anyone see me in the hall in front of the door to his apartment. I also brought a laptop with me that I’d secreted beneath my jacket.

I had a set of lockpicks in the toolbox and was able to pick the lock and let myself in within just a few minutes. I was interrupted twice by residents leaving for work, but when I would hear a door open, I simply stopped working on the lock and would knock on the door as if there for a repair.

Once inside, I looked around the apartment. It was huge. Beautifully furnished, with an industrial feel to it, it was definitely a high-end, man’s apartment. It had a home theater with expensive electronics and even a golf simulator in one corner.

I found his home office with his desktop computer, and, searching through the desk, I found what I was looking for—a sat phone. I was immensely relieved.

I needed to access the call log on the phone, and I used the laptop to download it via a USB cable. I had brought a variety of USB cable types with me for this reason. I found the right one, made the connection, and performed the transfer.

Next, I needed to copy the contents of his computer’s hard drive or SSD drive to my laptop to see if Patty and I could locate the Dipraxa files. That would be the most incriminating evidence I could find.

Copying the contents of his storage device would entail breaking into his computer. Fortunately, it was an older one that didn’t use biometric authentication such as fingerprinting, face, or voice recognition; it simply needed a 4-digit PIN to gain access. This could be anything, but Kevin was 60 and old-school and probably used the same PIN for everything.

I looked through his desk for a list or file of login information. Sure enough, in his bottom desk drawer, I found a card file containing user IDs and passwords for a number of websites. There was nothing written down for the computer itself, but after looking at a few of the cards in the file, I detected a pattern he sometimes used to generate passwords.

He would take the company name, capitalizing the first character, append a 4-digit number (the same number on every one—probably the PIN number he uses for everything), and then a special character—either an exclamation point or a question mark—to complete the password. For example: Amazon4178! Not a bad way, really, to help you remember passwords, though certainly not very secure.

I was sure the 4-digit number would be the one he used to unlock his computer. I entered 4178 and voila; I was in. Oh, Kevin, I thought, shaking my head.

I used a different USB cable to connect his computer to mine and initiated the file transfer from his SSD drive. This took some time. Meanwhile, I traipsed around the apartment. He had some expensive stuff. His home theater contained a state-of-the-art 80-inch QLED TV and some very sophisticated-looking sound equipment. His Scandinavian-style furniture looked new and very modern. Kevin obviously had money now, very likely from the sale of the Dipraxa files to a buyer from who knows where? Hopefully, the sat phone data would reveal that.

The data file transfer to my laptop was done in 20 minutes, so I packed everything up, put the sat phone back where I found it, and headed out.

This had been much easier than I anticipated—not worth all the worrying I did about it. I still needed to verify that the proof was now on my laptop, and I would need Patty Mattson’s help. This would be enough to take to Lou D’Onofrio. It would clear my name from suspicion and Brian’s too, and it would end my suspension. I would let Lou deal with the legal ramifications of how I got the incriminating data and let him worry about nailing Kevin.

When I paid Patty another visit to help me determine what I had, I had to fill her in on a few details about my activities today. She was able to find files containing the name Dipraxa in an encrypted folder. We looked at a few of them, and it became clear this was part of the patent package Brian had sent to the USPTO when he filed his patent. Perfecto!

She was also able to view the call log from the sat phone. There were not that many calls on it, and as a result of its infrequent use, the log went as far back as the end of the task force where Dipraxa was used. The calls began a couple weeks later. Due to the encryption, Patty couldn’t decipher the specific numbers the calls were from and to, but she could determine that the source and destination were somewhere in China. A heavy weight settled on my chest with this news.

China is the world’s leading producer of illegal drugs like fentanyl. China is also our number one enemy. The drugs they produce are smuggled from there into Mexico and then to the US. This is what I now believe was happening with Dipraxa.

“Patty, I can’t thank you enough for assisting me in this. You’ve just helped me and Brian protect our good names and probably saved our careers.”

“Oh, Sweetie, what are friends for? Ah’m glad ah was able to help you find what you were looking for. Ah couldn’t bear their thinking you were complicit in this. Or Brian either. Now you go and nail that guy who’s the real culprit.”

“I’ll be bringing this to my boss tomorrow and hopefully get my gun and creds back. Couldn’t have done it without you, my dear.”

“Oh, bless your heart.”

I gave her a hug, and we said goodbye.

I called Lou when I got back to the hotel after leaving Patty’s office.

“Lou, I’ve got the proof that exonerates me and my brother and nails the guy responsible.”

“Oh yeah? What took you so long?”

I was speechless for a moment.

“Francine, I knew you would jump right on it. I don’t know why I bother giving you orders; you never obey them.”

“Well, occasionally I’ve been known to—”

“It’s more than occasionally, but we don’t need to quibble about that right now. Do you have physical proof?”

“More like digital proof.”

“Who was it?”

“Kevin Glazer.”

Lou paused for a few beats. “I guess I’m not that surprised. He’s certainly a more likely candidate than you. Alright, bring it in tomorrow at 9:00, and I’ll take a look at it.”

“Thanks, Lou. I think we have a bigger problem, though, but we can discuss it when I see you tomorrow.”

“Tell me now.”

“You’ve seen how psychologically addictive Dipraxa can be from when we used it on our captive. It was the same for my brother when he experimented on himself. The problem is that Kevin sold the Dipraxa patent information to China—our number one enemy in the world. I think this has now become a matter of national security. I’m sure their intent is to spread this as widely as possible among our population. As addictive and disabling as it is, this country will eventually come to a complete standstill as a large portion of the population will be in complete thrall to this drug. The euphoria it produces, as described to me by Brian, is like no other and borders on feeling like a non-stop orgasm. Not quite as intense, but somewhat. I think this would spell the end of the US.”

“We’re in deep shit, aren’t we? Alright, we’ll discuss this further tomorrow. I think we’ll get central headquarters in on this as well, and you can define the problem to them. Francine, good work. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

When I got off the phone with Lou, I realized I had dodged a bullet. It’s a good thing I found the incriminating evidence, or this suspension might have become permanent. Finally relaxed about my immediate situation, though not so much about the long-term implications, I decided to give Dana Padgett a call as I told her I would yesterday.

We agreed to meet for dinner in the restaurant at 7:00. It was 4:30 now, and I was beat. I hadn’t slept much last night for worrying, and it caught up with me. I decided to nap for a couple of hours back at the hotel.

Mike is away on a mission now, and the only reason I’m staying at a hotel since I live here in Charlotte is because my hardwood floors are currently being refinished, and I had to remain out of the house for at least 48 hours. I’ll be checking out and going back home tomorrow, but I’m happy to have met Dana through this experience and look forward to meeting her again for dinner. Who knows? I might even find out a little more about Big Pharma’s plans concerning Glyptophan.

Chapter 7
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 7

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 6: Fran breaks into Kevin Glazer’s apartment to try to find evidence of his malfeasance. She discovers a satellite phone that she suspects he’s been using to send and receive calls from a buyer for not only the Dipraxa formula but other patents he has stolen with Brittany Edwards’s help at the patent office.

Fran downloads the sat phone call log and Kevin's computer data to her laptop, which she brings to her hacker friend, Patty Mattson, to see what they can discover. Patty helps her find the Dipraxa data on the computer in an encrypted folder and also finds out from the sat phone call log that the calls were to and from China.

Fran calls her boss, Lou, at the FBI and tells him she’s found the culprit, but she also reveals that they have a bigger problem now because the Chinese are the ones responsible. She agrees to meet Lou to discuss everything the next day.

Chapter 7

Dana

A few minutes past 7:00, I spotted Fran as she entered the restaurant and waved her over to the table. She was smiling. She’s rather large and no raving beauty, but she was attractive tonight, wearing a fashionable sage-colored dress with low heels. She wore a little makeup too.

“You look like a different person tonight, Fran. Did you catch your kudzu planter?”

“I caught him alright. Now I just have to figure out a way to stop the kudzu from spreading. But one step at a time.”

“That’s the ticket.”

Our waitress came by and took our drink orders, and we ordered some bruschetta to share for an appetizer.

“So, where’s hubby tonight?” Fran asked me.

“He’s attending a banquet with his banker friends, or a ‘Bank-quet’ as they advertised it. They’re such a clever bunch,” I said with a smirk. “It sounded pretty boring to me, so I begged off and accepted your invitation instead.”

Fran smiled. “I’m glad you did. You were like chicken soup for the soul last night.”

When our drinks arrived, I said, “Here’s to new friends and chicken soup,” and we clinked glasses.

“You know, Fran, I wasn’t completely forthcoming about Glyptophan when we discussed it last night. I was even a little surprised when you mentioned it because it’s been weighing on my mind recently.”

“Oh? In what way?”

“It’s created a moral dilemma and has further added to some misgivings I’ve been having about my company lately.”

“How so?”

“I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but Big Pharma sort of deserves the poor reputation it has of only being concerned about the bottom line and doing whatever it takes to make it as large as possible.”

“That is the picture most people have of it. Like what sort of things?”

“Well, like spreading misinformation about a competitor’s products.”

“That’s pretty common in more than just the pharmaceutical industry. Is it different somehow when you guys do it?”

“Kind of. In our case, it can sometimes mean life and death, or, in the case of Glyptophan, it’s a quality-of-life issue.”

“Can you be more specific?”

I paused for a few seconds, weighing the matter. “I really shouldn’t discuss this with you, but you know what? Fuck it. I’ve been pretty disillusioned with them lately. I’ve even been thinking about quitting.”

“Over what?”

“Lots of things, but most lately this: I think I told you the inventor of the drug was not too popular with us because he’d beaten us to the punch by a mile with his new drug. My boss wants the pharma reps to lie about it and tell our customers, if they ask, that Glyptophan is having all kinds of problems with side effects during testing and that it’s unlikely it will ever be approved by the FDA. I’d be pretty pissed if I were that inventor and found out that was going on.”

“Oh, he fully expects that sort of thing.”

I looked at Fran quizzically. “You say that as if you know him personally.”

“I should. He’s my brother. I didn’t tell you that last night, because I didn’t want to rub it in that he had developed a drug that would likely make your company suffer financially.”

“Hmm. I wondered why you were curious about it. Now it makes sense. YOUR FRIGGIN’ BROTHER INVENTED IT! Wow, you must be proud of him. From what I’ve heard, the phase-1 trial went smashingly well, and everyone who took part had incredible pain relief.”

“It’s true. Brian’s very encouraged by it.”

“I also heard that he developed it by himself in his own home lab and that he doesn’t work for anyone. How could he afford the expense of that? Are you guys really rich?”

Fran chuckled. “I’m not, but he sure is now that he has a licensing agreement with Detry Pharmaceutical. They paid him a fortune for the right to manufacture the drug if it passes all the human trials. He just got a big bonus for a successful phase-1 trial. But they didn’t give him any money until he’d already developed the drug and the FDA approved it for testing. He built the lab in his home with the money he and his wife had saved.”

“His wife must have had a lot of faith in him. I’ll bet that made a significant dent in their savings.”

“She’s an absolute gem. Her name is Julia Kendrick. Perhaps you’ve heard of her?”

I shook my head.

“She’s a world-famous violinist who tours the globe as a soloist with big-name orchestras. Makes damn good money doing it. Of course, that’s on hold now because she became a mommy this year and will be staying home with the baby for some time.

“She’s amazing, though. About a year ago, she joined this little bluegrass band as its fiddle player. She plays the banjo too, and they have a few gigs around the state from time to time. Can you imagine that? This world-class soloist, playing fiddle in a little bluegrass band. I love her.”

“She sounds very special.”

By this time, our food had arrived. I’d ordered Chilean Sea Bass, and Fran had ordered some sort of pasta dish that looked very tasty. We both dug in, and the conversation halted for a few minutes until Fran said, “You sound like an ethical person, Dana, who’s in a job that’s leaving you very conflicted.”

I smiled and shook my head ruefully. “That certainly hasn’t always been the case. I’m what you’d call a late bloomer in the ethical department.”

“Sounds like there’s a story there.”

“It’s a long one, and if you’re interested, I can give you a few of the highlights. But it’s not pretty.”

“I’m interested.”

She did seem genuinely interested, so I began. “I live and work in Philadelphia now, but I grew up in Butler, Pennsylvania. It’s a small town near Pittsburgh with no claim to fame except that Trump nearly had his head blown off there at a campaign rally last year.

“When I was a kid, I thought I was really hot stuff. I was the queen bee who all the cool girls and boys wanted to be friends with. But we were a mean bunch, and all through school, even through high school, we picked on kids who weren’t in the in-crowd with us.

“There was this one girl I grew up with named Abby St. Claire. She was a scrawny little redhead with freckles and glasses. None of the kids in my crowd, or any crowd really, liked her. She was incredibly smart, but she was also modest about it and wasn’t a showoff. Still, we were jealous of her intelligence and never gave her a chance. We laughed at her and gossiped about her. We were real shits towards her.

“One day in seventh grade, a new kid came to school, and he befriended her. This kid stuttered, and we used to tease him unmercifully too. But they started going together.

“Then one day in ninth grade, my mother took me to an ice skating show, and there was this couple of kids who did an ice dancing routine together, and they were fantastic. The girl was beautiful, but they were wearing costumes, and I didn’t recognize them until they’d finished the routine and she removed her turban. This red hair came spilling out, and I suddenly recognized her. It was Abby and that boy who was now her boyfriend. She must have been wearing contact lenses, and she’d blossomed into a beautiful swan.

“A few weeks later, my friends and I saw them skating on a public pond where we used to skate, and I purposely bumped into her. She fell and broke her wrist, and her boyfriend laid into us. He really shamed me. After that, we left her alone.”

Fran sighed. “Well, we live and we learn.”

“Yeah, but not fast enough.” I stopped for a moment to take a few bites and collect my thoughts for the next part. “I married the captain of the football team soon after high school, but we split up a few years later. It wasn’t a good marriage, and we both cheated on each other.

“I moved to Pittsburgh and became a real estate agent. I was pretty hot in those days and used my natural assets, if you catch my drift, to get some big commissions. I was very successful at it and met my second husband that way. But he turned out to be a louse too, and that marriage lasted only a year.

“Then I moved to Philly and got another real estate job. That’s where I met my third husband. I guess third time’s a charm because we’re still together. Eventually, we moved to Altoona, PA where we joined a country club. Who do I run into there but Abby St. Claire, my childhood target? I hadn’t seen her in 20 years. She’s married with two kids and very successful as the manager of an actuarial department at an insurance company. She was also a damn good golfer. We played together, and she beat me pretty handily.

“I still hated that girl. She was good-looking, and successful, and a terrific golfer. I was good, but not as good as her.”

I stopped for a moment and said to Fran, “This is sounding pathetic, I know. It gets worse. You sure you still want to hear it?”

“Sounds like we’re coming to the good part. Please go on.”

I took a few more bites of the sea bass before it got too cold to eat.

“I happened to notice her daughter, who looked just like her as a kid, practicing on the range. She had a funny swing and wasn’t that good. Then a couple weeks later, I saw her practicing again, and her swing had transformed completely. She was now striping every shot. It was amazing. It was summer, though, and she had on long clothes that covered her body. It was weird, and I suspected something fishy.

“I followed her into the locker room, where she removed this strange-looking body suit that was under her clothes. When she was showering, I stole it from her locker and took it home. I figured this was some sort of training device that improved her swing. I tried it on and tried it out. It was amazing. The damn thing guides you through the swing electronically somehow. You just start back, and it takes over and helps you make a perfect swing.

“I signed up for the club championship and made it to the finals, where my opponent for the final day was Abby. I used the suit to play with, which is strictly against the rules of golf, but I really wanted to beat her. I ended up winning the championship, beating her by a single stroke.

“Later that night, she called me at home and told me she wanted the suit back because she’d figured out I had stolen it and was wearing it. She told me she had invented it and was still testing it because she wanted to market it. I was dumbfounded. She’d invented the damn thing! God, what could that girl not do? I couldn’t face her and left it hanging on the door for her to retrieve.

“I was devastated and brooded for three days about what a shit I’d been all my life. I’d been horrible to her all through school, and now I’d stolen her suit and used it to cheat her out of the title.

“This was a turning point in my life. I called her up and apologized for all the mistreatment I’d ever foisted upon her. We talked for over an hour, and she was gracious and wonderful. The next day we had lunch together at the club, and I told her I would admit to the cheating, give back the trophy, and resign my membership. She urged me not to do that but to keep the trophy and view it as my penance. After that, we became friends. Not close friends, but still friends.

“Since we moved to Philly, I don’t see her much anymore, but we still email occasionally. She became the three ghosts to my Scrooge and helped transform me almost overnight into a much better person. I’m no angel, but I’m a hell of a lot better than I was. I’m much happier now, and I’m forever grateful to her for that.”

I quit talking then, and Fran just smiled and gently nodded her head. “That’s quite a story, Dana. So now you’re facing a moral dilemma about working for a company whose values are at odds with your own. That’s tough. But how about this? Maybe you could help do something about it.”

“What do you mean? Like what?”

“Maybe you could keep your eyes and ears open and find out what they’re up to.”

“You mean become a whistleblower?”

“Why not? You’d be doing the country a big service that way if you could nail them doing something illegal or dangerous.”

I thought about that for a few seconds. “Hmm. Don’t just quit and ignore the problem, but do something about it. What a concept. But there could be some danger in that.”

“Could be.”

“Well, I’ll tell you what, Fran. I could use a little excitement in my life right about now. I’ll think about it. By the way, you’re not really an IT person, are you? You remind me more of a cop, or maybe a Fed.”

Fran just smiled and would neither confirm nor deny it.

Author Notes For those of you who read my novel, Some Call It Luck, which I posted in early 2023, you may remember that the story Dana tells about her past was from that novel. Abby St. Claire has been in several of my novels and is mentioned here for a reason, which we will discover later.

CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Thing-1 and Thing-2: Two agents from the FBI's Inspection Division, the FBI equivalent of Internal Affairs.

Kevin Glazer: Fellow FBI agent whom Fran suspects is a mole who stole the formula for Dipraxa.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's.

Brittany Edwards: Kevin Glazer's contact at the patent office where she is stealing secrets for him.

Chapter 8
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 8

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 7: Dana meets Fran for dinner and confesses to Fran that she wasn’t completely forthcoming about her knowledge of Glyptophan. She tells Fran that her company’s actions towards it are creating a moral dilemma for her because she can see the value of it, yet her company wants to smear it. She’s impressed to find out that Fran’s brother invented Glyptophan.

Dana then relates to Fran that she didn’t always have such morals and gives her the story of her youth in which she was a bully, especially towards a girl named Abby St. Clair whose intelligence she was jealous of. She relates how many years later she ran into Abby again at a country club where they were both members. Dana had stolen a unique invention that, unbeknownst to her, Abby had made—a golf suit training aid that Dana subsequently used to beat Abby in the club championship. Abby figured this out and demanded the suit back. Dana confesses that this was a turning point in her life, and thereafter began a process of reformation. She and Abby are now friends.

The chapter ends as Fran suggests to Dana that, rather than complain about her company’s smear campaign and other unethical and possibly illegal activities, she might consider becoming a whistleblower. Dana says she will think about it and also confronts Fran with her suspicions that she’s really a cop or a fed.

Chapter 8

Marie

The cab dropped me off at LaGuardia Airport at 9:00 AM. I hurried inside because it was fucking freezing this morning. My flight would depart at 10:20 and arrive in Charlotte at 12:15. I should have plenty of time to rent a car and get to Julia’s house, or, if running a little late, to the church by 2:00 PM for the christening.

My first hint of trouble came while sitting at the gate waiting to board the plane. The attendant at the desk announced that due to the unusually cold temperature this November morning, it would be necessary to de-ice the plane, and the flight would be delayed by 20 minutes.

Not a huge deal because I thought I’d built enough time into my schedule. Besides, the earlier flight would have been at 8:00, and I would have had to get up at 5:00 AM to catch that one. No, thank you.

As I was boarding the plane, the stewardess said, “Ma’am, I’m afraid your carry-on bag is too large to fit in our overhead compartments, and you’ll have to check it. They should have caught this before you entered the jetway, but I’ll be happy to take it from you, and you can get it from baggage claim on your arrival.”

“What do you mean it’s too large? I travel with this bag on planes all the time, and I’ve never had a problem before.”

“I’m so sorry, ma’am. I understand your frustration, but this is a regional jet, and our size and weight requirements are a little more stringent.”

Waiting for the goddam bag in baggage claim was going to eat up any spare time I might have had. Now it would be close.

I felt like arguing with her some more, but I’m a reasonable person, so all I did was frown, yank the baggage claim tags from her hand to show my displeasure, and begin heading down the aisle to my seat.

We didn’t actually get off the ground until 11:00, and the flight time was an hour and 45 minutes. When I arrived in Charlotte and retrieved my bag from baggage claim, it was just after 1:00. I still had to pick up my rental car from Budget. Charlotte is a big enough airport that the rental cars are kept a couple of miles away, requiring a shuttle to transport you there. The shuttle is supposed to run every 10 minutes, but I must have just missed one because I ended up waiting at least 10 minutes for the next one.

I had rented an economy car—a Nissan Micra. I still had my North Carolina driver’s license, and even though it was expired, they didn’t catch that at the rental counter because I covered up the expiration date with my thumb. Living in New York City, I have never owned a car nor had a New York license, and I haven’t driven in years.

This car was strange to me, and I couldn’t figure out how to start the damn thing. There was no key. I had to enlist the help of the lot attendant to show me how to start it. She also asked me if I knew how to use the navigation system. I had planned to use Google Maps on my phone for that, but she told me that it would be unsafe unless it was mounted. This car didn’t have built-in GPS, but she was able to pair my smartphone with the onboard display, and 15 minutes later, I finally pulled out of there.

After all this farting around, it was 1:40, and the GPS said I would arrive at Julia’s house by 2:30. I would be late for the christening. Not that I cared that much about that aspect of the trip, so I guess I shouldn’t have been so uptight about it. At any rate, I texted Julia that I would be late and not to wait for me, but that I would meet them at the house when they returned from the christening.

She texted back that she would leave the front door open for me to let myself in, and I should make myself at home.

Cherryville was exactly how I pictured it—a small, rural town of about 6,000 people, whose biggest attraction is a truck museum. Whoop-de-doo! The road to Julia’s house passed by a number of farms and woodlots. The barn I had seen on Google Street View was a few hundred feet from their house up on the right. When I got a good view of it, her house seemed incongruous with the rest of the area because it was modern and very attractive. It looked new because the lawn wasn’t fully grown in yet, the shrubs were small, and the trees were staked.

It was set well back from the road. I drove up, parked, and let myself in. The first order of business was to find where they kept their liquor and make myself a drink. I’d had a couple on the plane, but it was definitely time for another.

I made my way into the kitchen, where there was a large pantry. There were a few bottles of booze on a lower shelf, which I had to stoop to retrieve. They obviously weren’t big drinkers because the choices were few and they were inconvenient to get to, but I found some vodka and bourbon that would do.

In the fridge, I found a carton of orange juice and fixed myself a screwdriver. I made my way into their family room, where I sat down on the sofa to drink and wind down after that nerve-wracking trip here. God, I hate traveling. I don’t know how Julia does it all the time. We make occasional trips to other cities to perform, but that’s all she does. I wonder how having a baby will impact that.

I looked around the room, and it was pretty obvious a baby was in residence here. There were shelves of baby toys, covers on all of the electrical sockets, rubber guards placed on the corners of their glass coffee table, certain cupboards that were tied closed with stiff rubber bands, and a stack of picture books in a neat pile on an end table next to the sofa. I don’t remember doing all this crap when Julia was little. I guess times are different now.

When I finished my drink, I got up to pour another. Then I started snooping around. There was a closed door just outside the kitchen, and I opened it. There was a landing and a set of carpeted steps leading down. I flipped the light on and descended to find what appeared to be a laboratory with some very expensive-looking equipment.

So, my guess about her drug addict husband was almost right. He wasn’t a drug kingpin, but a drug maker a la Walter White. * I wondered if he made crystal meth too or some newer, more exotic drug. No wonder these two are so rich.

I went back upstairs and continued my tour of the first floor. It was large, but not ridiculously so. I also wandered upstairs. There were five bedrooms, one of which was obviously a nursery. There was a crib with a colorful mobile over it, a rocking chair, a chest of drawers, and a dresser covered with a checkered pad that was the changing table. The walls were covered with penguin wallpaper. The sun streamed in the window, and it was a bright, cheery room.

I wandered into the master bedroom, which was quite spacious. There was a large walk-in closet, and the master bath was also large, featuring a jetted hot tub.

Back in the bedroom, I noticed a picture of a pregnant Julia wearing a denim jumper and playing the violin with a couple of scruffy-looking guitar players dressed in plaid shirts and overalls in the background. She actually looked very cute, but what the hell was that all about?

It was right about then that I heard the garage door open and the slamming of a couple of car doors. Sounded like the christening was over and everyone had come back. I guess it’s showtime.

I hurried back down the stairs and back into the family room, and in walked Julia carrying a large baby boy. “Hello, Mother. I’m happy you made it.” She looked at the baby and said, “Johnny, meet your grandma.”

Johnny looked at me and said, “Ga-ga?”

Author Notes * Walter White is the central character in the famous series Breaking Bad. He is a mild-mannered (at first) chemistry teacher who finds out he has terminal lung cancer and decides to cook meth and sell it to provide for his family after his impending death.

CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Thing-1 and Thing-2: Two agents from the FBI's Inspection Division, the FBI equivalent of Internal Affairs.

Kevin Glazer: Fellow FBI agent whom Fran suspects is a mole who stole the formula for Dipraxa.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's.

Brittany Edwards: Kevin Glazer's contact at the patent office where she is stealing secrets for him.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood.

Photo courtesy of Playground-v3

Chapter 9
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 9

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 8: Marie decides to go to the christening of her grandson and experiences a variety of delays in flying from New York to Charlotte and getting to Julia’s house, where she plans to stay for three days. She is late for the christening, but Julia tells her to let herself into the house.

Marie begins snooping around the beautiful new house out in the country and discovers Brian’s basement lab. She thinks he is a drug-maker rather than a drug kingpin now.

The rest return to the house for a post-christening party, and Marie meets her grandson, Johnny, for the first time, who addresses her as “Ga-ga.”

Chapter 9

Marie

It’s hard to predict how you will feel when you see your grandchild for the first time, especially if you didn’t even know he existed until two weeks ago. I am not used to children; I don’t even like them as a rule. I had never wanted one of my own. Julia had been a mistake—a product of failed contraception—but once I had her, I had to grin and bear it as best I could.

I know I’m not a nurturing person by nature. My own mother had been a very cold woman. In retrospect, I think she was bipolar, although she was never officially diagnosed. I only know that she blew hot and cold, and there was no telling from day to day what the temperature would be.

She did instill in me a love of the violin, but she was a taskmaster who could be verbally abusive when I would make mistakes on her down days. I needed to escape her.

We lived in Waukegan, Illinois, north of Chicago. There was an excellent prep school called Wheaton Academy, which specializes in the arts, a little over an hour away in West Chicago, and I begged her to send me there. She was reluctant, so I begged my father, who was a pushover and always sided with me. Together, we eventually wore her down and convinced her to let me go. That got me out from under her tutelage, and I thrived after that.

Following prep school, I attended Northwestern University, where I excelled in my violin studies. That’s where I met Julia’s father, Robert Entwistle, who had been studying conducting there.

As a result of my unexpected pregnancy, Robert and I got married, and Julia was born when I was 22. The last month of my pregnancy and Julia’s birth couldn’t have come at a worse time. There was an opening for a first violin in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra just a couple of weeks after I gave birth. I auditioned for it, but with caring for a newborn, I had had no time to practice, and I didn’t get the job.

Subsequently, my career has been one major disappointment after another, in terms of winning auditions for a prestigious orchestra, until finally I made it into the New York Phil in 2011.

I know that life leading up to that, as well as the circumstances surrounding my beginning there, have left me a bitter woman. I never developed a close feeling for Julia. I guess I always resented the intrusion into my life of a child, and I blamed her for holding me back.

But seeing her again after all these years, especially with that baby—my grandson—in her arms, aroused an unaccustomed feeling in me. Where this will go, and how this will end up, I can’t predict now, but there was something awfully cute about that “Ga-ga?”

“Hello, Julia. I did my best to arrive on time, but everything seemed to conspire against me. I’m sorry I missed the christening.”

“That’s okay, Mother. We’re just happy you’ve come, aren’t we, Johnny? This is Grandma. Can you say Grandma again?”

“Ga-ga.”

I had to smile at that. “Are you sure he isn’t just making random sounds?”

“Well, I’ve gotten a ‘Ma-ma’ out of him, and he’s said ‘Ba-ba’ to his daddy. No ‘Da-da’ yet, but he has heard me call him Brian, so maybe that’s what he was saying.”

He started squirming then, so Julia put him down. He toddled over to an electronic keyboard nearby, began to pat it, and said, “Ga-ga?”

Julia and I laughed, and she said, “And then again maybe it’s just random sounds.”

Right then, Brian, the drug addict, entered the room and came over to greet me. “Hello, Marie.”

Just that. I looked him over. He’d turned into a handsome man. He is tall, much taller than Julia, who is petite like me. Clean-shaven with a full head of brown hair and well-dressed. No earrings or tattoos either. Not at all the picture I’d had in my mind of a drug kingpin or drug maker.

“We’re glad you could come,” he said. “We know how difficult air travel can be from all the trips Julia has made.”

Right then a rather large woman and man entered the room from the kitchen, drinks in hand. Brian said, “Marie, I’d like you to meet my sister, Fran, and her husband, Mike. Guys, this is Julia’s mother, Dr. Marie Schmidt.”

We all shook hands, and then a few others entered from the kitchen. I was likewise introduced to an older couple by the name of Rieke and a redneck-looking pair wearing overalls over plaid shirts, who went by the name of Stubblefield. What kind of hick name was that?

He was the huggy type and enclosed me in a big bear hug. “So nice to meet the mother of the star of our band, Marie. She came to us a year ago and turned us into a local attraction in this here corner of the state.”

“Do tell.” I looked at Julia quizzically. “I’ve got to hear this story.”

“Oh? I’m surprised she never told you about it,” said the paunchy old hugger whose name happened to be Willy.

He then proceeded to tell me how his bluegrass band had been performing at a coffee shop when their fiddle player became violently ill, and he had jokingly asked if there was a fiddler in the house to take his place when Julia stood up and volunteered to fill in. Apparently, he knows something about classical music because he recognized her as being the famous solo violinist that she is, but he didn’t let on about it right away and had her join right in. I guess she performed well—no surprise there—and he invited her to join the band, which, apparently, she did.

This is too bizarre, but it explains that picture I saw in their bedroom. I will find out more about this from her later. I was beginning to feel overwhelmed and in need of another drink, so I excused myself to go into the kitchen to make myself one. Brian followed me.

I was tired of drinking orange juice, so I just poured a couple ounces of straight vodka into a glass, while Brian retrieved a beer from the fridge.

I was dying to hear what he had to say about that lab downstairs. “Brian, I need to use the bathroom. Is this it over here?” I said, pointing to the door just outside the kitchen.

“No, that’s a door to my laboratory. Would you like to see it? There’s a bathroom you could use down there. It’s clean.”

“Lead the way.” As we descended, I asked, “What is it you make down here?”

“Well, I’m not Walter White, if that’s what you’re thinking, but I do make drugs. However, the drugs I create are pharmaceuticals. I fabricated one last year that is just about to begin phase-2 human trials once we’ve screened enough volunteers. It’s a non-addictive painkiller called Glyptophan that will replace opioids in the role they have played for far too long if we can get it to market. It has better analgesic properties than opioids and will not cause addiction—either physical or psychological—because there is no euphoria associated with it. It’s like taking Tylenol, but about 200 times stronger in the amount of pain relief you can expect.”

“And you know this how?”

“Well, at first, I tried it on myself. I’m sure Julia told you that I was in chronic, severe pain following the auto accident I had when I was 16 and became addicted to OxyContin that was prescribed to me. I subsequently needed rehab where, of course, I met Julia. Two years later, I suffered a relapse when I made a foolish mistake while weightlifting and reinjured my back and got addicted again.

“For 13 years following that, I did without drugs and managed my pain with several operations and an implanted spinal cord stimulator. But it became my goal to study neuroscience and invent a drug that could replace opioids, and last year, I finally succeeded. It was approved by the FDA to begin human testing, and we just finished up the phase-1 trials with smashing success.”

“Well, that’s very impressive, Brian, but how did you afford this lab down here? It must have cost a fortune with all this expensive-looking equipment.”

“Yes, it did, but we did it all by ourselves with our own money.”

“But you wouldn’t be earning anything at that point. Was Julia paying for it all? And is she still supporting you? What if this drug eventually fails?”

He had a wan smile on his face and took a few moments to formulate his answer. “This is why I followed you into the kitchen and wanted to talk to you, Marie. I wanted to set you straight on a few things before you and Julia begin to talk. I think it might be a lot more productive that way. I don’t normally like to talk about our personal finances, but since you brought it up…

“I think you’ve had the wrong idea about me for a long time now. I love Julia very much, and she loves me. We are good for each other; always have been. We are a team. Did I rely largely on her income to pay for all of this? Absolutely. She showed great faith in me by her willingness to let me pursue my dream, but you know what? Her faith in me has been rewarded—handsomely, I might add. I already have a licensing agreement with the pharmaceutical company I used to work for until I set out on my own. They paid me very well for the rights to manufacture this drug if it’s approved by the FDA. They already have paid me a large bonus following the successful phase-1 trial. We’re talking eight figures here.

“Julia will tell you that she has retired from touring, at least for now, and her only income is the little she makes from her bluegrass band and royalties from her albums. Now it’s my turn to support us. We just built this house and paid for it outright, so money is not a problem.

“Marie, we are happy and successful, and now we’ve begun a family. The only thing that could make us happier is if you and Julia can patch things up between you. It has eaten at her for years, the way we left things back then. I hope you will give it a chance.”

This was too much to take in all at once. I just looked at him and said, “I need another drink.”

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Thing-1 and Thing-2: Two agents from the FBI's Inspection Division, the FBI equivalent of Internal Affairs.

Kevin Glazer: Fellow FBI agent whom Fran suspects is a mole who stole the formula for Dipraxa.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's.

Brittany Edwards: Kevin Glazer's contact at the patent office where she is stealing secrets for him.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood.

Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a homeland security agent.

Paul Rieke: Brian's former college professor and geneticist, who helped steer him into neuroscience. He has become a good friend.

Willy Stubblefield: The leader of Julia's bluegrass band.

Picture courtesy of Playground-v3.

Chapter 10
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 10

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 9: We hear some of Marie's backstory and find out she was treated by her mother much the way she is towards Julia.

The company who attended the christening soon arrives and Marie is introduced to everyone. She hears the story of how Julia joined the bluegrass band.

She and Brian have a talk in his basement lab where he describes what he makes there. When she intimates that he has been sponging off Julia, he sets her straight about the nature of their marriage--that it is built on trust and they are true partners. She doesn't know quite what to make of the revelation that he is not just some worthless addict who is corrupting her daughter and that he has actually earned millions of dollars from his new drug.

Chapter 10

Fran

It’s been a little over a week since the raid on Kevin Glazer’s apartment that turned up the sat phone calls to China and the Dipraxa data on his computer. The morning after that, I turned over my laptop, which contained the data I stole from Kevin to Lou. At the time, he said to me, “Francine, I knew the suspension and the threat to your integrity would light a fire under you. What led you to suspect Kevin?”

I then related my reasoning and how I enlisted the help of a friend who simply got phone data for me without knowing anything about the case.

Lou had said, “I don’t even want to know your friend’s name,” at which point I said, “Good, because I wasn’t planning to tell you.”

“Figures. I presume you didn’t leave any evidence in Kevin’s apartment that you’d broken in?”

“No, sir.”

“Then you can leave it up to me to figure out a legal way to nail Kevin now that we have him dead to rights and Brittany Edwards too. I have a feeling you’re going to have a more important task ahead of you. Here’s your gun and creds back,” he said as he dug them out of his desk drawer and handed them to me. “Welcome back to the fold, Francine… as if you ever even left it. Now stick around. We’ve got a meeting with FBI Headquarters in Washington.”

He then initiated a Secure Video Teleconferencing meeting with them in which he had me explain the data theft from the USPTO and how it led to our current situation. At the conclusion of the meeting, the Director, with Lou’s full support, put me in charge as the Special Agent in Command or SAIC of the mission to stop the spread of Dipraxa. I was given the authority to enlist whatever agents from my office or others I needed to help me with it, plus any authorized personnel like my brother.

A few days later, Mike returned from his mission, and today we celebrated the christening of Brian and Julia’s baby, Johnny. The christening was a very sweet service at a little Baptist church only a mile from their new house. They had made Mike and me little Johnny’s godparents. We were honored to be chosen. He was now both our nephew and our godchild.

Following the service, we headed back to Brian and Julia’s house. They decided to build a new house because their previous home in Charlotte had been too small for a growing family. Julia had told me at the time that they would most likely have another baby or two one day and would need a bigger house.

Brian and I grew up in a fairly rural area; Julia, not so much. But since she joined her bluegrass band and befriended the band members, she’d been to their houses in the country and fell in love with the slower pace and wide-open spaces of a rural area. Together, they decided to move from Charlotte and build their new home out in the country in Cherryville. They seem very happy here.

I’d heard stories about Julia’s mother over the years—none of them good—but this was the first time I ever met the woman. I hope they’ll be able to repair the rift between them for everyone’s sake.

It looked like Brian followed her into the kitchen, and they’ve been gone for a while now. I wondered what was being said between them.

I needed a word with Brian, myself, to fill him in on the news that Dipraxa had gotten out. I’m permitted to speak with him about it since he has been in on the whole scheme from the start and has the necessary authorization.

I will take him aside a little later and explain it all to him. But the bigger reason for talking to him will be to pick his brain for a solution. Somehow, we have to stop this from spreading any further, and he is the perfect candidate for the job because he invented the drug and knows how it works. Perhaps there would be a scientific solution that could be found, although I had no idea what that might be. I hoped he would.

In a few minutes, Brian and Marie rejoined the group and brought out a few platters of snacks. Little Johnny was toddling around, charming everyone. He would pat their knees where they sat and smile a toothless smile up at them. He wasn’t at all a shy baby.

Only 10 months old now, he was an early walker and was pretty steady on his feet. He made his way over to Julia’s banjo case resting on a shelf. He began patting it, and saying, “Ba-ba? Ba-ba?”

I said, “I think you’ve got a request to play, Jules. How about it?”

“Johnny, are you saying ‘banjo?’”

“Ba-ba.”

“I think that’s what he’s saying, Fran.”

“You want Mama to play her banjo, sweetie?”

“Ba-ba. Ba-ba.”

Julia looked at Willy and said, “I don’t suppose you brought your guitar with you, did you?”

“Have you ever known me to go anywhere without it, Darlin’? I come prepared.”

“How about you, Shannon? A snare drum, perhaps?”

“You got it, Babe.”

“Johnny, I think we’re in luck.”

The Stubblefields left to retrieve their instruments from their pickup as Julia took her banjo out of the case, put picks on her fingers, and began tuning it up. Johnny plucked a few strings too. I glanced over at Marie, who looked rather appalled by it all.

When the Stubblefields returned with guitar and drum, Julia said, “Why don’t we start with Johnny’s favorite: ‘Dueling Banjos’?”

Julia and Willy proceeded to give us a rollicking version of this classic song made famous in the movie Deliverance. We all clapped along to the fast part at the end, all except Marie, I noticed. Even little Johnny tried his best and managed to get his two hands together once or twice, but he lost his balance and sat down hard, where he continued to try to clap. Julia smiled at him most of the time while playing.

When this song was done, Shannon joined them for a few more songs together. Then I called out, “How about ‘The Devil,’ Jules?” This was short for the Charlie Daniels classic, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” which had become a standard in their little bluegrass band’s repertoire and was how they concluded all their shows.

Willy shouted out to Brian, “Daddy, want to join us for the vocals?” Brian knew the words and would do this on occasion. He went up and joined the three of them. Julia put the banjo away and pulled out her fiddle because she would play the fiddle parts of both the devil and his intended victim, not coincidentally named Johnny.

It was another spirited performance that got us all clapping again. Still nothing from Marie, although I did detect a wry smile, or was it more of a sardonic one she couldn’t completely hide?

Following the music, folks began refilling drinks and eating snacks. Conversations began, and I decided the time was right to talk to Brian.

“Hey, little brother, would you mind joining me for a private conversation for a few minutes?”

“Sure, big sis. Why don’t we go down to my lab? We’ll have some privacy there.” He led the way.

I’ve been down here before and was extremely impressed with his setup. It was a very modern lab with over a half million dollars’ worth of fancy equipment. He had done all the development of both Dipraxa and its replacement, Glyptophan, in the lab he’d built in his Charlotte house using this equipment.

“Brian, do you remember how I once told you that Dipraxa could never get out into the general population because of the destruction it would unleash? Well, it’s gotten out.”

“WHAT! How? You don’t think I had anything to do with it, do you?”

“Of course not. But you and I both were natural suspects to the FBI. Let me stress ‘were’ because we now know who the real culprit is.”

I proceeded to fill him in on the original meeting with Thing-1 and Thing-2, my suspension, and my subsequent quest to find out who the mole was.

“You know, I still feel partially responsible and a little bit guilty for what’s happened,” I admitted to him. “I know I warned you this should never get out, but it was my idea to use it in the first place. I wish now I’d taken my own warning to heart. At any rate, my boss told me we’ve been cleared of any wrongdoing now that they have the proof of the theft and the mechanism for it.”

“That was damn good thinking on your part, Fran, and I appreciate your effort to clear us.”

“Well, we don’t need you in jail. We need you to help us find a solution to its spread. All we know is that it’s most likely manufactured in China and smuggled into Mexico, then into the US through the southern border. We’re hoping the current administration will tighten things up down there, but you know how clever those cartels are in finding ways to get things through. We can certainly attempt to interrupt the supply chain or the distribution network if we can figure them out, but I was hoping there would be another way, and that’s where I think you come in.”

“What would that be?”

“Would there be some way to incapacitate the drug? You know, make it so it no longer works. I need your good brain to tell me if this is at all possible or even to conceive of some other way.”

“Huh, that’s an intriguing idea. Incapacitate the drug. That’s going to take some heavy-duty thinking. I’ll get started on it right away because it seems time is of the essence.”

“Thanks, little brother. And if you need help with this and know some folks who could help, like your friend Paul Rieke, we’ll be able to get authorization for that. I’ve convinced my boss this is a high priority now.”

“Got it. Won’t know until I think about it for a while, but I’ll let you know as soon as I have any ideas.”

“I appreciate that. I’m sure the country, if it knew the danger, would too. I just shudder at the thought of how many people would quickly become addicted to Dipraxa, because we all know what happened to you.”

“As one who knows, I certainly share your fear. I’m all in now and will begin immediately… well, maybe after the christening party. Shall we rejoin the group?”

I gave him a hug, and we went back upstairs.

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Thing-1 and Thing-2: Two agents from the FBI's Inspection Division, the FBI equivalent of Internal Affairs.

Kevin Glazer: Fellow FBI agent whom Fran suspects is a mole who stole the formula for Dipraxa.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's.

Brittany Edwards: Kevin Glazer's contact at the patent office where she is stealing secrets for him.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood.

Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.

Paul Rieke: Brian's former college professor and geneticist, who helped steer him into neuroscience. He has become a good friend.

Willy Stubblefield: The leader of Julia's bluegrass band.

Shannon Stubblefield: Willy's wife and the drummer in the bluegrass band.

Picture courtesy of Playground-v3.

The following clip is from the movie Deliverance. If you want to cut to the chase, start at around the 2:45 minute mark.

Chapter 11
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 11

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 10: Fran’s suspension from the FBI is lifted, and instead of being punished, her forgiving boss arranges a videoconference with the FBI Director, who puts her in charge of a mission to stop the spread of Dipraxa.

Fran attends the christening of Brian and Julia’s son, Johnny, and is made the godmother in addition to Johnny’s aunt. Back at the house, she meets Marie for the first time.

At Johnny’s request, Julia joins her fellow band members in an impromptu concert of bluegrass music. After the concert, Fran pulls Brian aside to share the news that Dipraxa has reached the public. Brian is aghast. Fran asks him if he could possibly devise a method to render the drug ineffective, despite its current production by the Chinese. Brian agrees to consider this seemingly impossible idea.

Chapter 11

Marie

It was 7:30, and the christening party ended about half an hour ago. I was attempting to recover my sanity with a drink in the family room when Julia came in with the baby in her arms.

“Mother, I’m going to nurse Johnny and put him to bed. Then I’ll come down again, and perhaps we can have a talk?”

“He’s 10 months old now, and you’re still nursing him?”

“Yes. We both enjoy it. We’ll probably keep it up for a couple more months.”

Johnny seemed to be pawing at her breast and whimpering a little. I flicked my hand a couple of times towards the stairs and said, “Whatever.”

To say that I was unnerved now would be the understatement of the millennium. Who the hell is this lactating, banjo- and fiddle-playing hick living out in Podunk, North Carolina, and what has she done with my daughter? Surely, she couldn’t be the virtuoso violinist I spent years of my life training. A banjo? A fiddle? Is that her Joseph White violin she’s playing like a fucking fiddle?

And these hillbillies she associates with now! I felt like kneeing him in the nuts when that big Jethro gave me a hug.

The rest of the folks seemed normal enough, although Brian’s sister was rather imposing-looking, standing a head taller than me. She was taller than her husband too, and she looked like the only one with any balls in this place. Note to self: Don’t cross that one.

I have to admit that talking to Brian and finding out what he really made down in that lab of his was an eye-opening experience. Maybe I really have misjudged him all these years. Probably not, but maybe. It will take a lot more convincing, though, for me to change my mind about him. I no longer recognize my own daughter because of him. I think Julia’s and my rift became inevitable as soon as he came into the picture.

