| General Fiction posted February 22, 2025 | Chapters: |
...35 36 -37- 38... 
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Fran and Brian return, and Dana plans a new mission
A chapter in the book The Devil Fights Back
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 37
by Jim Wile
| Background Three intrepid women team up to conquer medical challenges. |
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.”
 Recognized |
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
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