Radical Reaction

by Dawn Marsanne

  ‘How do you mean?’

  ‘Oh, well he was shouting his mouth off about immigrants, that sort of things. He was slagging off minority groups. A typical example of bigotry.’It wouldn’t surprise me if he was a member of Britannia First or something similar.’

  ‘Well, he’s always been OK with me, so I can’t really comment. He’s a bit gobby though. I heard the other guys moaning about him. Does more talking than work from what they said.’

  ‘I had a laugh when the other one, Bernie, I think, set about him with a newspaper. He was hitting him over the head with it. Reminded me of Laurel and Hardy!’

  ‘I wish I’d seen that,’ smiled, Joe.

  ‘I hope he takes note of the campaign to stamp out that sort of thing here or he might find himself out on his ear. It would serve him right.’

  The dialogue was interrupted by Hannah. ‘Take a look at this, guys,’ she said, waving a printout in front of them. ‘Am I brilliant or what?’

  Adam and Joe gathered around and once more the focus was on the science. Seth joined them and suggested that Hannah would have to buy a round to celebrate her success in the improved isolation procedure for her reaction.

  **

  By 5 p.m. most of the support staff manning the stores and other services had left, now the chemists had to fend for themselves. At one time the stores were manned until 7 p.m. but due to pressures on budgets that had been changed. Instead, each laboratory was issued with a key so that if any supplies were needed urgently the scientists could access the stores. Most people doing practical work tried to plan ahead and take advantage of the delivery service to save them having to traipse up and down corridors.

  That evening someone had decided to make a trip to the storeroom. Since 5 p.m. he’d been getting more and more anxious about the task ahead. He’d taken the storeroom key one lunchtime and had nipped into town to get another one cut. Unlocking the door he quickly went inside and relocked it, leaving the key in the lock. Should anyone try to unlock the door they would have trouble getting the key in. That would give him sufficient warning to cover his tracks.

  Eddie went into the back of the stores and removed a large bottle of acetone solvent from the shelves. From his carrier bag, he removed two empty glass litre bottles which had once contained mineral water. He carefully poured acetone to fill up the bottles and recapped them tightly. There was only about half a litre of solvent left in the larger bottle so he poured it down the sink, ran the tap and placed the bottle on the trolley ready for disposal the next morning. His hands were sweating and he wiped them on his lab coat. He placed the bottles back inside the plastic carrier, tied the neck and then put the package inside another bag.

  Now he had to get the booty out of the building. He didn’t want to be spotted carrying a plastic bag down the corridor so he covered it with a lab coat as if he were taking it to the laundry bin. After locking the storeroom, he walked to the end of the corridor where there was an exit to the office area. He quickly dropped the lab coat in the laundry bin and hung his own up on the hooks on the wall. He slipped through the door into the office area from where he could make his way to his locker and retrieve his rucksack. He felt momentarily guilty but it wasn’t as if it was anything expensive and it wouldn’t be missed. He told himself that there were probably thousands of pounds being creamed off from university budgets every day and were never discovered. This was small fry in comparison.

  As he unzipped his rucksack his fingers were all fat and clumsy and he struggled with the fastenings. Finally, the bottles were safely stowed inside and he could now relax and begin his evening.

  Chapter 18

  Christian chose a table outside Cafe Zero overlooking the river. He had texted GoodtimeGal details about what he was wearing that day and where he planned to sit. Although she had sent him photos of herself in various states of undress he had been unwilling to share an actual image showing his face. He didn’t want to give her the chance to post anything on social media about him, after all, he had a position of responsibility and it could ruin his reputation.

  He had found it difficult to concentrate during the afternoon and as the hour of the rendezvous approached he had considered cancelling their date. However, the thought of returning once more to a soulless house to be customarily ignored had stirred his resolve to indulge in some excitement. It would be nice to engage in conversation with a woman again other than in the work environment.