And then there was Johnny. Meeting him was the most unnerving aspect of the afternoon. Kids and I don’t mix well together. I’ve been to parties for orchestra members and their families, and I couldn’t stand all the noise and shenanigans of the kids who were there. I can identify with The Grinch.

I know I wasn’t an endearing mother to Julia when she was growing up. I suppose I loved her, but I can’t remember ever saying it to her. But there was something different about seeing little Johnny. I don’t know if it was love I was feeling; I’m not sure I even know what that feels like. But it was certainly different from anything I’ve felt towards anyone before. Maybe my heart grew one size today when I heard him say, “Ga-ga” while looking directly at me.

Brian has been in and out, carrying platters of food and dirty dishes back to the kitchen. I probably should have been helping him rather than just sitting here drinking, so I got up and returned one empty platter to the kitchen. Besides, I needed a refill on my drink.

Brian was putting dishes in the dishwasher, and I handed him the empty platter.

“Thanks, Marie.”

“So, how long until Julia gives up this hillbilly nonsense and returns to touring?”

Brian paused a moment before answering. “Let me ask you; didn’t she look happy up there playing? She thoroughly enjoys it. She thoroughly enjoys classical violin too, but touring was becoming very wearing on her. We wanted to start a family, and the timing seemed right for it. You can ask her more about it.

“I know this seems like a very different life to you, and it is, but we’re happy here. We have some friends. We’ve even joined a couples bowling league. Julia has gotten pretty good at it too and actually rolled a 192 last week.”

“I have no idea what that even means. I’ve never fully understood that girl, especially how she became a drug addict.”

“When you talk to her, why don’t you ask her about that? It may help explain some things if you understood that better.”

Julia came into the kitchen right then. “Johnny’s down now. He missed his nap this afternoon, and he was exhausted. We probably won’t hear a peep out of him until the morning. Mother, I’m so glad you decided to come. I know it was hard for you, but I really wanted you to meet your grandson.”

“Julia, let’s cut the shit and go in and talk and get this over with. I came down for one reason, and the only way we can move forward from here is to hear you say the magic words.”

I saw her give Brian a doleful look, and he gestured to her by putting the back of his fingers beneath his chin and raising it up.

I splashed some more vodka into my glass, picked it up, headed back to the family room, and sat on the sofa. Julia had followed me in and sat on an armchair facing me on the other side of the coffee table between us—the one with those ridiculous-looking bumpers on the corners. I waited for her to start to see what tack I would take.

“Mother, I’ve replayed that scene in my head many times over the years, and I wish it had never happened the way it did. I’d like to discuss it with you if you’re willing. I think if we can understand exactly why we said what we said to each other, maybe we can begin to repair what’s kept us apart for so long. Can we try to talk about it civilly so that maybe we can each see it from the other’s point of view?”

“That’s a tall order, but I’ll try. Here’s how I saw it, Julia. I had just been accepted into the NY Phil, and I needed to start right away, but the apartment I’d leased wouldn’t be ready for two weeks. I needed a place to stay for those two weeks, and hotels cost a frickin’ fortune, so I asked my own daughter if I could stay with her. I could tell you didn’t want me to, but you reluctantly agreed.”

“That much is true; I didn’t want you to. I could predict exactly how it would be, and I wasn’t wrong.”

“Yes, well, you needed help on that concerto. Tchaikovsky’s Concerto in D is one of the toughest violin concertos you could have been asked to play. You were floundering.”

“I wasn’t floundering; I was working it out. It was difficult, but my teacher was happy with how it was going and how I was interpreting it. It was a little different, but he liked it, and so did I. And then you came along and started tearing it apart and telling me everything I was doing was wrong. It wasn’t wrong; it was just different.”

“It was wrong, Julia. It wasn’t at all how it’s supposed to be played.”

“How do you know, Mother? Could you channel old Pyotr somehow? Just because it was different from what you were accustomed to didn’t make it wrong. It was my interpretation of it, and my teacher was fully supportive.”

“So, you call that drug addict boyfriend of yours to come rescue you from the evil witch who’s actually trying to help you, and when he comes, the two of you say you’re leaving together.”

“Mother, I wish you’d stop calling Brian my ‘drug addict boyfriend.’ That isn’t fair. I had told you a number of times the only reason he got into taking opioids was because he was in extreme pain, and it was impossible for him not to become addicted.”

“Is that so? What was your excuse then? You weren’t in pain.”

“I was in a different kind of pain. It’s called anxiety. I told you how I got started back then. It was to be able to get through an audition. I was a nervous wreck every time I had to audition or enter a competition. I felt such pressure to perform well, and that if I didn’t, you would think I was a failure. You rode me so hard, and I always felt like I would be letting you down if I didn’t win every audition or competition.”

“But you took those damn pills even when you weren’t competing. The night you overdosed, we were just celebrating your father’s 50th birthday. Where was the pressure in that?”

“By that time, I was psychologically addicted to those pills. They helped me relax around you two. I always used to feel so uptight around you. Everything was serious all the time, and you and Dad fought constantly. I had to tiptoe around you. We never did any fun things together either. I got hooked on those pills so I could escape all that seriousness and ill will for a while.”

“Look, Julia, forget about all that now. I rode you so hard because I knew how good you were. If I’m honest about it, you were better than me. Maybe not technically yet, but I could tell you had the potential to be if you were trained right. You were such a natural and picked things up so quickly. It seemed to come so easily to you, and it was never like that for me. I knew you would be one of the great ones. That’s why I pushed you.”

I just paid her the highest compliment, and she had such a sad look on her face.

“Don’t you think you could have, maybe even once, told me that? I never knew that’s how you felt. I always thought I was a disappointment to you.”

I saw tears begin to stream down her face.

“Did you even love me, Mother? When you looked at me, did you see me or just someone who you could mold into an extension of yourself?”

I had to think about this for a moment. I took a big swig of my drink and repositioned myself on the sofa while I collected my thoughts. I guess we had now come to the crux of the matter.

“To be perfectly honest with you, I don’t know. I’m not sure what love is exactly. I never felt anything of the kind from my mother. She used to ride me as hard as I rode you. At least I never berated you and told you how awful you played and what a talentless slacker you were. You can thank me for that.”

There was a long pause before Julia resumed. “Mother, can you understand now why I called Brian? I was completely distraught. I didn’t ask him to come to New York; I pleaded with him not to. But he was worried about me. I said half-jokingly that I felt like taking Seconal because I was so uptight, and that’s when he decided on his own to take off from school and come be with me. He’s always been like that. He truly loves me, Mother, and he expresses it in so many ways.

“I know you think he has corrupted me and turned me against you, but that was never his intention. He was just being himself, and I loved the way he was… and is. He freed me from a life of all violin, all the time. I loved playing the violin, but I also hated it for all the bad feelings that accompanied it. We have been good for each other and picked each other up whenever we were down. And when you insulted him and threatened me if I left with him, that’s when I lost it.”

“Yes, you certainly did. You cursed me out and stormed out of there. I think you owe me an apology for that.”

She gave me a withering look. “I won’t apologize for that unless you apologize for the nasty things you said to Brian and what you tried to do to us. You wanted to break us up, and you thought by threatening to stop paying for any more of my education, that’s all it would take. Well, I decided I didn’t need your money. You weren’t going to take away the best thing in my life—the thing that meant more to me than the violin. I couldn’t bear the thought, and that’s why I cursed you out and left.”

There it was. But I wasn’t apologizing for what I’d said. I was convinced that boy was going to destroy her life. I was only looking out for her. Can anyone blame me for that?

“I guess we’re at an impasse then.”

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Thing-1 and Thing-2: Two agents from the FBI's Inspection Division, the FBI equivalent of Internal Affairs.

Kevin Glazer: Fellow FBI agent whom Fran suspects is a mole who stole the formula for Dipraxa.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's.

Brittany Edwards: Kevin Glazer's contact at the patent office where she is stealing secrets for him.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood.

Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.

Paul Rieke: Brian's former college professor and geneticist, who helped steer him into neuroscience. He has become a good friend.

Willy Stubblefield: The leader of Julia's bluegrass band.

Shannon Stubblefield: Willy's wife and the drummer in the bluegrass band.

Picture courtesy of Playground-v3.

Chapter 12
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 12

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 11: Julia and Marie have their long-awaited confrontation with hopes on both sides that they can reconcile their differences after 13 years of estrangement. Together they review the events of the fateful night when the rift began. Each one gives her own interpretation of events, and both refuse to apologize for anything to each other. They are at an impasse.

Chapter 12

Marie

The next morning, Julia and I sat silently at the kitchen table, having breakfast while the baby was in his highchair next to Brian, who was putting bits of scrambled eggs and slices of banana on his tray. Johnny gobbled these up as soon as they were put in front of him.

Julia and I avoided looking at each other. The silence became deafening until Brian eventually broke it.

“Alright, you two. It’s become painfully obvious how pigheaded you both are, and neither one of you is going to apologize to the other, so I’m going to do it for you. This has gone on far too long for no good reason except pride. So, lose the pride for a while and just listen.”

Mimicking me in a caricatured way, he looked at Julia first. “Julia, this is difficult for me to admit,” he began in a somewhat harsh tone, “but I suppose it’s possible I’ve been wrong about a few things, especially your darling husband here, who you clearly love because he is so good to you and who obviously loves you very much. I know I was overbearing at times and should never have threatened you the way I did that night in your apartment and tried to break you and this lovely boy up.”

He was really hamming it up, and it was all I could do to keep from smiling at this exaggerated, obsequious apology.

“For that, I most humbly apologize and beg your forgiveness so that we can move forward from now on.”

Then he gazed at me and began in a softer, more contrite tone, mimicking Julia. “Mother, I know you had some doubts about my relationship with Brian and just couldn’t see what a wonderful person he was—pretty hot, too, I might add—and that he was so good for me.”

I glanced at Julia, who was rolling her eyes.

“I know you were just looking out for what you thought was in my best interest because you had a strong desire to see me succeed in my studies. So, after careful consideration, I too most humbly apologize for the way I spoke to you that night and would love to put that behind us and move forward from here in hopes that you’ll come to love not only Johnny but my wonderful, handsome husband here, who cares so very much about us.”

I cracked up, picked up a piece of toast, and threw it at him like a frisbee. He saw it coming and ducked. Julia, likewise, picked up an uneaten toaster waffle full of syrup and butter and threw it at him, scoring a direct hit on his face. The two of us then picked up every bit of food in sight and pelted him with it as he raised his arms in front of him to fend it off. We all began laughing. Even Johnny joined in the hilarity and began pounding on his tray with his fists and laughing his little head off.

Brian had done it. The tension was broken, the apologies were out of the way, even if it took him to perform them, and I think we all felt we could begin to move forward now and put that horrible episode 13 years ago behind us. I looked at him and winked, and he winked back at me.

I helped Julia clear the table and clean the food from the floor where most of it ended up while Brian cleaned himself up as well as Johnny’s sticky fingers and face—it’s amazing what sloppy eaters babies are—and got him down from his high chair. He toddled over and found a piece of soggy waffle I had missed. He put it in his mouth and began gumming it. When he’d swallowed it, I smiled at him and tickled his neck, and he squealed with laughter. Julia cleaned the bit of syrup off his face and hands with a washcloth while he struggled to escape.

“He is adorable, Julia.”

“Isn’t he? He just keeps us endlessly amused. He’s a good little baby. Hardly ever cries anymore. He loves music too, as you saw yesterday. Seems to prefer the banjo over the violin, though.”

“How did you ever start playing the banjo of all things?”

“Well, you heard Willy tell the story of how I joined the band. What he didn’t tell you was that it was Brian who urged me to go up there and play with the band in the first place. I don’t think I ever would have gone up there on my own if Brian hadn’t suggested it. I didn’t really know any of the songs, but I was able to pick them up after a few bars and just joined in as best I could. It was fun.

“I hadn’t been a bluegrass music fan before that, but there was a certain charm to it, and it was very satisfying to the soul. I especially loved the rowdier songs and the twanging, fingerpicking banjo parts. One day, after I’d joined the band as its fiddler, I asked the regular banjo player if she’d show me a few things. She let me try it, and I really liked it. She then gave me a few lessons, and I learned how to play. I practiced a lot here at home, and Johnny, especially, liked to hear me play it. The violin he could take or leave, but he always loved the banjo playing and started saying, ‘ba-ba, ba-ba’ several times a day. So, now I play both instruments in the band.”

“And Brian told me you’ve stopped touring? You’d rather play hillbilly music now than the classical music you were brought up with?”

“I wouldn’t put it quite like that, Mother. I haven’t necessarily given up touring for life. It just doesn’t fit into my life right now. We wanted to start a family, and constant travels all over the world just wasn’t a part of that picture. Besides, I was getting very fatigued with all that travel and time away from home. During the Covid years, I stayed home helping Brian work on his new drug, and I really enjoyed it. I got to understand what drug development was all about and how extremely brilliant you must be to do what he does.”

“Do you ever practice the violin anymore, or have you given it up for the banjo?”

“Of course I do. I still love the violin and classical music. People have thought it strange that I could love both, but it’s not strange at all. I love them, each in their own way. I will play professionally again someday, but after my kids are grown. I won’t let my skills atrophy. You really did instill a love for the violin in me, you know.”

“Well, it appears I did something right, I guess. I meant what I said about your talent, Julia. You really were quite special. I’d just hate to see you throw all that talent away.”

“I won’t, Mother. I promise you that. The violin is in my soul now. I could never abandon it. Would you like to play some duets with me like we used to?”

“I didn’t bring my violin.”

“That’s okay; I have several. You can play my Joseph White, and I’ll play one of the others. Wanna play now?”

“Sure.”

We headed into the family room where her instruments were stored in a cupboard, and she got two of them out, handing me the case containing her Joseph White. It was a very handsome instrument with a warm, soulful sound to it. It was a high-end instrument that probably cost her upwards of a hundred grand, but I would expect nothing less from a player like Julia.

She still had the violin she played in high school and college, and that’s what she would be playing. As we tuned together and rosined our bows, she said, “How about we start with the Bach Duo?”

“That’s fine.”

Brian and Johnny wandered in right about then, and we began playing. Neither of us needed the music to play. It was like the best of our old times together. With its intricate counterpoint and strong sense of rhythm, this was a challenging piece to keep together on, but we managed it quite well. When it was over, Brian grabbed Johnny’s two hands and helped him clap while he shouted, “Bravo, Bravissimo!”

We played a couple of others together, but then Johnny started saying, “Ba-ba, ba-ba.”

Brian said, “I think he wants to hear the banjo now, Jules.”

Julia looked at me, and I said, “Alright, if you must,” as I rolled my eyes. She laughed and got her banjo out of the cupboard and began playing something called “Foggy Mountain Breakdown,” a banjo classic made famous, she said, by someone with the awful-sounding name of Earl Scruggs.

I had to admit that even I began tapping my foot to this rapid fingerpicked banjo piece. Brian helped Johnny clap along to the rhythm. The speed with which Julia played it showed that she had become quite proficient in the banjo in a very short time, which really didn’t surprise me. I guess I could see how it had found its way into her soul, right along with the violin.

What other revelations would I experience in this unexpected trip to Hicksville?

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood.

Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.

Paul Rieke: Brian's former college professor and geneticist, who helped steer him into neuroscience. He has become a good friend.

Willy Stubblefield: The leader of Julia's bluegrass band.

Shannon Stubblefield: Willy's wife and the drummer in the bluegrass band.

Picture courtesy of Playground-v3.

Yes, that's Steve Martin playing at the 1:15 mark.

Chapter 13
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 13

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 12: At breakfast the next morning, a sullen Marie and Julia refuse to talk to each other. Brian decides to move things along by doing it for them since they won't apologize. In a humorous routine, he impersonates each of them apologizing to the other, building himself up with flattering words, which ultimately leads to a food fight. They pelt Brian with every scrap of food they can find as they all laugh their heads off, even Johnny. The ice is broken, and the healing begins.

Julia promises Marie that she won’t give up on the violin but is just taking a break from touring to stay at home with Johnny. They end up the chapter playing a violin duet together, after which Johnny begs for the banjo, and Julia plays a famous banjo number.

Chapter 13

Dana

Leonard Merra entered my office this morning, bubbling with enthusiasm. He’s the vice president who seems to be tasked with destroying Glyptophan’s reputation to prevent it from ever coming to market.

“Dana, I just found out some excellent news that I think will put the kibosh on this upstart Glyptophan for good.”

I groaned inwardly but put on an interested face. I’d thought a lot about what Fran had suggested—about my becoming a whistleblower—and I’ve decided to do it. “You seem very excited about this, Leonard. What is it?”

“I don’t know if you’ve heard about it, but there’s a new street drug called Dipraxa that’s hit a bunch of American cities. This drug is so psychologically addictive that anyone who tries it is instantly addicted and becomes virtually useless after that.”

“I did read something about a new drug starting to gain in popularity. It gives a better high than heroin and isn’t physically addicting. What does that have to do with Glyptophan?”

“Here’s the good part: it was invented by the same guy who invented Glyptophan. He even has a patent on it, although it’s been rescinded. That’s how we found it, by the way—through the patent office. Someone had the bright idea to look into this Brian Kendrick and see what he’s been up to, and lo and behold, there’s a rescinded patent for a drug called Dipraxa he’d also invented. It’s the same drug that’s on the streets now.”

“How do you know that? Just because of the name?”

“No, our chemists looked at the formula in the patent and also got a sample of the street drug. They’re the same thing, Dana.”

“So, what did he do, start manufacturing it on his own and selling it to a distributor?”

“I don’t think he’d have the facilities for that. It’s too widespread now. I think he probably sold the formula to the Mexican cartels or something, and they’re making it now. Regardless of the circumstances, we should be able to leverage this connection to expose him and Glyptophan. If the cops or the FBI can prove he sold his formula to the cartels, that should ruin him right there. Even if it turns out someone else stole the formula and sold it, I think the chemical similarities to Glyptophan will be enough for your reps to use to discredit it and scare folks about its addictive potential.”

“What should I tell them they should say to their customers if asked about it?”

“They should say that Glyptophan was made by the same chemist who originally made the highly addictive Dipraxa that has invaded the streets. Tell them that Glyptophan is a better analgesic than Dipraxa but is just as addictive.”

“Is that true?”

“How the hell do I know? Probably not, but that’s what we’ll tell them. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“Hopefully, this won’t even become necessary. If they can prove he did sell the formula for Dipraxa, he’ll be arrested and jailed, and Glyptophan will hit the skids on its own.”

He walked out then, whistling as he left. God, what a prick. On the other hand, it is disconcerting that Brian Kendrick made both Dipraxa and Glyptophan. At home tonight, I’ll give Fran Kendrick a call and see what the story is behind it—if she’ll tell me. If she’s a fed, as I suspect, she may not be able to. Then again, if I become an official whistleblower, they might potentially make me a—what do they call them in the cop shows?—a confidential informant? This is getting kind of exciting.

“Fran, this is Dana Padgett. We met at the Omni Hotel?”

“Of course, Dana. How are you?”

“Listen, Fran, I’ve thought a lot about your suggestion to do something constructive rather than just complain about my company, and I’ve got some information to share. But you’ve got to let me know if you’re the one I should be talking to about it and if this is to become part of a formal investigation. Before I share anything with you, I’ve got to know who you really work for.”

There was a long pause as, I’m sure, Fran was gathering her thoughts and deciding what she could tell me.

“Okay, Dana, your speculation about me at the restaurant last week was correct. I am a fed—an FBI field agent in the Charlotte office. Although what you may decide to tell me at this point is only slightly related to my current mission, I’d still like to hear it because you never know how things may relate eventually. Do you know what a confidential informant is?”

“I’ve watched enough cop shows to know that.”

“If you’d like to become a CI—”

“Count me in.”

“Great, then we’d need to do a background check on you and set up a few things first.”

“And I’d need to see your credentials too.”

“Absolutely. Are you planning a trip to Charlotte again any time soon?”

“I could.”

“I’ll fast-track the background check, but I’ll need at least a couple of weeks to do it. Why don’t you make flight plans for a trip two weeks from now? We’ll reimburse you for it.”

“I’m excited about this, Fran. Plus, it will be nice to get together with you again. How long a trip should I plan for?”

“Let’s say three days. You can be a guest at my house. I’d like for you to meet my brother and his wife too, and my husband, of course. I’ll plan on picking you up at the Charlotte airport when you arrive.”

“That sounds perfect. I’ll get right on it. Nice talking with you, Fran, and I look forward to seeing you again soon.”

“Very good, Dana.”

So, I’m really going to do it! I felt excited about it. I’m not sure my company, Newman-Price, is guilty of anything illegal at this point, but I wouldn’t put it past them to try something in the future. If nothing else, it will give Fran and her brother some advance warning of what my company’s plans are to sabotage his new drug.

If this drug is all it’s cracked up to be, it will be the greatest aid to pain relief there is, and millions could potentially benefit from it. It would be a damn shame if it was killed by the greedy bastards of Big Pharma, which includes Newman-Price, so they can keep their highly addictive, inferior products selling.

Two weeks later, I arrived at Charlotte Airport, where Fran met me at arrivals. “Great to see you again, Fran.”

“You too, Dana. Nice of you to be willing to come down in person. As I told you on the phone, we would do a background check, and everything looks copacetic. Here are my credentials, too, so we can begin to talk to each other.”

Her SUV was still at the curb, and we hadn’t pulled out yet. She handed over her FBI identification card and badge for me to inspect. I took a cursory glance at these and handed them back to her. She returned them to her purse.

After we’d left the airport and were on the road, Fran said, “For becoming an official CI, we’ll sign the necessary papers in the morning, and we can set up secure communications. We’ll also go through a few training exercises.”

“Sounds good. Hey, Fran, I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and what I have to share with you about my company may be more closely involved with your current mission than you think. I have a feeling I know what it’s about.”

“Hmm, that’s interesting. What do you think it is?”

“Okay, first, here’s what I’ve got: Leonard Merra, one of our veeps, came into my office a few weeks ago and was bursting with enthusiasm because he’d found out that your brother’s new drug, Glyptophan, was preceded by a drug called Dipraxa that he’d also invented.”

I was looking at Fran, and her eyebrows raised at this announcement. I continued, “This is the same drug that has recently hit the streets of a number of cities and is highly addictive. He figures, first of all, that your brother may be arrested for selling the formula to whoever is manufacturing it, but if not, we could use this to smear Glyptophan. He wants our reps to say it’s just as addictive as Dipraxa. He’s a real shithead if you want to know, and typical of Big Pharma’s approach to their competitor’s products.”

“How did they establish the link between these two drugs?” asked Fran.

“According to him, they did a patent search and found out that besides Glyptophan, your brother had also patented Dipraxa. Our chemists analyzed the ingredients as well as those of the street drug and found out they were the same and also very similar to the ingredients in Glyptophan. So, can Glyptophan be as addictive as Dipraxa, like shithead wants us to say?”

Fran then told me the history of what happened with Brian and Dipraxa—that it was the precursor to Glyptophan—but that Brian had solved the addictive aspect of it with gene modification additives.

“Well then,” I said, “I’m guessing your current mission is to find out who sold the formula for Dipraxa to whoever the manufacturer is and, more importantly, to stop it in its tracks before it turns us all into useless addicts and destroys the economy of the country.”

Fran just nodded. “You’re extremely perceptive, Dana. I’ve already discovered who the “kudzu-spreader” is, and it wasn’t my brother. Plus, you’ve correctly surmised the larger mission. As you can see, it’s only marginally related to your information about Big Pharma’s unscrupulous practices at this point, but I still really appreciate your telling me about this.

“What your veep is suggesting is certainly unethical and probably illegal under current slander laws. It’s defamatory, unsupported, false information. However, it’s very hard to prove a financial hit to my brother because it’s only undergoing trials and hasn’t been brought to market yet. This is good to know, though, because it may help Brian get ahead of the problem and think of a way to counter it. This doesn’t yet rise to the level of an FBI mission, but these things tend to escalate into something more serious, hence the decision to turn you into a CI.

“Tomorrow, we’ll go over this again at the FBI, but tonight, we’ll just go home and relax. I’ll introduce you to my husband, Mike. You’ve probably had dinner already since it’s 9:00 now, but we can grab some snacks if you’re hungry when we get home. I believe Mike made a peach pie tonight if that would interest you?”

“Do you have any vanilla ice cream to go with it?”

“Of course.”

“How could I refuse then?”

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood.

Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.

Paul Rieke: Brian's former college professor and geneticist, who helped steer him into neuroscience. He has become a good friend.

Willy Stubblefield: The leader of Julia's bluegrass band.

Shannon Stubblefield: Willy's wife and the drummer in the bluegrass band.

Picture courtesy of Playground-v3.

Chapter 14
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 14

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 13: Dana learns from Leonard Merra, the vice president at her Big Pharma company, that Glyptophan, which they are trying to ruin, was invented by the same person who invented the highly addictive street drug, Dipraxa. Merra wants her to spread the word to her reps to say that Glyptophan is as addictive as Dipraxa and was invented by the same man.

This is enough to push Dana over the edge into becoming a whistleblower and a confidential informant (CI). She calls Fran with the news, and Fran reveals that she is an FBI agent, inviting Dana down to Charlotte to become a CI after a successful background check.

Fran picks her up at the airport and tells her she passed the background check, and tomorrow they will sign her up and train her to be a CI. They head to Fran's house where Dana will stay.

Chapter 14

Fran

After meeting Mike last night and having pie and ice cream, Dana said she was beat and went to bed.

Following breakfast at the house this morning, we drove to the FBI field office, where we began the process of making her a confidential informant.

I showed Dana to my office, where we hung up our coats. I then led her to a conference room and handed her a few papers I’d put together. “You’ve got a few papers to sign, which acknowledge that you understand what your responsibilities as a CI will be and what your legal protections are. There is a lot of information here, so I’m going to give you some time now to read it over before you sign anything. Sound good?”

“I’ll do that.”

“Great. I’ll leave you alone for a while. I’ll be in my office. Just come on back when you’re finished, and, if you’ve decided to sign, we can begin a few training tasks.”

Back in my office, I pulled together the necessary information regarding secure communication protocols. She would be reporting to me periodically, and we needed a secure way to transmit her findings.

I also pulled together training materials, which described a number of techniques for conducting surveillance, strategies for maintaining a low profile and other safety protocols, avoiding illegal activities, what to do if caught, etc. I put all these in a notebook for her.

She returned about an hour later and handed me the signed papers. “That’s great, Dana. Thank you. I’m going to give you this notebook with information on everything you need to know about the job of being a CI. I’m also going to give you a burner phone that has the necessary communication software we’ll both use. It has a secure messaging app installed on it that will encrypt our phone calls. For emails and text messages, we’ll use an app that encrypts these as well. Let me show you how to use the apps now.”

Dana is very bright and picked it all up quickly. I think she will make a great CI. We spent the rest of the morning performing some role-playing scenarios about what to do in various circumstances, for example, meeting with a target who can provide her with information and how to go about questioning the target. Dana seemed quick on her feet during these exercises. I think she’s a natural.

When we’d rehearsed different scenarios for a couple of hours, it was pushing 1:00 PM. I said to Dana, “You’re doing great, and I think you won’t have any problem with this. Your performances are very believable. I think we can wrap this up now. If you encounter a situation you’re unsure about, you know you can always call me.”

“I appreciate that, Fran.”

“My brother has invited us over to his house for lunch and to talk. I’d really like for you to meet him. You interested?”

“By all means.”

“Great. It’s a little bit of a drive out to his house, but I think you’ll enjoy the scenery. They just built a house out in the country in a little town about 45 minutes from here. I’ll text him and let him know we’re on the way.

We arrived at Brian’s house, and he greeted us at the door.

After I introduced them, Brian said, “I’m happy to meet you, Dana. My sister has told me a lot about you and said you’re interested in doing a little spying on your company.”

“That’s the plan. I figured you might appreciate some eyes and ears in the midst of Big Pharma. I’ve gotten pretty disgusted with my job and my company lately.”

“Well, I certainly appreciate any help you can offer.”

“That’s why I came down—to sign up for the task. Fran made me an official CI this morning.”

“Cool. Let me take your coats and introduce you to the rest of the family.”

After Brian hung our coats up, he led us into the family room where Julia and Johnny were playing on the floor, and, surprisingly, her mother was sitting on the couch, watching. I thought she would only be here for three days, and it’s been six now.

“Why, hello, Marie. I didn’t expect to see you here,” I said to her. “This is my friend, Dana Padgett. Dana, this is Julia’s mother, Dr. Marie Schmidt.”

They shook hands and exchanged greetings, after which Marie said, “Grandchildren have a way of wheedling their way into your heart. Getting to actually meet Johnny here for the first time and spend some time with him has made me extend my stay.”

“So, it’s Dr. Schmidt. What’s your specialty, Marie?” asked Dana.

“My specialty is being an unforgiving, hard-hearted, pigheaded old woman who’s just had an attitude adjustment. I’m actually a doctor of music who plays the violin in the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.”

“Well, I can certainly identify with the idea of an attitude adjustment. Someday, maybe I’ll trade war stories with you. But I can definitely see how Johnny here has put things in a new light for you.”

Dana turned to Julia then and said, “He’s adorable, Julia. It’s nice to meet you and Johnny.”

“Welcome to our home, Dana,” said Julia. “I hope you enjoyed the ride out. We’re kind of in the middle of nowhere here, but we love it.”

“Your house is gorgeous too. I’m very pleased to be here and meet all of you. Fran has told me a lot about y’all. Or is it all y’all? I’m just an ignorant northerner.”

Marie laughed and said, “In New York, we’d say, all a youse.”

That was amusing. Who is this woman I’d heard so many bad things about and wasn’t overly impressed with the first time I’d met her the other day?

Julia said, “Is anyone hungry? Brian went out and bought a variety of sandwiches and chips from Jersey Mike’s. Yes, Mother. We actually have one of those in dinky Cherryville. I assume you know what Jersey Mike’s is?”

“Yes, Julia. I’m not a complete snob. I’ve had sandwiches from Jersey Mike’s before.” I saw her wink at Dana when she said this. She and Dana seem to be about the same age.

“Why don’t we all head into the kitchen and serve ourselves?” said Julia. “We can eat out in the Florida room where it’s nice and bright and there’s a picnic table.”

After we’d had our fill of lunch, Dana asked if she could see Brian’s basement laboratory. He was more than happy to show her, and the three of us headed downstairs together.

Brian described his major pieces of equipment to Dana and a little bit of how he’d developed Glyptophan.

“She knows about the precursor, Dipraxa,” I told him. “In fact, that’s some of the information she’s already given me. I’ll let her describe it to you.”

“That’s true, Brian,” said Dana. “My company, Newman-Price, has been researching you and did a patent search. That’s how they found out that you had invented both drugs. Now they’re planning to smear Glyptophan by saying that it’s just as addictive as Dipraxa, even though they have no idea if that’s true.”

“Bastards. I used to work in Little Pharma before setting out on my own, and I heard stories of this sort. I expected this kind of thing, but it does piss me off to actually hear about it. Glyptophan isn’t addicting. Yes, that was a problem with the original Dipraxa at an ultra-high dose, but I’ve modified Glyptophan to address that, and it’s no longer a problem. It has some side effects at the higher-than-normal doses, but addiction isn’t one of them. I appreciate your letting me know about this, though. Now maybe I can do something to get ahead of it and prepare people for when they undoubtedly find out. If you can let Fran and me know of anything else they might cook up to disparage or suppress this drug, that would be a big help.”

“I’ll do that. Do you have any specific things to keep an eye on or any special requests?”

He laughed and jokingly asked, “Yeah, you wouldn’t happen to know a brilliant mathematician, would you? Someone who’s strong in statistical analysis? I’ve got a very complex problem I’m investigating now that could maybe help prevent Dipraxa’s further spread. The mathematics of it is beyond me or anybody I know, though. I don’t know if you’d know anyone like that, but I just thought I’d ask.”

“Strangely enough, I do happen to know someone like that. Fran, do you remember that woman I told you about at the Omni Hotel? The one named Abby, who I used to bully when we were kids? She’s the one.”

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood.

Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.

Paul Rieke: Brian's former college professor and geneticist, who helped steer him into neuroscience. He has become a good friend.

Willy Stubblefield: The leader of Julia's bluegrass band.

Shannon Stubblefield: Willy's wife and the drummer in the bluegrass band.

Picture courtesy of Playground-v2.5

Chapter 15
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 15

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 14: Fran signs Dana up as a CI, trains her, and gives her a burner phone to use for secure communications. That afternoon they go to Brian’s house, where Fran introduces Dana to Brian and his family.

After lunch, the three retreat to Brian’s basement lab, where Dana informs Brian of what she’s learned so far about her company’s plans to quash Glyptophan. Dana reveals that she knows about Dipraxa and that Brian made that as well. Brian thanks Dana for being willing to be the eyes and ears in her company and for any information she can provide.

From the end of chapter 14:

Brian said to Dana, "You wouldn’t happen to know a brilliant mathematician, would you? Someone who’s strong in statistical analysis? I’ve got a very complex problem I’m investigating now that could maybe help prevent Dipraxa’s further spread. The mathematics of it is beyond me or anybody I know, though. I don’t know if you’d know anyone like that, but I just thought I’d ask.”

Chapter 15

Fran

“Wait a minute,” I said, “your enemy-turned-friend who invented the golf suit is a brilliant mathematician?”

“Yes,” said Dana. “Abby St. Claire, who is now Abby Payne. Remember I also said she was the manager of the actuarial department at a big insurance company. She told me she developed a whole new set of protocols that have become widely used in the insurance industry these days. She’s probably the smartest person I know.”

Brian said, “I was half-joking when I threw that out there. I didn’t really expect an answer to it, but if you think she’s someone who could help me, I’d be willing to talk to her.”

I said, “We really have to move on this. Dana, what do you say we give your friend a call right now and find out a little more about her background and gauge her interest in possibly working with us?”

She pulled out her phone and said, “Let’s do it.”

“Just tell her you’d like to put your phone on speaker and that there are some folks here who could use her mathematical expertise, and you’re wondering if she has a few minutes to talk to us.”

“Got it.”

Dana initiated the call to Abby, and we could hear her pick up after three rings.

“Hi, Dana. What’s new?”

“Hey, Abby. Do you have a few minutes to talk?”

“Yep. Kenny and I were just watching the Nittany Lions getting creamed by the Michigan State Spartans. I was about to quit watching anyway. What’s up?”

“Would you mind if I put the phone on speaker? I’ve got a couple of people here who could use your mathematical expertise on a matter of some importance.”

“Uh… sure. What’s this about?”

“I’ll let them explain it to you.” Dana nodded to me when she’d pushed the speaker button.

“Abby, my name is Fran Pekarsky. I’m an agent with the FBI who is a friend of Dana’s. Dana told us that you are a highly skilled mathematician and actuary who has developed statistical methods for the insurance industry.”

“Yes, that’s true, but I’m no longer an actuary. That was some time ago. I left the field to pursue a specific project. Did Dana tell you about that?”

“You mean the golf suit?”

“That’s the one. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our control, we were never able to bring it to market, although the prototypes worked quite well.”

“I imagine that took some rather complicated mathematics to develop. What were the circumstances that prevented you from bringing it to market, if I may ask? It sounds like a wonderful invention.”

“We got screwed by the damn Chinese firm that made the servo motors that powered the suit. They knew they were screwing us, but did it anyway. Due to very technical reasons, there were no other suppliers of these parts we needed.”

My ears pricked up at this. Maybe there would be an added incentive for Abby to join us now since the Chinese were behind our current problem. “Sorry to hear that. Could you tell us briefly what your background is in mathematics, Abby?”

“Sure. I have a master’s degree in applied mathematics from Penn State University. I became an actuary for an insurance company where I worked for about 15 years, eventually becoming the department manager. I’ve since been working as an inventor.”

“Abby, this is Brian Kendrick, Fran’s brother. I’m a neuroscientist faced with a problem that involves national security, and I have an idea for a solution, but I lack the mathematical knowledge that will be required to put this solution into practice. I’m trying to prevent a national disaster, but I’m not at liberty to discuss the nature of it with you at this time. I can only assure you that this is a defensive measure involving a threat to the country.”

“Abby, this is Fran again. I know that sounds ominous, but my brother is not exaggerating the seriousness of the situation. We could very much use your help and would be willing to fly you down here to meet you and discuss the situation with you further. I am the Special Agent in Charge of this mission, and I’m empowered to enlist all the help I can get. Would you be interested in coming down here to Charlotte, North Carolina, to see if we can work together on this? You would certainly be paid as a consultant if we do.”

“Um… this is a lot to take in, Fran. Hey, Dana, this isn’t some elaborate joke you’re playing on me, is it?”

“If it is, I’ve got some damn good actors here playing their parts, but I assure you it isn’t. These are good people who could really use your skills.”

“Alright. When did you have in mind for me to come?”

“Abby, this is Fran again. Absolutely as soon as possible. The earliest flight you can get. Tomorrow morning, if you can arrange it.”

“Okay, I guess it can’t hurt to have an interview and decide if we can work together on this. I’ll make the flight arrangements and text the arrival information to Dana’s phone. How long should I plan on staying?”

“Let’s just say for one day at first with a return flight the following day. If you come tomorrow, Dana will still be here. We’ll pick you up at the airport, and we can arrange accommodations for the night that you’ll stay. If we decide to work together on this, it will require an extended trip soon after, but we can worry about that later.”

“Alright. I’ll book a flight and text you with the details.”

“Great, Abby. Thanks very much. Hopefully we’ll see you tomorrow.”

“I’ll do my best. Goodbye, everyone.”

Abby texted back within the hour, saying she was able to get an early morning direct flight that arrived in Charlotte at 8:10. You couldn’t ask for better than that.

I said to Dana and Brian, “Okay, here’s what we’ll do. Dana, you and I will leave now and stop back at my office, where I’ll pick up a couple more burner phones for Abby and Brian so that if we hire her, all communications among us can be encrypted and secure. Tomorrow morning, Dana and I will pick Abby up at the airport, and then we’ll come straight back here so that Abby can see your lab, Brian, and we can talk about the mission. Dana, I know you’re not directly involved in it, but I’m going to include you because you’re aware of the problem, and you’re the one who put us onto Abby if she ends up working for us.”

“I appreciate that, Fran.”

“Hey Fran,” said Brian, “why don’t we have Abby spend the night here? We’ve got a bedroom for her, and that will give us more time together to discuss things if we decide early on that she’s the right fit for this.”

“That sounds perfect. Thanks for offering, little brother. You’ll have a houseful, though, with Marie too. She and Jules must have worked things out, huh?”

“Well, they needed a little help with that, but I guess they have. Took ‘em long enough.”

“What did they do, go to a counselor or something?”

“No, I took care of it. I hate to toot my own horn, so you'll just have to ask Jules about it sometime.”

“Believe me, I will. Alright, I think Dana and I will leave you now. I’ll text you tomorrow after we pick up Abby and let you know when we’ll be here.

Chapter 16
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 16

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 15: The good mathematician Dana knows is none other than Abby Payne, her friend who she used to bully in grade school but has since reconciled with. Fran, Dana, and Brian call her and persuade her to come for an interview after a brief description of their needs without providing any real details. Abby agrees to fly down to Charlotte ASAP.

She makes flight arrangements to come the next day, and Brian volunteers that she can stay overnight at his house. She will be here for only one day, and if they agree to work together, she will come down again for an extended stay near Christmas time.

Chapter 16

Fran

Abby was waiting at the curb in the arrivals area at Charlotte Airport when we pulled up to meet her at 8:30 AM. God, what a knockout for someone her age. Like Dana, she was in her late 50s but looked terrific with that long, wavy red hair.

Dana, who’d been sitting in the front seat of my Honda CRV, got out and gave her a hug. I opened the liftgate so she could throw in her carry-on bag, and the two of them sat in the rear seat together.

Dana introduced us, then started right in on Abby. “So, Miss Perfect, still whipping everyone’s asses at Kettle Creek Country Club, or is the weather too crummy now in November to play any more this year?”

Abby laughed. “I’ve put the clubs away for the year. I do miss whipping your ass, though, since you moved to Philly.”

“Hey, I used to whip yours too occasionally.”

“Yes, when I was having a bad day and you were having a good one.”

“Yeah, you never had too many bad days. I think you were probably wearing that suit half the time.”

“Well, there’s the pot calling the kettle black!”

The two of them laughed, and Dana said, “I told Fran that story, so she knows what we’re talking about.”

“You two do seem to have patched things up since that time,” I said. “So, what sort of things have you invented, Abby, besides that golfing suit, and how is it you went from being an actuary to an inventor?”

“I started getting a little bored after 15 years of being an actuary. There is only so much creativity you can bring to the field. I’ve always loved science as well as math, and I minored in mechanical engineering in college. I like making things. One project I had in my junior year was to design and construct miniature surgical tools to use in robotic-assisted surgery that was quite new at that time. I’ve gotten back into that, and most of my inventions have involved surgical robotics. Designing the golf suit helped me understand human biomechanics, which has served me well in most of my inventions.”

“Smarty-pants,” said Dana, and I saw Abby punch her playfully in the arm in the rearview mirror. “I used to call her that in elementary school.”

Abby said, “So, how did you and Fran meet?”

“We met in a hotel bar a couple of weeks ago and had some drinks together. Then we had dinner the following night.”

“So, you’ve been down here for a couple of weeks? Are you and Steve here in Charlotte on vacation?”

I caught Dana’s eye in the rearview mirror. She probably wasn’t quite sure what she could say to Abby in answer to this, so I stepped in. “Dana and I will be working together on another project indirectly related to the current one, but she’s not at liberty to say much about it right now. After we do your background check, she’ll be allowed to discuss certain things with you. I assume you’re aware that we need to do a background check on you, Abby?”

“Of course. I would expect nothing less. Besides this other project, I gather from the call yesterday that Dana will be part of this mission too then?”

“We’ll discuss that when we get to my brother Brian’s house. Sorry to be so circumspect, but that’s the way of the FBI.”

“Fair enough,” said Abby.

“While we’re driving to Brian’s house, I’ll give both of you some background information about the mission. We’ve got a 45-minute drive ahead of us.”

Dana had heard this already, but I gave Abby the history of Dipraxa’s invention by Brian, how addictive it proved to be at a high dose, and how it had gotten out to the general population. I withheld specific details about catching the perpetrator. By the time we arrived at Brian’s house, they both had a pretty good idea of the seriousness of the problem and the necessity of a quick solution.

Brian greeted us at the door, and I introduced him to Abby. He was alone in the house, as Julia, Marie, and Johnny had gone into Charlotte to do some shopping and would be home later.

Brian led us down to his lab, where he spent at least half an hour discussing his equipment with Abby, who had some very intelligent and perceptive questions for him. The science was way beyond Dana and me, but it was fascinating hearing Brian and Abby discuss things.

After a while, I turned to Dana and said, “They certainly are a couple of smarty-pantses, aren’t they?”

Dana just rolled her eyes.

I then addressed Abby and Brian, “Okay, you two eggheads. I’m sure you could go on about all this for a few more hours, but why don’t we get down to the reason we’re all here now? I waited until I had their undivided attention.

“Obviously, Brian, you’ve come up with an idea of how to stop Dipraxa in its tracks. I’ve already filled Abby and Dana in on the problem. Do you think you could share your potential solution with us now, and let’s see if Abby can help you with it?”

“Sure. Fran probably already discussed with you the difficulties with interrupting the distribution network. That approach is probably a no-go. Is it okay if I tell them that the problem originates in China, Fran?”

We all cracked up at that. “No. They’re not authorized to hear that yet.”

“Okay, then I won’t tell ‘em. You FBI folks are so damn secretive,” he said, frowning at me and shaking his head in mock frustration.

“Fran asked me if there might be a scientific way of incapacitating the drug. I wondered how Fran might have thought I’d be able to do that to a drug being manufactured in, ahem, but that’s what she suggested to me the other day. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But my sister is an outside-the-box thinker, and the idea isn’t as crazy as it sounds. There is actually an approach to consider.

“What I did was to analyze the chemical compounds I used to create Dipraxa. Without going into too much detail at this point, Dipraxa uses a method of pain relief similar to what the dentist uses when he injects lidocaine into your mouth to numb a tooth. This is a different method from opioids and doesn’t create the associated euphoria that makes opioids so addictive. However, at too high a dose of Dipraxa, which I accidentally discovered, this no longer holds, but I’ll get into the details of that some other time. Suffice it to say for now that it’s that high dose of Dipraxa that turned it into a super addictive drug.

“Drugs like lidocaine are made synthetically, but I needed a stronger analgesic than lidocaine, so I incorporated into Dipraxa a compound extracted from a plant similar to the coca plant, which produces a numbing effect. You’re probably familiar with the coca plant because it’s what cocaine is made from. The plant I used is called Balanga, and the only known place it grows is a small, uninhabited island in the Philippines called Gunagua Island. There are many plants botanists have discovered that grow only in one place, and this appears to be one of them.

“Gunagua Island is not known for anything, even the Balanga plant. To my knowledge, it isn’t used in the manufacture of any product either, but some obscure botanist one time discovered it growing there and had it analyzed, and the chemical analysis was stored in a database. One of its enzymes had the exact chemical profile I needed for Dipraxa, so I made a trip to Gunagua Island and harvested some. I also managed to smuggle in some live plants for propagating it so I wouldn’t have to keep making trips there to obtain it. Pretend you didn’t hear that, Fran.”

“Hear what?”

“Shall I go on,” he said, “or am I boring you all to tears?”

Dana piped up, “Even I’m interested, and I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, Brian. Please keep going.”

Abby and I nodded in agreement.

Brian shrugged and continued, “I’ll try to wrap this up quickly. Now, the Chin—excuse me—the manufacturer knows about this plant and its provenance, thanks to that FBI mole, because I had to document it in the patent information, which they now have. My great hope, though, is that they haven’t figured out yet that it only grows in this one spot and haven’t done what I did and stolen some to grow my own. If they have, we may be screwed, but if they are continuing to get it from Gunagua Island, then we have a unique opportunity to sabotage the only known supply besides what my former company, Detry Pharmaceutical, is now growing in greenhouses. I have a licensing agreement with them to manufacture Glyptophan, and currently, they are the ones producing what is used in the human trials.

