FanStory.com - The Devil Fights Back

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!”