  The meeting with Ron Radford had been a bit of a struggle as he had felt distracted and once or twice he’d had to ask Ron to repeat his question. He hoped he’d not made a complete fool of himself as it sounded ever more certain that he would soon be employed by Mr Radford. Fortunately, he had been assured that his current salary and benefits would be maintained for at least six months. There had even been hints about performance-related bonuses should their financial situation improve. It was good to see that Mr Radford was so keen and upbeat about taking on a new venture, particularly as he was of the age where most people would be thinking of retirement.

  Christian had drunk half his pint of lager whilst he was waiting and his nerves were making him wish that he’d visited the toilets on arrival. It was now the appointed time of his assignation and he didn’t want to leave the table as that would typically be the moment when GoodtimeGal would arrive.

  He checked his phone but there were no further messages from her. Suddenly he wondered whether it had all been a hoax and he would be left sitting alone with just his phone and the river view for company. He was gazing out at some swans swimming past gracefully when he heard his name.

  ‘Christian?’

  He jumped slightly and turned around and found himself looking straight at a beautiful young woman with long auburn hair. She was dressed in smart casual attire with black ankle length trousers and a white long-sleeved linen blouse. Christian stood up suddenly and knocked the table with his knee causing his glass to wobble. He reached to steady it and offered his other hand which his date held and they shook hands awkwardly.

  ‘Hi, er, well, hi, can I get you a drink?’

  ‘White wine, please.’

  ‘Coming up, I won’t be a minute.’

  The woman sat down and placed her phone on the table. She moved her chair so that they were sitting at right angles to each other rather than directly opposite. Christian returned with her wine along with another half pint of lager for himself.

  ‘Thanks,’ she said and took a sip.

  ‘Lovely evening,’ said Christian.

  ‘Yes, it’s great,’ she replied. Then they both laughed.

  ‘Typical, we are talking about the weather already!’ he said. ‘Have you had a good day, do you work?’

  ‘I do, but aren’t you going to ask my name. Or do you want to go on calling me GoodtimeGal?’

  ‘Oh, sorry, no of course not, I mean yes, I do want to know your name,’ he sighed. ‘I’m a bit hopeless at this, aren’t I? I’m rather out of practice.’

  ‘Laura,’ she replied.

  ‘Hello, Laura, nice to meet you,’ and he offered his hand once more. ‘Shall we start again.’

  She smiled. The ice seemed to be broken. Christian felt like he was reborn. They had only just met but perhaps now they could have a normal conversation like two adults and in the future he might be able to unburden some of his concerns.

  **

  Nimrod logged on to his laptop. Rather than entering the Efirst chatroom tonight, he accessed the secure email where he could chat with Warrior without fear of discovery. He needed to update their leader with his progress to date and to find out his next set of instructions.

  From: Nimrod

  To: Warrior

  Hi, all looking good. Material A in hand. Being careful. Small amounts each day. Only when sure coast is clear. When can I have material B? Will need trial run to sort out what I’m doing. Need time to practise. OK?

  Reply from Warrior to Nimrod.

  Meet me at usual place. Will hand ove
r material B. Excellent work. We are identifying target and will inform re date and time. Any progress on preliminary work?

  Reply from Nimrod

  Success. Cages are rattled. Feeling of unease. Bods in charge are trying to contain it. We are being careful. Will continue to ramp up pressure. Need more supplies from Orion.

  Reply from Warrior

  You are doing good work Nimrod. Do you need moolah?

  Reply from Nimrod

  Yes. That would help. Feeling bit short at mo.

  Reply from Warrior

  Consider it done. Will send moolah. Anything else?

  Reply from Nimrod

  All cool but worried. Can you help with trial run?

  Reply from Warrior.

  Poss but not sure. Will make sure you have good info.

  Reply from Nimrod.

  OK as long as simple to follow. Needs to be idiot proof!

  Reply from Warrior.

  Ha! Very funny. No room for idiots.

  Reply from Nimrod.

  Send details. If OK will consider trial run.

  Reply from Warrior.

  I have confidence in you. Nite.

  **

  ‘Hi, Ron, thanks for the flowers,’ said Maureen.