“This is why we need to hurry before the Ch— before the manufacturer wises up and figures this out.”

“Brian,” I asked, “why speak of sabotaging it? Why not just napalm it out of existence now that we’re growing our own supply here for Glyptophan?”

Abby said, “I think I can guess the reason for that.”

Brian signaled to her that she had the floor.

“Plants have a way of regenerating themselves after a fire. Forests eventually regrow after forest fires. What we need to do is somehow chemically change the plant enzyme that Brian’s been using.”

“Correct. And do you know how that can be accomplished, Abby?” asked Brian.

“I imagine through genetic engineering.”

“Smarty-pants,” said Dana, poking Abby in the ribs with her elbow.

Brian continued, “Exactly right. In essence, we have to change the structure of one or more genes in the plant, which will then strip Dipraxa’s ability to cause that terrific high. And, to put the icing on the cake, if we can modify it so that not only does it no longer produce that high, but in fact makes you sick as a dog with nausea or diarrhea, no one will ever want to use it again.

“Sounds good, right? But here’s the problem, and here’s why I need an outstanding mathematician and probably a top-notch programmer too: The math involved in modeling the possible genetic pathways that could be altered and predicting how changes to the plant's genes might affect its enzyme production is beyond my capabilities without a great deal of further study and time, which we have very little of, presumably. So, I guess what we need to know, Abby, is do you think you would have the required expertise to help me?”

She spoke right up. “As an actuary, my job was to analyze data and to create models and simulations, varying a number of factors. I used known statistical methods and even developed many of my own algorithms in this modeling. Also, in the design of the golf suit Dana may have told you about, I worked very closely with a computer expert to model human biomechanics and develop algorithms needed to program the suit to guide the wearer into a proper golf swing. I don’t know much biochemistry, but with your help in that, Brian, I believe I could help you with the necessary modeling. But we would need a very competent programmer as well. The computer expert I spoke of who helped me with the golf suit is a good friend, who I’m sure could help us, but unfortunately, he just retired and is currently on vacation in Europe with his wife.”

“No worries there,” I said. “I know an extraordinary computer expert who I’ve worked with many times in the past. You know her too, Brian—Patty Mattson. Alright then, Abby. I’d like to talk to my brother upstairs for a few minutes if you don’t mind. We won’t be long.”

“That’s fine, Fran. Dana and I can catch up together in the meantime.”

“See you back in a few.”

Chapter 17
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 17

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 16: Fran and Dana pick up Abby, who has come down for an interview, at the airport. They drive to Brian’s house, where the interview will take place. Brian shows Abby around his lab, then he gives a presentation to the group of his proposed solution to the problem of the spread of Dipraxa.

The solution involves changing the genetic structure of the Balanga plant that is an ingredient in Dipraxa so that it will no longer contribute to producing the euphoria that it does and will in fact make the user sick to his stomach if he tries it. His plan is to spray it on the only known source of the plant—a small unpopulated island in the Philippines called Gunagua Island.

Brian admits he doesn’t have the mathematical expertise to derive the correct formula by himself, hence the need for Abby’s mathematical skills, which she relates to them when they ask her about her qualifications. She also states they need a great programmer, and Patty Mattson springs to Fran’s mind. Fran and Brian go upstairs to discuss hiring Abby.

Chapter 17

Fran

Brian and I sat down in the family room, and I said to him, “So, what did you think of Abby? Do you think she’ll have the ability to give you what you need?”

“I thought she was great. A very sharp individual who seems like she’d be a quick study. It would have been nice if she’d had some experience in biochemistry, but I get the impression she’ll pick up the relevant aspects very fast. Plus, she seems pleasant and easy to get along with. I vote yes.”

“Well, yours is the opinion that counts, but I also agree with you about her. I think she’ll be a real asset. How long do you think we’ll need her for, and could she stay here not just tonight, but when she comes back?”

“I think that would be best, actually. It may take some late evenings or even all-nighters if we really get into it, and it will just be easier if she stays here. I think if it takes longer than, say, a month, we’re going to be too late to stop it. I’m still banking on the hope that the Chinese don’t think to begin raising a crop of Balanga on their own. If they were to do that, this plan won’t work.”

“Alright, let’s go back and tell her she’s got the job pending the outcome of the background check, which I’ll really have to fast-track. We’ll plan on her returning two weeks from now.”

“Sounds good.”

Marie

The more I’m around Johnny, the more I’m beginning to feel my age. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve been enjoying the time with him like I never would have predicted, but it is wearing on me.

I try to get him to sit on the couch with me so I can read to him, but he’d much rather be on the floor, playing. I’m not in very good shape because I don’t exercise, and getting up and down from the floor has certainly become a lot more challenging than it ever used to be. When you’re younger, you don’t even think about it. Now my back is sore, and I have to plan my movements carefully. I’m willing to put up with some discomfort, though, for the sake of that little boy. God, what a doll.

He is such a bundle of energy and so amusing—even to an old Grinch like myself. I’m convinced now that ga-ga essentially means nothing. It’s his word for anything he’s asked to say but can’t quite. Julia will say to him, “Johnny, can you say ball?” And he will say, “Ba.” Then, Johnny, can you say “hat?” And he will say, “Ha.” But if you say, “Johnny, can you say, “potato?” He will say, “Ga-ga.” He may even substitute it for part of a word he’s attempting. For example, “cucumber” comes out as “Cucugaga.”

One thing I particularly enjoy doing is sitting at the electronic keyboard in the family room with him on my lap. I will play two or three notes, trying to get him to copy me. He can’t quite do it, but he will bang on the keys with his little fists rapidly and delight in the sounds he’s making. Believe it or not, I even play and sing some simple songs for him, and he will add a few notes of his own to it.

Julia may watch for a while but usually leaves us alone after a few minutes. I think she enjoys seeing us together but wants to give us a little alone time to bond. This bonding that’s occurring kind of shocks the hell out of me. I never knew I had it in me to feel this way about a child.

I’m rather ashamed to think that I didn’t have similar feelings towards Julia when she was a child. There was always a degree of resentment there. I regret that greatly now and don’t really know how to make it up to her. I know I screwed up badly, but it’s difficult to admit that to yourself and especially difficult to change.

There was no real love in our three-person family. Most of the time we just barely got along. I think the constant emphasis on violin to the exclusion of just about everything else served as a mechanism to avoid other types of interactions—ones that I viewed as uncomfortable. Violin was my life, and I really only felt comfortable when everything centered around it, including personal interactions with my daughter. It’s no wonder she got fucked up on drugs with the kind of pressure I put on her.

And what a contrast this family is here. Julia is an outstanding mother. I don’t know how she learned it; certainly not from me, but she seems like such a natural at it, just like she is with the violin—and the frickin’ banjo. My God, the banjo and that awful bluegrass music! I still can’t get over that. Some of those tunes are kind of catchy, though. I can’t seem to get that “Froggy Bottom Breakwind” or whatever the hell it is out of my head.

Brian is an attentive and fun dad too. The way he throws Johnny up and down and tumbles around on the floor with him is very amusing. He gets Johnny laughing so hard that he gets the hiccups. He talks to him all the time and reads to him too. He really hams up the characters in the books, using different voices for each. Johnny loves it and is into turning the pages of his board books now.

As much as I like watching the three of them together, it saddens me that I never experienced that kind of joy in either my childhood or as a mother. Maybe now as a grandmother, I can begin to try to make up for all those missed opportunities for love and enjoyment of family. That’s why I extended my stay here to a full week.

I’ll be leaving tomorrow. Who would have thought? I’d had my doubts I would last even three days here, but things have gone better than I ever expected. I guess we have Brian to thank for that. Julia and I were in a stalemate after that first night, but Brian served to break the ice surrounding Julia and me, and he did it with such aplomb and humor.

I think I can honestly say now that I misjudged him all these years. He was orphaned at an early age, and may not have had the parental guidance he needed, like Julia, unfortunately. Plus, he may have had his struggles with addiction, but there are addicts and then there are addicts. He’s the kind who got into opioids for treating his chronic pain, not just for kicks to get high.

He is also much smarter than I ever gave him credit for. Look at the success he’s having with that new pain drug of his and what went into the development of it, almost exclusively on his own. It’s really rather remarkable. I can finally understand why Julia had such faith in him, and it certainly has paid off.

These were my musings as Julia, Johnny, and I returned home from our shopping trip to a mall in Charlotte this afternoon.

Soon after we arrived home, Brian, his sister Fran, the woman named Dana, who I’d met last week, and another woman with beautiful red hair came up from Brian’s basement lab and greeted us. Brian made the introductions. He explained that the new woman, Abby, had come to help with some sort of problem he and Fran were having. Evidently, she would be spending the night here too, and both of our flights home tomorrow were relatively close in departure times, so that we would all go to the airport together.

It was late afternoon now, and folks were getting hungry. Julia suggested getting some takeout barbecue from a place in Cherryville called Bubba’s Barbecue (but of course). I’ve previously lived here in North Carolina for a number of years, but I never developed a fondness for barbecue. However, everyone else seemed to be enthusiastic about it, so I kept mum. They ordered a ton of food, and maybe there will be something I can stomach.

When Brian left to pick up the food, Julia said, “Mother, he won’t be back for 20 minutes or so. Shall we entertain our guests with some music?”

“What did you have in mind?”

“How about Telemann’s Sonata No. 2? Perhaps the three-minute version we used to play rather than the full six?”

“That’s fine.”

We got the violins out of the cupboard. Neither of us needed the music, and we began playing. When the piece was over and everyone clapped for us, Johnny toddled over to the instrument cupboard and began trying to open it while saying, “Ba-ba. Ba-ba, Mama.”

Julia turned to me. “I think he wants to hear the banjo, Mother. Do you know “Turkey in the Straw?”

I snorted. “I think you’ve created a monster, Julia, but anything for the little prince.”

She pulled out her banjo then, tuned it to the violin, and we started in. Johnny stood in front of us and bounced up and down to the music by flexing his knees while the others clapped along. He certainly seems to be developing a taste for music, even though it may differ from my taste. But I guess it’s all good.

We performed a few other well-known, less highbrow pieces together until Brian returned, with each one earning big applause from our audience.

Okay, the music and the food may not have been my first choice, but I couldn’t deny the good feelings I was having here among my family. Better late than never for this old Grinch, I guess. Maybe my heart was up to two sizes larger now.

Author Notes My grandson, Jeremy, when he was Johnny's age also called anything he couldn't pronounce "Ga-ga." Even "cucugaga" was his version of cucumber back then. My wife Elise and I were known collectively as "The Ga-ga's." Ten years later, we are still known as a shortened version, "The Gogs."

CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.

Willy Stubblefield: The leader of Julia's bluegrass band.

Shannon Stubblefield: Willy's wife and the drummer in the bluegrass band.

Picture courtesy of Microsoft Copilot

Chapter 18
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 18

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 17: Fran and Brian decide to hire Abby to help with the mission to stop the spread of Dipraxa.

Marie muses about her past relationships and experiences in her family, contrasting it with what she's observing with Julia, Brian, and Johnny. She gains a new perspective especially about Brian who she now sees as a good man.

She and Julia play music together to entertain the group while Brian picks up food for dinner. Although neither the food (barbeque) nor the bluegrass music are to her liking, she finds she's enjoying herself among her family.

Chapter 18

Marie

All five of us staying at Brian’s house made the trip to the airport today. This was on a Sunday the week before Thanksgiving, and the airport was not that crowded this afternoon. It will undoubtedly get busier later in the week.

Abby’s flight was first, and mine would be half an hour later. Brian dropped us all off at departures and then parked the SUV in short-term parking so that he could come in and join us for a proper goodbye before I had to head out.

When he returned, it was just about time for Abby to leave. It sounded like she will be back here again in two weeks to work with Brian on their project. After saying goodbye to everyone, she headed for security, wheeling her carry-on bag behind her.

We had a little time before I had to go through security, so we found some seats to relax in for a while. I took Johnny out of his stroller and sat him on my lap. He began playing with a necklace I was wearing and stayed occupied with it for a few minutes until he got bored and wanted to get down and push his stroller around. He tends to bump into people with it, so I walked around with him and helped him steer.

In a few minutes, it was time to go. Julia and I looked at each other, and I said, “Julia, thanks for inviting me to the christening. I’m so glad I came, and I’m especially glad that we’ve put the past behind us and are moving forward now. I can admit that I’ve been wrong about a lot of things, especially your charming, handsome, and intelligent husband here, which he never fails to point out to anyone who will listen.”

They both laughed.

“And you have proven to be a marvelous mother to Johnny—something I regret that I never was to you. I hope that now I can at least be a good grandma.” Tears began forming in Julia’s eyes then.

“Send me lots of pictures. I’ll even tape them to my refrigerator. Isn’t that what grandmas do?”

She nodded, and when she gained her composure, she said, “Mother, I’m also glad we’ve been able to put the past behind us for all of our sakes, especially Johnny’s. I’m happy that you’ve been enjoying each other’s company too. You look very sweet together.”

I held my arms open for Julia then, and she came in for a hug. I can’t even remember the last time we hugged. Maybe we never did, which is very sad. I removed one arm from her back and used it to beckon Brian to come into the hug too, which he did.

“You’re a good egg, Brian. You take care of this family. And I wish you the best of luck on solving your problem, whatever it is, and also testing your new drug. It’s a terrific thing you’ve done.”

“Thanks very much, Marie. That means a lot to me. And I certainly will take care of my family. Julia and I were talking about it—do you think there’s a chance you can join us for Christmas here in a few more weeks? We would love to have you stay with us again.”

I hadn’t given it any thought before now, but it sounded very appealing. “Why, yes, I’m sure I’ll be able to spend some time here again. I’ll begin making flight arrangements right away. Thank you.”

I looked at my watch. “And now, it’s time to say goodbye to my favorite grandson.”

He was sitting in his stroller again and looked like he was starting to get sleepy. I bent down so I was at eye level with him and said, “Johnny, I’m going to miss you. You are such a smart and cute little boy, and I’ve loved every minute with you. But Grandma will see you again very soon. I have to leave now, so I will say goodbye to you and Mommy and Daddy now.”

Julia picked him up from his stroller and held him upright in her arms. “Wave and say, bye-bye, Grandma,” as she demonstrated waving herself. “Say, bye-bye, Grandma.”

“Ba-ba, Gam-ma,” he said quite clearly as he waved his little hand, and I waved back and said, “Bye-bye, Johnny,” before I turned and headed toward security. So, I’ve graduated from the indeterminate Ga-ga, and I’m now Gam-ma. I think my heart actually grew three sizes today.

Dana

When we arrived back at Fran’s house from our meeting yesterday at Brian’s, Mike greeted us and said he’d be serving dinner soon. It was late November, but still temperate enough that he grilled us some steaks outside on their deck. With baked potatoes and asparagus, all of which he managed to prepare on the grill, it was a delicious meal.

“Must be nice to have a husband who cooks,” I said to Fran. “About all Steve can manage is eggs in the morning.”

“Yeah, I think I’ll keep him.”

We got to talking about Abby and our friendship. Fran is quite perceptive and said, “You know, Dana, despite your kidding around with her—the ‘Miss Perfects’ and the ‘Smarty-pantses’—I sometimes detect there’s still a little competition between you two.”

“Ya think? Abby and I have a complex relationship now. We are friends, yes, but it’s hard to totally suppress some of the resentment I felt for years, and I try to mask it with humor. She’s so damn smart, and good-looking, and fit—almost a perfect human being, it would seem. It’s hard to be friends with someone like that who is just better than you in every way. But she’s also such a nice person; how can you not like her?”

“I get that. But you know, life can be tough sometimes for people like that. They do arouse resentment in some others through no fault of their own, assuming they are nice people, as you say. It’s just human nature for some folks to envy them. You know, it’s not always best to be the smartest person around. Who do you go to for help when you need it? The rest of us can always find help from someone smarter, but it can be tough if there’s no one else around to get help from. The smartest one is expected to have all the answers, and that’s a lot of pressure they must feel.

“I’ve always wished I was as sharp as Brian. He’s probably the smartest person I know, but I just do the best I can with what I’ve got. That’s really all anyone can ask of you. You can’t control or take credit for the genes that give you your innate intelligence. Brian may argue that point because maybe someday, with gene modification, you can be made smarter. I don’t know.”

“I guess I know that—not about gene modification, of course, but about doing the best you can with what you’ve got—and I know it’s my problem, not Abby’s. That’s really the only thing keeping us from being close friends now. I guess I just need to make peace with something I can’t change. How did you get so wise, Fran? You’re a lot younger than me.”

“I had to grow up fast. Our parents died in an accident when I was 18 and Brian was 12, and I was his legal guardian for the next six years. The responsibility to raise a teenager when I was just coming out of that period myself was overwhelming sometimes. He was a good kid, but he got into problems with opioids following a car wreck of his own at age 16.

“But it’s funny the way life works out. He met his wife, Julia, at rehab when they were 16. Her mother, who you met, wasn’t always as she appears now but drove Julia relentlessly and put such pressure on her that she resorted to drugs to help her relax. Except for that inadvertent incident with Dipraxa for Brian, they’ve both been clean for years now. And it was her success as a touring violinist that gave them the income to build his lab, where he discovered the replacement for opioids. You never know how life will go, and sometimes when things seem darkest, there’s just no telling what may come along to save the day.”

I mused about this as we headed for the airport. I’d be going home today as an official FBI confidential informant.

Fran reiterated some of the key points I had to remember as we neared the airport. “Without being obvious about it, try to get as near as you can to conversations between the players in this. There are things we can do to get recordings of private conversations if it seems warranted. Even though Pennsylvania is a two-party consent-to-being-recorded state, there are legal ways around this if there is sufficient justification. Keep your eyes and ears open for anything that smacks of illegality, and we’ll be able to justify it.”

I already had a few ideas of how to go about this and who to approach. In fact, Leonard Merra, who seemed to be the point man in the quest to destroy Glyptophan, would be my target. God, how I would love to expose him and all the rottenness that goes on behind the scenes in this cutthroat, underhanded environment known as Big Pharma.

“One last word, Dana,” said Fran, wearing a sober expression. “Just don’t do anything risky or dangerous. It’s not worth it. We’ll get these bastards one way or another if they do something illegal. But we don’t need you to become another casualty in their war on ethics and decency. Understood?”

“Got it. No heroics.”

“That’s it.”

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.

Willy Stubblefield: The leader of Julia's bluegrass band.

Shannon Stubblefield: Willy's wife and the drummer in the bluegrass band.

Picture courtesy of Microsoft Copilot

Chapter 19
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 19

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 18: It’s time to take both Marie and Abby to the airport. Marie has extended her stay to 6 days since she enjoyed the time getting to know her family better and, especially, Johnny.

Abby leaves first, leaving Marie and her family to say goodbye. Marie expresses how much she enjoyed the trip and gives a group hug to Julia and Brian. After a special goodbye to Johnny, he calls her Gam-ma, which makes her day. She is invited back to spend Christmas with them.

Dana spends her final night in Charlotte with Fran and Mike before she, too, flies back to Philadelphia. They discuss Dana’s complicated friendship with Abby. On the way to the airport, Fran tells Dana to keep her eyes and ears open and look for opportunities to get closer to Leonard Merra, but not to do anything risky or dangerous.

Chapter 19

Dana

It’s been two weeks since my arrival back in Philly and the resumption of my job as the assistant marketing director. I’m looking at this job with renewed vigor since becoming an official CI for the FBI.

The day I returned, I went to see Leonard Merra, the vice president in charge of the anti-Glyptophan campaign. If I could make him think I was now an ally, maybe in an unguarded moment, he might reveal something he probably shouldn’t.

“I just wanted to let you know I’ve instructed my reps on what they should say about Glyptophan, and already, I’ve heard of some positive results coming out of this.” This wasn’t really true. I did say something to the reps about Glyptophan, but only in passing and not nearly as strongly worded as Leonard would have liked, but I had to say something in case he checked up on me. I also hadn’t heard anything in return about it.

“Is that so? What are their customers saying?”

“Something along the lines of, ‘Oh, God. That’s all we need is another addictive substance to deal with. It’s tough enough prescribing opioids now. We certainly don’t need something else to cause us hassles.’ You get the drift.”

“Excellent. Keep reminding your reps about it. Glad to see you’re finally onboard with this, Dana. Now it’s time to step up the game.”

“Oh, how do you propose to do that? Maybe I can help.”

“Maybe you can. I need someone to do some research and find me a small, relatively obscure medical journal—one of those holistic medicine ones. I want to plant a story idea with them about the evils of Glyptophan and how similar it is to young Kendrick’s first attempt—the notorious Dipraxa. We’ll stress how addictive Dipraxa is and tell them that Glyptophan may be a better analgesic but has the potential to be just as addictive. They won’t know until we tell them that both drugs were made by the same man. We could even cast aspersions that he may have been the one who sold it to the cartels.”

“But why an obscure holistic medicine journal? Wouldn’t any medical journal jump at a story like that?”

“There’s more. Our lab boys also found out that Glyptophan employs modification of genes in the brains of the people who take it. You know what the public thinks about messing with genes. I think if we can find some sort of holistic medicine journal, they would be more apt to write a scathing attack on both fronts.”

“Leonard, that’s brilliant. I’ll find us just the journal to break this story to.”

He was really warming to the subject now.

“And once we’ve done that, and it gets out in print, we can start a social media attack against it and maybe even get the TV news stations on board with the attack. As long as there is a written source of information somewhere, no matter how obscure the journal or accurate the article, that’s all most of them seem to need these days for sourcing.”

I decided I would call Fran tonight and give her an update on what I just heard.

It was 8:00 PM when I made the call using the burner phone and the appropriate app that would encrypt our conversation.

“Hi Dana. How are things? I presume since you’re using this phone that you have some information for me?”

I told her of my conversation with Leonard Merra this afternoon and how he’d asked me to help him find a journal to publish a defamatory article in.

“Well, as I told you,” said Fran, “Brian fully expects this and is prepared for it. He has a legal team in place to advise him on such matters. That’s good to know about Merra’s plans for social media and even the TV stations.”

“Yeah. You know how social media is. All of a sudden there are links to this article everywhere. Doesn’t matter how big the journal is or how warped the facts might be; everyone’s talking about it now.”

“You’re right. Great strategy on Merra’s part. But you know what a good defense lawyer does when there is something potentially troubling in his client’s past? He will bring it up first before the prosecutor. That way he can put the correct spin on it and take some of the sting out of the news. That’s most likely what Brian will be advised to do. This is all good what you’ve learned, Dana, but keep your eyes and ears open for the suggestion of an actual federal crime—something that can justify a wiretap. That’s our ultimate goal here, because I can’t really take this to my boss until we have such a suggestion.”

“Will do.”

I was able to find a small holistic health journal that published quarterly. It was called Myalosoma, which is Greek for Mind Body. The publisher is a trio of ‘Zoomers’ (Gen-Z’ers) in their late 20s out of Columbia University. The journal specializes in hit pieces against Big Pharma, Big Food, and Big Tobacco and has a circulation of 850 copies.

I fed the name to Leonard Merra, and he assigned a writer from the Medical Affairs Department to put together a bulleted list of points about the issues with Dipraxa, Glyptophan, and Brian Kendrick. This was to be sent to Myalosoma in hopes they would pursue an article in their next issue at the end of December.

I texted Fran and Brian about this and told them to look for an article soon. Finally, I felt like I was doing something important and worthwhile in my life.

Fran

Dana’s information was welcome, and she seemed to be taking her role as a CI seriously. As yet, there was nothing that rose to the level of a federal crime that could justify FBI involvement, but I was sure that would eventually come. I will continue to work with Dana, but we won’t be able to justify the wiretapping that I hope to do until we have something more concrete than disinformation.

Of more importance right now is the mission to stop the spread of Dipraxa. I managed to complete Abby’s background check in record time (two weeks instead of the usual four), mainly because she was squeaky clean. No surprise there. She came back yesterday, and I met her at the arrivals area of the airport.

“Welcome back, Abby. I hate to pull you away from your family at this time of year, but hopefully we’ll be done within the week and you’ll make it home easily in time for Christmas.”

“Don’t let that worry you, Fran. It’s not as important as this mission. I’ll stay either until we are successful or we know that we’ve failed and can’t solve it. But I have a good feeling about it. I’ve been studying the biochemistry of the Balanga plant. Brian and I have been on the phone quite often in the past couple of weeks, and he has explained the parameters of the problem already to me. I’ve also been brushing up on several areas of mathematics I haven’t used in a long time that I think will be helpful in the modeling we’ll be doing.”

“We will pay you for those hours you’ve already put into it,” I said.

“Okay. Thank you. By the way, your brother is amazing to work with. He is so patient with me as I try to muddle through the biochemistry and ask him a lot of dumb questions. He is such a clear explainer too.”

“Yes, he is. He was a teaching assistant while getting his master’s degree. I don’t imagine your questions were very dumb, though. So, Abby, when do you think you might need our computer expert?”

“I would say perhaps the day after tomorrow. Is that too short a notice?”

“I’ve already prepared her for it. It shouldn’t be a problem. I think you’ll enjoy working with her.”

We kept the conversation lighter the rest of the way to Brian’s. We talked some about college football and some about our pasts. I filled her in on Brian’s history with opioids and how he came to create his new drug. And I told her about Julia and how her support made it all possible.

Abby was easy to talk to and down-to-earth for such an intelligent person. I knew we had made a good choice in hiring her, and I had Dana to thank for bringing us together.

What if my wood floors hadn’t needed refinishing, which took me out of the house for a few days and to the Omni Hotel? I would never have met Dana and then Abby, and where would we be now? Funny the way things work out.

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.

Willy Stubblefield: The leader of Julia's bluegrass band.

Shannon Stubblefield: Willy's wife and the drummer in the bluegrass band.

Chapter 20
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 20

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 19: On Fran’s return to her job at Newman-Price in Philadelphia as a new CI for the FBI, she meets with Leonard Merra to try to get some useful information out of him. He asks her to help find a small health magazine that they could arrange to have a hit piece about Glyptophan printed in.

Dana finds one called Myalosoma. The plan is to send them a list of bullet points and get the publishers (a group of young, anti-Big-Pharma radicals) to write the article. Newman-Price would then get all kinds of fake social media accounts to link to it and get the word out. Dana tells Fran of the plan. It’s good information, but not enough for her to bring to a judge to get a warrant for a wiretap.

Fran picks Abby up at the airport for her return visit once she passed the background checks. She will now get to work with Brian on the project to stop the spread of Dipraxa.

Chapter 20

Note to readers: This chapter is rather technical in the science it presents. For completeness and authenticity, I felt it was necessary to include it, and I’ve tried to make it as understandable as I can. Feel free to skim through the science parts or avoid them completely if they don’t interest you; it’s not critical to your understanding of the rest of the story.

Some of the items mentioned will be defined in a glossary in the notes section. Glossary items will appear in blue.

This will be the last technical chapter in the novel. I promise!

Fran

“Patty, we’re going to need you Thursday morning,” I told her over the phone. “Will you be able to meet us at Brian’s house at 9:00 AM?”

“Certainly ah can, Sweetie.”

“Did you happen to talk to your boyfriend about the necessity of staying here for a few days while we all work this out?”

“Ah did. He wasn’t too thrilled about it, but he understands. Ah told him ah couldn’t really say what it was about, but ah did tell him ah was consultin’ for the FBI. Ah think it’s so nice for Brian and Julia to put us all up there at their place. That’ll certainly save us a lot of commutin’ time.”

“That was the general idea. Listen, I know this is an inconvenience, especially around this time of year, so I really appreciate your willingness to do this, and you’ll be paid very well for it.”

“Don’t worry about all that, Sweetie. Happy ah can help out. Ah’m lookin’ forward to meetin’ Miss Abby. She sounds like the genuine article from what you’ve told me.”

“She’s very impressive and awfully nice too. Okay then, see you Thursday morning.”

I didn’t plan on hanging around too much while all these eggheads went about the business of finding a solution to the problem, but I did want to introduce Patty to Abby and get a progress report from Brian and Abby on the feasibility of the proposed solution. So far, I only have the vaguest idea of the aim, but not the actual methods.

Patty arrived a few minutes before 9:00, and after I introduced her to Abby, we got right down to business. “Brian, would you spell out the problem for us and let Patty know what her part in this will be?”

“Sure. Patty, Fran has probably told you that a drug called Dipraxa has taken the streets by storm and has become the number one drug of choice for the incredible high that it produces. It isn’t physically addictive; it’s more like marijuana in that sense, but it is extremely psychologically addictive and virtually incapacitates the users from doing anything constructive except for seeking to purchase more of it.”

He then explained how it was the precursor to his current drug that is undergoing human trials and told her as much of the plan to incapacitate it as he has shared with me so far.

“Okay, Brian,” I said. “Now that we know the Balanga plant only grows on Gunagua Island, and you just told us you plan to spray the plants with a chemical you come up with, could you describe in a little more detail how this spraying will work?”

“Yep. Our goal is to create a gene-modifying chemical that can be sprayed from an airplane onto the foliage. From there, it will be absorbed into the plants. This will change not only the current plants’ genetics but also any future plants propagated from them. And for plants growing under trees that miss being sprayed directly, it will be taken up by the roots when the spray is eventually washed into the soil by rain off the leaves of the blocking trees.”

“But how will you know where all the plants are located to spray?” I asked him.

“We won’t have to worry about that. We’ll just have the plane fly back and forth and spray the entire island. It’s only a quarter of a square mile—about the size of a golf course—and it will be much easier and more complete to simply spray the whole island.”

Patty asked, “But won’t that potentially change the genetics of any other plants growing there? And how about the population of the place? Wouldn’t they object to being sprayed with some chemical?”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that the island is uninhabited, like many small islands of that size. I’ve actually been there twice. In addition to being uninhabited, it’s quite remote, such that it would be hard for animals to migrate to it. There may be some, but I didn’t observe any, nor any signs of animal life there on my two visits. I’m sure birds occasionally stop there, and there are likely insects too.

“I know what you’re asking about: the unforeseen consequences to the ecosystem of the island by spraying a chemical on it. I guess we have to weigh that potential cost against the benefit we’re hoping to get from it. If anyone can think of a different idea to achieve our goal, I’d be happy to entertain it.”

I asked Brian, “Why did you make two trips there?”

“The reason for that is something I think works in our favor. At least it buys us some time before the Chinese—and since we’re all officially part of this project now, I guess we can call a spade a spade—before our enemy in this discovers what I learned from my first trip there. And that is: The Balanga plant requires a very specific soil and won’t survive if the exact soil, or very close to it, isn’t used as the substrate for it to grow in.

“I had the soil analyzed, and it’s very high in certain elements only found in volcanic ash and in soils derived from specific coral reefs. That combination of elements from the gradual mixing over time of compounds from these two sources has given the soil its unique properties, which the plant life has adapted to.

“I know all this because, although the plants that I harvested on my first trip there initially survived, precisely because I included the soil around the root system of those plants, I wasn’t able to propagate them without the necessary soil. Eventually, all the plants I grew in the soil I used died. Hence the second trip, in which, not only did I harvest some new plants, but I also excavated a quantity of native soil that I shipped back to the US.

“Detry Pharmaceutical, which is now manufacturing Glyptophan for the human trials and which will be the manufacturer if the FDA approves it, has excavated several tons of the soil for its greenhouses, where it grows the plant. Our hope is that the Chinese haven’t discovered the unique properties of the soil yet and done what we have done to be able to grow their own Balanga plants.”

“Let’s hope not. Okay, Brian, can you give us an update on what you and Abby have discussed so far? I know it’s only been a day, but do you have a direction yet?”

“I’m going to let Abby discuss this part. Abby?”

“Gee, thanks. I think Brian is having me explain it to make sure I fully understand exactly what the goal is so that I can help model it properly. I’ll try to keep the explanation as basic as I can, but believe me, the science behind the task is extremely complicated.

“As Brian explained it to me, it was when he took an accidental double dose of Dipraxa when testing it on himself that he discovered its highly addictive nature. What caused it was that the excess that wasn’t targeting the area of his body in pain was making its way to his brain’s pituitary gland, where it stimulated the gland to produce what he calls a ‘super endorphin.’ Endorphins act like opioids in that they bind to opioid receptors in other parts of the body. When this happens, they not only reduce the transmission of pain signals to the brain but also create feelings of euphoria, and that’s what makes opioids and also Dipraxa so addictive.

“What we will try to do is to change the way Dipraxa is metabolized in the cells of the pituitary gland that are responsible for creating this super endorphin. The process begins, though, with the gene modification chemical that we will spray on the Balanga plants. By changing the genes of the Balanga plant through a biological process known as RNA interference, it should change the enzyme that is used in the making of Dipraxa, with the end result that the super endorphin produced by the pituitary will now be a dud that won’t produce euphoria.”

I interrupted her explanation with a question. “Brian, didn’t you already figure out how to do that with your invention of Glyptophan, which I believe solved that problem of the super endorphin?”

“Excellent question,” said Brian. “The compounds I added to Dipraxa to turn it into Glyptophan couldn’t be put in the spray we will use to modify the Balanga plants. They would break down rapidly when exposed to the elements. That’s part of what Abby, Patty, and I need to figure out: how to put together a chemical compound that does what we want it to and will survive the elements without degrading before it is taken up by the plants.”

Abby continued, “In addition, we also want the chemically modified Dipraxa to induce nausea in the users. We will be introducing an alkaloid, which is known to produce nausea, into the chemical we will spray on the Balanga plants.

“Thus, when the pituitary now produces the super endorphin, not only will it be a dud in producing euphoria, but it will also make the user feel so sick, he won’t ever want to use it again. That endorphin won’t be so super anymore.

“All this will take some complicated mathematical models and complex programming to figure these things out. Is this as clear as mud now?”

Brian said, “I think you made that about as simple as you could, Abby, and still got the key ideas across. Good job. This is the general direction, and we now are ready to get into the specifics. Fran, I think Abby and Patty will quickly see why I need them and what it will take to perform these tasks that sound somewhat simplistic when summarized.”

I said, “If you think that sounded simplistic, then I can already see why you need them working with you. I think I will leave y’all to it now. Thanks for the intro and I really appreciate your willingness to commit to this effort. Let me know if you need anything by way of resources to help you.”

“Thanks, Fran,” said Brian. “I’ll try to give you a progress report at least every other day.”

Author Notes GLOSSARY ITEMS

Pituitary gland - A pea-sized gland located at the base of the brain that regulates many functions. Among these are the production of endorphins.

Endorphin - Hormones produced by the central nervous system, including the pituitary gland, that are responsible for pain relief, stress relief, and feelings of euphoria.

Opioid receptors - Proteins in the cell membranes of nerve cells. When opioids or endorphins bind to them, they reduce pain signals and create feelings of euphoria.

RNA - Ribonucleic acid is similar to DNA, but is single stranded. It performs various biological functions within cells. One of its main functions is to regulate gene expression.

RNA interference - A biological process where RNA molecules inhibit the expression of specific genes, which effectively silences them.

Enzyme - A protein that speeds up chemical reactions.

Alkaloid - A naturally occurring compound found in plants that has a variety of roles. They are often used in medicine and certain ones can be highly toxic.

CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.

Willy Stubblefield: The leader of Julia's bluegrass band.

Shannon Stubblefield: Willy's wife and the drummer in the bluegrass band.

Picture courtesy of Playground-v3

Chapter 21
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 21

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 20: The final member of the team, the computer expert Patty Mattson, joins the rest. Brian explains the goals to Patty and elaborates his plans for stopping Dipraxa to the group.

They will invent a spray, which will be applied by an airplane, that will blanket the entire island. The spray will alter the genetic structure of the Balanga plant's enzyme, a component of Dipraxa. This, in turn, will stop the euphoria that Dipraxa produces and, in addition, make people nauseous who take it. Since Gunagua Island is the only place Balanga can be found, this should effectively stop Dipraxa.

Chapter 21

Fran

It was a week later that I returned to Brian’s house. I arrived at 9:00 AM bearing coffees and Krispy Kreme donuts. Julia greeted me at the door. After we hugged, she took my coat, and we chatted for a minute.

“Well, Jules, how are the three brainiacs doing in your estimation?”

“Brian assures me they’re making progress, but it’s slower than they would like. I’m afraid they aren’t going to be done before Christmas, and we’re going to have a houseful through the holidays. My mother is also returning for a few days, so every bedroom will be in use.”

“This must be running you ragged?”

“Not at all. They are all so easy to care for. They pretty much take care of themselves. Abby and Patty are such sweeties. It’s quite an incredible team you put together for this project.”

“Thanks. Now where is that nephew and godson of mine?”

“We were playing in the family room. Come on in and see him.”

I followed Julia in to find Johnny holding a plastic cow while sitting next to a farmyard scene he and Julia had been building.

Julia said, “Johnny, say, ‘Hi, Aunt Fran.’”

“Ha, Fan.”

I looked at Julia. “Pretty good! Isn’t it fun hearing that speech develop?”

“Everything about him is fun.”

“Hi, Johnny.” I bent down, picked him up, and gave him a squeeze, but he wriggled in my arms to get down again. He had things to do.

“I’ll let you and Momma get back to your farm while I go down and visit with Daddy and his friends. See you later.”

Before heading down to the lab, I said to Julia, “Are y’all set for this evening in terms of a sitter?”

“Yep, no worries. Got it covered.”

“Great. Mike and I will meet you at the restaurant at 6:00 PM.” I headed down to Brian’s lab then with the coffee and donuts to find three bedraggled-looking souls hard at work.

“You three look like you could use some caffeine and sugar. What time did you begin work this morning?”

Abby said, “Is it morning already? We lose track of the time down here.”

“You mean you’ve been up all night working?”

Brian said, “It wouldn’t be the first time. We kind of get on a roll and just keep going.”

“Well, if you can’t get this to work, it won’t be for lack of trying. Maybe y’all need a little break.”

“Ah need me a Johnny break, ah know that,” said Patty. “Seein’ that little cutie recharges my engines.”

“He’s up playing with Julia now if you want to go see him.”

“See y’all later, then,” she said as she headed for the stairs.

“Okay,” I said, addressing Brian and Abby. “Is there an end in sight?”

Brian said, “I think it will be at least another week. Perhaps by New Year’s we’ll have cracked it. Would you agree with that, Abby?”

“I think so. This is far more involved than I would have guessed. Patty has been fantastic and is able to translate my genetic modeling algorithms perfectly into code, and she’s even suggested improvements to them.”

Brian said, “I truly would not have been able to do this myself without their help, even if I had a year. They’ve been a godsend, Fran. We’re not out of the woods yet, and still a bit in the weeds, but I think we’re on the right track now, and there’s light at the end of the tunnel. Hmm, let’s see how many more cliches I can come up with.”

Abby and I laughed. “Yeah, I think I get the picture.”

“Have you been updating your boss?” Brian asked. “And will we be ready to move on production of the chemical soon? We won’t be able to produce it in the quantity needed down here.”

“I have, and as soon as you can provide me with a list of the materials we’ll need, the quantities required, and the fabrication methods, we can make sure the vendor we choose to manufacture it is adequately supplied.”

Abby asked, “Will we need permission from the Philippine government to spray one of their islands, or will we attempt to do this in secret?”

“The President is fully aware of our plans and has undoubtedly gotten permission, or soon will have, from the Philippine government to do this. I have no fear that he has the clout to make it happen. The military will provide the plane to spray the island. I’ve been assured of that.”

Brian said, “That’s great. By the way, I plan to go with you to the island when it’s time.”

“Do you think that’s really necessary?”

“You never can tell what will come up. I’d really like to see it all the way through.”

“Alright, that’s fine. We’ll go together.”

When Patty had rejoined us, I said, “Julia and I have cooked up a little plan for this evening to give y’all a bit of a break. I’m going to treat y’all to dinner at The Capital Grille followed by a Christmas Pops Concert by the Charlotte Symphony at Belk Theater. You may want to take a nap or something between now and then, though.”

“Oh, bless your heart,” said Patty. “That is so nice of you, Fran. Ah think we could all use that kind of break. Ah haven’t put in all-nighters like this since college.”

“Well, you deserve it. Julia’s made arrangements for someone to sit for Johnny, and Mike and I will meet you at the restaurant at 6:00. Take a nap! All of you!”

Both the dinner and the pops concert were terrific and helped put us in a festive mood. Following the concert, we headed back to the 7th Street Station parking deck where Brian and Mike both had parked. The restaurant and the concert hall were within easy walking distance and were right in the heart of downtown Charlotte. Brian and Julia led the way, followed by Abby and Patty in the middle, while Mike and I brought up the rear.

Up ahead, sitting on the sidewalk with his legs outstretched and leaning against a building, was a disheveled, rail-thin, homeless man. As Brian and Julia pulled even with him, he shouted out, “You still play da violin, pretty lady? Julia wadn’t it?”

Immediately, Brian and Julia stopped and looked closely at him. Brian appeared baffled, but Julia said, “Alphonse? Is that you?”

“Das me.”

“Brian, you remember Alphonse from rehab? Jeez, it’s been almost 17 years now.”

The rest of us stood around uneasily, looking down at this poor man. Apparently, he was not doing very well this many years later.

“I do remember. You and Henry, as I recall, were quite the cutups back then.”

“Yeah, Henry. He ain’t wit’ us no mo’. You two look like you doin’ well. You wouldn’ happen to have a little sump’m for ole Alphonse, would’ja? Don’t s’pose you got any Dip you could spare, does ya?”

Brian said, “I’ll tell you what; why don’t we go across the street to that McDonald’s over there, and we’ll get you something to eat?”

“Well, awright, I guess.”

Brian reached down and gave him a hand up. He turned to the rest of us and said, “Guys, this is Alphonse, who was in rehab with Julia and me in Winston-Salem. Jules and I are going to take him for a bite to eat.”

Julia took Alphonse by the arm and started across the street with him.

I said softly to the rest, “Why don’t y’all come join us, and maybe you’ll hear what we’re expending all this effort for?”

We followed Julia and Alphonse as they headed towards McDonald’s.

Alphonse didn’t seem to care much what he had to eat, so Brian just got him a Big Mac, small fries, and a Coke.

He took a few small bites and a few sips, then just sort of sat there staring.

Brian said, “So, it appears things have been a little rough for you lately. Care to talk about it?”

“Yeah, dey kinda rough right now. Wadn’t always so; just mos’ly since dat Dip come roun’.”

“I assume you mean Dipraxa?”

“Dat be da one. You ever try any?”

“As a matter of fact, I have, and I can tell you it’s next to impossible to stop once you start it. What were you doing before you started taking it?”

“I had me a good job. I was foreman at a warehouse. Had about 12 folks workin’ under me. One day some guy come roun’ after work, and he handin’ out free samples of sump’m he call Dip. No one ever hear of it befo’, so we try it out. Neva felt anything like it. I aks where I can get some mo’, and he tell me he sell me some right den. I jus’ got paid de day befo’, so I pretty flush, an’ I bought me some. I ain’t been back to work since.”

“So, what are you living off now?”

“I borrowed da max on my credit card, den on da wife’s too, but she find out what I doin’ and dat I ain’t goin’ to work no mo’, and she thowed me out da house. I been livin’ on da street ever since. Now, I tell you all dis, cuz I figger it be worth sump’m. So, what y’all got fo’ me?”

Julia put her hand on his arm and said, “Alphonse, all we’ve got for you is some advice. It’s possible to turn your life back around, but you’ll need help. It starts with not buying any more Dipraxa, though. You won’t have to worry about going through any physical withdrawal, and the craving for it will soon pass. I’m going to give you my card that has my number on it. Why don’t you give me a call soon, and I’ll let you know of some places you can go that can help you?”

“Das all you got fo’ me is a card? I’s hopin’ fo’ a little re-muneration fo’ my life story. Need to get me some mo’ Dip. I don’ wants to stop takin’ Dip. It feel too good. Bes’ I ever felt in my life. Well, thank you fo’ da food, but I think I be goin’ now. Y’all have a good night.”

He stood then and shuffled toward the door. On his way out, he dropped Julia’s card in the trashcan.

We all sat there silently for a few moments before we got up and headed back to the parking deck.

Abby took Julia’s arm. “That was very sweet what you tried to do for Alphonse.” Julia just nodded.

What a depressing way to end an otherwise wonderful evening.

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.

Willy Stubblefield: The leader of Julia's bluegrass band.

Shannon Stubblefield: Willy's wife and the drummer in the bluegrass band.

Steve Griffin: Dana's husband.

Alphonse: A smart-ass kid Brian and Julia met in rehab when they were 16. He's now a homeless man.

Picture courtesy of Playground-v3

Chapter 22
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 22

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 21: Fran comes to Brian’s house to meet with the team and finds they have been up all night working. They fill her in on their progress and estimate they will be finished by New Year’s.

As a reward for their extreme efforts, Fran treats the team to dinner and a concert that night. On the way back to their cars, they run into a homeless man who Julia recognizes as a boy in her and Brian’s rehab group from 17 years ago. They learn his story of how he became homeless while treating him to a meal at McDonald’s. Alphonse tells them the woeful tale of how Dip (Dipraxa) has taken over his life. When Julia offers him help to get off it, he refuses it and leaves, leaving the team depressed but showing them the importance of the task they are working on.

Chapter 22

Dana

I was a little surprised to see how soon the next issue of Myalosoma was published—the one containing the hit piece against Glyptophan. It usually comes out at the very end of the quarter, and I expected it to come out the last week in December, but due to the holidays, perhaps they typically publish their fourth quarter magazine in the early part of the month.

I had warned Fran this was coming, and I hope Brian and his legal team took some steps to get his story out first, but as yet, I haven’t seen anything by him.

At any rate, the magazine came out today, and already I can see evidence of its impact on Facebook, X, and Tumblr using the hashtag #StopBigPharma. Although Brian is hardly Big Pharma, the postings on the dummy accounts my boss had someone set up for this were using this hashtag to get noticed. The different postings contained links to the following article in Myalosoma:

Recipe for Disaster

By Will Turlington

Is a pain-free life possible? And, if so, what are we willing to risk to achieve it? A new drug called Glyptophan is currently undergoing human trials to support its claim of being a non-addictive painkiller stronger than high doses of opioids. It purportedly is neither physically nor psychologically addictive but more along the lines of Tylenol, Aleve, and Advil—except 200 times stronger.

Is such a drug possible? If so, we can say goodbye to opioids and the approximately 80,000 overdose deaths per year ascribed to them in the U.S. Big Pharma must be quaking in its boots over the possibility of the slaying of its cash cows. But is there really cause for them to worry?

Far be it from me to attempt to put Big Pharma’s mind at rest because of all the damage they have wrought on the health of the populace, but I don’t think they need to worry about this upstart drug, Glyptophan, created by “Little Pharma.”

In fact, the creator is a single man by the name of Brian Kendrick, who invented it in his basement laboratory in Charlotte, North Carolina. An OxyContin addict himself, who suffered several near-fatal overdoses, Kendrick decided he needed to invent a non-addictive drug to control his own chronic pain. And what did he come up with in his first attempt? A drug he named Dipraxa.

You may be aware that the number one selling street drug that is cheap and gives the greatest purported high on the market is also called Dipraxa or Dip for short. This street drug is highly addictive and, taken even a single time, will hopelessly ensnare its users into immediate psychological dependence.

Is this just a coincidental name association, or is this the same drug invented by Brian Kendrick? Chemical analysis reveals that they are indeed one and the same. We can only assume that Kendrick sold his formula to the current manufacturer in Mexico for a tidy sum, for Kendrick now lives in a heavily guarded McMansion in an obscure little North Carolina town.

His first attempt, Dipraxa, obviously didn’t work, so he added a substance that modifies the genes in the brains of the user to disguise the addictive part. Dr. Frankenstein somehow got the FDA to approve his application to do human trials, and the phase-1 trials are now complete.

According to the results, although the pain was well-controlled, the side effects experienced by some of the subjects were horrendous. They included severe nausea, diarrhea, headaches, night sweats, restless legs, and jaundice, among others. Nobody knows what long-term effects these gene changes will have in the brain. It’s also possible that over time, the effectiveness of the gene modification will diminish, and the new drug will become as addictive as the old one.

At the time of this writing, Kendrick is having trouble enlisting volunteers for the second phase of trials. Is it any wonder in light of the risks and potential dangers associated with it?

The article has been retweeted a number of times on X, shared on Facebook, and reblogged on Tumblr using not only the #StopBigPharma hashtag but also a number of others, such as #DontMessWithMyGenes. Word is getting out, exactly as that asshole Merra described it.

I’m going to tell Fran about this if she doesn’t already know. I know this doesn’t quite rise to the level of illegal. Libel is a possibility, if it could be proved, but libel is a civil matter, not a federal crime that the FBI would get involved in.

Maybe I need to stir the pot a little. It wouldn’t be like I’d be giving them ideas they wouldn’t consider doing themselves eventually. Perhaps I can speed up the timeline for getting the FBI involved in tapping Merra’s phone if I suggest something of an illegal nature to him. Maybe like a personal threat to Brian’s safety.

And maybe I just won’t tell Fran that I suggested the idea to Merra. I’ll just let her assume the idea came from him.

There’s one other thing I have to do besides get Merra’s agreement to physically threaten Brian. I’m going to need corroboration of the fact. I researched this some and found out that for the FBI to be granted a warrant for a wiretap, more than just a single CI’s word of a potential crime would be required. I’m going to need another witness to the crime, but I have an idea how to get that.

First things first, though. I set up a meeting with Leonard Merra for tomorrow morning.

I wore a low-cut, rather tight dress to the meeting with Merra. His door was open, and he was seated at his desk. I knocked on the frame and said, “Morning, Leonard.”

He looked up and stared for a moment before standing and saying, “Yes, Dana, come in, come in.” He came around his desk and put his hand on my shoulder.

“Why don’t we make ourselves comfortable over here?” he said, guiding me with his hand to a sofa over on the side of his spacious office.

Man, this guy gives me the creeps, but I let him guide me to the sofa. I sat down, and he sat quite near to me so that our knees were almost touching.

“You know, Leonard, your idea about the magazine article slamming Glyptophan was a stroke of genius. Already that article is garnering hundreds, if not thousands of views as a result of your social media blitz. Did you come up with some of those hashtags being used?”

“No, can’t say as I did. We’ve done this sort of thing a few times. I’ve got people who do this for me and are very good at it.”

“I guess they are. The response is just as you envisioned.”

He smiled broadly as I flattered him. I also caught him sneaking peeks at my peaks, so to speak. Hey, I’m a poet, and I didn’t even know it!

“You know, Leonard,” I said, moving a little closer to him so that our knees now touched, “I believe this is a good start, but I fear that Brian Kendrick will prepare a response to this, which might tend to negate some of its effect. What if we were to turn up the heat a little and maybe expand our attack to several fronts? If we begin to hit him on many sides, he may get discouraged sooner rather than later.”

“That’s a thought. What else did you have in mind?”

“What if we were to begin by issuing a gentle threat to him just to get him to think twice about the advisability of starting his phase-2 trial?”

“Hmm, like what sort of threat?”

“Well, I’m assuming you have a little more experience in this than me. I don’t know. What would be appropriate at this stage of the game?”

“Frankly, Dana, I haven’t been involved with physical threats before, nor, I believe, has the company. Our means of persuasion has stopped short of that in the past, but the situation is dire now, and the financial stability of the company is at defcon-1. A successful Glyptophan might push us into bankruptcy, seeing as how we recently lost our top two sellers when the FDA banned them for a few crummy deaths. I’ll have to think about this. Perhaps it is time to step up our game.”

“Could I make a suggestion?”

“Sure.”

“I have a friend who may be able to help us with this. He has some experience in the, let’s say, coercion area. He used to work for a collections agency. Would you be willing to talk with him?”

“Hmm. I don’t know about this, but I guess I’d be willing to talk with him and see what he could offer. Why don’t you ask him and see if he’d be willing to sit down at a meeting to discuss it? I must say, I admire your initiative here, Dana, and your enthusiasm won’t go unnoticed.”

“Thank you, Leonard. I appreciate that. I hope I can continue to be of help. I’ll let you know when I’ve talked to him.”

As we stood, he squeezed my shoulder, and we headed for the door. “Thanks very much, Dana. I look forward to seeing you again soon.”

God, I feel like taking a shower after every meeting with that guy.

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.

Willy Stubblefield: The leader of Julia's bluegrass band.

Shannon Stubblefield: Willy's wife and the drummer in the bluegrass band.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Steve Griffin: Dana's husband.

Alphonse: A Dip-addicted, homeless man who Brian and Julia met in rehab 17 years earlier.

Picture courtesy of Playground-v3

Chapter 23
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 23

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 22: The 4th quarter edition of Myalosoma, the medical journal, came out early with a hit piece against Glyptophan and Brian. Leonard Merra assigned a team to make fake postings on social media to spread the word.

To help counteract this, Dana decides to stir things up by proposing a plan to Merra to confront Brian with threats of and actual mild physical violence. Merra seems amenable to the idea. Dana also says she has a friend familiar with strong-arm tactics and volunteers to set up a meeting between him and Merra. Dana is hoping to trap Merra with the goal of getting a tap on his phone in case he has any greater plans for violent intimidation tactics against Brian. She knows she will need corroboration to get a wiretap warrant, hence the suggestion of a friend to help.

Chapter 23

Marie

“Hello, Cecil?”

“It’s Cedric, Ms. Schmidt.”

“It’s Dr. Schmidt, Cecil.”

“Whatever,” we said together, laughing. “Listen, Cecil. I’m flying to North Carolina tomorrow. Would you be able to bring my bags down in the morning and arrange a taxi for me for a 9:00 AM pickup?”

“You going to see that grandbaby again for Christmas, Ms. Schmidt?”

“No, I thought I’d go down there to watch NASCAR and eat barbecue.”

“Ha ha, that’s a good one. I know you’re lyin’ to me. You gonna bring him a present this time?”

“As a matter of fact, I am. I bought him a toy banjo so he can grow up to play hick music like his mommy.”

“Aww, that sounds nice. Okay, I’ll come get your bags around 8:45. See ya tomorrow, Ms. Schmidt.”

“Good night, Cecil.”

The taxi was waiting for me right at 9:00 AM. Cedric helped load my bags into the trunk. I stopped him before he went back inside and handed him an envelope.

“Merry Christmas, Cecil. You’ve been a big help to me.”

“Why, thank you, Ms. Schmidt. You have a very Merry Christmas too. Say hi to that baby for me.”

Inside the envelope was a Christmas card and a check for $300.

I texted Julia, who was waiting for me in the cell phone lot when I arrived at Charlotte Airport around 4:30 PM. When she drove up to the arrivals area, I quickly hopped in the front seat with her.

“Where’s your baggage, Mother?”

“Oh, for Christ’s sake! You wouldn’t believe the hassle this fucking airline has put me through today.”

“What happened?”

“We boarded at the normal time, but before pulling away from the terminal, the captain announced there was a slight mechanical problem, and a team had been called in to check it out. After 45 minutes, they announce that we can’t use that plane today, so they unload all of us to sit around in the terminal until they can get another plane ready for us. They assured us all our luggage would be transferred to the new plane, which took two hours to get ready to fly.

“Finally, we board that plane, but the temperature had dropped so much by then that the plane had to be de-iced before we could take off, setting us back another 20 minutes. By the time we took off, it was over three hours later than we should have left.

“So, I get here to Charlotte, and I wait around for all the bags to be unloaded onto the carousel. None of my bags made it. Now I have to go file a report of the missing bags. They say they should come here by tomorrow—Christmas Eve day—and they will deliver them to your house.

“I’ll tell you, Julia, I laid into that woman in the baggage claim office and let her know what a shitty airline they run here. Their planes are falling apart, and they can’t do a simple thing like transfer all the bags from one plane to another without losing a few. She told me she didn’t work for the airlines but instead for the Charlotte airport, but she understood how frustrating things like that can be. She kept hitting me with, ‘Oh, bless yer heart’ and ‘Ah’m so sorry, Sweetie, fer all yer troubles,’ in that awful southern drawl. I felt like smacking her. My God, Julia. The world is falling apart for all the incompetence! I need a drink.”

Right then, I heard a little sneeze from the back seat, and I looked around.

“Ha, Gamma.”

“Hi, Sweetie. How’s my little guy? Julia, would you mind pulling over and letting me transfer to the back seat to sit by him?”

“Sure, no problem.”

She did, and I switched to the backseat with Johnny. Already I was starting to feel less agitated. He might be as effective as a stiff drink in that regard. I took his little hand and held it for a while.

“I’m sorry you had such a difficult trip, Mother. We can just go home and relax tonight and tomorrow. We’ve got a couple of houseguests, but they are really nice. You’ve met one of them already—Abby Payne. I have to warn you, though, the other one, Patty Mattson, has a strong southern accent. Please try to be nice. She is just the nicest person.”

“I will, Julia. Don’t worry. I’m just venting now.”

“I really do sympathize, Mother. That’s one thing I don’t miss at all about touring—the travel.”

“Do you really think you’ll go back to it someday?”

“I don’t know. We’ll see. If I do, it will be far less often than I used to. Maybe just a few times a year. Or maybe I’ll just audition for the Charlotte Symphony like you used to play in.”

“Such a waste of your talent that would be. And do you think you’ll continue playing in that bluegrass band of yours?”

“Oh, yeah. I wouldn’t give that up for anything now, Mother. I just really enjoy the music and the people in the band. They’re my friends now.”

“Whatever floats your boat. So, what’s the deal with all the houseguests?”

“They’re still working with Brian on that project. It’s taking a lot longer than they expected, and they’ll be here for at least another week—probably through New Year’s.”

“What on earth are they doing down there?”

“Well, it’s sort of top secret, and I’m not at liberty to discuss it with you. It’s a government project dealing with national defense. Brian’s sister Fran is the special agent in charge of the mission. I guess I never told you that she is an FBI agent. She said it was okay for me to tell you that, but I can’t say anything about what they are doing. I don’t even know too many of the details myself.”

“I must say, Julia, the more I hear about Brian, the more impressed I am with him. I really do feel awful about how badly I misjudged him all these years.”

“Thank you for saying that, Mother.”

I looked at Johnny then, and he turned to look at me and smiled. “Do I notice some teeth starting to poke through, Julia?”

“You bet. He just started right after you left a few weeks ago. He may have been an early walker, but he’s a late teether.”

“That’s okay. He’s perfect just the way he is.”

Fran

“Alright, you brainiacs. What’s the good word?” I asked them at our weekly meeting down in Brian’s lab.

Brian answered for the group. “I think we’ll be ready for production shortly after New Year's. I have to warn you, though, that, although we’ve been able to make the chemical, we haven’t been able to test it live. All of our testing has been and will continue to be done with QSAR modeling, which stands for Quantitative Structure-Activity Relationship Modeling. This is all done on the computer using simulation software that Patty and Abby have developed. It isn’t foolproof, and I can’t guarantee that the chemical will work in real life. There may be unforeseen things we haven’t accounted for, but I don’t think we have the time to test it in the field. We’ve got to rely on the accuracy of the models and hope we’ve thought of everything.”

“Fair enough. I have a lot of faith in you guys, and I agree with your assessment that we don’t have the time to try it out in the field. We just have to hope for the best.”

“Do you have a manufacturer lined up yet?” asked Brian.

“We do. Do you have a materials list for me?”

“Yes, but there may be some additions to it if we have to tweak the formula some more. We still have a few more simulations to run, but I think it’s pretty close. They are going to have to produce 5,000 gallons of the material to cover the 160 acres of the island. That’s going to require something like two C-130 Hercules planes with a carry capacity of at least 2,500 gallons, or one will have to make two trips. I have this all written down for you.”

“Excellent. How long do you think this will take to produce?”

“It shouldn’t take more than a week once they get started. I still plan on accompanying you on the trip there, Fran. Just let me know as soon as you can when you have a date for the mission.”

“Will do. Hey, listen, guys, you’ve all done outstanding work so far, and I can’t tell you how much we appreciate the Herculean effort you’ve put in to make this happen. I’m just so sorry y’all can’t make it home for Christmas.”

“Bless your heart, Fran,” said Patty. “It’s for a good cause. Seein’ that fellow at McDonald’s last week had a big impact on me. The way he quit work after one time takin’ that drug and how he doesn’t feel he needs any help just sends shivers down ma spine.”

“You know what struck me?” said Abby. “He seemed content with his life now. He’d spent all his money and his wife’s money on that drug and was kicked to the street, and all he was concerned about was getting more money to buy more of the drug. What kind of life is that? Yet he said, ‘It’s the best I ever felt.’ I surely hope we’re successful.”

“I think we will be. I believe in you guys,” said Fran.

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.

Willy Stubblefield: The leader of Julia's bluegrass band.

Shannon Stubblefield: Willy's wife and the drummer in the bluegrass band.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Steve Griffin: Dana's husband.

Alphonse: A Dip-addicted, homeless man who Brian and Julia met in rehab 17 years earlier.

Picture courtesy of Playground-v3

Chapter 24
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 24

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 23: Marie flies down to North Carolina to spend Christmas with her family. The trip causes one delay after another, and her luggage fails to arrive and must be brought to Julia’s house the following day. She is in a foul mood until she realizes Johnny is in the back seat, and her mood instantly changes.

Fran gets an update from the group about their progress in developing the anti-Dipraxa spray. It is nearly ready for manufacture, and Brian gives her a materials list to begin acquiring the necessary component materials. He also tells Fran he will be coming with her on the mission to the island.

Chapter 24

Dana

My plan was to call Barry Degner to be my corroborating witness. I wanted to catch Leonard Merra in an actual crime with the goal of justifying a wiretap on his phone to possibly catch him in something more nefarious later on. I will eventually tell Fran what I’m doing, but here’s a case where asking forgiveness might be better than asking permission.

Barry is a friend who is the husband of one of my regular golfing partners at the country club where I belong. He’s retired now, but he actually did work in collections—as the owner of a collections agency. He wasn’t the ‘leg-breaker’ I implied to Leonard, but he’s a big, tough-looking guy, which belies his teddy bear tendencies. He’s an amusing guy too, and I was sure he’d get a big charge out of acting in the proposed role.

I got him on the phone, and after a bit of chit-chat, I said, “Barry, I’ve got a proposition for you that I think you may enjoy. I want you to know that this is purely an acting job, and we won’t have any intention of following through with what I’ll be proposing that you do. It isn’t a practical joke or anything like that but is something I hope will provoke an FBI investigation of my company’s illegal practices.”

“Brother, Dana, with that introduction, you’ve really got me intrigued. This sounds serious. Have you become a whistleblower against your company?”

I told him he was exactly right and gave him a brief rundown of the situation with Glyptophan and how it threatened the financial stability of my company. Barry has always kidded me about working for the pharmaceutical industry. I told him about what they’ve done so far with the social media blitz and what my plan was to try to get a wiretap of Merra’s phone. He said he was happy to help. I promised to set up a meeting with him and Leonard Merra, in which I was hoping Leonard would take the bait and assign Barry a task. I also told him we wouldn’t use his real name at the meeting.

This morning, I called Merra and said, “Leonard, I’ve got an agreement from my collections friend who would be willing to meet with you. Shall we set something up?”

“That was fast, Dana. Could we possibly meet as soon as this afternoon?”

“I’ll call him and find out. Shall we say 2:00 PM in your office?”

“Perfect.”

I called Barry back, and he agreed to meet here at 2:00. I reminded him once again of the details of the situation with tips on how to act. I didn’t tell him of everything I had planned, though.

I went home over lunch and changed into a form-fitting pencil dress for our 2:00 PM meeting. Barry Degner met me at my office a few minutes before 2:00. He was wearing a black suit with black shirt and deep burgundy tie. He made me nervous looking at him, and I know him well. We went up to see Leonard Merra together, and I introduced him as Tony Faiella.

After introductions, we got right down to business. Merra said, “I assume, Tony, Dana has told you about our efforts so far and that she and I decided together to expand our efforts to multiple fronts. She assured me you are the right person for the job, and from all appearances, she was right. I don’t have much experience with this kind of persuasion, so perhaps you could tell me what you could do to dissuade Brian Kendrick from continuing with his drug trials and give up.”

“Well, I could do whatever extent youse felt comfortable wid. Bedda gimme a little guidance here. Are we considerin’ just verbal trets, or you wanna see some leg-breakin’?”

“A little more like the latter than the former. Maybe no broken bones yet, but perhaps you could rough him up some?”

“And whadda you want me to say to him?”

“Say something like, ‘It might be a good idea to discontinue his human trials before something worse were to happen.’ You get the picture.”

“Okay, my fee for dis would be, say, $4,000.”

“Hmm, that seems a little steep.”

“Hey, I gotta fly down dere. Too far to drive. Dat’ll cost me nearly a grand right dere.”

“Why don’t we say $3,000 with a promise of more work? But you’ll need to record the exchange so I can verify he got the threat. I don’t really expect this first warning to be successful, but you never know. In the future, there will be more in it for you, but then we’ll step it up, and I’ll expect some photographic evidence of your activities.”

“Okay, tree grand it is—dis time.”

“Why don’t we continue to communicate through Dana here, and you can call her when the job is done and give her a report of what you did and the recording? Hopefully, that will be soon after the New Year. She will also see that you get paid.”

“You got it, Mr. Merra. Nice meetin’ ya and doin’ bidness wid ya.”

“Nice meeting you too, Tony.”

So, I could see I was to be Merra’s fall guy should anything go wrong in this, but that’s okay. Nothing will go wrong, because nothing will happen—at least for now.

“Well, that went well,” I said to Barry later in my office.”

“Yeah, I don’t really want to take his money for this, Dana, especially since I’m not going to do anything.”

“No, take it and donate it to a good charity, especially one that has a beef with Big Pharma. You did a great job, Barry. Loved the Philly accent you hammed up, and you definitely look the part.”

“So, what happens now?”

“The only thing I’ll probably need from you is to write down what transpired at this meeting, the same as I will do. Of course, we’ll make it clear this was all a ruse and that you were contracting to perform a felony that you had no intention of committing. I’ll let you know if my FBI contact requires it.”

“Look, Dana, I know what we’re doing here has some potential for blowback on us if your company gets wind of what we did. They could file conspiracy charges against us. I just hope your friend in the FBI will have our back.”

“I’m sure she will,” I said, although I wasn’t 100% positive of that. I still don’t know exactly how Fran will see this, but I’m banking on her supporting us in the end. “Hey, I understand your hesitation, but I know I’m willing to accept a little risk if it means we can bring down my company in the more than likely event this will escalate. I also don’t expect you to do any more than you’ve already done, unless you want to take it to the next level.”

“Fair enough. I’m not too thrilled with the pharmaceutical industry either. They’ve been covering up the addictive potential of opioids for years. And how about all the Covid vaccine hype—trying to convince us how effective the vaccines were and getting billions from the government to keep telling us we need to get revaccinated when they didn’t appear to do shit to stop us from getting Covid? And all those heart-related deaths in young people they tried to diminish. The whole thing was a lot of overblown nonsense with huge profits to those vaccine makers.”

“Many people do feel that way. At any rate, thanks again for your help in this.”

I decided I would give Fran a call later tonight and tell her all about what I’ve done. I hope she will view this as a nice Christmas present, especially the secret recording I made of the meeting.

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.

Willy Stubblefield: The leader of Julia's bluegrass band.

Shannon Stubblefield: Willy's wife and the drummer in the bluegrass band.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Steve Griffin: Dana's husband.

Alphonse: A Dip-addicted, homeless man who Brian and Julia met in rehab 17 years earlier.

Barry Degner (aka Tony Faiella): Dana's friend who will act the part of a leg-breaker to attack Brian.

Picture courtesy of Playground-v3

Chapter 25
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 25

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 24: Dana calls her friend Barry Degner to help her inveigle Leonard Merra into issuing a call to violence against Brian Kendrick in hopes that Fran can use this to secure a wiretap warrant against Merra. They pull off the ruse, and Merra agrees to pay “Tony Faiella” to physically assault Brian but without breaking any bones. She also secretly tapes the conversation with Merra. Now she just has to present her findings to Fran.

Chapter 25

Fran

Mike and I were wrapping Christmas presents when I got a call from Dana. I went into the bedroom, where the Christmas music wouldn’t be a distraction, to take the call.

We chatted for a while before she got down to the reason for the call.

“Fran, I’ve got a few things to report. First of all, that medical journal, Myalosoma, came out a little early with their last quarter edition. The hit piece they wrote about Glyptophan and Brian was rather devastating, and the resulting social media blitz was about as bad as we predicted. Were you aware it came out early, and do you know if Brian has had a chance to do anything to minimize the effect?”

“He has his legal team preparing that now. You’re right; it did catch them off-guard, but they’re on it.”

“Well, I felt badly about this—”

“No need to. You reported this scheme to me as soon as you knew about it.”

“Yes, I did, but I got to thinking that maybe there was more I could do to move things along to get that wiretap.”

“Uh… okay. Like what?”

“I know what they’ve done so far doesn’t yet rise to that level, but I figured if we could catch them in an actual crime, such as assault, we could maybe justify a wiretap. So, here’s what I did.”

I groaned inwardly as she proceeded to tell me about her plan to entice Leonard Merra to order an assault on Brian. She mentioned using her friend, Barry Degner, as an accomplice.

It took me a few moments to formulate an answer for her. “Dana, while I applaud your initiative, I must confess to having some major reservations about this approach. I’m going to have to really think about how and even if we can use the information you obtained to justify getting a wiretap warrant. I’m not totally ruling it out, but there are some legal and ethical considerations here.

“Although I’m not up on the state laws of Pennsylvania, what you did was probably illegal and definitely borders on entrapment, but there are a couple of things that mitigate against that. First, the FBI didn’t suggest or encourage you to do it; it was entirely your idea and plan that you carried out. The second thing in your favor was that you didn’t appear to coerce Merra into action. From what you told me, he seemed almost eager to embrace the idea, even though he was somewhat ignorant of how to go about it.

“I will say that was smart thinking to get an accomplice to be a witness to Merra’s complicity. A report from only one person would probably not be enough to convince a judge. Now, if I’m to consider taking this to a judge, I’m going to need a separate report from each of you, describing everything that transpired.”

“That won’t be a problem, Fran. I’ve already told Barry that would be the case. But in addition to the reports, I have something that may be even more convincing. I secretly taped the entire conversation on my phone, and I could send you the file.”

“Oh, Dana. You didn’t! I know you’re aware that Pennsylvania is a two-party consent state because we’ve previously discussed that.”

“But you also told me that wouldn’t necessarily rule out a one-party consent conversation in some circumstances.”

“That’s true. I did say that, but whether this rises to the level of one of the exceptions, I kind of doubt it. I certainly won’t bring it to the judge as evidence to get the wiretap warrant because it was illegally obtained, but I would still like to hear it. Okay, what’s done is done. As I said, I do admire your initiative and enthusiasm for this new role, but in the future, could you please consult with me before undertaking something of this nature? It could save you some real grief if things happen to go wrong.”

“Message received, Fran.”

“Alright, then. Why don’t you send me the recording you made from your phone, which will encrypt it, and I will take a listen. I’ll get back to you if I decide we can use a report from you and your friend, Barry. I’ll call you probably tomorrow.”

“Fran, there’s just one more little thing. Merra wants a recording of the encounter between Barry and Brian. This will be faked, of course, but do you think you could somehow send me a recording of Brian’s voice so I could get someone to impersonate him being confronted and attacked? This is just so that, if Merra ever hears Brian speak somewhere, he won’t figure out that he’s been duped.”

“Oh, Jesus. I’ll tell you what: He once made a YouTube video of a lecture he gave when he worked at Detry Pharmaceutical. I’ll send you the link for that. This faked recording you’ll be making is strictly for Merra; I won’t be taking fake evidence to the judge for the warrant request.”

“Understood.”

She sent the recording of her meeting with Merra and Barry Degner promptly, and after listening to it, as well as hearing her verbal report today, I do have to applaud her information, if not her methods. Whether or not I can sell it to a judge in exchange for a wiretap warrant remains to be seen. The potential danger to Brian in the future is clear enough from Merra’s request to hear and see evidence of the assaults, but I just have a real problem using Dana’s recording to convince the judge because of the 2-party consent laws in Pennsylvania.

To be honest, I’m not even sure I should go to the judge at all with this except for the fact that it’s my own brother who is the target here. What Dana did was most likely illegal and leaves me with an ethical dilemma: Should I use the results of an illegal act to try to get a wiretap warrant? I certainly can’t tell the judge everything that went into this plan, or I’ll never get it. That doesn’t seem right, I know, but I’m human, and I have my own set of personal feelings and biases that influence my decisions. Perhaps the ends justify the means here? At least I wouldn’t be making the decision to grant the warrant.

I guess I’ve decided to do it, but I’m going to have to carefully choose the judge to obtain the warrant from. After some research, I made an appointment to see Judge Raymond Jezek of the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia a week from today. I would have Dana’s and Barry Degner’s reports by then. I’ll call Dana tomorrow, as I’d told her, and give her and Barry the okay to write the reports.

Marie

Would wonders never cease? My suitcases did actually arrive on Christmas Eve day when they said they would. At least I now had some presents to give. After dinner tonight, Abby and Patty left us to go call their families.

Julia, announced that we would be having a combined Christmas/New Year’s/Johnny’s 1st birthday party at the house tomorrow on Christmas day. She hired a caterer to provide the food and drink, and there would be music. She had also invited her entire bluegrass band as some of the guests, and they would provide the entertainment. Oh, joy! Just what we’d need: an afternoon of hillbilly music.

Because we would be so busy getting ready for the party tomorrow, we decided to open presents tonight.

We started with Johnny’s presents. He sat on the floor surrounded by packages, which he enjoyed tearing open. He seemed more interested in the paper and ribbons than he was with the presents—mostly clothes and a few toys. I had three presents for him. The first was the book How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss. I promised to read it to him later.

Next, he opened a box with a little hoodie that said, “I Love My Grandma” on it. He wasn’t particularly interested in either of these gifts and kept putting the ribbons in his mouth. The third gift captured his interest, though. It was a toy banjo with four strings that could be tuned. I showed him how to strum it. It only slightly resembled a real banjo, but he seemed to recognize it and said, “Ba-bo, ba-bo.” He’d graduated from saying “ba-ba” to “ba-bo” now. He eschewed the ribbons and played with his new ba-bo for the next few minutes.

Meanwhile, I handed Julia her present. It was a collage of pictures of her playing the violin through her childhood years. Unfortunately, the glass that covered the picture in its frame was cracked in a few spots. “Those damn luggage handlers. The way they throw the bags around, it’s no wonder this happened. And they just bang them down like they don’t give a shit that people’s valuables might be in there.”

Brian suggested, “Maybe if you carry something like that again, you might try taping it between stiff cardboard or covering it with bubble wrap.”

“I wrapped a few towels around it, thinking that would be good enough, but it obviously wasn’t because of the way those animals handled it.”

“It’s beautiful, Mother, and don’t worry. We can easily get a new piece of glass for it. Thank you so much for this. It must have taken a lot of work to put it together.”

“You’re welcome, Julia. I enjoyed looking through the old pictures and picking out the right ones for it.

“Now, Brian, I’ve got a couple of things for you too.” I handed him two packages—a hard one and a soft one. He opened the soft one first, which was a gray sweatshirt with a picture of Walter White dressed in his Heisenberg * outfit on it. He laughed and put it on. And then he opened his other present, which was a beautifully carved chessboard and pieces.

“This is stunning, Marie—a really lovely chess set. Julia and I still play a lot together. Thank you very much for this and for the sweatshirt. Now we have a few presents for you too.”

Julia handed me a wrapped box that contained an electronic picture frame loaded with pictures of Johnny from his birth up to the present. They would cycle through with each one on display for five seconds before advancing.

The next present was a family picture of the three of them looking right into the camera. It was a beautiful picture in a sturdy wooden frame.

The final present was a CD of Julia’s bluegrass band, The Clark Creek Drifters. Julia was featured prominently in the picture on the cover. “I can hardly wait to hear this, Julia.” I only tried a little to keep the sarcasm from my voice.

“You’ll get to hear us play some of those songs live tomorrow, Mother.”

“I’ll be waiting with bated breath. I wonder if I’ll be able to sleep tonight from the excitement.” We all laughed. “Well, thank you both very much for these presents. It’s been years since I’ve either gotten or given any Christmas presents. This is nice.” I got up and hugged each of them.

“Alright, Johnny, would you like to hear your new book now? I think you’ll like it. It’s all about Grandma and what a Grinch she used to be.”

I sat down on the couch with the book, and Brian picked Johnny up and placed him in my lap, and he actually stayed.

I began reading,

Every Who down in Whoville loved Christmas a lot...
But the Grinch, who lived just north of Whoville, did NOT!…

Author Notes * Heisenberg is Walter White's alter ego in the hit series, Breaking Bad. He was the evil meth cook part of Walter's personality.

CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.

Willy Stubblefield: The leader of Julia's bluegrass band.

Shannon Stubblefield: Willy's wife and the drummer in the bluegrass band.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Steve Griffin: Dana's husband.

Alphonse: A Dip-addicted, homeless man who Brian and Julia met in rehab 17 years earlier.

Barry Degner (aka Tony Faiella): Dana's friend who will act the part of a leg-breaker to attack Brian.

Chapter 26
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 26

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 25: Fran gets a call from Dana, who describes the action she has taken to “stir the pot” and get Merra to do something that would be FBI-worthy of tapping his phone. Fran is not thrilled with what she has done by enlisting her friend Barry Degner to help in a ruse to inspire Merra into hiring Barry to attack Brian. She debates whether or not she can use the information so obtained to try to get a wiretap warrant, but, in the end, decides she will try.

Marie’s luggage arrives on Christmas Eve day, much to her surprise, and the family decides to exchange presents that night because they will all be busy preparing for a party on Christmas day. Everyone enjoys the presents they received, including Johnny with a toy banjo. Marie thinks about how this is the first Christmas in a long time when she either gave or received gifts, reflecting her growing closeness to her family.

Chapter 26

Marie

The caterers began arriving at noon to get set up for the party that would begin at 1:00. I decided to sample the wares at the bar. The bartender provided a nice variety of beer, wine, and spirits, as well as two types of punch—spiked and plain. None of that for me; just a simple martini, please, but the bartender talked me into dressing it up with some fruits and flavored spirits. Not bad, but not really necessary. Usually just an olive is fine.

I helped Julia get Johnny ready. He’d had an especially dirty diaper this morning, which, believe it or not, I changed, but he needed a bath before the party. We dressed him in a pair of red overalls and a green flannel shirt as a sign of the season. He then toddled into the family room and began playing with his new banjo. We heard him laughing at something and went in to find him looking up at the family’s cat, who had climbed up into the Christmas tree and was batting at an ornament. This cat and I aren’t exactly enemies, but she seems to want nothing to do with me, either on my previous visit here or this one. I guess she senses I’m not a cat person, and keeps her distance. That’s fine with me. Johnny loves her, though. Nadia, I think her name is, but he calls her Na-na. She’s very tolerant of him, too, and puts up with a lot of rough handling with only an occasional bop on his head.

Julia got her out of the tree, shooed her away, and picked up the pieces of a broken ornament. Johnny had been laughing so hard at the cat’s antics that he’d begun wheezing and coughing a little. It sounded like the beginning of an asthma attack, which Julia had informed me he occasionally has. She showed me how to use his nebulizer to calm things down.

The guests began arriving at 1:00. I was a bit overdressed for this crowd, who mostly wore denim jeans or overalls. A lot of plaid and flannel were present. Julia had changed into some denim overalls to match these folks.

A few of them carried instrument cases, including one for a string bass. Brian helped the one named Shannon, who I’d met before, make a couple of trips to her pickup truck to retrieve a set of drums. The “musicians” had arrived.

A few neighbors also arrived, as well as Patty Mattson’s boyfriend. There were perhaps 20 of us in all.

After introductions, I headed to the bar for another martini, this time with only an olive. The band leader named Willy joined me there.

“Hello, Miss Marie. Great to see you again,” he said and grabbed me in another bear hug. “Julia tells me you taught her most of what she knows about the violin. I’m hopin’ maybe you’ll join us in a number or two later on.”

“Well, maybe after I’ve had a few more of these,” I said, holding up my drink.

“I hear you, believe me. I started out in classical music many years ago and played in the Charlotte Symphony for a while. Trombone was my instrument. But then I also had a love for country music that my MeeMaw used to love. She was a singer. Then when bluegrass became popular, especially when Flatt and Scruggs began recordin’ it, that’s when I really found my niche in music. I know it’s not for everyone, but it has a way of growin’ on you.”

“Well, skin tags and warts have a way of growing on you too.”

He chuckled and repeated that it may not be for everyone, and there’s no arguing about taste. Well, I had plenty of argument there but decided to keep it to myself.

Brian’s sister and her husband then arrived and made a beeline for Johnny. Everyone was making quite a fuss over him, and he seemed to eat it up. He wasn’t a shy baby at all.

Is that a tinge of jealousy I was feeling? Perhaps he just likes everybody, and the way he seems to like me is nothing special.

When someone else pulled Johnny from her grasp, Fran spotted me and came over. “Hello, Marie. It’s nice to see you again. I guess it’s hard to keep away very long from that little cutie.”

“Nice to see you too, Fran. Yes, he certainly seems to be making quite a hit. I understand you’re keeping my son-in-law busy on some cloak-and-dagger secret project.”

“Yes, it’s amazing how devoted he is to it. It’s proven to be incredibly difficult, but he has a lot of fortitude. He’s a very impressive fellow, wouldn’t you agree?”

“I’ve slowly come to that realization, yes. He’s a good husband and father too and quite a stud, as he reminds everyone.”

Fran didn’t seem to know how to respond to this and just smiled vaguely. “Well, I hope you enjoy your stay. I’m sure you will with that darling grandson to be around.” She wandered off then.

The food was served buffet style, and people just came up and filled their plates whenever they felt like it. It was very informal. I wasn’t particularly hungry, but I did have another drink. It was helping me enjoy myself a little among this bunch of rednecks Julia and Brian had invited to their party. God, I pictured her among a much more intelligent and refined group than this crowd.

After a sufficient number had “chowed down,” as one of these hicks put it, the musicians seemed to answer to a silent signal and headed to the center of the family room where they’d set up to play. They began to play that awful, twangy music. Julia mostly played fiddle, which is the name they give a violin when it plays said awful, twangy music, but she occasionally played the banjo along with the other banjo player.

I’d fortified myself with another couple of drinks just to get through this performance when the moment I was dreading came, and Julia asked me if I’d like to come up and play “fiddle” (God, I hated that word) in a couple of numbers she was sure I would know: “Turkey in the Straw” and “The Irish Washerwoman.” I knew them, of course. What violinist doesn’t? I tried refusing, but everyone in the band and the crowd implored me to join in, so, reluctantly, I made my way forward, staggering slightly.

I picked up Julia’s “fiddle,” and the band began to play. It went well enough, I guess, and I didn’t do anything too outlandish for “Turkey in the Straw,” but I got a little mischievous for “The Irish Washerwoman” and decided to begin speeding up. The band was taking it at a rather slow tempo, and as we continued to repeat the main theme, I began going faster and faster, leading the group along. After a while, I sped up so fast that they couldn’t keep up and gradually stopped playing. But I was really ripping now and kept going faster and faster until even I began fumbling the notes. The audience looked a little uncomfortable.

I turned to the band. “Sorry ‘bout that, folks. Forgot who I ‘uz playin’ with. Thought I ‘uz playin’ with real musicians there for a mint… a minuet. Hey, anyone for a minuet?” I launched into Bach’s Minuet in G Major at twice the natural pace. I was showing off and amusing myself, but Julia decided I’d had enough of stealing the show and stopped me.

“Mother,” she said quietly in my ear, “perhaps you’d like to take a seat in the audience now. Thanks for joining us, but I think we’ll get back to some bluegrass music.”

“Whassa matter? You no longer like to hear real music anymore?” I said curtly.

“Mother, please. Could you just go back and sit down now?”

At that point, Brian came forward and said to the crowd, “Let’s all give Marie a round of applause for her interesting contribution to the music.” He began applauding, and the audience joined in. He took the violin and bow from me and handed them to Julia, then escorted me back to my seat as the audience continued to clap.

He sat down beside me, probably to keep an eye on me, as the music resumed. I hopped right up and said, “I’m gettin’ another drink.”

Brian put his hand on my arm to stop me and said, “Don’t you think maybe you’ve had enough, Marie?”

“Oh, not nearly,” I said as I shook him off and headed to the bar.

We were finally down to the band’s last number, “The Devil Goes Down to Georgia,” which Julia said they end all their programs with. They called Brian up to do the vocals, and without him there to babysit me, I began really whooping it up and clapping along in an exaggerated fashion, shouting out, “Go Devil!” during the devil’s part Julia was playing and “Go Johnny!” during the Johnny part of the fiddling. I was getting a few funny looks from some of the other partygoers, but I didn’t care; I was finally enjoying myself. When it was over, I let out a few loud whistles with my thumb and forefinger affixed to my mouth. I kept whistling even after everyone else had stopped applauding.

Brian came back and gently removed my hand from my mouth. He said, “Marie, why don’t you come with me? I’ve got something interesting to show you.” He had to guide me along because I was very wobbly now. We headed through the kitchen and downstairs to his basement lab, and he held me firmly as we descended the stairs.

What he showed me was the picture I’d given to Julia of her performing during her childhood. He’d mounted it on the wall down there, and the glass over the picture was intact.

“I had a piece of glass of the right size in another picture, and I replaced it and hung it this morning. Looks great there, doesn’t it?”

I stared at it for a while. I pointed to one picture in particular. “Look at her there, Brian. Thas my favorite. Look how determin’ she looks. She was playin’ the Carmen Fantasy there, which is a very dif’cult piece even for a ‘dult, an’ she was jus’ nine there. God, she was amazin’!”

I began choking up. “How did I blow it so badly with her? She deserved better than me.” The tears started flowing then, and I became wracked with sobs. Brian took me in his arms and held me tightly as I sobbed and sobbed. “I’m so sorry now. I’m so sorry,” I kept saying as Brian continued to hold me and rub my back. “You are a good man, Brian. I’m so sorry I doubted you.”

He simply said, “That’s over with now, Marie. All done,” as he continued to hold me and rub my back.

It took me a long time to get it all out, but when the sobbing finally stopped, he handed me a pocket handkerchief (what young man carries a pocket handkerchief?) for me to dry my tears.

I let out a big sigh as I looked at him. “Thank you, Brian, for bein’ so unnerstandin’, but I think I’m goin’ to be sick. You said once you had a bathroom down here?”

He guided me quickly to it, and I went inside and closed the door. I spent the next 10 minutes on my knees with my head over the toilet bowl.

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.

Willy Stubblefield: The leader of Julia's bluegrass band.

Shannon Stubblefield: Willy's wife and the drummer in the bluegrass band.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Steve Griffin: Dana's husband.

Alphonse: A Dip-addicted, homeless man who Brian and Julia met in rehab 17 years earlier.

Barry Degner (aka Tony Faiella): Dana's friend who will act the part of a leg-breaker to attack Brian.

Picture courtesy of Playground-v3

Chapter 27
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 27

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 26: Marie begins drinking right away at the Christmas party at the Kendricks’ before the guests even begin to arrive. By the time she is called on to play fiddle on a few numbers with Julia and the bluegrass band, she is quite soused and begins showing off. An embarrassed Julia asks her to rejoin the audience, and Brian helps out by escorting her to her seat. She begins making an obnoxious fool of herself with loud cries and whistles during the remaining numbers.

Brian takes her away from this by offering to show her something down in his lab. It’s the picture collage Marie had made, showing pictures of Julia playing the violin as a child that Brian had mounted on the wall. She begins reflecting on how amazingly talented Julia was and how poor a mother she has been to her, and she sobs in Brian’s arms as he tries to comfort her. She is then violently ill from all the drinking.

Chapter 27

Marie

I did not sleep well last night and still had quite a hangover going. I don’t usually drink as much as I did yesterday, and I was feeling the results now.

I had very little to eat yesterday—that’s part of the problem—and I was starving now. I went downstairs to the kitchen to find Julia feeding Johnny some oatmeal.

“Morning, Mother. Didn’t see you last night. I hope you’re feeling better this morning.”

I sat down at the kitchen table across from her. “I had a very bad headache and needed to be in a dark room. Listen, Julia, I’m sorry for behaving the way I did at the party yesterday and for any embarrassment I may have caused you. I had a bit too much to drink, and it affected my behavior.”

“Ya think?”

“You don’t have to get smart with me. I know I overindulged.”

“But did you really, Mother? Was that amount of alcohol that unusual for you?”

“Are you accusing me of being an alcoholic?”

“I don’t know. Are you?”

“Certainly not. I’m a respected member of one of the premier orchestras in the country. Could I be an alcoholic and still perform at the capacity needed for the job?”

“Maybe. If you’re careful about when you drink, I think you could probably do both. It just seems somewhat ironic that that’s what you held against Brian all those years—that he was a drug addict—yet you’re just using a different drug.”

“I am not an addict, or an alcoholic, or whatever you want to call it. I have a few drinks in the evenings after work, but that’s it.”

“Well, I hope that’s the extent of it, Mother, but that’s not the impression I got the last time you visited. You drank up all our liquor and some of what we replenished it with.”

“Well, you can certainly afford it.”

“That’s not the point. I just wonder why you feel the need to drink so much.”

“It’s a coping mechanism. I feel out of my comfort zone here, especially when in the presence of…”

“All these redneck hillbillies who are our friends?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t have to. Look, I know they are not the kind of people you typically associate with, but they are great people, and they love their music even though it isn’t the type of music you love. They have welcomed Brian and me into their lives. It was serendipity the way it happened, but wonderful things can happen if you let them. I just worry about you, Mother. Do you have friends?”

“None that I’m particularly close to.”

“So, you go to work each day to a job you feel unappreciated in, then come home and have a few drinks to put you back in your comfort zone. Is that the extent of your life now?”

I didn’t have a good answer for her, so I said nothing. Put that way, it sounds pretty bleak.

“Mother, you would make such a good teacher. You could learn a thing or two about being more encouraging, but from a technical standpoint, you are fantastic. Have you ever considered taking on some students?”

“After teaching you, they would all be a disappointment.”

“Well, that’s nice of you to say, but it’s all in the attitude you take towards it. If you can help impart a love of music to your students and can get to know them as people, should it really matter to you how far they decide to take it with the ability or level of interest that they have? View it as a challenge to see how much interest in playing well you can convey to them, and just accept the level that they choose. If you’re encouraging and nice, you’ll probably get a better result. I have a few students myself now. Not all of them are great players or will be, but they all seem to enjoy it, and it’s fun just working with them.”

“That’s because you’re a nice person. I’m not.”

“Would you want to be? What’s stopping you? Look, Mother, Brian told me about what happened down in his lab yesterday when he took you down there. I know you have regrets about how you raised me, but human beings can change. It can be hard work, but it’s possible. Ebenezer Scrooge managed it in one night. So did the Grinch. I know these are only stories, but the important thing they convey is that it’s possible to change; you may just need some help. Maybe professional help might be something to consider. I hate to picture you alone every night drinking by yourself.”

I reached across the table and put my hand over hers that was resting there. “I’ll think about it.”

She placed her other hand on top of mine. “That’s good.” She patted my hand a couple of times. “Good.”

I smiled at her. “Julia, I’m starving. Why don’t you let me take over feeding Johnny, and maybe you could scramble me a couple of eggs?”

“I’ll be happy to, Mother.”

One nice thing about being down here in the south during December is that the weather is a lot better than in New York. The day after Christmas turned out to be a beautiful day, and by mid-afternoon, the temperature had risen to a very pleasant 64 degrees. Julia and I decided to take Johnny to a park in town.

Brian was back at work today in his lab with Abby and Patty, or he probably would have come with us. He said they were getting very close to a solution, and with one final push over the next couple of days, he thought they would have it. I don’t know what the hell they are working on down there, since they won’t give me any clue about it, but it must be important if the FBI has commissioned it.