  ‘You liked them?’

  ‘They’re lovely. I’m looking at them now. The house is filled with such a beautiful aroma.’

  ‘Beautiful flowers for a beautiful lady.’

  ‘Ha, I don’t think so, I’ve a few lines on my face now. You are being too kind.’

  ‘Nonsense. You are too modest.’

  Maureen didn’t know what to say next. It was all a bit overwhelming. She never thought that at this stage in her life she would be swept off her feet.

  ‘I wondered whether you would agree to see me again sometime?’

  ‘Of course, well, I hoped you would want to see me. You slipped away without saying goodbye, I was worried I’d frightened you off?’

  ‘I just had a busy day ahead, that was all. Things are a bit hectic at the moment. But all is going well. It looks like very soon we will be celebrating Radford ClinTry.’

  ‘Really, well, congratulations!’

  ‘It’s not signed yet, but we are hopeful. I went to see the place this afternoon. The guy in charge seemed a bit vacant at times but I’ve agreed to keep him on, he’s not been there for long and it would be a bit cruel to give him notice. Besides I’d have to find another director at short notice. He just needs to sharpen up his act a bit.’

  ‘Well, I’m sure you can sweet talk him,’ said Maureen.

  ‘Hmm, well I hope so,’ said Ron, thoughtfully.

  ‘Anyway, remember I mentioned about you accompanying me to a glioblastoma support meeting?’

  ‘Yes, of course. Well, there’s one the weekend after next. It’s the one for the south-east of England. I’d love it if you could come with me.’

  ‘Just let me know when and where and I’ll surely accompany you.’

  ‘Great, well, we can go by car, I’ll drive. It’s only about forty miles away. I wondered whether it would be nice if we stayed over in a country hotel that night. Make a weekend of it. What do you say?’

  ‘Sounds great. I’ll pack an overnight bag.’

  ‘Right, well, I’ve still got lots of work to do. My accountant is coming around this evening, I’ll be in touch.’

  ‘Phone me tomorrow?’

  ‘I will, bye, Maureen.’

  Chapter 19

  ‘Hi, Polly, everything OK?’ said Nick into his phone.

  ‘Yes, I’ve just seen Cynthia about the Interfaith talk. They are organising a lot of extra security for that evening. I thought you might want to let Mark know, he might want some more hours.’

  ‘OK, I’ll text him. Look, I’ll have to go, Pat wants to speak to me. See you at lunch? About one I think you said?’

  ‘Yes, see you then. Bye.’

  ‘Sorry Pat,’ said Nick as he hung up.

  ‘Oh, not a problem. Polly OK?’

  ‘Yes, fine. Busy with this helpline of course.’

  Pat nodded. ‘So, how’s your trip coming along then? asked Pat.

  ‘Not bad. I’m going to fly to Mumbai and stay there for three nights. I’ll be away for five nights in total,’ replied Nick.

  ‘You’ll have had enough of the heat by then,’ added Pat.

  ‘And have you sorted out your company visits?’

  ‘Yes, mostly. I’ll visit IndSyn first, I’ll spend a full day with them. There’s a lot to discuss and I’m going to insist I speak directly to the chemists doing the work.’

  ‘Yes, it’s essential to do that,’ replied Pat.

  ‘They have been very flexible and helpful so far as I’ve had to change the dates a few times due to the flight availability. So, the next day I’m going to visit two more companies in the Mumbai area and then I’m going to take an internal flight to Chennai to visit another company.’

  ‘How long is the flight?’

  ‘Only a couple of hours. I quite fancied a train journey, for the experience but it’s just not feasible.’

  ‘So, you ‘ll fly back from Chennai then?’

  ‘Yes, that’s it, after a night’s stay.’

  ‘Well, all sounds good. It’s a gruelling schedule. You’ll need a holiday when you come back!’

  ‘It all seems to fit together. I just need to send the final emails to check that they are still OK with the dates. Then I’ll book the flights.’

  ‘Great. Have you sorted your hotels yet?