It was a long walk from the parking lot to the playground at the park, and we’d forgotten to pack Johnny’s stroller. I started out by carrying him, but my back has been hurting a little lately, and I told Julia I wasn’t quite up to it. I handed him to her, and she carried him the rest of the way.

She put him down when we reached the playground, and he immediately toddled over to the swings. “I’ll push him, Julia.”

I lifted him up into one of the baby swings. “Johnny, can you say ‘swings?’”

“Ga-ga.”

“Close enough.”

Julia sat down on a bench about 20 feet away and watched as I began pushing him. My headache had cleared up, and I was feeling better since I’d gotten some food in me. My hangover was dissipating rapidly now that I was out in the fresh air and moving and enjoying the company of my grandson.

A young girl of about 12 came up to Julia and sat down next to her on the bench. “Hi, Miss Julia. Merry day after Christmas.”

“Hi, Sherry. Back at you. Are you here with Patrick?”

“Yeah, he’s over there on the monkey bars. He’ll probably want to play with Johnny after a while.”

“Sherry, that’s my mother, Johnny’s grandmother, pushing him on the swing.”

She waved. “Hi, Johnny’s grandma. Hi, Johnny.”

“Mother, this is Sherry—one of my students I told you about.”

“Nice to meet you, Sherry,” I said. She was a chubby kid and not very attractive, but I could tell she adored Julia. They were holding hands.

“Miss Julia is a very good teacher. She said she learned most of what she knows from you. You must be a good teacher too.”

“I don’t know about that. She was a good student.”

“Well, I’m not very good yet, but someday I’d like to play in a band like she does.”

“Imagine that. Well, just keep practicing. That’s what it takes.”

“I will.”

All this niceness was beginning to overwhelm me a little. Plus, my back was paining me with the pushing. Johnny also began squirming in his seat, so we stopped, and I lifted him down.

Sherry’s little brother must have spotted us because he came over to play with Johnny and took him by the hand as they went over to the sandbox. It was not far, and we could keep an eye on them from where we were. I joined Julia and Sherry on the bench.

“So, what makes Julia such a good teacher, Sherry?”

“Well, she’s nice. She doesn’t yell at me when I mess up, and she tells me how good I’m doing when I play it right. And if I have three hours a week on my practice card, she gives me candy. We just have a lot of fun at the lessons.”

“Is that what you typically practice—three hours a week?”

“I have to babysit for my little brothers a lot of the time because my mother is working part-time now. But I practice as much as I can after I finish my homework.”

My goodness. Julia used to practice at least three hours every single day. Yep, this girl probably will never amount to much as a musician. Is it worth even bothering then? Julia seems to think so. “Well, it sounds like you’re doing the best you can.”

“Yeah, I really like it.”

So different from my upbringing. I may have had a kook for a mother who was a narcissistic taskmaster, but at least I became an excellent musician. This girl doesn’t have the advantages I had but seems to be doing what she can do and has a loving teacher to boot. Maybe she won’t become much of a violinist, but she appears to enjoy it, and that counts for something… I guess.

So much to think about and reevaluate here.

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.

Willy Stubblefield: The leader of Julia's bluegrass band.

Shannon Stubblefield: Willy's wife and the drummer in the bluegrass band.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Steve Griffin: Dana's husband.

Alphonse: A Dip-addicted, homeless man who Brian and Julia met in rehab 17 years earlier.

Barry Degner (aka Tony Faiella): Dana's friend who will act the part of a leg-breaker to attack Brian.

Picture courtesy of Playground-v3

Chapter 28
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 28

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 27: Marie and Julia discuss her behavior at the Christmas party the previous day, and Julia questions her about being an alcoholic. Marie denies it. Julia also finds out Marie’s life mainly consists of just going to work, coming home, and drinking. She suggests getting psychological help and perhaps taking on a few violin students. Marie promises to give it some thought.

On an outing at the park with Johnny, Julia introduces Marie to one of her young students, and Marie gets more food for thought when she sees the loving relationship between teacher and student that Julia has with her student.

Chapter 28

Fran

In the early morning of December 30, I caught a flight to Philadelphia. At 10:00 AM, I entered the James A. Byrne U.S. Courthouse on Market Street for my meeting with U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Jezek. Of the nine judges in that office, Judge Jezek was the most conservative of the lot and the one most apt to grant the wiretap. He was a Bush the elder appointee and was rather advanced in years.

“Good morning, Judge. Hope you had a Merry Christmas and will have a Happy New Year. I didn’t expect to find too many people working this week between the holidays.”

“The work of the courts never stops, Agent Pekarski. The same good wishes to you. Tell me about this warrant you’re seeking today.”

I gave him the complete history of how I’d met Dana and how she’d become a CI. I described to him what she’d told me so far of her company’s tactics and what she and Barry Degner had heard Merra order. I then handed him the reports they had provided me, which described the recent contract to issue bodily harm to Brian.

Judge Jezek took a few minutes to read the two reports. When he finished, he removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes while formulating his response. He didn’t look particularly pleased.

“So let me get this straight. This leg-breaker fellow, Barry Degner, had a sudden attack of conscience and decided not to do what he was being paid to do after all but instead rat on Merra?”

“As far as I know, he wasn’t really a leg-breaker as you put it, but someone my CI thought could play the part after Merra showed an interest in this sort of thing. When Merra confided in her that he wanted to step things up, she got the idea to use Barry as a witness to his scheme.”

This was a slight rearranging of the order of things, but I hoped the judge wouldn’t pursue it any further.

“I must say, this is very thin grounds on which to issue a wiretap warrant. It doesn’t sound like Newman-Price has engaged in similar violent activities in the past.”

“You’re correct, Judge. To Merra’s knowledge, they have not, but they recently had their top two drugs taken off the market by the FDA for problems, and now their third-leading seller is being threatened. The company is getting desperate and is facing bankruptcy if Glyptophan proves to be as successful as it appears to be so far. They have waged smear campaigns against competitors’ products in the past the way they are now doing against Glyptophan. I think it’s just a matter of time until they step up their game, as the reports indicate.”

“Well, I still think we may be on shaky ground here, but the threat seems real, so I’m inclined to be lenient in this case and grant you the warrant—for 30 days. If there’s been no further evidence of wrongdoing or at least an impending threat of wrongdoing in that time, I won’t be extending it.”

“Fair enough, Judge. I appreciate it.”

“In all candor, if this weren’t your brother who made this drug, would you have come to me with this request?”

“To be perfectly honest, maybe not. I feel the threat is real because the company is getting desperate, but at the same time, I know the amount of evidence is marginal, and I hesitated even coming to you with it.”

“Well, I hope this amounts to nothing, and that I won’t need to renew the warrant in 30 days.”

“Me too, Judge. Thanks for your time.”

Since I was in Philly, I met Dana for lunch and told her the news. “We have to act fast now because we have only 30 days to gain evidence of another threat. Do you happen to know Merra’s mobile phone number and the type of phone it is: iPhone or Android? For clandestine communications, he’ll most likely use his mobile phone rather than his office phone, which logs all his calls.”

She knew this information and gave it to me.

“Okay, I want you to create a text message for him. It can be anything you might normally text him about. Send it to me first, and I’ll manipulate it and send it on to him, but it will look like it came directly from you. When he opens it, spyware will automatically install on his phone. This will enable us to listen in on his phone calls and read his texts for the next 30 days. If we hear anything of an impending crime or a crime is committed within that time, we’ll most likely be able to renew the warrant. I’ll also let you know what we’ve heard. Let’s just hope we only hear about it and can prevent it from actually happening.”

“Got it.”

“Dana, I wasn’t so sure the judge would agree to it, but this is one case where maybe the ends will justify the means. Let’s hope it pays off now, but in a way that we can prevent any actual violence.”

Back home tonight, I called Brian to give him an update on everything and to find out the state of his work with Abby and Patty.

“Hey, Little Brother. What’s the good word?”

“Hey, Big Sis. The good word is that we are practically done. Abby has already made her plane reservation for a flight home on January 2. I feel confident we’ve got the right formula, and I’ll prepare all the documentation for the production of it in the next couple of days. I’ll have it to you on January 2. You already have the materials list, and there are no further additions to it. I trust they’ve been ordered and are on the way?”

“Yep. Do you know when Abby’s flight is on the 2nd?”

“11:00 AM.”

“Then I’ll come by your house at 8:30 to thank the team before it disperses for the final time, and I’ll plan on driving her to the airport. Y’all have done a phenomenal job in a very short time, and I just wanted to personally thank you.”

“That sounds great, Fran. Why don’t you come at 8:00 instead and have some breakfast with us. Jules is planning a special breakfast for the occasion.”

“Sounds good. I’ll be there. Listen, Brian, I have some updates for you on that other thing Dana is doing for us. I haven’t wanted to trouble you with it since you’ve been so busy on the Dipraxa project, but you’re going to have to get a handle on this before Glyptophan’s reputation is ruined before it even gets started.”

I told him about the smear article that was published early in Mayalosoma and the social media backlash against Glyptophan. I advised him to work on a rebuttal and attempt to set the record straight.

I then told him about Dana’s initiative to get a wiretap on Merra’s phone and that just today the judge signed off on it. He was relieved to hear that, but in a moment of sober reflection, he surprised me with a question.

“What do you honestly think the chances are that they will come after me or my family with actual physical violence as opposed to just threats of it?”

“That’s hard to say. I think the threat is real, but I couldn’t hazard a guess as to the actual probability. I think it will just start with harassment and verbal threats, but at some point, if you don’t respond to their demands, there is some chance that it will escalate into action. But that’s the whole point of bugging Merra’s phone: to be able to know what it is and when it’s coming, so that we can prepare for it and prevent it. As you know, though, nothing is 100% guaranteed. Do you still own a firearm, and do you continue to practice with it?”

“Yes and no. I haven’t practiced with it in some time.”

“Well, you may want to start again. I’m serious about that, Brian.”

“I know you are. Message received. Look, Fran, I really appreciate what you and Dana are doing now. I always knew there would be resistance to the drug, but I never really thought that seriously that it might get violent. Perhaps I’ve been naïve about Big Pharma. They claim to be in the business of helping people, but it seems like the fact that this drug has the potential of helping millions of people doesn’t enter into their thinking because they didn’t make it. Instead, they want to destroy it because it threatens their bottom line. What a bunch of damn hypocrites.”

“I’d have to agree with you there.”

“They’re not all like that, though. Detry Pharmaceutical, where I used to work and who has purchased the license to produce Glyptophan, isn’t, but it seems like many of the larger companies are. And they’re the ones always in cahoots with the government, currying favor with them.”

“Right again. Well, on that cheery note, I’ll bid you goodbye. Try to forget all that and have a Happy New Year, and I’ll see you the morning of the 2nd.”

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Steve Griffin: Dana's husband.

Barry Degner (aka Tony Faiella): Dana's friend who will act the part of a leg-breaker to attack Brian.

Judge Raymond Jezek: The district court judge in Philadelphia who grants Fran a wiretap warrant against Leonard Merra.

Picture courtesy of Playground-v3

Chapter 29
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 29

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 28: Fran visits a judge in Philadelphia to obtain a wiretap warrant against Leonard Merra based on the reports submitted to her by Dana and Barry Degner. The judge is reluctant because the evidence is slim, but he grudgingly gives her a 30-day warrant. Fran then meets Dana for lunch, shares the good news with her, and instructs her on how to bug Merra's phone by sending him a text message containing spyware.

Fran calls Brian that night to update him on this and to see how his team is coming along. Brian informs her they should be done in a few days, right after New Year’s. Fran tells Brian what Dana has revealed to her about the plans for stopping Glyptophan, and Brian is somewhat alarmed to find out this may include violence against his family. Fran urges Brian to get some firearms practice in.

Chapter 29

Fran

I arrived at Brian and Julia’s house on the morning of January 2, 2026. I was a few minutes late and the others were already seated at the breakfast table, eating fried chicken and waffles. Platters of each were in the center of the table.

“Sorry I’m late, but I’m glad y’all started without me. Happily, there’s still some food left.”

I took the empty seat on the other side of Johnny, who was sitting in a Sassy Seat at the table. We looked at each other, and I said, “Hi, Kiddo.” I kissed him on top of his head to avoid the stickiness of the syrup and waffle crumbs all over his face.

“Ha, Fan.”

“Looks like you’re quite the waffle lover, Johnny.”

He giggled and stuffed another piece of waffle in his mouth.

“He’s so cute,” I said playfully to Julia and Brian.

I loaded up my plate and began eating. I decided to wait until after the meal to discuss business and to offer my thanks to Brian, Abby, and Patty. The conversation remained light and mostly centered around Johnny and his antics. I guess Marie had returned home because she wasn’t there.

When the meal was over and we’d all helped Julia clear the table, I said, “Why don’t we head into the family room? I’ve got a few things to say to y’all. You too, Jules.”

When everyone was seated except for Brian who was on the floor playing with Johnny, I stood in front of the Christmas tree that was still up, and I faced them.

“Guys, this may be hard for me, so please bear with me. I just really want to thank all of you for the tremendous effort you made on this assignment, and that includes you, Jules, for all the hospitality you provided to our guests.”

“Hear, hear,” said Abby with a smile, and Patty, who was sitting next to Julia, gave her shoulder a squeeze.

“I know from your reports how extremely difficult this project was and how many long hours you put into it, and I think it’s just amazing what you accomplished in such a short time.”

The four of them began tittering, which struck me as odd. “I know it was a big inconvenience to have to be away from your families during this holiday season, and that you would have undoubtedly preferred to be with them.”

They began chuckling then, and even Johnny started laughing out loud. What the hell had I said that was so amusing?

“Well, apparently you don’t harbor any hard feelings about it, but seriously… thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

I started choking up and could feel the tears begin to well up. Right then I felt a pawing at my hair and heard Johnny cry out, “Na-na.”

I turned around and saw a cat at eye level reaching out its paw to me from between the branches of the tree. Everyone broke up, and I turned back to them and just shook my head and groaned. “You guys! She was there the whole time?”

Patty said, “She kept reachin’ out, tryin’ to touch your hair. It was all ah could do not to laugh out loud at what you were sayin’, Fran, which was very sweet, by the way.”

I turned back around, lifted Nadia out of the tree, and held her at arms’ length. “Oh, you ridiculous cat!” I set her down on the floor next to Johnny who reached out and grabbed her. After a quick bop on his head, she skittered away. This set everyone off again including Johnny.

When the hilarity of the moment finally died down, I said, “On a more serious note now, I’ve got to collect your burner phones from you and swear you to secrecy about what we’ve been working on here. I won’t even be able to let you know about the success or failure of your efforts. In fact, we won’t even know unless we see that Dipraxa suddenly dries up one day and is no longer to be found on the streets. That will probably be the only way we’ll know if the effort was successful.

“But even after that, you can never talk about this to anyone. We don’t want people to know what really happened. I hope the Chinese will just be baffled about it and won’t be able to figure it out. Does that make sense to everyone?”

“Absolutely,” said Abby. “Plus, the way we went about it could be grossly misinterpreted or consciously distorted by ideologs and people unaware of how dangerous the situation was. Some things are just better left unheralded and unspoken.”

“Thanks for understanding. Believe me, I trust you, but my boss says I’m going to have to have y’all sign non-disclosure agreements that you will never talk about any of this.”

I reached into a briefcase I’d brought, pulled these out, and passed them out. When I’d collected the signed forms, I asked them if they had any questions. When none were asked, I said, “In that case, I guess it’s time to say goodbye. You’ve all been great.”

When the final hugs and goodbyes had been given and received, I said, “Alright, Miss Abby. Time to head out.”

After she and I got her bags loaded into my SUV and buckled ourselves in, with a final wave to the others, who were standing on the front porch, we left for the airport.

Marie

I’ve been home from North Carolina for a week now, and started back to work a couple of days ago. I have to admit there’s a longing in my heart for my little grandson. He has a way of bringing out the good in me. Admittedly, there isn’t too much of that, but whatever there is, he’s able to bring it out.

I got to rock him and bottle feed him a few times from the milk Julia had pumped and stored, which helped build an added closeness with him. Who would have predicted the effect this child would have on me? Certainly not me.

Getting to know my daughter and son-in-law better has also gone a long way in healing the rift between us. I’m going to have to keep going down there, because each time I do, I come back a better person. A few hundred more trips, and I might even become bearable to be around.

Julia gave me much food for thought in regards to spending my spare time in a more productive way than drinking. Not that I plan to stop cold turkey, but I have at least given thought to taking on a student or two—perhaps only one to start. In fact, I think I would like to start with a rank beginner, who hasn’t been ruined yet by some other teacher. One who I can mold into playing the right way—the way I did with Julia.

I was thinking about this when I returned from work this afternoon, and I must have been smiling as I entered the building. Cedric held the door open for me and said, “Good afternoon, Ms. Schmidt. You’re looking particularly cheery this fine winter afternoon.”

“Thank you, Cecil. I’ve decided I’m going to take on a violin student. I’m planning to start with a beginner who’s never played before, like my daughter was.”

“You choose a student yet?”

“No, but one shouldn’t be hard to find.”

“I know of one, Ms. Schmidt, who would love to learn to play the violin. This person likes music, but never had the chance to learn an instrument.”

“And who might that be, Cecil?”

“That would be me, Ms. Schmidt.”

“You, Cecil? You seriously would like to learn how to play the violin? What makes you choose the violin to want to learn?”

“Well, I wanna learn something. And seems like I got me a ready-made teacher right here in front of me. How much would you charge to give me lessons, Ms. Schmidt?”

I thought about this for a minute. This boy could not afford what I would be tempted to charge, but what a challenge it might be. I felt like Henry Higgins facing Eliza Doolittle.

“I’ll tell you what, Cecil. I won’t charge you anything if you’ll promise to practice what I teach you, and continue to show progress. If I catch you slacking off, I’ll drop you like a hot potato. Is that clear?”

“Crystal. I won’t let you down. But I don’t own a violin.”

“I will provide one at first. Could you come for your first lesson tomorrow evening, say, at 7:00?”

“I’ll be there, Ms. Schmidt. And thank you!”

“It’s Dr. Schmidt, Cecil.”

“It’s Cedric, ma’am.”

“Whatever,” we said together, smiling.

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Steve Griffin: Dana's husband.

Barry Degner (aka Tony Faiella): Dana's friend who will act the part of a leg-breaker to attack Brian.

Judge Raymond Jezek: The district court judge in Philadelphia who grants Fran a wiretap warrant against Leonard Merra.

Chapter 30
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 30

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 29: Fran arrives at Brian’s house to have breakfast with the team on its final day. She gathers everyone in the family room after breakfast to thank them all for the immense effort they put forth in developing the Dipraxa antidote. Her thank you speech is interrupted by the Kendricks' cat, who has climbed up into the Christmas tree and is pawing at Fran’s hair as she speaks. Following this amusing scene, she collects their burner phones and gets them to sign NDAs about the project.

Back at home, Marie decides she will take Julia’s advice and begin teaching again. Her surprise first student ends up being Cedric, the doorman at her apartment building. He will come for his first lesson the following evening, and she will teach him for free.

Chapter 30

Dana

I prepared a text for Leonard Merra, saying that Tony Faiella (Barry Degner) had fulfilled his mission and attached the recording he’d made to “prove” it. In the phony recording, in which he had used a friend to impersonate Brian, you could clearly hear the following exchange, which supposedly took place in a supermarket parking lot:

Tony: ’Scuse me, are you Brian Kendrick?

Brian: Yes. Who are you?

Tony: The name’s Tony. I’m here to tell you to put a halt to da human trials of your new drug.

Brian: Who sent you?

Tony: You don’t gotta know dat. All you gotta do now is quit what you’re doing.

Brian: Or else what?

Tony: Or else a lot more a dis: (Sounds of a punch and a groan and what sounded like the thud of a body falling to the ground. Then a kick and a cry of pain.) You got da message, pal? Quit da trials, or you’ll get a lot worse den dis. I hope for your sake dere won’t be a next time.

I sent this text with the attached sound recording file to Fran as she instructed. She would perform her magic and attach spyware and send this text on to Merra as if it came directly from me. In addition to giving him the proof of the assault he’d required, his phone would now be bugged, and recordings of all his calls would be sent to a server in the FBI. It will be someone’s job to listen to these and report to Fran any kind of threat to Brian or his family.

I also filled out a voucher for our accounts payable folks to pay Tony Faiella his $3,000. Now it would be a waiting game to see when Merra decides to up the stakes.

Marie

I must confess to being a little nervous about Cedric’s lesson this evening. I haven’t worked with a beginner in many years—not since Julia was a child—and I’m not sure how good a teacher I’ll be, especially with a student who probably isn’t as naturally gifted as Julia was. I have no idea about Cedric, and I shouldn’t judge him in advance. I’ll have to feel him out for how much he currently knows about music and what his practice situation will be.

He rang the doorbell a few minutes before 7:00. He had changed out of his uniform and was neatly dressed in blue jeans and a sweater. “Good evening, Ms. Schmidt,” he said with a smile as he entered.

“Let’s get one thing straight,” I said to him. “In here during your lessons, it’s Dr. Schmidt, and I will call you Cedric. We will take this seriously. It doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun while we’re at it, but I want you to treat this with the respect it deserves. Are we clear on that, Cedric?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Very good. Why don’t you take this seat here, and I have a few questions for you?”

We headed over to two chairs I’d set up with a music stand between them and sheet music for a song I didn’t think he’d know: “Moon River” by Henry Mancini. I wanted to test his ability to read music.

“Tell me the extent of your musical knowledge, Cedric. Can you currently read music?”

“Yes, some. I sing in my church choir, and I’ve learned to read the music for the hymns pretty well.”

“So, you know a quarter note from an eighth note and the difference between four-four time and six-eight time?”

“I know the note lengths, but I may be a little shaky on some of the rest.”

“How would you say your intonation is? Can you sing on pitch, or is it a struggle for you?”

“I’d say I’m pretty good. I can hear when I’m off.”

“Okay, I’m going to give you a piece of music to sing. Look it over for a minute or so and sing me the first few bars if you would.” I handed him the sheet music from the stand, and he studied it very seriously. I could see him tapping his toe as he read through it, mouthing the words, and humming a bit as he worked out the melody.”

“Alright, now. Give it a try.”

He sang a very creditable version of the beginning of the song. I stopped him after eight bars and said, “That was very good. Had you ever heard that song before?”

“No, ma’am. That’s a nice melody.”

“Indeed. You have a nice voice too, and your pitch was quite good. This bodes well for playing the violin. Unlike the guitar, there are no frets on the fingerboard to guide where to place your fingers on the strings. You just have to know where to place them and be able to adjust quickly if you haven’t got it quite right.

“Let’s look at the violin closely now.” I took the violin I would lend him out of its case and went through the different parts of it and the purpose of each. Then I showed him how to hold it, as well as the bow, and slide the bow across the strings to make different notes.

He seemed entranced and was concentrating very carefully on each word. He took direction well as I made minor adjustments to his body posture and hand and arm positions.

The time flew by, and it was 8:00 before we knew it. “I’m going to lend you this violin to practice and play with, Cedric, and I’ll expect you to purchase the book I’ve written down for you. You can find it at this store that I’ve written the name of too. I’d also like you to download a violin tuning app to your phone, and please make sure it has a metronome as well.”

I handed him the sheet with the music store and the name of the book to purchase. “Read the first two chapters and do the exercises in them. Does a one-hour lesson at this time work well for you on Thursday evenings?”

“Yes, ma’am. This should work fine. How’d I do tonight?”

“Better than I expected. But you’d better practice hard, and no slacking, or I’ll be able to tell. Do you think you can manage at least an hour a day of practice with a bit more on weekends?”

“I can do it, ma’am.”

“Good, then I’ll expect 100% effort and won’t brook any excuses for why you’re not prepared. Are we clear about that?”

“Yes, Dr. Schmidt.”

“Then I’ll see you next week, Cedric.”

“But you’ll see me tomorrow.”

“Yes, but then you’ll be Cecil.”

He laughed. As he headed out the door, he called back, “Goodbye, Ms. Schmidt, and thank you for the lesson—and the violin.”

“Goodbye, Cecil,” I said, smiling and shaking my head.

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Steve Griffin: Dana's husband.

Barry Degner (aka Tony Faiella): Dana's friend who will act the part of a leg-breaker to attack Brian.

Judge Raymond Jezek: The district court judge in Philadelphia who grants Fran a wiretap warrant against Leonard Merra.

Picture courtesy of Flux-Pro

Chapter 31
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 31

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 30: Dana prepares a text for Leonard Merra saying that Tony Faiella (Barry Degner) completed his mission and included the audio file of the recording Tony supposedly made. She sends this to Fran, who attaches spyware to it and then forwards it on to Merra, as if it came directly from Dana. Merra’s phone is now bugged.

Cedric shows up at Marie’s apartment for his first violin lesson. Marie insists they treat it seriously with none of their usual banter. Cedric does very well at the lesson and promises to keep up his end of the bargain by practicing and being prepared. When the lesson is over, they revert to their usual routine together.

Chapter 31

Fran

It was two weeks since the installation of the spyware on Merra’s phone until we got our first significant phone call. The calls were being monitored on a daily basis by an intelligence analyst, and he picked up the following exchange between Tony Faiella (Barry Degner) and Merra:

Merra: Good work issuing the threat to Brian Kendrick, Tony. I listened to the recording you sent, and it sounds like you worked him over pretty good. Listen, I didn’t really expect this would have much effect on him, so I think we should step this up. I’m now going to want you to inflict some bodily damage on Kendrick, perhaps a broken arm or dislocated shoulder or something of that nature. Can you do that for me?

Tony: Sure. For, say, six grand dis time.

Merra: Okay, fine. Let’s see some pictures too. I want photographic evidence of what you’ve done. Just text them to Dana like you did the sound recording.

Tony: You got it, Mr. Merra.

Now I had to decide what to do about this call. I could simply take it to Judge Jezek and get an extension on the phone tap warrant, hoping to catch Merra in a more significant crime, or I could see that he’s arrested immediately, and perhaps this would dissuade Newman-Price from any further harassment efforts, knowing that the FBI was onto them.

I opted for the latter. I would never forgive myself if Merra ordered some sort of action that ended up harming Brian or his family that we weren’t able to prevent in time. The guy was clearly showing the tendency to escalate matters.

I asked my boss, Lou, if I could be the one to arrest Leonard Merra. Ordinarily, an agent in Pennsylvania would be contacted to do this, but I wanted to visit Dana, and I offered to drive my own car up there. Brian and I wouldn’t be leaving for a week or two on our trip to the Philippines, so there was adequate time. How could Lou say no after how well and quickly the Philippine mission was going?

He couldn’t and gave me the okay to do it but told me to coordinate with the FBI field office there because all legal action against Merra would take place in Pennsylvania. I promised him I would.

I first notified the Philadelphia FBI field office and told them what was happening. Since the FBI usually sends at least two agents to make an arrest, they had no problem with me being one of them. They would assign the other from their office. I told them I could arrive there at 2:00 PM tomorrow if they could have an agent ready to accompany me. They said that would be fine.

I then called Dana to let her know of the plan.

“We got the crime we were looking for off the tap on Merra’s phone.”

“Yeah, I know. Barry Degner called me after he got his instructions from Merra. I was wondering what you would do about it.”

“We’ve decided to arrest him on conspiracy and solicitation of assault charges.”

“Won’t he wonder how the FBI knew about this? Do you think he’ll put two and two together and figure out it was me who fingered him?”

“When I interrogate him, I’ll tell him we had a tap on Tony Faiella’s phone because someone had witnessed him assaulting Brian during his first supposed trip down. I think that should provide cover for you if you want to remain working there.”

“I’ll think about that. Perhaps Newman-Price will assign someone else to take over Merra’s role in this, but it’s also possible that his arrest will put them on notice that they’re now being watched, and maybe they’ll quit all this crap.”

“That’s what we’re hoping.”

“By the way,” said Dana, “I haven’t seen any sort of response from Brian yet on the article in that science magazine and all the internet buzz about it. Is he still planning to address it in some way?”

“He’s been a little busy, but he’s begun working on a written response to it. Unfortunately, he’s not at liberty to fully explain everything in the article. He can’t give details on how the formula was stolen, and he certainly can’t talk about his efforts to stop its spread. That’s top-secret information. So, he will mainly address the misinformation about Glyptophan. He’s got his legal team looking at the issue now.”

“What can they do?”

“Threaten that little magazine with libel. Brian probably wouldn’t win because it’s hard to prove a financial impact to him unless his drug is already on the market. The lawyers are hoping that by bringing a potentially very costly lawsuit against the magazine, this will serve to pressure them into issuing a retraction to the original article in exchange for dropping the suit. Then we can play the same game they did by raising a social media response to the new article.”

“That’s pretty clever, but you know retractions never carry the same weight as the initial articles.”

“That’s true, but it will be better than leaving it unanswered. He’s got to do something so that people will keep an open mind about it.”

Dana then asked me, “So, how is your other project going?”

“I can’t tell you a lot, but it’s going well and nearing the end now. I’ll be glad when it’s over.”

We ended the call by planning to meet for dinner when the arrest was all wrapped up.

I left at 6:00 AM for Philadelphia. It’s a seven- to eight-hour drive.

I arrived at the FBI field office a few minutes past 2:00 PM. While the accompanying agent drove us to Newman-Price, I filled him in on all the details behind the pending arrest. I told him this would come as a complete surprise to Merra, but I didn’t expect any kind of trouble.

Against the protestations from his secretary, we entered Merra’s office. He was seated at his desk. I said, “Are you Leonard Merra?”

“Yes. Who are you?”

I held my creds out to him and said, “FBI. I have a warrant for your arrest. Please remain calm and make no attempt to escape.”

Merra shot to his feet and looked indignant. “What is this about? What am I being charged with?”

“Conspiracy and solicitation to commit assault. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand these rights as I’ve stated them?”

“This is ridiculous. I’ve done no such thing!”

The other agent said, “Please lower your voice and place your hands behind you so I can cuff you.”

“I will not. Get out of my office!”

I said, “Listen, Mr. Merra. I told you to remain calm. We have means of making you comply, but it would likely involve pain to you. I’d advise you to cooperate and make this much easier on yourself.”

I fixed him with a glare, and he could tell I was serious. Reluctantly he put his hands behind his back.

When we marched him out, many eyes were riveted on the procession. As we passed by the hushed, incredulous spectators, Merra said, “Don’t worry, folks. They’ve made a terrible mistake. I’m going to sue their asses for false arrest before this is over.”

As soon as we got him to the field office and processed him—mugshots, fingerprints, and the like—we headed to an interrogation room. The first words from him were, “I want to speak with my attorney,” which had the effect of stopping us from any questioning until the man arrived.

After that call to his attorney, he asked if he could get the one call he was entitled to, since the one to his attorney didn’t count as his single allowed call. Apparently unaware that this call would be legally monitored, he uttered a single sentence to the recipient: “I’m passing the baton.”

Dana

I called Barry Degner tonight to talk to him about this new job Merra had for him. “Hello, Barry.”

“Hey, Dana. I imagine your wiretap picked up a conversation between Merra and me yesterday, and that’s why you’re calling.”

“That’s right, but I wanted to let you know Merra was arrested today by the FBI. I think we can say that your part in this is done now. All I’m going to need from you is a brief report describing that phone conversation with Merra. I want to thank you for helping me out with this. You did a great job.”

“Thanks. It was kind of fun. Arrested, huh? Just what the little prick deserves. Let me know if you need any further help down the road. I have a feeling this might not be the end of it.”

“I will, and thanks again.”

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Mike Pekarsky: Fran's husband. He is a DHS agent.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Steve Griffin: Dana's husband.

Barry Degner (aka Tony Faiella): Dana's friend who will act the part of a leg-breaker to attack Brian.

Judge Raymond Jezek: The district court judge in Philadelphia who grants Fran a wiretap warrant against Leonard Merra.

Picture courtesy of Imagen3-Fast

Chapter 32
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 32

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 31: The tap on Leonard Merra’s phone picks up a conversation between Merra and Tony Faiella (Barry Degner) to step up the violence and break some bones this time. Fran decides they have enough to arrest Merra on the charges of conspiracy and solicitation of assault. She travels to Philadelphia and arrests him. After calling his lawyer, he makes a phone call with the cryptic message, “I’m passing the baton.”

Chapter 32

Early February, 2026

Fran

By the third week of January, as soon as the last required chemical had arrived, the company we had hired to make the 5,000 gallons of the Balanga plant spray began producing it. Brian’s team had named the substance KPM-26 (for Kendrick-Payne-Mattson and the year 2026).

Brian’s estimate of a week to make the required amount was quite accurate, and by the beginning of February, the plant began loading it onto tanker trucks.

The chemical plant was located right here in Charlotte, so the tanker trucks had only a short drive to Charlotte-Douglas International Airport. On the airport’s grounds was an Air National Guard base known as the 145th Airlift Wing. Two C-130 Hercules planes had been flown there to receive 2,500 gallons of KPM-26 each for the 36-hour-long flight to the Philippines.

I had called Brian a week ago when we had a firm date to leave for the mission. “Hey, Little Brother,” I’d said at the time, “I’ve got some details of our upcoming trip. We’ll plan on flying out in a week—on the morning of February 4—from right here at the Charlotte airport. Let’s figure on a five-day trip. That will be three full days of travel time and two days in the Philippines. Where we’re going is very near the equator, as you know, and the daytime temperatures will be in the low 80s at this time of year, so pack accordingly. Buy some camo pants and shirt too. Do you have some kind of backpack?”

“Yep. I’ll pack that too. Anything else I should know?”

“Yeah. Although there should be nothing dangerous about this mission, you just never know, so I’d advise you to pack your gun. Have you had a chance to practice yet like I asked you to?”

“Not yet, but I will between now and then.”

“Good. I’ll be in touch again before then, and I’ll give you the exact time to be at the airport the day before we leave.”

“Hey Big Sis, I’m really impressed with how fast this is all coming together. Usually, government projects like this one can be notoriously slow, but I’m sure your leadership had something to do with the sped-up timeline.”

“Well, I only have so much influence, but the President recognized the gravity of the threat Dipraxa poses and put the head of the Department of Health on the project to expedite matters. I think the speed that it all came together is mostly due to him.”

“Alright, then. Talk to you soon.”

I called Brian last night and told him to arrive at the National Guard facility on the grounds of the Charlotte airport for boarding one of the two planes at 9:00 AM today. I was already there when he arrived at 8:30. We had to show a picture ID, but the White House had given us the proper clearance to board the military plane.

Our seats were near the front, which would make the flight smoother and quieter, being farther away from the four turboprop engines that powered the aircraft. Even so, it would be noisy.

We were cleared for takeoff and were wheels-up at 9:20 AM on Feb. 4. We would be in the air with only a few brief stops to refuel for the next 36 hours. The great circle flight path would take us across the country, just south of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska, across the Pacific, down over Japan, and finally into the Philippines—an 8,500-mile trip. Adjusting for the 13-hour difference in time zones, we would be landing in Manila at approximately 10:00 AM on February 6.

Due to the space required in the cargo area to house the 2,500 gallons of KPM-26, there was little room for any kind of exercise. The best we could do during the long flight was to get up and stretch in place. We could walk a few steps, circling around the large tanks of liquid, but space was very limited.

Much of the time, Brian and I spent playing chess. He had brought a small, magnetic chessboard, and we played many games. We also read and did crossword and Sudoku puzzles.

There were two land-based refueling stops in the US before heading out over the Pacific Ocean. We deplaned during these stops and had about an hour to get some physical exercise in. We ran together and did calisthenics. The rest of the refueling would be done midair.

Meals during the long flight consisted of MREs, * granola bars, and protein bars, with bottled water, juice, coffee, and tea for beverages.

There was no good space for sleeping, and we just catnapped in our seats for only a few hours at a time.

Due to the extreme weight of the plane with the 2,500 gallons of KPM-26 it was carrying, the flight time ended up being almost 40 hours. We arrived in Manila in the early afternoon. Along with the crew, we had decided not to attempt the mission today, as we were all too tired and cranky but would find a hotel, get some good meals, and be well rested for the mission tomorrow.

Brian and I had breakfast together early this morning at our hotel restaurant. Before flying the spraying mission with the C-130s, he and I would first fly over the island to check for any people there. We would have to postpone the mission if that proved to be the case.

The DoD ** had arranged for a pilot to take us up in a single-engine Cessna 172. It’s about a half hour’s flight in the Cessna to our destination. It was a beautiful, clear day with a cloudless, light blue sky above and a deep blue ocean below. We passed by a number of islands and atolls on the way to Gunagua Island.

As we approached it from the west, Brian said, “Fran, I see a frickin’ boat there on the north shore. It looks like a large fishing trawler. What the hell is it doing there?”

“There could be some innocuous reasons, but I think we’d better photograph it. We’ll send the photos to the DoD to analyze the type of boat and see if they can determine the nationality. They can also access satellite data and see where it originated from. This plane has a SATCOM *** system that will enable us to transmit photos we take immediately by satellite to the DoD.”

I instructed the pilot to begin taking photos of the island on this first pass along the north side. I also told him to fly well away and wait for at least 10 minutes before turning around for the second pass. I didn’t want to arouse any suspicion from the boat below or any people on the island that they were being surveilled by the same plane.

After turning around and approaching the island from the other side, flying over the southern portion this time revealed no other signs of life.

We were done with our surveillance and headed back to Manila. En route, I called my contact at the DoD using my sat phone and confirmed that they got the satellite transmission of the images of the boat and the island. I asked them also to analyze historical satellite data to determine the boat’s origin. They promised to call me with the results within the hour.

In much less than an hour, before we even arrived back at the airport in Manila, the DoD called and gave me their report. When they hung up, I said to Brian, “The boat is Chinese and originated in the Chicom city of Zhanjiang.”

“Could they determine from the high-res photos what it was doing there?”

“A few photos showed a small number of people on the island, but it was difficult to tell exactly. There was pretty dense foliage covering much of the area where they were. You know what this means, don’t you?”

“Shit, Fran. We can’t keep flying a recon plane over to verify when they’re gone without arousing suspicion. So, it means we’ve got to go there in a boat ourselves and let the C-130s know when the coast is clear. While we’re there, we may want to take a closer look at what they’re doing.”

“What’s your best guess as to why they’re here now?” I asked him.

“They’re probably here just to harvest some Balanga for making more Dipraxa. But they could be here to harvest whole plants and excavate soil. They may have realized they can’t grow it at home without the native soil.”

“Then we’d better try to verify that. It would be nice to know if Dipraxa doesn’t eventually hit the skids, that the reason is because they’re now growing their own.”

“How will you know that? Maybe our formula just doesn’t work.”

“Nah. You three are too good. I know it’ll work. This means we need to get to the island ASAP before they leave so we can spy on them. Let’s go back to the hotel and quickly get our gear and weapons. I’ll call the DoD again and get them to arrange a fast boat for our return to the island.”

Author Notes * MREs: Meals ready-to-eat, frequently used by the military.
** DoD: Department of Defense
*** SATCOM: Satellite communications

CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Barry Degner (aka Tony Faiella): Dana's friend who will act the part of a leg-breaker to attack Brian.

Picture courtesy of Poe Assistant

Chapter 33
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 33

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of violence.
Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 32: The island-spraying mission begins as Fran and Brian meet at the airport to board the C-130 plane to Gunagua Island in the Philippines. It takes them 40 hours to get there. When they arrive, they rent a small plane to recon the island to make sure there are no people on it before beginning the spray operation, only to discover a large fishing trawler on the north side of the island. Satellite reconnaissance reveals this to be a Chinese boat, and there are workers on the island.

Fran and Brian don’t want to make them suspicious by continual flights over the island and decide they must return to Manila, where they will rent a high-speed boat to return to the island so they can unobtrusively learn when the Chinese leave but also to spy on them. They want to determine if the Chinese are merely harvesting Balanga or digging up whole plants and soil to be able to grow it themselves.

Chapter 33

Fran

Back at the hotel, after quickly getting dressed in our camo clothes, we stuffed a few water bottles into our backpacks as well as our weapons and headed out. My contact at the DoD instructed us to rent the high-speed boat at the Baywalk Area near Manila Bay. He told us the rental company to use and that the DoD had made all necessary arrangements to bypass any license requirements. We would just need to show them our picture IDs.

Brian and I arrived at the promenade and saw a sign for the rental company where we showed them our IDs. The clerk, however, wouldn’t tell us the location of the boat until I bribed him with two US 20-dollar bills. One hadn’t been enough.

Our boat was located at dock B, slip 12. We found the slip and boarded the boat, a Yamaha 242x E-series model the rental clerk had said was capable of speeds up to 55 mph. We would push it to top speed.

“You ever operated one of these before, Little Brother?”

“No, you?”

“Not this model,” I replied.

“Well, how tough can it be? I think between the two of us, we’ll figure it out.”

We donned our life jackets, and I clipped the lanyard attached to the kill switch to mine. The kill switch will stop the engine if I get thrown from the boat.

I’ve driven other boats, and I knew enough to enter the GPS coordinates for Gunagua Island into its navigation system. I pushed the start button, guided the boat from the slip, then let the GPS take over and steer us to our destination.

It took us 90 minutes to arrive there. We could see the Chinese boat anchored on the north shore while we were still some ways off, so I disengaged the GPS and steered us toward the south part of the island to stay out of sight. I also reduced the speed way down now, mainly to cut down on the engine noise.

I pulled into a small cove where there was a sandy beach and stopped a little way offshore. The boat would be too heavy for us to pull onto the beach, so Brian dropped the anchor, and we tested it to make sure it was secure. We took off our boots to jump into the water, waded ashore, and put our boots back on.

Although the island was small, there were still some pronounced elevation changes. The beach we landed on was at the base of a tree-covered cliff.

“You’ve been here before; will you know where we’re going and how to get back?” I asked Brian.

“I chartered a helicopter the two times I came. We didn’t land anywhere near this part of the island, but it’s small enough that we shouldn’t get lost.”

“I’ll let you lead the way.”

The route to the top was rocky and steep, but we slowly made our way there despite the difficulty of the climb. When we reached the top and emerged from the trees, it afforded us a clear view of a large expanse of the island.

Portions were jungle-like with a dense canopy of trees. What kind they were, I had no idea. The jungle floor was covered with all manner of dense undergrowth. As we explored the outer edges of the jungle, Brian stopped suddenly.

“See this?” he said, pointing to a patch of green, leafy plants. “That’s Balanga.”

I studied the dark green leaves with their corrugated surfaces and spiky edges. “It seems to be growing everywhere. Out in the open as well as under the forest canopy.”

It was exhausting climbing up that hill from the beach in the heat, so we decided to stop for a quick break and to take a drink.

Brian said, “So, what do you think of lovely Gunagua Island so far?”

I was hot and sweaty from the climb and a little pissed we even had to be here now. I wasn’t really in the mood for banter, so I just said, “At least there aren’t mosquitos, and I haven’t seen any snakes. I’m going to see if I can spot any worker activity from here.”

I removed a pair of binoculars from my pack and scanned the area near the boat, which we could just see the top of. “I can see a couple of workers, but I can’t tell exactly what they’re doing. I don’t really see any digging going on, but we’re going to have to get closer for that. Let’s get our weapons ready just in case we have some sort of encounter.”

“You really think we might?”

“Probably not, but you never know.” I armed myself from my pack, as did Brian, and we prepared to head out again.

It had felt cooler in the shade, but once out on the open plain, the heat was oppressive. It felt more like the 90s rather than the 80s, and there was little breeze today. We’d been walking for a couple of minutes when we heard a sharp voice behind us say, “Tingzhi!” (Stop!)

Brian and I froze.

“Fangxia ni de qiang!” (Drop your weapons!)

Presumably, this was Chinese, but neither of us spoke it. I could guess what he was saying, though. I hadn’t expected this. Apparently, the work crew sent out a scout to keep an eye on things and make sure they were working in secret. What he was doing so far from the work site, I didn’t know. Perhaps there were several others, scouting different parts of the island.

“Xiànzài!” (Now!)

“What’s he saying?” Brian asked.

“I think he’s telling us to drop our guns.”

“What do we do?”

I glanced over my shoulder and saw what looked like an AK-47 pointed at us by a man no more than 30 feet behind us.

“Xiànzài!” he repeated.

“Better do what he says. He’s got an assault rifle pointed at us.”

We both let our guns fall to the ground.

Brian said, “I hope you’ve been trained for shit like this. Got any bright ideas?”

“Chénmò!” (Silence!)

“I’ll think of something. Just do what he says for now.”

“Chénmò! Xiànzài jìxù qiánjìn!” (Silence! Now move forward!)

“What’s he saying now?” Brian whispered.

I whispered back, “I only know a few Chinese words. I think he’s saying, ‘Shut up and move.’”

Apparently, he wasn’t going to shoot us right here but would probably take us back to the leader of the expedition for direction. I doubted very much they would let us go and would likely shoot us then.

We began walking forward and got no response from behind, so I guess we were doing what he’d commanded.

After a minute or so, Brian whispered to me, “Thought of anything yet?”

I whispered back, “Gradually slow down so he gets closer to us, and move apart slightly.”

“Chénmò!”

We both slowed and widened the gap between us by a couple of steps. This had the effect of moving him within just a few yards behind us before he realized what we were doing. My glance behind earlier revealed that he was just a young man, perhaps no more than 20. He wasn’t wearing any kind of uniform, just pants and a T-shirt, so I didn’t think he was a trained soldier or anything close.

“Dòngzuò gèng kuài!”

“He’s probably telling us to go faster, but just keep up the slow pace,” I whispered very quietly. “In ten seconds, make like you’ve stepped in a hole, cry out, and fall down.”

I braced myself. 1—2—3… Time slowed as I choreographed in my mind exactly what I would do when Brian went down. My training kicked in as I recalled the hours of exercises I’d been through at Quantico for situations similar to this one…. 4—5—6… The adrenaline was coursing through me as I tensed up, awaiting the exact moment to strike. I could sense Brian next to me, similarly tensing up for the coming ruse…. 7—8—9…

And then he stumbled and cried out, “Oh, fuck!” as he fell to the ground, holding his ankle. Our captor was startled and quickly shifted his attention to Brian. I reached down in a well-practiced motion, pulled my pant leg up, and extracted a tactical knife from an ankle sheath. The young man was only three paces behind us. I turned, closed the gap quickly, and, as he began to point his gun toward me, I thrust the knife deep into the side of his neck.

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Barry Degner (aka Tony Faiella): Dana's friend who will act the part of a leg-breaker to attack Brian.

Picture courtesy of Playground-v3

Chapter 34
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 34

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of violence.
Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 33: Upon learning a Chinese boat is at the island, Fran and Brian decide to head back there in a high-speed boat to try to spy on the activity to see if the Chinese are merely harvesting plant leaves or digging up whole plants and excavating soil to grow their own. They also want to know when the coast is clear to begin the spraying operation. On arriving at the island in the rental boat, they anchor it and climb a cliff to the top, where Fran can see activity through her binoculars but can’t tell exactly what they are doing.

A Chinese scout with an AK-47 ambushes them from behind as they approach, ordering them to drop their guns. As he is marching them to his leader and certain death, Fran enlists Brian’s help, and they fake a scenario in which Fran is able to extract a knife from an ankle sheath and stab the scout in the neck.

Chapter 34

Fran

The man dropped his gun and grabbed his neck, trying to stanch the flow of blood, but the knife had clearly severed his carotid artery because the blood was spurting out. It had also pierced his throat, and blood was flowing from his mouth. He was choking on it, and there was terror in his eyes.

It was over in a matter of minutes as he bled out. Brian stood in shock, watching as the life left him. I stood by his side, but my mind was occupied thinking about what to do now.

Fortunately, no shots had been fired, or the sound would have attracted attention. I decided we couldn’t stay on the island any longer, though. We didn’t know how many more scouts there might be, and we couldn’t risk finding out.

“Okay, Little Brother, we’ve got to get out of here now. Unfortunately, we have to take him with us. We don’t have either the equipment or time to bury him, and we can’t leave him, or he might be found.”

Brian hadn’t said anything since the attack, and he kept staring at the body.

“Are you with me here?”

“Yeah. Jesus, Fran. You see that kind of thing in the movies, but it really just happened. Are you okay?”

“I’m shaken up, and my heart is still going a mile a minute, but I’ll be alright.”

“Have you ever killed anyone before?”

“Not with a knife, but I’d rather not talk about it. Grab his ankles now and pull him forward. I’m going to scrape up some dirt and cover up this blood.”

When the obvious result of the attack was no longer apparent, I said, “Alright, here’s what we’ll do. We’ll carry him out walking side by side. You place one arm under his knees and one under his butt, and I’ll place one under his shoulders and one under his back, and we’ll lift him together.”

“What should we do about his gun?”

“Good point. Let’s lay it on top of him parallel to his spine.” I grabbed the gun and did just that. “Okay, get your arms in place, and we’ll lift him with a count of three—on the three. Let me know when you’re ready.”

We squatted down, side by side, and slid our arms beneath him.

“I’m ready,” Brian said.

“Okay, one—two—three,” and we lifted together.

He was a skinny guy and probably weighed no more than 140 pounds, so we’d be carrying 70 pounds each. We may need a rest or two, but it was definitely doable.

When we got back to the spot where we’d dropped our guns, we had to lay the body down so that we could retrieve them and place them in our backpacks. We both took a drink of water, then resumed lifting and carrying the body back toward where we’d scaled the cliff.

We made it all the way back to where we’d exited the trees at the top of the cliff and walked a little way in when we decided to rest up before trying the descent. We laid the body down, walked a few paces away, and sat down on a fallen tree trunk.

I turned to Brian and said, “You know we had to do what we did.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“He was going to lead us back there, and there’s no way they wouldn’t have killed us for discovering their secret operation.”

“I know that,” he said. “It sounds like you’re trying to convince yourself you did the right thing. Well, you did do the right thing. It was self-defense. We have every right to be on this island, and he had a gun on us and was marching us to a certain death. No question in my mind about that.”

“Well, I guess I am trying to justify my action. It isn’t easy taking a human life, but in my line of work, it’s sometimes necessary, and you can’t always stop to think about it. Your training kicks in, and you act almost instinctively when you see a threat. It’s later when you begin to question yourself and wonder if there might have been another way.”

“Does the FBI require you to see a shrink about it?”

“Yeah, they do. I’ll have to discuss it with a shrink after my report about what happened. I just keep thinking that maybe we shouldn’t have come onto the island at all. Maybe I should have just asked the DoD to have the Philippine Coast Guard check out the boat and confiscate anything on it. In fact, I should do that now. Even if it’s just the harvested leaves and stems rather than whole plants and soil, it would be good to know that they won’t go into making an entire new batch of Dipraxa.”

“Well, hindsight is always 20-20. You don’t know how quickly or even if their coast guard would have complied, and that’s assuming they even have one. And as for our being on the island, how could you have guessed the group here would send out a scout or scouts to patrol a remote island like this? Why would they think they needed any kind of security when they came to the island?”

“Who knows? Maybe they’re just paranoid by nature, and that’s their SOP. But once we saw them here, I really wanted to find out exactly what they were doing. I suppose we could have waited until they left for us to try to determine if they were just here to harvest the plants. I know that’s going to continue to bother me.”

“I wouldn’t stew about it too much,” he said. “You didn’t want to delay this operation any longer than you had to by waiting. We’ve got these two big planes sitting there at the airport, and people are going to start wondering what the hell they are there for. We just want to get in and get out as soon as possible and fly back home.”

I looked at him and marveled at his perceptiveness and understanding of the situation. He made me feel better about taking this human life. I would never feel good about it; better is about all I could hope for. “Thanks for your support and understanding, Little Brother. It means a lot. Alright, should we attempt going down this fucking cliff now?”

“Yeah, just let’s take it slow; we don’t need a twisted ankle or anything.”

We made it to the bottom with a couple of short rest breaks. It was very slow going, but we managed it without incident. We didn’t bother removing our boots this time but just waded out into the water with boots on and placed the body in one of the two rear-facing seats on the back of the boat. We then boarded and secured him in place with the seatbelt.

On the way back, I called the DoD with my suggestion to contact the Philippine Coast Guard to intercept the Chinese boat. They told me they had already decided to do that.

About a half-hour into our 90-minute ride back, it was time to dispose of the body. Brian volunteered to do it. He headed to the back of the boat, undid the seatbelt, and dumped the body off the rear end. He also threw the man’s rifle overboard. Both sank beneath the surface.

It was late afternoon by the time we got back to the hotel. This day had been a bust. Hopefully that damn Chinese boat would be gone by tomorrow.

This morning, we’d heard no word from the DoD about the Philippine Coast Guard apprehending the Chinese boat, so Brian and I chartered the Cessna again. A pass over Gunagua Island revealed that the boat was gone. It was time to call in the C-130s. They would be here in half an hour, so we would remain in the air circling until they came. We wanted to observe their spraying of the island to make sure it was happening as planned.

Our pilot made several slow circles of the island while we waited for the massive C-130s to arrive.

The C-130s were outfitted with long spray booms. They would fly at an altitude of 100 feet above the treetops. Allowing for a little bit of overlap, 20 total passes would be required, based on the boom size, to cover the entire island. This meant each plane would make 10 passes over its respective half.

We watched the operation from the Cessna. The planes used a GPS advanced mapping system to ensure their passes were precise and didn’t leave any gaps. It was a very impressive performance.

After the final passes by both C-130s, we all headed back to Manila to prepare for the long flight home. Time would tell if we were successful in achieving our goal.

The story is 65% complete now.

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Barry Degner (aka Tony Faiella): Dana's friend who will act the part of a leg-breaker to attack Brian.

Picture courtesy of Flux-Pro 1.1-Ultra

Chapter 35
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 35

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 34: After stabbing her and Brian’s captor to death, Fran decides they must now leave the island in case there are any other scouts. There is no time to bury the body, and they don’t want it found, so they decide to bring it with them and dispose of it at sea on their return to Manila. Brian reveals to Fran how well he understood the situation and bucks her up by telling her she did the only thing possible under the circumstances.

The following day, they haven’t received word from the DoD that the Chinese boat is gone, so they charter the Cessna again to determine this. Once their recon confirms the boat's disappearance, Fran dispatches the C-130s to spray the island. When this is successfully done, there’s nothing left to do but fly home and hope the mission was successful.

Chapter 35

Marie

“Back straight, Cedric. You’re slumping again. You must have a relaxed posture, but not that relaxed. And pull your head back. Good. Much better.”

He was playing Bach’s Minuet 1 and doing quite a good job of it. This was his fourth lesson, and it was obvious he’d been practicing. Always with a smile on his face, even when I’d been stern with him about this or that, he seemed to be enjoying his lessons as much as I was.

When he finished the number, he said, “How was that, Dr. Schmidt? I practiced extra hard on that one.”

“That’s coming along nicely, but you have to remember your posture. You have a tendency to be too loosey-goosey. We don’t want you to go stiff on us, but too loose is no good either. Your intonation was very good. Your tempo, not so much. Have you been practicing with the metronome app?”

“Sometimes I forget.”

“Let’s try to use it for a while until you have a real feel for the tempo and phrasing. I’d like you to continue working on this one, but I want to introduce a new one too. It’s called “Ode to Joy.”

“We sang that one in our church choir.”

“So, you know that it’s from the fourth movement of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good. Would you like to try reading through it once? We have a few minutes left.”

“It seems like I just got here. You sure the time’s almost up?”

“In fact, we’re a bit over time, Cedric. You’re getting a few extra minutes for free.”

“Haha, that’s a good one, Dr. Schmidt.”

“Alright, we’ll take it a little slower to start. I’ll set the metronome on 72. You can gradually work your way up at home.”

He read the piece quite well. This kid was showing greater promise than I had hoped for, and I found I was enjoying these lessons with him. We actually laughed together occasionally, something I never did with Julia.

When he’d finished sight-reading the piece, I gave him a few directions on things to practice when he plays it at home. I wrote these down for him too.

“Cedric, I just want to say that it’s quite obvious you’ve been keeping up your end of the bargain and practicing your lessons. Are you enjoying the practice?”

“Yes, ma’am. I try to get at least an hour in each day like you suggested, and on weekends a little bit more than that. I’ve had to take a second job on the weekends, but I’m still managing at least a couple hours each of those days. The time passes quickly, though, and it doesn’t seem like that much.”

“That’s a good sign. The time can seem to drag when you’re not into it, and you end up doing all kinds of things to stall for time just so you can say you practiced for an hour. I’m gratified to hear this. Alright, I think we’re done for today. I’ll see you next week.”

He put his violin away, gathered up his things, and headed for the door. As he started to leave, he said, “Goodnight, Ms. Schmidt. Thank you for the lesson. See you tomorrow.”

I smiled and said, “Goodnight, Cecil.”

Two weeks later

At last week’s lesson, he seemed a little off. As soon as he came in, I could sense a difference in him. He wasn’t smiling as he usually was. He seemed pleasant enough, but a little unfocused and less sharp than usual. He did a decent enough job on the two pieces he’d been practicing, but instead of being loose, as he usually was, he was tense, and I had to remind him to relax his wrists and not to hold the bow so tightly. I had to repeat this to him several times.

But tonight’s lesson was a completely different story. I was annoyed with him. He’d made no progress since last week, and his attention wavered throughout the lesson. As opposed to being stiff like last week, he seemed lethargic and without his usual enthusiasm. No smile either. I’d assigned him the “Irish Tune from County Derry,” known more commonly as “Danny Boy,” and he made a complete mess of it.

“Cedric, I don’t know what’s gotten into you lately, but I don’t like the direction you’ve been going. I can tell you haven’t been practicing, and that was the deal we struck for the lessons. If you’re no longer interested in lessons, just say so, and we won’t waste any more of each other’s time.”

He hung his head and looked very forlorn. He then placed his violin and bow back in the case on the floor. “You’re right, Dr. Schmidt. About not practicing. I should probably have canceled our lesson for this week. Things aren’t going well at home, and I’ve had to pick up a third job just to make enough money to get by. I’m so tired lately, that I don’t have the energy to practice. I’m sorry.”

I could tell he was sincere. “What’s changed, Cedric?”

He couldn’t seem to look me in the eye and kept his head down. It took him a few seconds to answer. “I live with my mother, and I have two sisters and a brother who are all younger than me. My mother had a job as a library assistant, but she was fired recently, and she refuses to look for another job. She just stays in the apartment all day doing nothing, so I must do everything to keep the family going. I don’t know how to help her.”

“What happened? Why did she get fired?”

He looked very sad as he told the rest of his tale. “She was talked into trying a drug called Dip by a friend who lives in our building. My mother has some history with drug abuse, but it has never affected her like this drug has. She doesn’t want to do anything except to take it all day long. Once she started taking it, she never went back to her job at the library, and they eventually called and told her not to come back.

“She doesn’t cook for herself or for the younger ones. She does nothing all day but sit and stare. I’ve never seen anything like this Dip. It’s ruined her.”

My heart sank for this boy as he told his tale. It was easy to see why practicing the violin was now his lowest priority. The fate of his family rested on him alone.

“Have you tried to get her into rehab?”

“I’ve suggested it, but she won’t go. She doesn’t think there’s anything wrong, and I can’t seem to reason with her. She just laughs everything off and insists she’s enjoying her life like never before. How do you convince someone to get help when they see nothing wrong with their behavior? I don’t know what to do, Dr. Schmidt.”

“I’m very sorry to hear this, Cedric, and I understand now what you’re going through. Whoever invented this drug and is distributing it should be shot. What a horribly devastating thing it appears to be that can so take over a person like that. Why don’t we just suspend our lessons for now until things change and your family is back on its feet? Then we can resume if you feel like it. I would very much like to continue teaching you if you still have an interest.”

He looked up at me, and tears were forming in his eyes. He said simply, “Thank you, Dr. Schmidt.”

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Barry Degner (aka Tony Faiella): Dana's friend who will act the part of a leg-breaker to attack Brian.

Picture courtesy of Playground-v3

Chapter 36
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 36

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 35: Cedric is doing well at his violin lessons with Marie. Both seem to be enjoying them very much until Cedric begins to falter and comes to a lesson unprepared. Marie confronts him about not holding up his end of the bargain, and he reveals to her that his mother, whom he lives with along with three younger siblings, was recently fired from her job, and he must now work three jobs to support the family. When Marie presses him further about this, he reveals that his mother has gotten herself addicted to Dip and refuses to do anything except get high all day.

Marie is very sympathetic to his plight and suggests they suspend his lessons until things improve in his family.

Chapter 36

Marie

This morning, as we were all seated and about to begin rehearsal, I looked over my section and realized Corinne was missing. As the section leader, I had not gotten a call from her saying she would be absent today. It was her responsibility to let me know if she couldn’t make a rehearsal.

I whispered to my section, “Has anyone heard from Corinne?”

Another one of the young ones named Sheila, who sits next to Corinne, whispered back, “Marie, I’d better talk to you at our morning break. I know where she is.”

“Is she sick or injured? Family emergency?”

“No, nothing like that. I’ll tell you at the break.”

Hmm, what could this be about that she wouldn’t call me? Sheila had a concerned look, but there was no time to think about it anymore since the conductor had arrived and mounted the podium.

During our mid-morning break in the Green Room, Sheila approached and sat down beside me.

“Marie, Corinne told me she might not be returning. We both live in Brooklyn and usually meet at the Atlantic Avenue Station and take the subway in together, but she was late. I called her, and she told me she wasn’t coming today. I asked her why not, and she said she felt too good to spoil it. She sounded funny—dreamy-like. I asked her if she’d called you to tell you she wouldn’t be there, but she just blew it off and told me not to worry about it, because she wasn’t worried. I don’t know what to make of it.”

“She said she felt too good to spoil it? That was the reason she gave?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t like the sound of that. Thanks for telling me, Sheila. I’ll call her tonight and find out what’s going on.”

I had a bad feeling about this, having just listened to Cedric’s story last night.

I called Corinne when I got home. Her phone rang until her voicemail message came on. I hung up and immediately tried again. Once again, it rang until the voicemail message, so I tried it a third time. This time it rang for eight rings before I heard a very mellow-sounding Corinne say, “Hi, Marie. What’s up?”

“Why weren’t you at work today, Corinne? You know you’re supposed to call in when you won’t be there.”

“Yeah, I just said, ‘fuck it.’ I didn’t feel like coming in today.”

“What’s going on with you? Are you high right now, and were you high this morning when you just said, ‘fuck it?’”

“Oh, yeah.”

“What are you high on?”

“You ever hear of Dip? That would be it.”

“Where did you get it?”

“Oh, you can get it everywhere now. You can’t get much else, but nobody wants anything else. Only Dip now. You ought to try it, Marie. Might help you get that stick out of your ass.”

“Corinne, stop taking that stuff, show up tomorrow, or there will be consequences. This is the only warning you’re going to get. Another unexcused absence, and you’ll be out. Do you understand me?”

“I do, Herr Doktor. I most certainly do.”

“So, will you be there?”

“Oh, probably not.”

“Corinne, you need help. Get it.”

I hung up then. What is going on here? I never liked that kid, but she had never shown that sort of disrespect before. This Dip is a monster. I decided to look it up on the internet.

There was a Wikipedia entry for Dip. Apparently, it’s short for Dipraxa, a street drug that was recently invented by… whoa! What is this? It was invented by Brian Kendrick of Charlotte, North Carolina and sold to a Mexican cartel! This was footnoted to an article in the December issue of Myalosoma. I looked that up and found out it was a health and wellness journal.

I signed up for a free edition of the magazine and read the article online. It was entitled “Recipe for Disaster” and mentioned that Brian Kendrick had invented both Dipraxa and Glyptophan. It claimed that Glyptophan was showing horrible side effects during its human trials and that it could be as addictive as Dipraxa.

My heart sank. I knew Brian had invented Glyptophan, but the rest was news to me. The article didn’t mention that he’d sold a license to manufacture it to a pharmaceutical company as he’d told me. Maybe he just made that up for my sake and even for Julia’s, and he really made his millions from that Mexican cartel he sold the formula for Dipraxa to? Maybe I had been right about Brian all along, and he’s another Walter White.

This was going to bug me until I found out the truth, so I called Julia.

“Well, hello, Mother. What a nice surprise. How have you—”

“Julia, do you know for sure that Brian has a licensing agreement with a drug company to produce his new drug?”

There was a long pause before she spoke. “Mother, where is this coming from?”

“Just please answer me. I’ve had a rough couple of days, and I need to know.”

“Yes, of course he does. It’s with the company he used to work for, Detry Pharmaceutical. How do you think he earned so much money for it?”

“Do you have actual proof of that, Julia?”

“Mother! What are you getting at?”

“Have you seen the proof yourself, or are you just taking Brian’s word for it?”

“I thought you finally learned to trust Brian. I don’t know why you’re suspicious all of a sudden. Where is this coming from? Now, tell me!”

“I read an article saying he made a fortune selling the formula for Dip. It was an article in a health and wellness magazine. It said Brian invented a powerful street drug called Dipraxa and sold the formula to a Mexican cartel. I know of two people whose lives may be ruined by this drug. How come you never told me about it?”

“Mother, that article you read was total bullshit. It was a hit piece probably instigated by one of the pharmaceutical companies to smear Glyptophan by association because it threatens their sacred opioids. In fact, I have a pretty good idea which company.

“Yes, Brian did invent Dipraxa before he invented Glyptophan. Dipraxa worked great. Brian was testing it on himself and became virtually pain-free for the first time in 16 years. But one day early in the morning, he got up to drive me to the airport for a two-month tour I was going on. He took his daily dose of Dipraxa when he got up. When he got home from the airport, he fell asleep for a few more hours, and when he woke up, by habit, he took his pills again. He ended up getting a double dose of Dipraxa, and that’s when he discovered that it could be highly addictive and induce extreme euphoria—but only at a large enough dose. It was a total surprise to him.

“When I got home from my two-month tour, I hardly recognized him. He was thin as a rail, hadn’t shaved in two months, and hadn’t bathed in weeks. The house was a complete shambles. He had done nothing that whole time except stay high on Dipraxa. The drug is that addictive.”

“Why didn’t you ever tell me about this?”

“You didn’t need to know about it. It’s a part of his life he’s not proud of or wants to share with people.”

“But how did it get out on the street then? He must have sold the formula to someone.”

“I promise you he did not, Mother. No one knew better than he how destructive that drug could be if taken at a high dose.”

“Alright, two questions then: First, how did he become sober again?”

“That was the toughest thing he ever did, and I’m not sure he could have done it by himself without my help. First of all, he realized what it was doing to him, and he threw away all of the raw materials that went into making it so that he couldn’t easily make any more. That was a very big step that he did on his own during the two months I was away. And second, I helped him get over the psychological addiction. It never was physically addictive. He became extremely depressed and anxious after his failure. He needed an antidepressant drug and a lot of love and support from me, but he made it. Now what was your second question?”

“It’s just a repetition of my original one: How did it get out for public consumption if Brian didn’t sell it?”

“The formula was stolen. That’s how. Beyond that, you’ll have to ask his sister, Fran, but she probably won’t tell you anything.”

“So, the FBI is involved with this? What exactly are they doing?”

“I’m really not at liberty to say, Mother. I’m sworn to secrecy about what I know, which isn’t that much to start with. But I will say this: You know that project that Brian, Abby, Patty, and Fran have been working on? It has something to do with eradicating Dipraxa. That’s where he is right now—on the mission to stop it. He’s due back any day now, hopefully with good news.”

“And he’s discussed all this with you, including everything about the drugs, themselves?”

“He’s discussed what he’s allowed to discuss with me, but some he had to sign an NDA for. But as far as the drugs go, I know everything about both of them because I helped him develop them. I was with him when he figured out how to make Dipraxa non-addictive at any dose, and that modified version became Glyptophan.”

“But the article said Glyptophan had serious side effects, including addiction.”

“All bullshit, Mother. The only side effects that testing has revealed are at the very highest doses of the drug, but that’s what the testing is for—to determine the proper level to take. And the side effects it was showing did not include addictiveness. That was a total misrepresentation of the facts, and Brian has his lawyers working on it. They may sue that magazine for libel. Do you think Detry Pharmaceutical would have paid him an 8-figure bonus following the successful phase-1 trials if the drug was no good?”

“And you have conclusive proof that he was paid by them and not by a Mexican cartel?”

“Jesus, Mother. Are you really going to make me send you a copy of the contract with Detry before you believe it?”

“No, if you can honestly tell me right now that you have seen it.”

“I have absolutely seen it. Look, you’ve been duped by that stupid article just as they intended. This is going to be an uphill battle for Brian to get this drug accepted. If you were that easily fooled, think about what’s stacked against him now. But he’s not taking this lightly. I guarantee you that magazine will be issuing retractions of most everything they said in that article.”

“Well… I’m sorry to have doubted Brian—again. You don’t need to tell him about this call, Julia. If you’re convinced, I’m convinced. Look, I sincerely hope he’s successful in stamping out Dip. I’ve seen its effect on two people, one of whom is the mother of my violin student.”

“You have a student now?”

“Yes, I took your advice. It was good advice. We had to suspend his lessons, though. His mother got hooked on Dip, and he has to work three jobs now to support her and his brothers and sisters. The poor guy is being run ragged and has no time to practice anymore.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, but it’s good to hear you took on a student. Who is he?”

“The doorman at my apartment house, of all people. Now let’s just forget everything else and tell me all about what Johnny’s been doing since I saw him last.”

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Sheila and Corinne: Two young violinists in Marie's orchestra.

Picture courtesy of Playground-v3

Chapter 37
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 37

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 36: Marie has another shock when she learns that one of the violinists in her section has also succumbed to Dip addiction. She decides to research Dip and finds out that the creator was none other than Brian. Wikipedia had footnoted the article in Myalosoma as its source of information, and Marie reads the online version of it. She immediately calls Julia with her suspicions about Brian.

Julia is finally able to convince her that the magazine article was a hit piece, and reveals a full account of how Brian had indeed invented Dipraxa, how he’d accidentally discovered its addictiveness, and how he’d solved the problem with Glyptophan. She also reveals to Marie how Brian is currently on a mission to stop Dipraxa’s spread, concluding definitively and convincingly that Brian had not sold the formula and that it had been stolen.

Chapter 37

Mid-February, 2026

Fran

The day after Brian and I returned home, my boss, Lou D’Onofrio, set up a secure video teleconferencing meeting with FBI headquarters in Washington. The Director took part in this meeting.

I went through the timeline and explained everything that happened on the trip, including our encounter with the scout on Gunagua Island. I let them know that we had not been discovered by anyone else.

I asked them if the Philippine Coast Guard had apprehended the boat as the DoD requested them to. They informed me that they had and that a large load of Balanga had been confiscated. It did not include any whole plants with root systems or soil.

That was a relief to everyone because we were certain now that the Chinese hadn’t started growing their own Balanga nor understood the need for using native soil to do it. That meant our plan would work, assuming Brian’s formula for the spray was effective.

The meeting was concluded with congratulations from the Director himself on our success. I thanked him for trusting me and giving me the opportunity to lead such an important mission.

I waited a few days before calling Brian to touch base. “Hey, Little Brother. Just wanted to see how you were doing. Have you gotten caught up on sleep yet? I don’t think either of us got very much on the plane ride back.”

“Yeah, I’ve just been crashing for a while and spending time with the family. It’s a relief having all that behind us now. It was a pretty grueling few months. Hopefully we’ll begin seeing some results maybe in another couple of months.”

“I found out the Philippine Coast Guard confiscated the Balanga harvest, and there were no live plants or soil onboard.”

“Thank God for that.”

“By the way, I never asked you how quickly the spray works on the plants.”

“It should take effect within a few days. I imagine the Chinese will send another boat to harvest more since the last one had it all confiscated. They’ll get the new, genetically changed version now, and as soon as they start using it, the resulting Dipraxa will be ruined. That’s assuming our formula works.”

“So, what are you planning to do now?”

“Well, I’ve had some time in the past few days to write an article that refutes the lies said about Glyptophan in the hit piece in that medical journal. In addition to a retraction of the false statements the article made, my lawyers are going to require them to print my article in return for dropping the libel lawsuit we filed. That would prove to be expensive for a small magazine like Myalosoma, so I think they’ll take the deal. Now, I can finally get back to finishing up the recruiting for the phase-2 trials for Glyptophan.”

“I’m glad you can start making forward progress again. I’m sorry to have interrupted you. But look, Brian, I just want to warn you that Big Pharma is not taking this lightly and may step up its attacks against both the drug and you personally.”

“Oh, yeah? What kind of attacks?”

“Prior to the trip, we had picked up some things on a phone tap we had on Leonard Merra’s phone. He was talking about breaking bones. I didn’t want to tell you this before and distract you from your work on the mission. There was no danger to you at the time, though, because it was all a phony setup arranged by Dana, unbeknownst to me, and the hitman Merra contacted was a plant Dana had provided. We arrested Merra, and he was indicted. We’re hoping this will serve as a warning to his company that the FBI is watching them now, which may deter further harassment on their part. That doesn’t mean other Big Pharma companies won’t try, though.”

“Try what? Are we talking about threats to my family too?”

“Possibly. It will probably start with intimidation—warnings and the like. I’ll let you know if we hear of anything coming, but you’re going to have to tell Jules about this, and you’re both going to have to stay vigilant. I wish it weren’t this way, but when financial fortunes are at stake, I think there’s little they won’t do to protect their kingdoms. Greedy bastards.”

“Jesus, Fran. I knew there would be resistance, but I didn’t figure it would get violent.”

“Well, I hate to tell you this, but that’s the world we live in. You’ve got to let me know right away if something happens or you have any suspicions it might. Will you do that?”

“Of course.”

Dana

Leonard Merra sat in jail at an FBI detention center in Charlotte until his indictment a month later. He made bail and was back to work the following day.

This afternoon, he asked me to come to his office. I wondered whether he suspected me of being the one to bring the Feds down on him. Fran had told me she let Merra know it was a tap on Tony Faiella’s (Barry Degner’s) phone that had led to his arrest, but I don’t know if he really believed it. I guess I was about to find out.

“Hello, Dana. Nice to see you again. Please take a seat.”

“Hi Leonard. I’m very sorry about what happened to you.”

“Thank you. It wasn’t so bad really. I was in a cell by myself, and I got to catch up on a lot of reading. The FBI informed me when I was interrogated that your friend Tony Faiella’s phone had been tapped, and that’s what led them to me. Have you heard from Tony lately?”

“No, not a word.”

“Well, listen, Dana, this whole scheme was beginning to get out of my comfort zone. My boss has decided it would be better if we backed off with our current plans and passed the baton to one of our fellow interested parties. We’d be under increased scrutiny now, and we just don’t want to make it worse than it already is. I would like your pharma reps to continue feeding false information about Glyptophan, but aside from that, I think we’re pretty much done with our intimidation tactics.”

So, my usefulness, as well as my desire to continue working here, just came to a sudden end. I made a snap decision. “Leonard, I was going to wait a while to tell you this, but I wasn’t going to be able to help you much longer anyway. My husband, Steve, has been transferred to Atlanta to his company’s branch down there, and I was going to be putting in my two weeks’ notice soon. I was wondering if one of your ‘interested parties’ might be Gideon Pharmaceutical in Atlanta?”

“They are certainly one of the ones we contacted. Why?”

“I’ll be looking for a job when we move to Atlanta. Perhaps if I could get a recommendation from you, I could work for them.”

“Well, I’m sorry to hear you’ll be leaving us, Dana, but yes, I could certainly put in a good word for you with Gideon.”

“I’d appreciate that very much, and I’ve enjoyed working with you on this project. Who knows, maybe I’ll get to work with them on it too? Perhaps you could mention it to them?”

“Just curious, Dana. What’s your motivation to help out like this?”

“Here at Newman-Price, it was the promise of a promotion when my current boss retires soon, but I’m sure I might be able to find a way to leverage my help to some advantage there at Gideon as well.”

“A woman after my own heart. I respect that. I only wish we’d been able to continue the association here. I’m sorry you’ll be leaving us.”

I wasn’t at all sorry to be leaving Newman-Price. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to wash off the stink of this place—the dishonesty, the pushing of drugs they know to be harmful and addictive, the attempt to suppress a drug that can solve that problem, and just the general sleaziness of management.

I made a good guess that Gideon Pharmaceutical, another Big 5 pharma company, might be a logical choice to move forward with the harassment. Their reputation for that precedes them. The best part is that Atlanta is only a four-hour drive from Charlotte, and I’ll be that much nearer to Fran and the action when I move down there.

Of course, my husband, Steve, wasn’t really being transferred to Atlanta. However, I’ve developed a taste for the excitement, and I don’t mind moving to Atlanta by myself for a few months if I can infiltrate Gideon and assist in doing something worthwhile that I also find enjoyable.

“I’ve got some news for you, Fran,” I said when I called her tonight. “Today, I met with Merra, who’s out on bail, and we discussed the future of Newman-Price’s harassment efforts against Glyptophan. It sounds like they’ll be backing off now, since they’ll be under extra scrutiny. They’re hoping the other members of Big Pharma will take the lead. I know for a fact that Merra has contacted Gideon Pharmaceutical in Atlanta to urge them on.”

“Yes, that jibes with a phone call he placed when we arrested him. It was to a burner phone, but through cell-tower triangulation, we were able to narrow it down to somewhere in the Atlanta area. Merra spoke some sort of code. Since he’s been in custody, we haven’t been able to renew the warrant for the wiretap, so we’ve lost contact with his phone.”

“Well, you probably don’t need it anymore since he has bowed out of the intimidation game.”

I then told her how I’d found out it was Gideon Pharmaceutical that Merra had contacted. I also told her I’d made up a story about Steve being transferred to Atlanta and how I wanted a recommendation from Merra to go to work at Gideon.

“You rock, Dana! That would be fantastic. Hmm, Georgia is a one-party-consent-to-be-recorded state, unlike Pennsylvania. I’m just thinking out loud here. That means if you could somehow get hired there and manage to record an incriminating conversation, we could probably get a wiretap going.”

I thought about that for a moment. “Hmm, gaining Merra’s confidence happened pretty naturally at Newman-Price, but I’m not so sure Merra’s equivalent at Gideon would take a newcomer like me into his confidence so early on.”

“There are other ways we might go about it. Let me think on that. You just make sure you get a job there. By the way, have you talked to Steve about this?”

“Yes, no problem there. Turns out he wanted to go on a three-week-long golfing trip to the UK with his buddies but was hesitant to ask me about it. Now he’s perfectly willing to be apart for a few months in exchange for that.”

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Barry Degner (aka Tony Faiella): Dana's friend who will act the part of a leg-breaker to attack Brian.

Picture courtesy of Flux-Pro-1.1-ultra

Chapter 38
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 38

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 37: Fran discusses the mission with FBI headquarters, gives her report of the events, and learns that the Philippine Coast Guard apprehended the Chinese boat and confiscated the harvested Balanga. There were no whole plants or soil, indicating the Chinese haven’t begun growing their own yet.

Fran fills Brian in on this. Brian reports the steps he has taken to counteract the impact of the smear article. He’s confident the magazine will issue retractions and print Brian’s rejoinder to avoid the expense of the libel suit Brian filed against them.

Dana meets with Merra, who is out on bail, and he reveals to her that Newman-Price is done with their harassment, and the ball has been passed to another member of Big Pharma. Dana correctly guesses it’s Gideon Pharmaceutical in Atlanta and decides to quit Newman-Price and try to find a job with Gideon. She tells Fran, who is very enthusiastic about this, and they begin planning how to infiltrate Gideon.

Chapter 38

Two months later

Fran

I heard the first good news from FBI Central Headquarters today about the results of our mission to stop Dipraxa. Apparently, reports are starting to filter in from several cities about people getting sick to their stomachs from taking Dip, resulting in severe nausea and vomiting.

I phoned Brian with the news. “Well, Little Brother, it appears your estimate of a couple of months for us to see some results was right on. People are starting to puke their guts out after taking Dip. You bet we’ll be monitoring this very closely now.”

“Have you heard if it’s also lost its effectiveness in getting people high?”

“I haven’t heard about that yet, only the nausea and vomiting, but this is from the very earliest of reports. We’ll know more soon. This is a good sign, though.”

“Yeah, it is, but I won’t be happy until I find out it no longer works too. The nausea may fade after a couple of hours, but if the high remains, people may still find it worthwhile to take.”

“Well, I’ll keep you posted when we learn more. In the meantime, why don’t you fill me in on what you’ve been doing?”

“Sure. I’ve begun the phase-2 trials. I ended up recruiting close to 200 volunteers, which is well within the required range for this phase of testing. We’ve been at it for a few weeks now, and the interim results are looking very good. The study is double-blind with 30% receiving a placebo. So far, 80% are reporting drastic pain reduction. That means that virtually everyone taking the drug and about a third of those taking the placebo are reporting pain levels of 1 on the pain scale. That’s typical, by the way, for about a third of the placebo group in a pain trial to report success.”

“Bet you’re pretty damned pleased with that. I presume you still take the drug?”

“Oh, yeah. Every so often I stop taking it for a while to see if the pain comes back, and it always does. This is not a cure for the pain; it only masks it, but ask me if I give a shit, so long as I’m not in pain.”

I laughed. “Okay, now tell me what’s happening with your libel suit against that medical journal.”

“Mostly good news as far as that’s concerned. Apparently, they had been misled about the source of the talking points they had received that prompted the article in the first place. They didn’t realize it had come from a Big Pharma company that they mostly hate. When we pointed out to them that they’d been duped by Big Pharma, they went on a warpath.

“Not only did they retract many of the points they made in the article, but they published my response, which included the phase-1 test results. They also promised to publish the interim results from my phase-2 testing.

“They were still leery about the fact that Glyptophan employs gene manipulation, but when I informed them that many drugs these days use this approach, like a number of cancer drugs and a drug for sickle cell anemia, they began to rethink their position.”

“And what did you tell them about the tie to Dipraxa?”

“That it was a precursor of Glyptophan, which had a problem that was fixed, and that the formula for it was stolen from me, although I had no idea how. They seemed to accept that.”

“Good. So, what has the response been so far to all your efforts here?”

“Not as great as I’d hoped. The social media response has been tepid at best. Retractions never carry the same weight as initial charges. We just have to keep plugging away at it and hope the truth eventually gets out there.”

I updated Brian on the fact that Dana had left Newman-Price after her source there dried up, but that she was now working for another Big Pharma company called Gideon Pharmaceutical out of Atlanta and was hoping to resume her CI duties there. “There’s a good chance they’ll be the ones to begin harassing you from what we’ve learned so far. Have you noticed anything yet?”

“I haven’t, but Jules told me she noticed a car parked directly across the street for a couple of hours yesterday. There’s nothing across the street except for woods.”

“Is she there now? Could you get her and put your phone on speaker? I’d like to talk to you both.”

I heard him shout, “Hey, Babe, could you come here, please? Fran wants to talk to you.”

In a few seconds I heard her say, “Hi, Fran. What’s up?”

“Brian tells me you saw a car hanging around for a few hours yesterday? I don’t want to frighten you, but this is typically how harassment starts. Don’t approach the car. If this continues, call the Sheriff’s Office and report it. They will likely send a deputy out to check it out. In fact, I’ll call the Sheriff’s Office and inform them of the situation.”

“Thanks for doing that, Fran. What do the guys in the car hope to accomplish by this?”

“They’re just making their presence known. More than likely, you’ll get a call or a letter or something that will probably warn you off continuing with the drug trials. Please keep me abreast of anything like that, and we’ll evaluate the degree of threat.”

“Are we in danger, Fran?” Julia asked.

“I honestly don’t know what to tell you, Jules. Dana is working for the company we have suspicions about, and I’m hoping she’ll get enough evidence for us to get a wiretap going if this escalates. That could give us advance warning of anything.”

I hated being the bearer of bad news, but they needed to know what might be in store. I decided to call Dana to get an update from her.

“So, how’s our northern émigré? Have you started saying y’all yet?”

“Haha. It’s going okay, I guess. I’m not as close to the action as I’d like to be, but at least I’m in the office suite next door. Leonard Merra gave me a good recommendation to his counterpart down here at Gideon and even told him I’d been helping him with his campaign against Glyptophan. The guy’s name is Rudy Spangler, and he’s a veep here like Merra.”

“You’ve been there what, about four weeks? What’s your job there?”

“About five weeks now. He hired me as one of his administrative assistants. Since I have marketing experience, he’s assigned me to work on that area of the business. His personal assistant, Leigh-Anne Grimsley, works next door just outside his office. I’ve gotten friendly with her, and I’ve picked up some useful information.”

“Oh, like what?”

“We were talking about the movie The Fugitive one day, you know, the one with Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble? And I asked her, since she seems to know everything that’s going on, if it was really true that Big Pharma operates the way that movie portrayed. She’s a real gossip and told me she’s seen and heard of similar things. Things like competitors stabbing each other in the back, and trying to sabotage each other’s work, and results being faked. I asked innocently enough if they do that kind of thing here. She said they all do it and that she’s made peace with it because she’s paid so well.”

“Did you get into any specifics?”

“Not really, but she did reveal one interesting thing: that whenever our boss wants to do something on the sly, he never uses the phone but always meets with the head of security, Peter Israel, at a restaurant with outdoor seating, where they can talk in person. Who knows what kind of shit they dream up at these meetings, she said. She makes the restaurant reservations for him and puts them on his calendar, and she said there’s invariably news of something bad happening shortly after these meetings. I was a little surprised she confided this to me, but I played right along. I guess she had no reason to doubt me, and she really is a talker and likes to make like a bigshot who’s privy to all the secrets around here. I can hardly get a word in edgewise with her.”

“She sounds perfect.”

“I know, right?”

“Well, keep your ears open. See if you can maybe get a peek at that calendar to see what might be in the offing. Just don’t get caught snooping.”

“I’ll do my best.”

“Where are you living, by the way?”

“I was able to get a short-term lease at an apartment here in Atlanta, not far from Gideon.”

“Keep track of your rent payments, and we’ll reimburse you for that. I trust you got your compensation check for the information you provided us at Newman-Price?”

“Yes, and I appreciate that.”

“You’ll be compensated for any actionable intelligence you gather here too.”

“I really wasn’t expecting to be paid for this. Y’all are pretty generous.”

“Haha. We’ll make a southerner out of you yet!”

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is the assistant marketing director for a Big Pharma company.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Rudy Spangler: A vice president at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Peter Israel: The security chief at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in cahoots with Rudy Spangler to stop Glyptophan.

Leigh-Anne Grimsley: Rudy Spangler's secretary at Gideon Pharmaceutical.

Picture courtesy of Poe Assistant

Chapter 39
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 39

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 38: Two months have passed, and the FBI gets word that Dipraxa has just begun making people sick to their stomachs. Fran calls Brian to share this good news. It’s not certain yet if it no longer makes people high, but time will tell. Brian fills Fran in on the progress of the libel suit against Myalosoma and says they dropped the suit because the magazine complied with Brian’s demand to print a retraction and an article by Brian.

Fran tells Brian that Dana is now working for Gideon Pharmaceutical and asks him if there have been any acts of harassment. Brian reports a car parking across the street and watching the house. Fran also calls Julia to the phone and tells them to expect some harassment.

Fran then calls Dana for an update on her new job at Gideon. Dana tells her that plans are usually hatched by her boss and the security chief over lunch at an outdoor restaurant, so Fran begins thinking of ways to eavesdrop in hopes of getting another wiretap.

Chapter 39

Dana

The opportunity to get a peek at Rudy Spangler’s calendar came sooner than I could have hoped for—just a few days later, in fact. He had asked me for a sales report, and I said I could get it to him later this afternoon. He told me he would be at a meeting most of the afternoon, but to leave it with Leigh-Anne.

I knew that Leigh-Anne took her afternoon break at 3:00, so I had a window of opportunity to sneak a peek at Rudy’s calendar as long as Leigh-Anne didn’t lock her computer screen when she left on break.

At precisely 3:00, I watched her walk by my office, heading for the lunchroom. I waited a minute for the hall to clear, then went next door into her office. I put the report in her in-basket then breathed a sigh of relief when I found her computer unlocked. I quickly called up Rudy’s calendar.

I noticed that on Monday at noon, three days from now, there is a meeting scheduled with Peter Israel, the security chief, at Gable’s Restaurant. Maybe this is the opportunity I’m looking for. I restored her computer to the screen it had been on and headed for the door when who should walk in but Rudy.

“Dana, what’s up?”

“Hi, Rudy. I was just dropping that sales report off. It’s in Leigh-Anne’s in-basket.”

“Great. Thanks. How do the figures look?”

“Pretty good. This is shaping up to be a good quarter for us.”

“Glad to hear it. Have you seen Leigh-Anne?”

“She should be back from her break any minute.”

“Alright, then. You take care.” He turned and headed into his office.

Phew! That was close. I headed back to my office with my heart in my throat.

I called Fran tonight with the news. I remember that she had once hinted at ways of listening to conversations. I was curious to see what she would say.

“Hi, Dana. I didn’t expect to hear back from you so soon. Have you got something already?”

“I do. My boss, Rudy Spangler, will be meeting with the head of security, Peter Israel, at a noon luncheon meeting at a local restaurant on Monday. That’s three days from now. I scouted the place out after work today, and it has a large outdoor seating area. This sounds like one of those planning meetings Leigh-Anne told me about.”

“Perfect. Tell you what I’ll do. I’m going to drive down and meet you tomorrow for lunch there so I can see the place. I’ll be bringing some equipment with me that you can use to eavesdrop on the meeting, and I’ll show you how to work it.”

I gave her the name of the restaurant and told her I would meet her there at noon.

I arrived at Gable’s Restaurant first, and the hostess showed me to a table on their large, open patio. It was surrounded by a wrought iron fence with flower boxes hanging all around it. A large tree of some kind was in the center and provided shade to much of the patio. We were in June now, and it was starting to get hot, so the shade was welcome. Fran showed up a few minutes later.

“I thought you were going to bring some equipment with you,” I said.

“Yeah, it’s in the car. Maybe we could go back to your apartment after lunch, and I can show you how to operate it there. This is Saturday, so you won’t be going to work this afternoon, will you?”

“Nope. We’ve got the whole afternoon to ourselves.”

“Alright then. Let’s enjoy a leisurely lunch, and we’ll talk about surveillance later.”

We spent an hour over our meal, catching up with each other. I had a bowl of French onion soup and a half chicken salad sandwich on a croissant, and Fran had a lunch-size portion of shrimp and grits. We both had a couple of glasses of Chianti. Fran picked up the tab for lunch.

We drove to my apartment and parked. Fran reached into her back seat and pulled out a box with a big basket of sunflowers inside.

“For me? Oh, you shouldn’t have.”

“I didn’t. This is the equipment I brought to show you how to use.”

“A bouquet of sunflowers? What are you going to show me: how to arrange them properly?”

She smiled. “This isn’t just any old basket of flowers. I’ll show you when we get inside.”

She certainly had my curiosity piqued. Once inside, she set it on my kitchen table.

“This may look like an ordinary flower basket to be given as a gift. It’s wrapped in cellophane with a bow on top, but if you notice, there’s a six-inch circular hole in the cellophane on one side, and if you look closely at it, you’ll see that it’s concaved inward. This is a parabolic microphone with a 6-inch dish and an extremely sensitive microphone mounted at the focal point. The dish has been painted to blend in with the surrounding flowers. They’re silk flowers, by the way, but they sure look real, don’t they?”

“Sure do. What exactly is a parabolic microphone?”

“It’s a long-range listening device, which uses a parabolic-shaped reflector that focuses distant sound waves and can filter out surrounding sounds. It will automatically record the conversation of your targets as long as you are no more than, say, 40 feet away. Just set it on the table in front of you and point it at them.

“This is a very sensitive microphone here at the focal point, which enables the dish to be small, but beyond 40 feet, the words will become garbled, especially if your targets are speaking softly. If you can get a little closer than that, it would be better, but it would be best if they don’t recognize you or spend a lot of time looking at the flower basket. It looks damn good, but they may notice something odd about it if they study it closely.”