  ‘Not yet, I’ve had a look at review sites and so on. I’ve got a short list, I just need to make the final decision. There’s so much choice though, it’s taking quite a time to organise everything.’

  ‘Right, well I’ll leave you to it,’ said Pat as he wandered back to his own desk.

  Once Nick had a final budget he would send it to Matt and Brett for approval before making his bookings.

  As well as his India trip he needed to continue with the patent write-ups. He’d never been so busy but it made the days pass really quickly. He didn’t mind the workload as Matt and Brett had been so generous making him a partner in PerzSolve and he wanted to repay them by doing a solid job. In the past, he would never have imagined that he would be working with them on an almost equal basis. It was a terrific opportunity vested in him and he was determined to make a success of it.

  **

  Liam Bolton was working in the dispensary. It was preferable to having to stand in for the shop assistants who had to deal with the germ-ridden public who were frequently coughing and sneezing all over the place. When he first started in the pharmacy he’d had a succession of colds but after a while, he built up some resistance. Nowadays when he took in a prescription from one of the ethnic minorities, which were increasing in number by his reckoning, he was careful to use the antiseptic hand gel.

  He took a couple of prescriptions out of the box marked “waiting” and looked at the names on them. The first was from one of their regular customers, a Mr Rose. He would fulfil that one first, it just had a couple of items. The second was for Hassan Kalif, aged seven and there were about four items on the prescription.

  Liam quickly found the items for Mr Rose and put them in a plastic tray.

  ‘Mr Rose’s one is ready for checking,’ he said to Harjit. ‘He’s in a bit of a rush so can you do it now?’

  ‘When I’ve done the next two,’ replied Harjit, ‘I’m just having to reorder one of these items.’

  Liam went to collect the next items for Hassan. The boy clearly had an ear infection and a cough as well as some eczema problems as there were two creams on the list. He took the stepladder to reach the top shelf where the last bottle of ofloxacin ear drops was sitting. He looked at the box for a moment, released the flaps at the base of the box and allowed the bottle to fall to the floor where it smashed.

  ‘Oops, spillage!’ he shouted.

  ‘What was that?’ asked Harjit.

  ‘Oh, nothing d
angerous, just these antibiotic ear drops. The base of the box mustn’t have been sealed properly.’

  ‘Never mind, use some spillage granules and sweep it all up into a sharps incineration bin. I’ll sort out the prescription whilst you do that.’

  ‘There’s a problem, I’m afraid. That was the last bottle.’

  ‘Oh, really. I’ll have to ask whether they want to wait for another bottle or go to another pharmacy,’ said Harjit.

  ‘OK, sorry about that,’ said Liam, insincerely.

  He could hear some discussion in the shop and Harjit returned. ‘Put the other items back on the shelf,’ he said. ‘The customer needs to go elsewhere, the child is in too much pain, they need the ear drops today.’

  ‘Let’s hope they can get it somewhere else,’ said Liam.

  He smiled to himself as he set about cleaning up the breakage. He hoped Harjit would take his lunch break today as he had a little job to do. He was going to offer to do the re-orders. There was one particular item which had become out of stock or would be by the end of the day.

  Chapter 20

  Matt Pearson and Brett Chandler were meeting to discuss the potential investors in PersCure. The closing date was approaching soon and the equity would be allocated at that point.

  ‘OK,’ said Brett. ‘The current state of play is as follows. The university will hold fifty percent in total. Of that Derek Plumpton will have five percent. By the way, I heard that Derek only has a few days to live now. Of course, his wife will inherit his share.’

  ‘Yes, I heard the same. So, what’s the ruling on Phil Sweetman being granted equity?’

  ‘Ian French has ruled that he hasn’t made a significant contribution. Pat Dunford instead will get a nominal amount but it’s less than half a percent. Phil isn’t happy and is threatening to resign.’

  Matt raised his eyebrows at this news. ‘Really? That’s a bit drastic, isn’t it.’

  ‘Well, it’s up to him, I’ve got enough to worry about without his rebellion. I never really warmed to the guy, did you?’