She then showed me how to turn it on and off and how I could listen in with a wireless earbud to what was being captured and recorded.

“When it sounds like they’ve concluded their little meeting, turn the basket around, so if they leave and happen to notice you and come over to talk to you, they won’t notice the hole in the cellophane and the dish within. If they ask who the flowers are for, make something up in advance to help explain it. Rehearse it out loud. Just stay cool. Chances are they won’t even notice you’re there, especially if it’s crowded.”

“I think I can do all that.”

“Why don’t we practice it for a while? I’ll go sit in the living room over there. Train it on me, and I’ll tell you a joke. Maybe put some music on too, and let’s see how it does in picking up my voice with some ambient sound going.”

“Got it.”

Fran moved into the living room and sat down on the furthest chair. It was only about 20 feet away. I said, “Hey Siri, play ‘Chicken Fried’ by the Zac Brown Band.”

When the music started, I pointed the mic at her and turned the switch on. Fran began telling her joke.

One day on a busy street corner, a big guy walks up to a cop

and says, "Thcuse me offither, can you tell me where thirty-third

and thacramento ith?"

The cop doesn’t say anything. The big guy then asks again, but

still nothing from the cop. Finally, the frustrated guy leaves.

A pedestrian walks up to the cop and asks, "Officer, why didn't

you tell that guy where thirty-third and Sacramento was?"

The cop says, "Thure, and get the thit kicked out of me?"

I laughed out loud. “Thath a good one!”

I shut the mic off and the music, and Fran played back the recording. Her voice was very clear, and you could hardly hear the music in the background. “Thing really works,” I said.

I practiced one more time to make sure I had everything right. Then she told me that, when the job was all done, I should place the flower basket back into the box it came in, seal it up, and overnight it back to her on Monday afternoon.

“You’re really into this cloak-and-dagger stuff, aren’t you, Dana?”

“I can’t deny that I am.”

“Well, let’s hope there’s something we can use to get a wiretap warrant—most likely on Peter Israel’s phone. It sounds like he’s probably the one who arranges things, while Rudy Spangler gives the initial orders but likes to distance himself from the details.”

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is a confidential informant (CI) for Fran and works in Big Pharma.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Rudy Spangler: A vice president at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Peter Israel: The security chief at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in cahoots with Rudy Spangler to stop Glyptophan.

Leigh-Anne Grimsley: Rudy Spangler's secretary at Gideon Pharmaceutical.

Picture courtesy of Poe Assistant

Chapter 40
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 40

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 39: Dana is able to peek at Rudy Spangler’s calendar and discovers he has a lunch meeting scheduled with Peter Israel in three days. She calls Fran with the news and agrees to meet Fran the following day at the restaurant where this will take place to scope it out. Fran brings a parabolic microphone disguised in a basket of sunflowers for Dana to use to eavesdrop on the meeting. Back at Dana’s apartment, Fran shows her how to use it and they practice with it.

Chapter 40

Dana

It was five minutes past noon on Monday when I arrived at Gable’s Restaurant for lunch. I needed to make sure Rudy Spangler and Peter Israel were already seated on the patio and where they were located. I walked along the sidewalk that paralleled the patio at the rear of the restaurant. There was a chest-high hedge that surrounded it, and the wrought iron fence with the flower boxes was inside this. My face would show above the hedge, so I made sure to wear large sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat to obscure my appearance as I scouted the people seated on the patio. I spotted them at a table on the side, right next to the fence.

I then reversed course and went around the block to the entrance. I requested to be seated on the patio, and when the hostess led me through the door to the outside, I made sure to obscure the view of my face from the side facing Spangler and Israel by holding the flower basket up a little. The hostess began leading me toward a table on the opposite end from where Spangler and Israel were seated, which would be too far to pick up their conversation. I asked her if I could be seated beneath the large tree in the center, claiming that I couldn’t sit in the sun due to a skin condition.

I saw an unoccupied table for two there, which was just on the other side of the tree trunk from the side facing Spangler and Israel. This would be perfect. I asked the hostess if I could sit at this table and told her I would be joined by another person who was running late. This would be fine, she said.

I set the basket of flowers on the table and explained to the hostess that the flowers were for my friend while she began filling the two water glasses. She left the tall carafe of water on the table plus two menus.

Once seated, I moved the table slightly so that I could remain largely obscured behind the tree trunk, but I could position the basket so that it could point directly toward my targets. I estimated I was 30 feet away, which should be close enough.

I adjusted the basket so the dish was facing them now. There weren’t that many customers eating on the patio because the sun was shining brightly, and it was quite warm out, but unfortunately, there was one table directly in the line of sight between my table and my targets. I sighted along the line from the basket to their table, and the view was slightly obstructed by the people at the table. I needed to raise the basket up to gain an unobstructed path.

I grabbed the water carafe, which was probably eight inches tall, and balanced the basket on it. I sighted along it again, and the view was still slightly obstructed, but better. It would have to do.

I turned it on, inserted my earbud, and heard nothing at first except for some rustling sounds. I peeked around the trunk and could see Spangler and Israel’s lips moving, so I adjusted the basket until I could just hear what they were saying. The rustling continued, as someone had stopped to talk to the people at the intervening table and was cutting in and out of the path to the target table.

Spangler and Israel were talking sports at this point. I figured the important talk would come during or after their meals, which hadn’t arrived yet. I took the opportunity to look at my menu and selected a Reuben sandwich with a side of potato salad. When the waitress came, I told her my companion had phoned and wouldn’t be coming after all. She asked me about the basket of sunflowers, and I told her it was a gift for my friend that would now have to wait to be given. I’m sure she wondered why it was sitting atop the water carafe, but fortunately, she didn’t mention it.

Spangler and Israel were well into their meals before I heard anything of importance. It was fairly faint, fainter than their baseball talk, which indicated to me they were using more caution now, but it was still recognizable:

Spangler: Here’s what we’re going to do: I want you to keep up the visits to the house until

they get harassed a few times by the Sheriff’s Department, which will undoubtedly come.

Then I want this letter to go to Kendrick, but put it in a different envelope and remove all

fingerprints that may be on it. Wear gloves. Stick it in their mailbox some night.

Israel: Rudy, you don’t need to give me all these little details. I know how to do my job. Just

give me the big picture and the timing.

Spangler: Yeah, you’re right. Sorry. The letter’s not going to scare him off, so we’ve got to

go … (rustling and static) … at that point. I trust you’ve got surveillance in place to know

when she leaves in her car?

Israel: Of course we do.

Spangler: Alright, then, when it gets picked up that she’s on the move, follow her to

wherever she’s going and threaten her very convincingly … (more rustling) … to

her or her husband. Make sure she knows we mean business and mention the

severity …(continued rustling) … to comply.

Jesus! All the good parts were being blotted out by the activity at that table in the way. Their waitress had come to get their credit card and was moving around in and out of the path to the target table.

Maybe the FBI will be able to extract something from this—hopefully more than I can get from this little earbud.

Spangler: I’m still guessing Kendrick won’t be intimidated enough yet. There’s millions at

stake for him if he can make it through to the end. I think at this point we’ll probably have

to move into our next phase.

Israel: Which is what?

Spangler: (Major rustling and static now) … Who would you use with that sort of

experience?

Israel: You don’t really need those kinds of details, do you? Why don’t you just let me

handle that? I’ll get the right team for it. Sometimes, the less you know, the better.

Spangler: Yeah, you’re right. Plausible deniability.

The waitress at the intervening table had returned with the credit card receipt, and the patrons were preparing to leave, all the while interfering with the path to the target. I’m missing all the good parts!

Finally, the couple was gone, and now that they wouldn’t be blocking the view to my table, I immediately removed the flower basket from the carafe. A minute later, however, the woman was back and grabbed her carryout bag from the table where she’d apparently forgotten to carry it out with her. Ughhh!

By this time, it also seemed like Spangler and Israel had concluded their business and had summoned their waitress for the check. I took the opportunity to start eating my sandwich, but I was too worked up to be very hungry and only took a couple of bites.

I hope we had enough for a wiretap warrant. I wasn’t sure because of all the interference.

After a couple of minutes, Spangler and Israel got up from their table and started heading for the door to the inside. I hoped they wouldn’t notice me. Everything was happening fast now. I turned the basket 180 degrees so that the concave dish side was no longer facing in their direction. I also crumpled up the unused napkin from the opposite side of the table and set it in the middle. Finally, I pulled the earbud from my ear. Jesus, I should have planned all this a little better. It all seemed so hurried now.

Unfortunately, as Spangler opened the door to the inside of the restaurant and stepped to the side to let Israel through first, he spotted me at my table, and he and Israel came over to say hi. My heart began to pound.

“Well, hello, Dana,” said Spangler. “I see you’ve discovered Gable’s too. Nice lunch place, isn’t it?”

“Yes, very, but I think I’m going to have to start sitting inside now that we’re getting into summer. It’s pretty warm out here.”

“Yes, and you’re even in the shade too. Dining alone today?”

“No, my companion went to the ladies room.” God, I wish they would just leave.

“My, that’s a nice gift basket. Is that for you or her?”

“We haven’t seen each other in a while, and she brought it for me.”

“Dana, I don’t know if you’ve met him before, but this is Peter Israel, who works at Gideon with us. Peter, this is Dana Padgett, one of my administrative assistants.”

My heart began beating harder as he started to come around to shake my hand, but his eyes were on the flower basket rather than me. I was afraid he would notice the circle of missing cellophane and the concavity in the side, but right then we all heard what sounded like gunshots nearby. It sounded like three shots were fired at close range, perhaps just outside the fence.

The patrons on the patio began turning toward the sound of the shots, and some began ducking down or getting under tables. Israel excused himself and headed quickly for the door, leaving Rudy and me at the table. In the confusion, I just wanted to get out of there. I hadn’t gotten my bill yet, but I left $20 in cash on the table and stood to leave. I picked up my purse and the sunflower basket with the dish side to my chest and made ready to go.

Rudy took me by the arm and escorted me to the door. We made our way into the restaurant, away from the action. A number of other patrons outside did likewise.

“What do you think that was about?” I asked Rudy, breathlessly.

“I don’t know. Maybe a drive-by shooting. It seemed awfully close. Too close for comfort.”

“Where do you think Mr. Israel went?”

“He’s our security chief, and he’s armed. Maybe he just went out to see what he could do to provide some sort of protection? I don’t really know, though.”

“Well, I’ve got to wait for my friend. Seems like she missed all the action. It was nice seeing you here, Rudy.”

“Quite an adventure as it turned out. I’ll see you back at the office.”

As soon as he left, I began shaking like a leaf now that it was over. I waited a few minutes for Rudy to leave the area before venturing out myself.

Still amped up, I began heading for my car while dwelling on what had just transpired when a voice behind me said, “Had a little excitement there at the end, didn’t we?”

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is a confidential informant (CI) for Fran and works in Big Pharma.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Rudy Spangler: A vice president at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Peter Israel: The security chief at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in cahoots with Rudy Spangler to stop Glyptophan.

Leigh-Anne Grimsley: Rudy Spangler's secretary at Gideon Pharmaceutical.

Picture courtesy of Fotor

Chapter 41
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 41

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 40: Dana arrives at Gable’s Restaurant, where Spangler and Israel are conducting their secret meeting on the patio, and Dana gets seated at a table 30 feet away, where she sets up her flower gift basket to point at their table. It contains a parabolic microphone that will pick up and record their conversation in hopes it will provide justification to get a warrant for a wiretap on Israel’s phone.

Although there is a lot of interference from an intervening table, Dana hears a great deal of threatening talk concerning Brian and Julia, although much of it is garbled. As Spangler and Israel are leaving, they notice Dana at a table by herself and come over to talk to her. When Israel is about to discover the secret of the flower basket, three shots ring out from outside the restaurant, and everyone scatters. A few minutes later, when Dana leaves, someone comes up to her from behind and speaks.

Ending of previous chapter (Dana):

As soon as Rudy left, I began shaking like a leaf now that it was over. I waited a few minutes for him to leave the area before venturing out myself.

Still amped up, I began heading for my car while dwelling on what had just transpired when a voice behind me said, “Had a little excitement there at the end, didn’t we?”

Chapter 41

Fran

“Jesus, Fran,” said Dana. “You scared the shit out of me! What are you doing here? I thought you left Saturday afternoon?”

“There was a potential for danger here, Dana. I wanted to see how you did on your own, but I wanted to have your back in case it started going south. I’d always planned to stick around.”

“Well, I’m glad you did. I take it you fired those shots?”

“Yeah. They were just blanks, but they sound pretty much like the real thing.”

“Where were you?”

“I was standing outside the far corner of the patio, peeking over the hedge and watching. From what I could tell, it looked like you were doing a great job, but when Israel started to come around the table to shake your hand or whatever, I saw that his eyes weren’t on you, but the sunflower basket. That’s when I decided he needed a distraction.”

“Well, it worked. I didn’t know what I was going to say if he noticed the hole in the cellophane and looked closely at the interior. Being a security guy, he probably would have known about parabolic mics.”

“That’s what I figured. So, did you hear anything of interest?”

“Yes, but a lot of it was garbled because of interference in the line of sight. People kept moving in and out of the path to their table.”

“We have very sophisticated equipment that should be able to filter out a lot of the background noise and amplify most things that you might not have heard through your earbud. We should be able to make sense out of most of it.”

“I hope it’s enough to take to a judge for a warrant.”

“We’ll find out soon enough. I’ll let you know after it’s been examined just what we were able to get from it. You did great, Dana.”

“I just wish I could have pulled it off without having to need your help.”

“Hey, you’re part of a team now. Your contribution was terrific. There’s no shame in getting help. That’s why police and FBI agents typically work in pairs. I always have a partner for any potentially dangerous mission.”

“Well… thanks. Want to stay for lunch before you head back? I’m suddenly starved now that it’s over. I only had about two bites of my sandwich in there.”

“That sounds great.”

The following morning, I brought the sunflower basket to the audio forensics lab for analysis.

Two days later, they had the transcription ready. Dana had been right about the significant interference from people moving in and out of the field because some of it they couldn’t transcribe. This is what they could get:

Spangler: Yeah, you’re right. Sorry. The letter’s not going to scare him off, so we’ve got to go after the wife at that point. I trust you’ve got surveillance in place to know when she leaves in her car?

Israel: Of course we do.

Spangler: Alright, then, when it gets picked up that she’s on the move, follow her to wherever she’s going and threaten her very convincingly of bodily harm to her or her husband. Make sure she knows we mean business, and mention the severity of the punishment should they fail to comply.

Parts of the second long section that were garbled were irrecoverable. The surrounding parts indicated the contracting of a team of experts who specialize in some sort of intimidation. I wish we knew what, but at least with the amount we were able to transcribe, I was fairly confident a judge at the U.S. District Court in Atlanta would grant us a warrant to tap Israel’s phone. I called to set up a meeting with a judge ASAP.

This evening, before I had a chance to call Brian with the news, he called me first.

In a rush, he said, “Fran, I’m getting really scared now. They can’t just… I mean, God damn it; those fuckers can’t go—”

“Wait a minute. Slow down. Take a breath, and tell me exactly what happened.”

It sounded like he actually took a deep breath before continuing. “Okay, sorry, it’s just so shitty what they’re doing. I never thought it would come to this.”

Brian didn’t typically use a lot of profanity, just the occasional swear word, so I could tell he was seriously rattled. “Alright, start at the beginning and tell me everything.”

“This car—looks like an older model Chevy Impala—just sits across the street. We call the Sheriff’s Office, and they’ll send a deputy out who gets it to leave, but several days later, it’s back again. Jules doesn’t want to play with Johnny out in the yard anymore.

“That’s just for starters. Then I get that letter you told me to expect last week. Want me to read it to you?”

“Yeah, read it.”

“Okay, it says:

Brian Kendrick,

Call off your phase-2 drug trials of Glyptophan or else. We don’t care what you give for a reason; just do it, or suffer the consequences. These may consist of physical harm or worse to one or more family members.

This will be your first and last warning.

Cooperate, or you will rue the day you ever set out to market this drug.

“What the hell is this, Fran? Is this for real or some bluff?”

“I would say 90:10 it’s for real. We know who’s behind it. That would be Rudy Spangler, a vice president at Gideon Pharmaceutical in Atlanta. Have you heard of them?”

“Of course. Some of the worst stories I’ve heard about Big Pharma are due to them. All kinds of bad shit. That’s who sent me this?”

“Most likely it was sent by the security chief there. His name is Peter Israel, and he gets his orders from Spangler.”

“How seriously should I take it? I don’t want to call off the testing if this is just a big bluff.”

“I don’t think they’re bluffing.” I filled him in on some of the details of the conversation Dana and I recorded between Spangler and Israel that would become the basis for the wiretap of Israel’s phone.

“So, what should I do?”

“Probably not a bad idea to hire a bodyguard or two. The FBI and local police can only provide so much protection.”

“But the phase-2 and phase-3 trials will be lasting between 3 and 6 years. Will I need them the whole time?”

“I don’t know. It’s not like you couldn’t afford it.”

“Yeah, I’m not worried about that. But do we really want two guys becoming part of our family for the next few years?”

“It may come to that. Look, Brian, honestly, I don’t think they will necessarily come after you. Think of it like this: If the worst happened to you, and they killed you, wouldn’t Detry, who owns the license, still continue the trials and eventually produce the drug with FDA approval?”

“So, what are you saying? It’s not me they’ll go after but Julia or Johnny?”

“Well, they kind of implied that in their letter to you. Also, Dana’s recorded conversation confirms it. Can you think of a better threat to make you stop your trials than that?”

“Oh, Jesus!”

“You need to talk this over with Jules and decide together what you want to do. I can talk with you both, if you’d like, but maybe you should just talk to her first. Just to let you know, I’m positive we’ll get a tap on Israel’s phone, so there’s a good chance we’ll get advance warning of anything about to happen.”

He was quiet for a few moments while he digested everything. Poor guy. All he wants to do is make a drug that helps people the way it’s helping him, and now he has to worry about the safety of his family.

“Alright,” he said finally. “I’ll talk to Jules first and let you know what we decide.”

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is a confidential informant (CI) for Fran and works in Big Pharma.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Patty Mattson: A hacker friend of Fran's. The programmer on Brian's project.

Abby Payne (nee St. Claire): A girl from Dana's past, who she used to bully but has befriended during their adulthood. The mathematician on Brian's project.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Rudy Spangler: A vice president at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Peter Israel: The security chief at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in cahoots with Rudy Spangler to stop Glyptophan.

Leigh-Anne Grimsley: Rudy Spangler's secretary at Gideon Pharmaceutical.

Picture courtesy of Poe Assistant

Chapter 42
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 42

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 41: Fran meets Dana outside the restaurant and informs her that she fired the shots that created the distraction to prevent Israel from discovering the gift basket holding a parabolic microphone. The FBI is able to transcribe most of what was on the recording of Spangler and Israel’s conversation, and Fran is confident this is enough to get a wiretap warrant on Israel’s phone.

Fran calls Brian with the news but learns he is extremely distraught about a letter he received that threatens him and his family. Fran convinces him the threat is real and advises him to hire some bodyguards.

Chapter 42

Two weeks later

Marie

It’s all over the news today. The New York Times was the first to carry the story. Now it’s everywhere. This was the beginning of the front-page article I read in The Times:

A Huge Dip for Dip

By Cynthia Miller

The popular, low-cost street drug Dipraxa, known as Dip, has suddenly disappeared. This highly addictive drug virtually cornered the market on every type of recreational drug. Known for the incredible euphoria it produced, users were becoming instantly addicted after the first dose.

Four weeks ago, the drug began making users extremely nauseous and some, violently ill, and it no longer produced the high.

The cause of this is unclear, but the sudden turnaround left users spurning the drug, and it is no longer available.

The drug was known to be manufactured in China and smuggled in through the Mexican border. It’s theorized that the formula was changed for some unknown reason, which caused the drug to become both unpalatable and ineffective.

The drug was beginning to cause a downturn in the US economy because workers were opting to drop out of the workforce to stay at home and get high.

Fortunately, there are no physical withdrawal symptoms when the drug is discontinued. The addiction was completely psychological in nature.

(continued on page 14)

Hallelujah! Apparently, Brian’s task force was successful in their efforts to stop the proliferation of the drug. I don’t know how they were able to do it when it was manufactured in China, but I’ve spent much of my life doubting his abilities, much to my chagrin, and I’m confident he found the solution somehow.

When I came home from work today with the paper under my arm, Cedric held the door open for me.

“Greetings, Ms. Schmidt. I see you have the paper with the good news there.” He was smiling broadly as he said this.

“That’s true, Cecil. I take it your mother is no longer able to find the drug?”

“Also true. Her supply ran out last week, and she can’t get any more. For a couple of days, it was difficult to get over the craving, but she seems to be doing well now. She has even been back to the library to see if she could get her old job back. They were willing to hire her back because several others had also become addicted to Dip, and they’ve been unable to fill the vacant positions. I urged my mother to reapply, and she was successful.”

“That’s wonderful, Cecil. Does that mean you don’t have to work three jobs now?”

“I’ve given notice to two of them—not this one, but the other two—and in another week I’ll be back to only one job.”

“And what is your thinking about resuming our lessons?”

“If you’re willing to take me back, I’d very much appreciate it Ms. Schmidt. As soon as I’m finished with my other two jobs, I’ll begin practicing again.”

“That’s fine, Cecil. You just let me know when you feel you’ve practiced enough for another lesson. I’ll leave this up to you.”

“Thank you very much, Ms. Schmidt.”

“It’s Dr. Schmidt, Cecil.”

“It’s Cedric, ma’am.”

“Whatever,” we said together.

I decided to call Julia and tell her I just read the article and see how my grandson is doing.

“Hello, Mother.”

“Hello, Julia. I had a very nice surprise today. There was an interesting article in The New York Times about the rapid decline of Dipraxa. I was wondering if Brian and that group of women working with him had something to do with this?”

“You know I can’t say much about that, but I’ll just tell you we’ve known for a couple of weeks now, and he’s very pleased.” There was no enthusiasm in her tone, though, and she sounded anything but pleased.

“Is everything alright, Julia? You don’t sound like yourself. Is Johnny okay?”

“He’s fine, Mother.”

“Then what is it? Isn’t Brian’s testing going well for his new drug?”

“That’s not it either. That’s going better than ever, and his interim results are very positive.”

“Well, don’t make me keep guessing. Just tell me.”

“I didn’t want to trouble you with this, Mother. I didn’t want you to start worrying about it, but it doesn’t seem like you’re going to leave it alone, so I guess I’d better fill you in. We’ve been getting threats that Brian had better discontinue his testing of Glyptophan or else.”

“Or else what?”

“Or else face the consequences. We don’t know what those might be, but it has us very worried. Fran thinks it’s for real and even knows who’s making the threats. In fact, they’ve got a wiretap in place on his phone. She also advised us to hire a couple of bodyguards, and we’re in the process of interviewing them now.”

“Oh, my God, Julia! That’s terrible news. What is going on here? I can understand why that’s putting a damper on all the good news lately. I’m so sorry.”

“Thank you, Mother. And another unfortunate thing is that Brian has to travel in a few days. The FDA is insisting that his phase-2 test group needs to be more diverse, and he needs to include Native Americans and a few other minorities. He has several interviews to perform to add additional test subjects. He says he’ll stay here at least until we’ve hired the bodyguards, but the FDA is breathing down his neck now. They won’t approve his results unless he adds more subjects.”

“Well, that settles it. I’m coming down to stay with you for a while—at least until you’ve hired the bodyguards. Brian can go on his trip because I’ll be here with you and Johnny.”

“That’s awfully nice, Mother, but I’m sure Brian won’t leave at any rate until the bodyguards are hired.”

“I don’t care. I’m planning to come.”

“Well, that’s fine. We’d love to see you again. It’s been a few months now.”

“I can take up to four weeks of vacation after June 18, since we won’t have another concert until October. I’ll book a one-way flight and leave it open-ended.”

“Thank you, Mother. Johnny and I will be happy to have your company, especially when Brian’s gone.”

“Alright. I’ll let you know when I’ve made my flight arrangements.”

“You’ll have to either rent a car or hire an Uber from the airport. I’m not supposed to venture out on my own. There was talk of some sort of surveillance.”

“That’s no problem. Jesus, they’re really serious about this, aren’t they?”

“Yes, they really are. When it comes to their profit motive and their bottom line, they’ll do just about anything it seems.”

“Fuckers.”

“I’ll second that.”

“Listen, you take care, and I’ll see you in a few days, Julia.” I hesitated for a moment. “I love you.”

A few seconds of silence followed, and Julia said softly, “I love you too, Mother. Goodbye.”

Whoa. Where did this come from? It may have been the first time I ever told her I loved her. That’s sad, but I can’t deny that the feeling is growing inside of me now.

Chapter 43
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 43

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 42: Marie and Cedric exult over the fact that an article in The Times reported that Dipraxa is no longer available. This indicates that Fran and Brian’s mission to sabotage it was successful. Cedric says he can quit two of his jobs and begin practicing again since his mother is now back at work.

Marie calls Julia with the news and learns that the family is being threatened and that Brian is to stop the phase-2 trials of Glyptophan, or else face uncertain consequences. Julia is very distraught and says they will be hiring bodyguards. Marie promises to come down and stay with the family. The chapter ends as Marie tells Julia she loves her—a first in their relationship.

Chapter 43

Marie

I arrived at Julia’s house in an Uber after flying down three days later. The timing of our summer break couldn’t have worked out any better. We had our last concert yesterday, and today, here I am.

Julia and Brian greeted me at the door, and Brian brought my bags to my room. Johnny was napping right then, and I would see him later.

“Mother, why don’t you come into the family room and meet our new bodyguards? Brian and I held our final interviews yesterday and made our decisions last night. All three are here now going over details, and we’re getting to know each other.”

Brian led the way into the family room where three men were seated on the couch. “Marie, this is Woody Sandbulte, Nick Burwell, and Harvey Briggs. They’ll be working with us for the foreseeable future. Guys, this is Julia’s mom, Marie Schmidt.”

They stood to greet me. The one named Woody was huge and squeezed my hand a bit too firmly in his big paw. Nick was not quite as large and had a much gentler touch and a friendly smile, while Harvey was tall and rangy and athletic-looking. They all appeared to be in their 40s.

“Mother, Harvey was just explaining that they will work in three eight-hour shifts, seven days a week, so that one of them will be with us at all times.”

“And how long will this go on?”

“No one really knows. I guess until we’re convinced there’s no longer any danger.”

“And I presume you have all been vetted or bonded or whatever you security guys must go through to be on a security team?”

“Yes, ma’am,” said Nick. “We’re all employees of Annandale Security, who’s done rigorous background checks on all of us. Harvey and I are ex-cops, and Woody is ex-military. We all have experience in cases of harassment like this, and, as I was explaining to Brian and Julia, we’ll spend the day today assessing the house for possible breaches, determining effective escape routes, scouring for any surveillance devices, which Brian has informed me probably exist, etc. Later, one of us will drive Brian to the airport since he’s planning to be gone for the next week.”

I felt somewhat better about things, but it’s just so unfair and aggravating that there’s even a need for this.

In a few minutes, I heard the baby cry out. “Julia, let me go see to him by myself. Let’s see if he remembers me.”

I made my way to his room and opened the door slightly. I peeked in at him, and he was standing in his crib. “Hi, Johnny. Remember me?”

His little face lit up. “Gamma, Gamma.”

“Hi, Sweetie. How’s my favorite grandson?” I went in and lifted him out of his crib and gave him a big squeeze. I could tell his diaper was wet, so I changed him before bringing him out to join the others. He was a little shy when he spotted the three big men and ran to Julia.

Brian seemed to be winding things up with them at this introductory meeting and went with them on a tour of the house and yard.

“How are you handling all this, Julia?”

“I’m still worried, but I do feel better having the bodyguards now. They won’t be living here with us, but someone will be with us every hour of the day. It’s just so frustrating it has to be this way.”

Over the next few days, things had settled into a routine. We only had occasional interactions with the bodyguards. Brian left the day I arrived and is making his various stops around the country to recruit more test subjects.

Julia feels safer in the house and has been reluctant to go outside much. Although the car had stopped parking across the street from her house recently, she was still fearful they were being watched somehow. We were going a bit stir crazy, though, with all the time indoors and felt we needed to get out. The guard named Woody was on duty today when we decided to take Johnny to the park and do some grocery shopping afterward.

Woody offered to drive Julia’s SUV while we sat in the back with Johnny. When we got to the park, and removed Johnny from his car seat, he was off and running toward the playground. Julia was close behind, and Woody and I brought up the rear. By the time we got there, Julia had already placed Johnny in a baby swing and began pushing him. Woody and I sat on a nearby bench, watching them. I felt safe enough. Woody had on an untucked short-sleeved shirt, and I could see the bulge of a gun perched in a hip holster beneath his shirt.

“Have you ever had to use what you’re packing there, Woody, while on the job?”

“Oh, yeah. But mainly for deterrence. I’ve seldom had to fire it or even draw it. I mostly make its presence known. We strive to keep things from escalating to where we have to draw it and use it.”

“I’ve never been one for guns.”

“They get a bad rap, but they’re very useful as a deterrent.”

“I guess I can see that. I confess I do feel safer knowing you have one.”

“Isn’t that always the way? It’s hard to know how you really feel about something unless you’re confronted with the need for it directly. Then you may change your tune. And sometimes that awareness makes you capable of doing things you never dreamed you could do.”

We sat silently for a while, watching Julia push Johnny on the swing, when a sudden look of fear came over her, and a voice behind us said, “Are you the Kendrick family?”

Woody instantly arose and faced two men. “Who wants to know?”

“We have a message for you.”

I looked at Woody, who had lifted his shirt slightly so the men could see the gun on his hip. “I suggest you don’t come any closer, gentlemen. Let’s hear it, then you can turn around and walk away.”

They were younger men—perhaps in their 30s—extremely well built, wearing muscle shirts. They had close-cropped hair and several days growth of beard. A number of tattoos ran up and down their arms.

“The message is that Brian Kendrick should stop all phase-2 testing of his new drug immediately.”

“Or what?”

“That’s for someone else to decide. We were instructed to say that failure to comply will be dealt with harshly.”

“Thank you. Now why don’t you turn around and go back the way you came?”

They left without another word. Julia had removed Johnny from the swing and came over to us. She was visibly shaking and holding tightly to Johnny, who was squirming in her arms.

“How did they know we were here?” asked Julia.

Woody said, “I don’t know yet. We didn’t find any surveillance devices in your house or cars at our initial inspection, but we’ll continue to look for them. They may somehow have recently attached a transponder to your car that allows them to track it, or they may have placed a hidden camera somewhere outside that alerted them to our movements. I’ll report this to the team, and we’ll figure out where they’re getting their information from.”

“Thank you for intervening like that, Woody,” said Julia. “Do you think you could take us straight home now? I think we’ll skip the trip to the grocery store. Maybe I can just call the order in and see if they’ll deliver it to the house.”

“Sure, Mrs. Kendrick. That’s probably a good idea until we figure out how they’re getting their location information.”

“Woody, you can just call me Julia.”

“Will do, Julia.”

As Julia picked Johnny up and we made ready to leave the playground, he began whimpering and struggling to get down. He clearly hadn’t had enough time to play. As we began heading back to the car, he began to really cry and flail. Julia held him tightly and tried talking to him gently, but he would have none of it.

I offered to take him because Julia was, herself, getting increasingly agitated. This had to be very stressful for her, especially with Brian gone now and three virtual strangers coming and going at all times. She handed the crying baby to me, and I soothed him as best I could, but it was a rotten way to end what we were hoping would be a fun outing.

Woody’s shift ended at 4:00 PM when Nick arrived to take over. Woody filled him in on everything that happened at the park, and they discussed ideas about locating a surveillance device in or around the home. Nick promised to work on it, and Woody left.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that,” said Nick. “Brian had informed us this might happen at some point, but it’s always a shock when it actually does. I’m going to go over your car thoroughly to see if I can find a transponder that would signal your location to a GPS satellite. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go do that now.”

When he had left, Julia said, “Mother, I’m going to put Johnny down for his nap now. All that crying and carrying on tired him right out. I’ll be back in a minute.”

When she returned, she sat at the kitchen table with me. I’d made us both some half-n-half iced tea (half sweet tea, half unsweetened).

“You know, Julia, if this is too much for you down here, you and Johnny could come to New York and live with me for a while until it blows over. I’m sure Brian has to continue his work here, but you two are certainly welcome.”

“That’s so nice of you to offer, Mother, but there’s no telling how long this will go on. I feel like Brian, and Johnny, and I have to stick together. In fact, I’m going to call Brian now and tell him what happened.”

She went into her bedroom then for some privacy to make the call. When she came back out twenty minutes later, she looked relieved.

“What did he say about it?” I asked her.

“He says he’ll be returning home tomorrow from Oklahoma, following a meeting with the Cherokee Nation in the morning. He says he will postpone the other appointments he’s made with other groups until things have settled down here. I told him he didn’t have to do that, but he was adamant. I think he could tell I really wanted him to come home. This is such a goddamn shame, Mother. I’m sick of this! This should be a happy time for us because things are going so well, but look what it’s turned into. How much worse will it get before it gets better?”

“I wish I could tell you that these are just idle threats, Julia, and this will all blow over soon. I just don’t know, though.”

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is a confidential informant (CI) for Fran and works in Big Pharma.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Rudy Spangler: A vice president at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Peter Israel: The security chief at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in cahoots with Rudy Spangler to stop Glyptophan.

Woody Sandbulte: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Nick Burwell: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Harvey Briggs: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Picture courtesy of Poe Assistant

Chapter 44
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 44

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 43: Marie arrives at Brian and Julia’s house and meets the three new bodyguards. Brian leaves on his weeklong trip to find new test subjects. On an outing to the park, Julia, Johnny, and Marie are escorted by the bodyguard named Woody.

While at the park, two thugs appear and deliver a message to Julia saying that Brian is to quit the Glyptophan trials, or dire consequences would result. Woody, with his gun on display, orders the men to leave, and soon after, Julia and her crew leave too. Julia calls Brian with the news of the verbal assault, and Brian decides to cut his trip short and return the next day.

Chapter 44

Dana

I’ve been biding my time just working at my job the last couple of weeks because nothing’s been happening here worth reporting to Fran. That changed when I decided to mention to Rudy Spangler that I’d be interested in helping out in his campaign to suppress the release of Glyptophan. I reminded him that I had participated in this effort at my former job with Newman-Price.

“Well, Dana, as a matter of fact, there is something you could look into for me. I really would like to find out how the Glyptophan phase-2 drug trials are going. I haven’t seen any interim results recently, and I’d like to know how they’re progressing.”

“I have an idea how we could get that.”

“Tell me.”

“At Newman-Price, my boss there convinced a medical journal called Myalosoma to publish an article that panned Glyptophan, but they were forced to retract it when they were threatened with an expensive libel suit. They then began reporting the truth about it and the positive results of the human testing. What if I were to impersonate another reporter from that magazine and pretend to be writing a follow-up article six months later on Glyptophan’s progress to date? I could contact Brian Kendrick himself and schedule an interview. He lives near Charlotte. I could drive up there and do an in-person interview.”

“Hmm, devious. Sounds like a great idea. Do you have the experience to pull something like that off?”

“I’ve done a lot of improv, and I’ve acted in community theater for a long time. This shouldn’t be difficult.”

“Okay, then. Please report to me as soon as you get back, and there’ll be a nice bonus for you, plus all your expenses will be paid.”

“Roger that. I’ll call Brian Kendrick right away and make an appointment.”

I called Fran that night and told her about the plan and that I had a feeling something might be in the offing depending on the results from the Glyptophan trials.

I arranged to meet her at her home tomorrow evening. I emailed Rudy and told him I had gotten an appointment to speak with Brian Kendrick tomorrow afternoon and that I would drive up there in the morning. I promised to email him the results tomorrow evening.

I slept in this morning since I didn’t really have to be at Fran’s until 6:00 PM. I had fibbed about the appointment with Brian and would just give him a call tomorrow evening for a quick update on the trials after I have dinner with Fran.

I packed a small suitcase, planning to stay with Fran for a couple of nights.

I drove straight to her house, where she and Mike greeted me. Over dinner, she filled me in on the recent happenings at the Kendrick house.

“It’s been very stressful for them now, especially since that intimidating encounter at the park. Fortunately, one of their three bodyguards was there to intervene on their behalf, but Julia was very freaked out by it. Brian even cut his travels off early to come back and be with the family.”

“Any idea what Israel has planned yet? Have you gotten anything from the wiretap on his phone?”

“Nothing actionable yet. One curious thing, though, was a call he made a while ago to a travel agency to look for Airbnb homes in the Charlotte area. Not sure what that’s about.”

“They might be setting up a place to hide someone,” said Mike. “Do you know the address of the rental home yet?”

Fran said, “We don’t even know the exact city or town. I sure hope you’re wrong about that. I hate to think who they might have in mind to hide.”

“I have to email Rudy Spangler tonight with the results of my ‘interview’ with Brian today. Do you think I should tell him the testing isn’t going well so that he may hold off on taking any immediate action?”

“As tempting as that sounds, I think it may backfire and blow your cover if you tell him that, and he finds out through other means that the testing is actually going well. Probably best to be straight with him.”

“I guess I’d better call Brian then and get some specifics to report. If I just make shit up, he may see through that too.”

“Yep. Why don’t you call him now and put your phone on speaker? I’d like to ask him something myself.”

I called Brian and explained my current assignment. He gave me a five-minute update on the status of the phase-2 trials. Everything was looking good so far, he said, but it was still early. The phase-2 trials typically last from one to two years, and they only began a few months ago. I took some notes to report to Rudy.

When the “interview” was done, Fran said, “Hey, Little Brother, did your bodyguards ever find the source of the surveillance that brought those two guys to the park?”

“As a matter of fact, they did. Nick checked the car over closely, looking for a transponder but didn’t find one. Harvey checked the house again, looking for bugs, and Woody surveyed the outside, thinking there might be a hidden camera somewhere. Sure enough, he found one mounted unobtrusively on the lamp post we have in a bush near the end of the driveway. It was able to transmit a wireless signal to a car parked up to a mile away, where it would trigger an audible alarm to let them know Julia was on the move. Since our house is right on a main road that leads into and out of Cherryville, we figure they had waiting cars stationed both north and south of here. They would be within a mile and hidden just off the main road. If the camera picked up Julia’s car leaving the driveway, both cars would be alerted, and the appropriate one would see her as she drove by.”

“Pretty damn clever. So, did Woody disable it?”

“Yeah. Now maybe they’ll be blind to her activities.”

“Okay, thanks for the update. You three try to relax a little now.”

“You mean four. Marie came down when Jules called her the other day. She’ll be staying with us for a while.”

“Well, I hope that doesn’t create even more tension for Jules. That Marie is a piece of work.”

“Yeah, but she’s starting to come around. I think it will do Jules some good to have her here.”

“Good. I hope so.”

“Listen, Fran, am I going to regret it if I keep going? I don’t know how I’d live with myself if something really bad were to happen.”

“Brian, I know what you’re saying, but won’t you always regret caving to these assholes if you give up? This has to be your and Julia’s decision, but just know that we’ve got tools in place to track what’s going on and hopefully prevent anything serious.”

I could hear Julia faintly in the background say, “Let’s keep moving forward for now.”

Then Brian said, “Thanks, Fran. I think we’ll just keep going.”

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is a confidential informant (CI) for Fran and works in Big Pharma.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Rudy Spangler: A vice president at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Peter Israel: The security chief at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in cahoots with Rudy Spangler to stop Glyptophan.

Woody Sandbulte: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Nick Burwell: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Harvey Briggs: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Picture courtesy of Flux-Pro

Chapter 45
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 45

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 44: Dana volunteers her services to Rudy to help stop Glyptophan. Rudy wants to know how the phase-2 trials are going, and Dana suggests impersonating a writer from Myalosoma doing a follow-up article with Brian. She says she will go interview him personally. Rudy agrees, and she leaves the next day to visit Fran. She “interviews” Brian that night.

Fran talks to Brian on the same call and finds out that Woody had found a hidden camera on their lamp post, which enabled the bad guys to track them, and he disabled it. Brian expresses his fear to Fran about continuing the testing, and Fran says he and Julia have to make that decision. They both think they should keep going.

Chapter 45

Dana sent her email to Rudy Spangler explaining that Brian Kendrick’s phase-2 testing was going extremely well. She summarized the results using bullet points from their brief conversation. She relayed that Brian had bought the ruse completely and had been happy to provide her with the information for the Glyptophan update in Myalosoma. Also, that he seemed very positive about the future.

Rudy emailed her back an hour later saying how much he appreciated the report and that she had done a good job providing the needed information.

As soon as he transmitted the email to Dana, he dialed Peter Israel. “Pete, my sources tell me that the Glyptophan trials are going too well, and from the sound of it, Kendrick has no intention of calling them off. I think it’s time to put the next phase of our plan into motion. Have you got the rental home all set up and ready to go?”

“Of course I do. Alright, I’ll let our guys know that it’s a go and to put the plan in action at the earliest opportunity. I’ll let you know when it’s done and we’ve gotten Kendrick to send his email to the FDA. I’ll have him CC me on it so I’ll know when he’s sent it. By the way, Rudy, don’t contact me again unless you’re calling it off for some reason. Just trust that I’ll get it done, and let me take care of the details. Okay?”

“Okay, Pete.” Jesus, what a prickly bastard. Alright, so be it, as long as he gets the job done.

“Woody,” Julia said. “Johnny has his 18-month appointment at the pediatrician’s today. Would you be able to drive us there? My mother too? The appointment is at 1:00. We should be back in plenty of time before your shift ends.”

“Sure, Julia. That’s fine. I’d be glad to. What time should we leave?”

“It’s only 10 minutes away, so if we plan to get there a few minutes early to check in, we should probably leave here in an hour.”

“Okay, thanks. I’ll be ready.”

At 12:30, Julia went into the family room where Marie was playing the piano with Johnny on her lap. “Mother, could you please change Johnny if he needs it and get him ready to go to the doctor while I go down and tell Brian we’re leaving soon?”

“Sure. Johnny and I just want to finish this duet together, don’t we, Johnny? Then we’ll get ready to go.”

Julia chuckled. “Okay. We’ll be leaving in 10 minutes.”

Fran and Dana were enjoying lunch at one of Fran’s favorite downtown eateries when her phone rang. It was the Communications Center at the FBI field office.

Dana watched as Fran fielded the call. Fran’s voice suddenly rose, “It came in at 11:00 last night, and you’re just giving me this message now?”

…

“Oh, Jesus. Did you learn where the house is?”

…

“Alright, stay on top of it and let me know as soon as you do.” Fran hung up.

Dana said, “What is it?”

“They were asleep at the switch and didn’t realize what they had until they intercepted a call a few minutes ago then realized there was one last night too. They’re planning what sounds like a kidnapping.

“Bastards!” said Dana.

“Look, are you about done eating? We’ve gotta get out of here now and go to Brian’s house.” Fran plunked $50 on the table and headed for the door with Dana in tow.

When they exited the restaurant, they headed for Dana’s car. Dana had insisted on driving to the restaurant for lunch since her car was blocking Fran’s in the driveway at Fran’s house.

Before they got into the car, Fran said, “Do you mind if I drive? I know the way and won’t have to keep giving you directions, plus I’ll probably drive much faster than you might feel comfortable doing.”

“Sure thing,” she said, handing Fran the key fob.

Once in the car and heading toward Brian’s house, Fran said, “I’m going to call Brian. I’ll put the phone on speaker so you can hear it too. Then I won’t have to repeat everything.”

Brian answered on the third ring. “Hey, Big Sis.”

“Brian, listen closely. We intercepted a call from Israel’s phone last night and another from a few minutes ago. It was Rudy Spangler giving him the orders for what sounds like a kidnapping. Ev—”

“Oh, my God!”

“Well, it hasn’t happened yet, but it sounds like it may be going down soon from the call that just came in. Are Jules and the baby there now?”

“No. Jules and Marie are on their way to the pediatrician to take him for a checkup. Woody is driving them.”

“Alright. I’m going to call her right away and warn her. I’ll call you back after that.”

On the way to the doctor’s office, Woody apparently made a wrong turn as he reached the outskirts of town. Julia said, “Hey, Woody, I think you turned a street too early. We need to turn onto Harper Road.”

“Ah, you’re right. Sorry about that. I’ll just turn around up here at this abandoned gas station.”

As Woody pulled into the station, Julia’s phone rang, and she pulled it out and glanced at the caller ID. She pushed the talk button and said, “Hey, Fran… “

As they circled behind the station to turn around, Julia noticed a car parked behind the building, which was strange because the building was clearly abandoned, and there were no other businesses nearby and no apparent reason for a car to be parked there. The area was desolate.

Woody stopped the SUV next to the parked car, and a man got out of it.

“Say that again, Fran. You’re talking too fast.”

Before she could make sense of what Fran was telling her, Woody turned around, leaned over the backseat, and held a taser against Julia’s thigh.

“Ahhh… ” she shrieked as the 50,000 volts shot into her bare thigh, and the phone fell from her hand to the floor.

At the same moment, the side door where Marie was sitting was yanked open, and the man on the outside placed a taser to Marie’s thigh. A similar charge passed into her, and the two startled women passed out immediately.

“Alright, Billy,” said Woody. “We’ve got about two minutes before they wake up. I’ll undo the car seat, and you grab that diaper bag. I’ll get in the back of your car and buckle the baby in, and you hightail it out of here. Do you know where to go?“

“Not yet. Israel said to call him as soon as we got the kid. He’ll tell us then. Why don’t you call him and find out? And shut that baby up. He’s driving me nuts.”

“Jules, Jules, what’s happening?” shouted Fran into the phone. She’d heard Julia cry out, and a few seconds later another cry. She heard a clunk as Julia most likely dropped the phone, and it hit the floor. After that, she heard only the muffled sounds of Woody speaking, and then she heard the baby begin to cry and say, “Momma, Momma.”

In a few more seconds, after much rustling and car door slams, she heard what sounded like a car peeling away with a screech of tires. Then nothing.

“What just happened?” said Dana.

“Sounds like we just caught a kidnapping in the act. Shit! And we don’t know where they’re taking them. So, Woody is one of them, the fucker. What else can go wrong? I’ve gotta call Brian and tell him.”

She quickly dialed his number, and he picked up right away. “Did you get ahold of her?”

“Listen carefully, Brian. I called, and she answered, but we got cut off in the middle of the call. Julia cried out. There were no gunshots, so she was probably tased. Marie too. I heard Johnny start crying and then a car peel out of there. The whole thing was planned, and Woody was in on it.”

“Woody was in on it? Jesus Christ, Fran! And we were so careful in choosing him. What the fuck?”

“Listen up. Dana and I are on our way to your house now. Jules will probably call both of us when she comes to, which should be any minute now. I’m going to hang up to wait for her call. Just sit tight. We’ll be there soon.”

In five minutes, Fran’s phone rang, and she answered immediately, “Jules? Are you okay?”

“Fran, they took Johnny. They must have tased me and Mother. When we came to, Johnny was gone. His car seat and diaper bag too. Fran, it was Woody who tased me.”

“I know. I heard it go down. Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not okay. I want my baby back! He has asthma, Fran. What if he has an attack? Do you think those motherfuckers would know what to do? Oh, God! This was all planned. I can’t believe Woody would do that.”

“Listen, Jules. Did he leave the keys in the car before he left?”

“I don’t know. Let me look in the front seat.” Julia got out and opened the front driver’s side door. The key fob was sitting in a tray on the center console. “Yeah, he left the fob here.”

“Alright, wait a few minutes until you feel clear enough to drive and go directly home. Dana is with me now, and we’ll be there at your house in about half an hour. Call Brian as soon as we hang up. Hang in there, Jules. We’ll get him back. I’ll see you soon.”

Brian quickly answered when he saw it was Julia calling. “Babe, are you okay?”

“No, they took Johnny!”

“I know. Fran just called and told me. She heard it go down when she first called you. Have you talked to her again?”

“Yes. I just got off the phone with her. She says she’s coming to the house. Brian, what are we going to do? They took our baby!”

“Jules, where are you now? Let me come get you and your mom.”

“No, I’ll be okay to drive in a few minutes. That damn Woody. I can’t believe he betrayed us like that.”

“Yeah, he was either in on it from the start, or they found him and paid him off.”

“Brian, our baby’s gone. I’m scared. What if he has an asthma attack? There’s an inhaler in the diaper bag, but what if they don’t recognize what’s happening or how to use the inhaler if they even happen to find it?”

“I don’t know, Babe. I’m scared too. We know what they want—for me to call off the phase-2 trials. I’d do it in a minute if we could be assured of getting Johnny back. Let’s just wait for Fran to come before we decide anything. She’s on her way here now. I’m sure the kidnappers will be calling soon too. Maybe we’d better hang up. As soon as you feel up to driving, come home. Thank God you’re okay. I love you.”

“I love you too. See you soon.”

Julia looked over at Marie. “Oh, Mother. I’m so scared!”

“Are you going to be okay to drive?”

“I think so. We’ve got to get home. Fran is on her way, and we’ve got to be there when the kidnappers call us with their instructions.”

“I’ll tell you, Julia, if I ever get my hands on those fucking kidnappers, they’d better fear for their lives.”

Julia chuckled grimly. “Yeah, same goes for me.”

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is a confidential informant (CI) for Fran and works in Big Pharma.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Rudy Spangler: A vice president at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Peter Israel: The security chief at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in cahoots with Rudy Spangler to stop Glyptophan.

Woody Sandbulte: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Nick Burwell: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Harvey Briggs: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Picture courtesy of Poe Assistant

Chapter 46
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 46

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 45: Upon hearing from Dana that Brian’s phase-2 trials are going well, Rudy contacts Peter Israel with instructions to begin the next phase of the intimidation.

While lunching with Dana, Fran gets a call from the FBI that they picked up the phone call between Rudy and Israel last night, but it somehow didn’t get relayed until now when they just picked up another call that an attack is imminent. Fran calls Brian and warns him and then calls Julia, who, with Johnny and Marie, is being driven by Rudy to Johnny’s doctor appointment. She overhears Julia and Marie being tased by Woody, who was in on the plot, and the baby being kidnapped. Fran and Dana are on their way to Brian’s house, where the family will decide what to do.

Chapter 46

When Fran and Dana were still 20 minutes from Brian’s house, Fran’s phone rang. It was the FBI Communications Center with the location of the rental home. The wiretap on Israel’s phone had picked up Woody’s call to Israel once the baby had been snatched. Israel told him the rental house was at 213 Kipp Road in Shelby. Dana looked this up on Google Maps and found it was 15 miles from Cherryville. Fran continued on to Brian’s house as she thought about the best way to approach the situation.

When she and Dana arrived, Brian met them at the front door. Fran gave Brian a hug and said, “We’ll get him back.”

“I’ll do whatever it takes, Fran.” He showed them into the family room where Julia and Marie were seated. Julia’s eyes were red, and her face was tear-stained. Her hair was a mess, and she was obviously very distraught. Marie was holding her hand.

“I’m so sorry this is happening, Jules. Don’t lose hope. We’ll get him back. Hello, Marie. You both remember Dana, don’t you?”

Marie said, “Yes, hello, Dana. Do you know where they took Johnny, Fran?”

“We do. Our phone tap picked up the location. It’s in Shelby.”

“Shelby?” said Brian. “That’s only 20 minutes from here. Do you know the address?”

“I’ve got that too.”

“Well, let’s go get him,” said Julia.

“Not so fast, Jules. The kidnappers will be armed, and we don’t know how many there are. Have you gotten a call from them yet?”

“No,” said Brian.

“It ought to come soon. Do you have a landline here?”

“Yeah.”

“The call will probably come on that. Alright, I’m going to go there by myself now and scout out the situation. I’ll also be calling the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office for backup, but I’m going to wait a bit for that. I know the sheriff, and he’s a bit of an asshole. He’ll want to come in with sirens blaring, and I just want to see what the situation is first. What does Woody look like, by the way?”

“Real big guy with a crew cut,” said Brian.

“Thanks. Y’all stay here and call me as soon as you hear from the kidnappers.”

“I’m coming with you, Fran,” said Dana.

“Dana, no. You’re a civilian. These are guys with guns. I can’t bring you along.”

“Look, I promise I’ll stay in the car. I’ll just come along for moral support. Besides, I won’t give you back my key fob unless you let me come with you, and my car’s blocking the driveway.”

After a moment’s consideration, Fran smiled grimly and said, “Jesus, Dana. Alright, you can come, but you’ve got to stay in the car. Don’t you think I could get that fob from you if I really wanted to?”

“Oh, probably.”

Fran said, “I’ve got to make a quick call to my boss and let him know what’s happening. I’ll go in the other room.”

While Fran was making her call, Dana excused herself to use the bathroom. Marie said she was going to fix herself a drink. That left Brian and Julia alone on the couch. He put his arm around her and held her close while tears continued to stream down her face.

When Fran returned, Brian said, “Maybe I should go with you instead of Dana, Fran. I’ve got a gun, you know.”

“No, Brian. Jules needs you. Plus, you’ve got to stay here and get that phone call. You just call me on your cell when you hear from them. When is your bodyguard shift change?”

“Four o’clock.”

“Why don’t you call the agency and tell them to stop whoever is scheduled to come from coming. You don’t know if he’s also one of the bad guys. Of course, he may show up anyway, in which case you should probably have your gun handy, but don’t let him in.”

“Alright, Fran. You and Dana be careful. Take this backup inhaler with you too,” said Brian, handing her a canister of albuterol. “There’s one in the diaper bag they took and a spacer too. You know how to use it, don’t you?”

“Yep.”

When Dana rejoined Fran, they headed to Dana’s car. She handed Fran the fob.

Fran shook her head and smiled ruefully. “This is against my better judgment, Dana. No heroics, okay?”

“Who, me? I wouldn’t dream of it.”

“Yeah, right.”

Fifteen minutes later, when they were perhaps still five miles from their destination, Dana said, “I wonder why Shelby? What the hell is there?”

“Fun fact. Shelby is where Earl Scruggs was born,” said a voice from the back seat.

This so startled Fran, she nearly lost control of the car. “Marie! What the hell are you doing here?”

Marie had popped up from the floor of the back. “Well, duh. I stowed away. Grandma wants to get that baby back as much as you do, Auntie. Probably more. If you do manage to get him back, he’s going to need someone to comfort him on the way home.”

“Jesus Christ, Marie! I ought to leave you here on the side of the road. I’ve already let one civilian come along. Now I’ve got two. Is there no end to this shitstorm?”

“Deal with it, Fran. I’m here now.”

“Marie, you had better stay in the car too when we get there. If I see you out of the car, I’ll shoot you myself.”

“I will. I promise.”

To lighten the mood a little, Dana said, “How did you happen to know that Shelby was where Earl Scruggs was born, Marie? I thought you hated bluegrass music.”

“You got that right, but I was intrigued by that hillbilly name and the effect he seems to have had on Julia and that damn banjo, so I looked him up on Wikipedia. They’ve even got an Earl Scruggs Museum in Shelby. Whoop-de-doo, right?”

“Yeah, maybe we could all go visit it when we get Johnny back,” said Dana.

Fran was not amused and, frowning, quietly shook her head from time to time.

They arrived at the rental home at 213 Kipp Road within minutes. It was an average-sized, two-story, craftsman-style house. Fran parked a few houses up from it on the same side of the street.

“Alright, I’m heading out now. Both of you remain in the car. If I’m not back in 15 minutes, I want you to call the Cleveland County Sheriff’s office and tell them the situation. Here’s the number to call.” She gave Dana the number. “Final word: Stay in the car. That means you too, Marie.”

“Aye aye, sir,” and she gave a mock salute with her left hand.

Fran exited the car and walked back to the house, stopping on the edge of the property at the corner of the lot. She extracted binoculars from her oversized handbag and scanned the front of the house for cameras. Seeing none, she began her approach to the house.

Inside, Woody was getting frustrated by the baby’s constant crying. He’d just changed a stinky diaper. The smell was terrible, and he opened the back door to go out and deposit it in the trashcan. In his agitation, he failed to relock the door.

The baby continued to cry, so Woody began heating up a bottle of formula he’d found in the diaper bag. The baby was driving him nuts with his fussing, and Woody figured he might be hungry, and this would shut him up. And what was with all those noises he was making—all that snorting and wheezing?

The other kidnapper, Billy, was studying a computer monitor in a corner of the living room. It was just the two of them. The monitor showed six separate pictures from minuscule hidden surveillance cameras that had been mounted at strategic points outside the house by the advance team. They were to give early warning of any attempt to break in.

Fran made her approach on the far side of a hedge between the properties of 215 and 213. When she was opposite the front of the house, she squeezed through the hedge onto the property of 213 and began circling the house, peering carefully into windows. She spotted a big, crew-cut guy in the kitchen. Had to be Woody. He was pulling something from the microwave oven. The window she peeked in was partially open, and she could hear Johnny inside, crying, but it was more than that. She could hear gasping and wheezing with occasional coughs. Was this an asthma attack? A new sense of urgency propelled her forward.

She passed the back door. It was too near the kitchen, where Woody was, to check whether it was unlocked.

As she passed by some more rear windows, she was unable to see the other guy, Billy, in the corner of the living room monitoring the computer screen because the shades were drawn. She couldn’t see Johnny either. She circled around the rest of the house, crossing the driveway, where she saw a single car, and made her way back across the front. What was Dana doing there at the corner, and was that a gun she was holding?

“Jesus, Dana, didn’t I tell you to stay in the car?” Fran said in a loud whisper.

“I couldn’t just let you go in alone without a partner. You told me yourself you always have a partner in dangerous situations.”

“Yeah, an FBI partner. Where did you get that gun, and do you even know how to shoot it?”

“It was in the glovebox. I practice at a gun range all the time with it. Remember I told you I packed when we first met at the Omni Hotel?”

“Dana, it’s too dangerous. I can’t let you break in with me.”

“Well, you’re going to have to disable me then to stop me. Otherwise, I’m coming.”

Fran hesitated for a long moment, sizing up the situation. Maybe it was time to put a little faith in Dana, who had proven time and again to be a very capable individual.

“God damn it. This is against my better judgment, but I don’t feel like disabling you, so I guess you’re coming in with me. I could only see Woody in there. There’s bound to be the other one too, but I don’t know how many more there might be. I could see just one car in the driveway, so I’m guessing it’s just the two of them. How many men does it take to guard one baby? I hadn’t really planned to go in there alone. I was only going to scout the place out, but I think we’ve got to now. It sounded like Johnny was having trouble breathing. He has asthma, and we don’t have time to wait for backup.”

“Yeah, I’m with you. I can’t stand thinking how frightened that poor baby must be.”

“We have to use the front door because all the activity is at the back of the house. I saw sidelights by the front door, which is probably locked. I’ve got my gun and a glass cutter from my bag and the inhaler, but I’m leaving the bag here. You sure you want to do this, Dana? Last chance to back out.”

“No way. I’m coming with you.”

The two women snuck along the front of the house, keeping low beneath a shadeless window on what was probably the dining room. They made their way to the front door, which Fran gently tried to open, but it was locked as she’d suspected.

Placing the glass cutter against the pane on the sidelight by the doorknob, she traced a round circle with the cutter. The suction cup soundlessly pulled the cut glass from the pane. Fran reached her hand in, felt for the deadbolt lock, and turned it.

“Ready?” she whispered to Dana.

“Yep.”

(5 more chapters to go)

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is a confidential informant (CI) for Fran and works in Big Pharma.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Rudy Spangler: A vice president at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Peter Israel: The security chief at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in cahoots with Rudy Spangler to stop Glyptophan.

Woody Sandbulte: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Nick Burwell: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Harvey Briggs: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Picture courtesy of Poe Assistant

Chapter 47
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 47

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 46: Fran and Dana arrive at Brian’s house, and Fran tries to reassure Brian and Julia she will get Johnny back. She plans to go alone and will call in backup after she scouts the place out, but Dana convinces her to ride along with her with a promise to remain in the car.

Unbeknownst to them, Marie stows away on the floor of the backseat and makes her presence known when they are almost to the house where Johnny is. Fran is exasperated at now having two civilians but makes them both promise to remain in the car while she scouts out the house.

She hears Johnny through an open window rasping and wheezing—in the throes of an asthma attack—and she now decides she can’t wait for backup. When she gets back to the front door, there is Dana with a gun to help, and against her better judgment, she decides to breach the front door with Dana.

Chapter 47

Fran turned the doorknob and quietly pushed the door open. She entered quickly, pointing her gun left then right as she scanned the entry. There was no one on the stairs to the second floor either. She quietly whispered, “Clear” to Dana, who stepped in behind her and eased the door closed. Standing in the entry, they could hear Johnny in the next room much clearer now, and he was definitely wheezing and coughing between sobs. The sound was heartbreaking.

Very quietly, Fran peeked around the corner into the living room where she heard it. The quick glimpse took in Johnny sitting inside a dog cage with his back to her and a man sitting at a desk in front of a computer monitor. No sign of Woody, though. He might still be in the kitchen.

Before they had a chance to enter the room, they heard the sound of a pump-action shotgun being pumped and a voice behind them saying, “Don’t move a muscle, or I’ll blow your heads off. Have I got your attention, ladies? Now, slowly bend down and place your guns on the floor.”

There must have been surveillance cameras after all, thought Fran. Miniature ones that couldn’t be detected. These two wouldn’t have had time to install them. The place would have been well-prepared ahead of time. Israel probably had several places around the Charlotte area prepared like this, not knowing exactly where the kidnapping would go down and wanting to get his captive locked down as quickly as possible.

Fran and Dana did as ordered and placed their guns on the floor. As she did, Fran glanced back to see someone who had to be Woody with the barrel of a shotgun aimed at them.

“Alright, use your foot and slide them back towards me. Stay facing forward.”

By this time, the one named Billy had come up next to Woody. He held a pistol aimed at their backs and said, “Well, well, well. Saw you coming a mile off. Come to rescue the little guy, have you? Well, good luck with that. Did’ja think you broads were going to get the better of us? Well, think again.”

“Billy, shut up,” said Woody. “You talk too much.”

“Hey, you’re the new guy here. You don’t tell me what to do. Now, you do what you want with this big one here. I’m taking the other one into that bedroom over there.”

“Just shut the fuck up and frisk them? They may have another gun hidden on them.”

Billy reluctantly ran his hands up and down both women, stopping only to squeeze their breasts as he ran his hands over them. He didn’t find any other guns.

“Satisfied now, Woody?”

Woody said nothing.

“Listen, guys,” said Fran. “Can’t you hear that baby coughing and wheezing in there? He’s having an asthma attack. If you let that baby die, you’ve lost your leverage. Why don’t you let me give him his asthma medicine? It’s in the diaper bag.”

“I’ll do it myself—later. First, I’m taking you down to the basement.”

Woody walked towards Fran and placed the end of the shotgun in the middle of her back.

“Now walk forward into the living room about five steps and turn left. Good. Now walk forward again, and we’ll turn left again down at the end of the room.”

As they passed through the living room, Johnny was now facing them inside the dog cage. There was a blanket on the bottom, but that was it. He was watching them go by. Fran thought she saw a glint of recognition in his eyes, but couldn’t be sure. He was crying and wheezing, and her heart went out to him.

“Alright, down the short hall and open that door on the left. Flip on the light switch. That’s it; now head on down the stairs.”

Fran did everything Woody said, but her mind was going a mile a minute. She planned to make her move as soon as she hit the basement floor and Woody was still on the last couple of stairs. She would quickly turn to the left, out of the way, and grab the barrel of the gun, but Woody saw this coming and stopped a few stairs short.

“Move away from the stairs a few steps and turn around so your back is to me.”

Fran hesitated for a moment, weighing the odds.

“Do it, or I’ll blow your head off!”

She did what he said, and he came down the last couple of stairs and applied the gun to her back again.

“Now walk forward. You see that steel support post? I want you to get around the other side of that with your back against it and your arms behind you.”

Fran hated to comply, but she didn’t have much choice with the barrel of the shotgun firmly against her spine. As soon as she took her position and reached her arms back, Woody clamped a pair of handcuffs on her wrists that he had fished from his pocket.

“How could you betray the Kendricks like this, Woody? Were you in on it from the start?”

“Why should I tell you?”

“Because I’m Brian’s sister, and I think he’d want to know.”

“Huh. You a cop?”

“No, FBI.”

“No kidding!”

“Yeah, and when I bust you, you’re going to jail for a long time. And you know, they don’t take too kindly to kidnappers in gen pop (general population), where you’ll end up.”

“Yeah, well look who’s handcuffed to this pole, and look who’s free. I don’t see that happening.”

“Well, you never know. I called the Sheriff’s Department for backup before we came on the property. They’ll likely be here any minute now.”

“Yeah, you’re full of shit. Not like you Fibbies to call in the locals for help. You think you’re a bunch of hotshots who can go it alone. Thought this rescue would be pretty easy, didn’t you? Well, I got news for you. We were well prepared. That computer in there has a picture for each of the cameras we got trained on the outside. No one gets on the property that we don’t see first.”

“So, answer my question: Were you in on it from the start?”

“You don’t need to know that.”

Why exactly was he doing all this, he wondered? After all, he liked Fran’s brother and his family. That Julia was a real sweetie. He liked the kid too. But working his ass off to pay all that alimony to two ex-wives was wearing him down.

Israel knew who he was from that surveillance camera on the lamp post picking up his license plate number when he came to interview for the job. After he got it, they got in touch with him and offered 250 grand to be their eyes and ears and do whatever they asked him to do. Well, it seemed like the money problems were solved.

That warning in the park when those two guys came and threatened Julia? That was pretty sweet the way he played the hero in that little scene. They had all just hoped Brian would cave and quit the trials then, but when he didn’t, it was time to step things up. When this is all over, and he gets paid, he wouldn’t be sticking around. He would head to some tropical island where it’s tough to get extradited from.

“Well, I’ll tell you one thing, Woody. You better get back up there fast and attend to that baby before he gets asphyxiated from his asthma or you’re going to lose your leverage. There’s an inhaler in the diaper bag. There’s a spacer too. Do you know how to use those?”

“No idea.”

“There should be instructions that come with it. If you just can’t figure out the spacer quickly, then use only the inhaler. Don’t forget to shake it first. Put the mouthpiece in the baby’s mouth and squeeze a puff out with your thumb and forefinger. Shake it up and give him another puff in 30 seconds. You got all that?”

“I’ll figure it out. Now, there’s something I gotta do first to keep you from calling out in case anyone does breach the premises. I’m going to put a gag in your mouth.”

“Ah, Jesus. Just get up there and tend to the baby, would you?”

“Shut up.”

Woody went upstairs and retrieved a ball gag from a box of supplies in the kitchen and went back downstairs to place the gag on Fran.

Before he put the silicone ball in her mouth, Fran said, “Don’t forget to help the baby. He’s my nephew and my godson. I mean it, Woody. Now hurry.”

“Don’t sweat it. That’s where I’m going next.”

He gagged Fran and went back upstairs, leaving her totally helpless. How the hell am I going to get out of this? she thought. And is Johnny going to survive it?

(4 more chapters to go)

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is a confidential informant (CI) for Fran and works in Big Pharma.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Rudy Spangler: A vice president at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Peter Israel: The security chief at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in cahoots with Rudy Spangler to stop Glyptophan.

Woody Sandbulte: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Nick Burwell: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Harvey Briggs: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Billy: One of the kidnappers.

Picture courtesy of Flux-Pro 1.1-ultra

Chapter 48
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 48

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 47: Due to the urgency of Johnny’s asthma attack, Fran and Dana enter the house with guns drawn. The miniature cameras had spotted them, so Woody and Billy were prepared for their entry. Woody trains a shotgun on them, and he and Billy disarm them.

With the shotgun in her back, Woody takes Fran to the basement, where he handcuffs her to a steel support pole. We learn that Woody had been contacted by Israel shortly after beginning to work for the Kendricks and offered $250,000 to turn against them. This would solve his financial problems, so he took the deal.

Fran convinces Woody of the need to attend to Johnny immediately and explains to him how to use the inhaler. Before he does that, he gags Fran. We don’t know what has befallen Dana, and Marie waits in the car.

Chapter 48

When Woody returned from the basement to the first floor, he noticed the baby was no longer in the dog cage. What had that asshole done with him? He heard Billy talking to the other woman in the first-floor bedroom. He opened the door, not caring what he might find going on in there.

Dana was lying on the bed and handcuffed to the metal bed frame. Billy was in the process of removing her pants while she was thrashing and kicking. Woody came forward and grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pulled him off.

“What did you do with the baby?”

“Get your hands off me. He was making too goddam much noise—all that crying, and coughing, and squeaky shit—so I took him upstairs and put him in a back bedroom.”

“Jesus Christ, Billy. Why don’t you quit messing around here and do your fucking job. Now get back out to that monitor and watch the screen like you’re supposed to. The bitch downstairs said backup may be coming. I think it’s bullshit, but we better be watching for it.”

Woody was much larger than Billy who grumbled and cursed him out, but did what he was told.

“What an asshole, that guy,” Woody muttered.

“I think you’re both assholes,” said Dana. “Especially you for turning against the family you were supposed to be protecting.”

“Yeah, well, you may be right about that, but I’m looking out for myself first from now on. Now I think I’ll leave you here cuffed to the bed. I’m going to have to gag you too.”

“What have you done with Fran?”

“None of your business, but believe me, you ladies aren’t going anywhere.”

“And where’s the baby? He’s having trouble breathing, you know.”

“I’m well aware of that. Your partner filled me in. I’m going upstairs to take care of him as soon as I place the gag on you.”

“Woody, you seem like a decent enough guy. Maybe you just got caught up in something, and you’re regretting it now. Why don’t you just let us go and figure out a way out of this for yourself?”

“Yeah, I don’t think so. In for a penny, in for a pound. I’m gonna go get that gag now.”

Marie sat waiting in the car. What the hell was taking so long? Fran had left the engine running, but the A/C in this car didn’t work very well, and Marie was perspiring. Normally a very cold person because of her slight frame, she was boiling over due to the summer heat here in North Carolina. Or maybe it was the circumstances. And damn, could she use a drink.

The longer she sat there by herself in that hot car, the angrier and more uncomfortable she felt as she pictured poor Johnny at the mercy of thugs who were using him as a pawn in a serious game of intimidation. Although it had only been twenty minutes since Fran and Dana had left, Marie could take the idleness no longer. Yeah, Fran had told her to stay in the car, but fuck it. She’d said the same thing to Dana, and she left. Shaking with pent up energy, she had to do something.

She opened the car door and emerged into the afternoon heat. My God, she wasn’t even sure which house they had gone into, but then she remembered hearing the house number was 213. As she walked back, she could see 215. The one next door must be 213.

She made her way up the side of 215 along the hedge line, much as Fran and Dana had done, to remain out of sight. The hedge ended in the backyard, and Marie crossed over to 213 behind the house. She crept forward slowly and carefully, approaching a partially open window she saw at the rear of the house. Unbeknownst to her, a small security camera picked up her image as she crept forward, but there was no one currently watching the computer screen to notice.

She peered into the window and couldn’t see anything, but she thought she could faintly hear Johnny crying haltingly. But what was that other sound, repeated over and over? A muffled voice crying “Help,” perhaps? But it was so muffled that it was almost unrecognizable. And there was another sound like a clanging of metal on metal. These sounds conjured up nothing good.

She had no idea how she summoned up the courage to try the back door, but miraculously, it opened, and before she had time to chicken out, she entered the rear of the house. The muffled cries and the clanging were louder now that she was on the inside and seemed to be coming from down below. A door had been left ajar, and she quietly opened it to see a set of stairs going down to a basement. She made her way down the stairs, and there was Fran, gagged and handcuffed to a metal pole. Marie quickly ran to her and pulled the gag from her mouth.

“Jesus, Marie. I thought I told you to stay in the car!”

“Yeah, well, apparently it’s a good thing I didn’t listen. How did they get the jump on you?”

“Never mind that now. I’ve got to get out of this. Be quiet and let me think.”

Some gratitude! thought Marie, as Fran snapped at her.

In a moment, Fran said, “How did you get inside, Marie?”

“Through the back door. It was unlocked.”

“Then did you happen to notice anyone sitting at a desk behind a computer screen? It would have been to your left, and his back would have been facing you.”

“No, there was no one there.”

“Alright, he must have been in with Dana in a first-floor bedroom or maybe in the bathroom. I don’t know where Woody is right now. Did you see Johnny when you came in?”

“No, but I could hear him, though. He sounded far away, like he might be in an upstairs bedroom or something.”

“Hmm, the other guy must have moved him. Woody’s probably up there with him now. I told him how to use the inhaler. Hopefully that’s what he’s doing, but I don’t know how effective it will be. I don’t think he’ll figure out how to use the spacer in time.”

“What’s a spacer?”

“It’s something babies need for the inhaler to be effective. Alright, Marie, I think the only way we’re going to get out of this and save Johnny is if you can get a handcuff key and uncuff me.”

“Can’t I find a paperclip or something to use, like they do in the movies?”

“Afraid, it’s not as simple as they make it look. That won’t work on most cuffs these days. No, you’re going to have to get the key from one of those guys upstairs. The little guy is a dangerous prick, but I think he’s the one you have to target. I don’t know where he is but he obviously wasn’t monitoring the computer or you wouldn’t have gotten in. Hopefully he’ll go back to it soon. When he does, his back will be to you. You’ll have a chance to sneak up on him and dispatch him and get his handcuff key.”

“Dispatch him? What do you mean by that?”

“I mean knock him out with that baseball bat over there in the corner.”

“I’ve never played baseball in my life. What if I miss?”

“A head is a pretty big target, Marie. You won’t miss unless you’re a complete spazz. You’ll just need to hit him with enough force to knock him out. Do you think you could summon up enough strength to give him a good whap in the head?”

“As angry as I am right now about what they’re doing to my grandson, no worries there.”

“Good. Now go get the bat over there and I’ll explain what to do.”

When she returned with the bat, Fran told her how to grip it and swing it, and had her practice it a few times. “You need to put a little wrist action into it, to increase the bat speed, otherwise you’ll just make him mad but won’t knock him out.”

Marie tried a few more swings.

“Hmm, not great, but it’ll have to do. Make sure you hit him in the area of the temple, not in the neck. And don’t miss. You’ll only get one chance at it. When you’ve knocked him out, feel around in his pockets for a key, then come and unlock me. We’ll have Woody to take care of then. Marie, I’m serious. Do you really think you can do this? You’re a violinist in an orchestra.”

“Fran, this is my grandchild who they’ve kidnapped and is in trouble. I may not have been much of a mother, but I’m determined to be a good grandmother. I’ll do anything for him right now.”

“Okay. You’ve got to be really quiet when you sneak up behind the guy at the computer. Take your shoes off. Don’t take a big breath or cry out as you hit him or do anything that will give yourself away. Just forcefully strike him in the side of the head. You can do it, Marie.”

“You bet your ass, I can. See you soon.”

In by far the bravest thing she had ever done in her life, she removed her shoes and, bat in hand, quietly headed up the stairs.

(3 more chapters to go)

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is a confidential informant (CI) for Fran and works in Big Pharma.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Rudy Spangler: A vice president at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Peter Israel: The security chief at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in cahoots with Rudy Spangler to stop Glyptophan.

Woody Sandbulte: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Nick Burwell: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Harvey Briggs: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Billy: One of the kidnappers.

Picture courtesy of Flux-Pro

Chapter 49
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 49

By Jim Wile

Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of violence.
Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of language.

Recap of Chapter 48: Leaving Fran gagged and handcuffed to a pole in the basement, Woody goes upstairs to attend to Johnny, who’s having an asthma attack. Johnny isn’t there, so Woody bursts in on Billy in the first-floor bedroom about to have his way with Dana, who is handcuffed to a bed. A furious Woody orders him back to watch the computer after learning Johnny had been moved to an upstairs bedroom. Woody also gags Dana.

Back in the car, Marie can no longer stand to wait, gets out, and makes her own way to the rear of the house. She enters through the unlocked back door and hears noises from the basement. She finds Fran handcuffed there and removes the gag. Fran tells her she must “dispatch” Billy at the computer in the living room by sneaking up behind him and clobbering him with a baseball bat. Then she must find his handcuff key and unlock Fran. The chapter ends as Marie mounts the stairs, bat in hand.

Chapter 49

Billy came out of the bathroom, resumed his seat at the desk, and stared at the computer screen. Not a thing was happening outside—just six screens showing absolutely zilch. He had been about to get his rocks off in there with that old broad. Yeah, she wasn’t a sweet, young thing, but not bad-looking and quite a good body for someone her age. And that damn, crying kid was spoiling the mood. Had to be moved out of there. Then that big asshole Woody came in and fucked everything up.

Who the hell did he think he was? Billy had been working for Israel a hell of a lot longer than Woody. He should be giving the orders, not Woody. Jesus!

When Marie reached the top of the stairs, she quietly opened the door, already slightly ajar. She glanced left, into the kitchen. Nothing. Then she looked right, and there he was, his back facing her, staring at the computer screen on the desk.

Her heart began pounding, and her throat felt parched. She tried working up a little saliva, but none came. As dry as her mouth was, she was sweating. Though nervous, she was full of determination, and she would not let her nerves get the better of her. Ever so slowly and quietly, she moved down the hall toward her target just ten paces away, her grip beginning to tighten on the bat.

She crept forward silently. The man wasn’t moving a muscle. Could he be dozing? But then he straightened up, laced his fingers together on the back of his head, and slumped back in his chair with his feet stretched out before him.

No, no, no! It would be impossible to strike him in the head in that position; his arms would deflect the bat. Now she’d have to wait for him to straighten back up. She was six paces away and holding perfectly still.

The minutes ticked by, and she began to lose her nerve. The moment was slipping away and her energy was ebbing. She wondered if she could even muster up the strength now to do what she must. Something had better change fast.

At that moment, Billy straightened up and resumed his former position, looking straight ahead at the monitor.

Her adrenaline surged, and Marie’s heart suddenly sped up and began to pound in her chest. Steeling herself for the attack, she took a deep breath as she slowly inched forward, Billy unaware of her presence. When she got within three steps of him, her hands began tightening on the handle as she raised the bat into position. Then she was upon him, and mustering all her strength, she swung as hard as she could. Crack! A direct hit on his head. A little high perhaps, but still in a good enough place that he slumped in his chair, out cold.

Marie had lost her balance with the swing and sat down hard on the floor. Trembling violently, she unthinkingly cried out, “Oh God, maybe I killed him!” She sat there unmoving but still trembling with the adrenaline coursing through her.

As soon as she had cried out, she heard a series of muffled cries from the first-floor bedroom. This stirred her from her paralysis, and she rifled through the unconscious man’s pockets and found a handcuff key. She also saw a gun on the desk that she grabbed. She quickly returned to the basement, unlocked Fran, and handed her the key and gun.

“Marie, you did it!” Secretly, Fran had had massive doubts, but instead, she said, “I knew you could. Great job! Now, let’s go secure that guy and get Dana. Do you know where she is?”

“I heard some muffled shouts coming from a room up there.”

The two women hurried up the stairs, and Fran could hear the muffled shouts coming from the first-floor bedroom now. They found Dana, gagged, cuffed to the bed, and with her pants partway down. Fran removed the gag and uncuffed her.

“Oh, thank God.”

“No, thank Marie. She’s the one who saved the day. She knocked that guy out at the computer, got his handcuff key, and unlocked me down in the basement.”

Dana looked at her incredulously, but Marie was suddenly looking very pale and wobbly. It appeared she was going into shock. The events of the past few minutes overwhelmed her, and Fran and Dana laid her down on the bed and found a blanket to cover her.

“You say she knocked him out? Little violin player Marie here overpowered that guy?”

“Grandmama Bear was fired up,” said Fran. “But we’ve got to get moving now. I’ve got to lock that guy up and gag him. Why don’t you look for our guns while I try to find something solid to cuff him to? Then we’ve got to find Johnny. Marie, you stay here, and we’ll come back for you. You did great.”

They quickly left the room, and Fran began to look around the first floor. Dana found their guns in a drawer of the desk and retrieved them.

Fran couldn’t find anything solid enough to cuff Billy to that he couldn’t escape from, so she decided to carry him downstairs to the basement, where she herself had been cuffed to the support pole. She was a strong woman who lifted weights and was able to carry him down over her shoulder in a fireman’s hold. She lay him on the floor with his back against the pole and attached the cuffs she had left there to each of his wrists behind him. She also applied the gag to his mouth before running back upstairs to join Dana.

Dana handed Fran her gun and said, “I think Woody is with the baby in a bedroom upstairs. I heard the little asshole tell Woody he removed him from the cage because he was making too much noise and put him upstairs in a back bedroom. Fran, the baby’s breathing was very ragged, and I heard him retching some.”

“We’ve got to hurry then. That could be dangerous if he aspirates any vomit. Let’s go.”

They went quickly but quietly up the stairs at the front of the house. When they reached the top, they could see a half-opened door at the end of the hall and could hear Woody quietly talking to Johnny, whose breathing seemed extremely labored now. It was a horrible sound that indicated he was nearing the point of asphyxiation. Evidently, what Woody had done with the inhaler hadn’t helped much, and the situation was dire.

They hurried stealthily down the hall, and Fran burst through the door with gun pointed at Woody, who was seated in a rocking chair rocking the baby. Dana entered the room right behind her with gun also pointing at Woody.

Woody was so startled that he flinched and startled Johnny at the same time. Woody stood suddenly with the baby in front of him as a shield and with one hand around his neck.

“Put him down, Woody,” said Fran.

“Put your guns away or I’ll break his neck.”

“You wouldn’t do that, Woody. You said you like the little guy. You’re not a baby killer. Just put him down. It’s all over now.”

“The hell it is. I swear to you, I’ll break his little neck if you don’t put those guns down. I mean it!”

“Woody, you’re not getting out of this. You’ve got two guns trained on you. There’s no way you’re getting away with it. Put him down. I know you don’t want to hurt him.”

Johnny was retching now as the stress took its toll. Woody was visibly shaken, uncertain of what to do. He kept glancing over at his own gun resting on a dresser next to the rocking chair. He seemed to be at the breaking point.

“Put him down, and step away from that dresser.”

“Do it, Woody,” added Dana.

Woody hesitated for a long moment, the indecision marking his features. In a sudden move, he dropped the baby to the floor and went for his gun on the dresser. Fran fired six times into his side and back, and he went down hard. Johnny was fighting for breath now, and right then, Marie rushed into the room and picked him up, hugging him to her body. Dana grabbed Woody’s gun, which he’d knocked to the floor trying to grab it, while Fran bent down to listen to him. He was still conscious.

“Sorry… sorry now. Shouldn’a got involved… in this. Di’nt think… would come to this…. I’m…” and what he was going to add wasn’t clear as the life passed from him.

Between his sobs and wheezes, Johnny managed to croak out, “Gamma,” as she hugged his trembling little body against her.

“Shh, shh, you’re safe now, Johnny. Grandma’s here. It’s all over now, and you’ll be seeing Momma and Daddy soon. Shh. You’re safe now.”

(2 more chapters to go)

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is a confidential informant (CI) for Fran and works in Big Pharma.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Rudy Spangler: A vice president at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Peter Israel: The security chief at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in cahoots with Rudy Spangler to stop Glyptophan.

Woody Sandbulte: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Nick Burwell: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Harvey Briggs: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Billy: One of the kidnappers.

Picture courtesy of Poe Assistant

Chapter 50
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 50

By Jim Wile

Recap of Chapter 49: Marie heads up the basement stairs, bat in hand, with instructions from a handcuffed Fran to clobber Billy in the living room, get his handcuff key, and unlock her. Amazingly, she succeeds and brings Fran the key and Billy’s gun. The two women then rescue Dana, who was handcuffed in a bedroom. Marie goes into shock and has to lie down, while Fran and Dana secure the passed-out Billy, retrieve their own guns, and head upstairs where Woody is with Johnny.

They burst in on him with guns drawn, and he attempts to use Johnny as a hostage, threatening to break his neck. When Fran points out that it’s over, he drops Johnny and goes for his gun on a dresser but is shot six times by Fran and dies. Marie rushes in and goes for Johnny. He’s been rescued, but will he survive the ordeal?

Chapter 50

Johnny was beginning to turn blue as he could no longer get much breath into his lungs. He was showing acute signs of distress now, and Fran had to act fast. “I’ll be right back. Dana, call 911. 213 Kipp Rd.”

She sped out of the room, down the stairs, and out the front door to retrieve the handbag that she’d left outside. She grabbed it, ran back inside, and back up to the bedroom.

Pulling an EpiPen from the bag, she injected it into Johnny’s thigh. Within two minutes, it began to take effect, and Johnny’s breathing became a little less labored.

While the EpiPen solved the acute emergency, his breathing was still ragged and wheezy. Fran located the spacer in Johnny’s diaper bag. It was obvious Woody had only tried using his inhaler and didn’t bother with the spacer. As a result, it hadn’t been very effective in helping Johnny to breathe.

After shaking the inhaler, Fran inserted its mouthpiece into one end of the spacer and applied the mask at the other end to Johnny’s face, then squeezed a puff of albuterol into the spacer. This greatly increased the amount that went into his lungs. In 30 seconds, she squeezed another amount into the spacer.

“How do you know how to do all that, Fran?” asked Marie.

“They train us pretty well there at the FBI. Plus, knowing that Johnny has asthma, I learned how to use the spacer.”

“Well, it’s a good thing because those paramedics are taking forever to get here.”

“Ah, don’t be too hard on ‘em, Marie. I’m sure they’re doing their best. This place is kind of remote. They’ll be here soon.”

By the time they arrived fifteen minutes later, Johnny’s color was much better, and his breathing was far less labored. It was now time to call Brian and Julia. Fran called Brian’s cell phone and put hers on speaker so the others could hear the call.

“Fran,” came his anxious voice. “What’s happening?”

“Put your phone on speaker so Jules can hear this too.”

“Done. Is Johnny okay?”

“He’s fine. We’ve got him now. The kidnappers are not a problem anymore.”

“Oh, thank God!” said Brian, and Fran could hear Julia begin to cry. “They called me a half-hour ago and said if we ever wanted to see Johnny again, I needed to write an email to the FDA, resigning from the phase-2 trials and telling them the side effects of the medicine were too severe to continue with the trials. I was to cc them on it, and when they received their copy, we could come and get Johnny. I was writing the email when you called just now.”

“Just delete it, and don’t communicate with them again. I’ll take it from here. Listen, both of you. We’re going to have to stay at this house for a while. Why don’t you come here to be with him? By the way, Marie is here if you were wondering where she was.”

“Yeah, we figured out she might be. Where exactly are you?”

She gave them the address and also asked them to bring some fresh clothes for Johnny without going into details about it.

Next, she called her boss, Lou D’Onofrio, at the FBI field office and requested that he send a team of investigators. She briefly filled him in on the events of the afternoon, leaving out a few key details, like Dana and Marie’s presence. He was angry that she never called for any backup and chewed her out royally.

He finished his tirade with, “Francine, I don’t know how you do it, but you always seem to come up smelling like roses. You must lead a charmed life. One of these days, you’re not going to be so lucky.”

“You’re right, Lou; I should have called for backup. It’s just that we were so close to the kidnappers, and it would have taken so long for you to send a team out, that I just figured we could handle it ourselves.”

“We? Who’s we?”

“Uh… I’ll discuss that in my report.”

“Oh, Jesus. Am I even going to want to know?”

“Uh… probably not.”

“Well, you’d better include it anyway. What am I going to do with you, Francine?”

“That’ll be totally up to you, Lou, but—”

“You’d better not say, ‘All’s well that ends well.’”

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Fran didn’t want further entry by anyone into the crime scene, so she suggested they all wait on the front porch for Brian and Julia. In 15 minutes, they arrived. The paramedics were still there, but following the reunion with his parents, they would be taking Johnny to the hospital for further observation and treatment.

Julia was out of the car in a flash and came running up onto the porch. She picked Johnny up and hugged him tightly, crying and kissing him and saying, “Momma’s here now, Johnny. I love you, my sweet boy.” He snuggled right into her arms.

Brian came up the porch steps and put his arms around both of them. “Hey, buddy, Daddy’s here too. We love you, Johnny.” It was a touching reunion.

It was decided that Brian and Julia would accompany Johnny in the paramedic’s ambulance to the hospital.

An hour later, the FBI team that Lou had sent arrived and interrogated Fran, Marie, and Dana. Each of them gave statements about their part in the events of the afternoon.

Dana drove Brian and Julia’s car back to their house. As Marie and Fran drove there together, Fran said, “Marie, I just can’t get over the courage and sheer guts you showed in doing what you managed to do. As difficult as it was, you absolutely saved the day and helped save Johnny’s life.”

“Thank you, Fran. And thank you for your part in all this too. You were the driving force behind it, and we never would have gotten Johnny back alive without you.”

“Well, you’re welcome.”

“Now,” said Marie, “I’m so exhausted, and my back is killing me, that I think I’m going to have a few drinks and go to bed as soon as we get back.”

“Aren’t you hungry for some dinner? I’m starving.”

“Not really. I just need some booze and bed.”

Brian called Fran and said they’d be at the hospital a while longer, and the rest should fend for themselves for dinner. Marie went to bed as she’d said, and Fran and Dana decided to drive into Cherryville to Bubba’s Barbecue.

When the waitress brought their food, they spent the next few minutes devouring it without talking. When they’d eaten their fill of ribs, hush puppies, baked beans, and coleslaw, Fran said to Dana, “Some day, huh? Bet you never dreamed it would end this way when you joined me for lunch earlier.”

“That’s for damn sure. I had barbecue for lunch, and now I’m having ribs for dinner. I must be a real southerner now.”

Fran cracked up.

Dana added, “This was probably just a routine day for you, though, right?”

“Hardly. I may be an adrenaline junkie, but I’ve had my fill for a while. Now I’ve got a couple days of paperwork to fill out, including explaining how I ended up there with two civilian helpers instead of my regular partner.”

“Good luck with that.”

“Listen, Dana. I don’t think my regular partner could have done anything more than you did today. Both Marie and you were great. I had confidence in you, and it paid off.”

“But I didn’t do a whole lot. I mean, you really did it all. You and Marie. I don’t think you needed me for much of anything.”

“You helped more than you know. If nothing else, you were great moral support, and don’t forget, we wouldn’t have gotten that wiretap on Israel’s phone without the work you did. Without that, we wouldn’t have known where Johnny was. In the end, I think the three of us made a pretty damn good team.”

“What’s going to happen now?”

“We’ve got enough to arrest Israel and Spangler. If you want to, you can come with me when I do it.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t miss that for the world.”

“You know, I predict this may be the end of Brian’s troubles, at least of the physical kind. This will make national news. I’ll see to it. And once it gets out that now two of the five Big Pharma companies have been engaging in violence against a competitor, and arrests have been made, I don’t think any of the others will try such means again. The devil fought hard against Brian, but we beat him in the end. He may still try some lesser things, but nothing Brian and his legal team won’t be able to handle.”

“I hope you’re right. I guess after we arrest Israel and Spangler, my time here will be over. Gotta tell you, Fran, I’ve had the time of my life doing this. If you ever again need a CI in the Pennsylvania area, you know who to call.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

(The final chapter will be posted on Sunday)

Author Notes CHARACTERS

Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.

Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is a confidential informant (CI) for Fran and works in Big Pharma.

Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.

Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.

Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.

Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.

Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.

Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.

Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Rudy Spangler: A vice president at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.

Peter Israel: The security chief at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in cahoots with Rudy Spangler to stop Glyptophan.

Woody Sandbulte: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Nick Burwell: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Harvey Briggs: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.

Billy: One of the kidnappers.

Picture courtesy of Poe Assistant

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