by JA Konrath
“No help!” David pointed at him, his finger accusing.
“Please, David.”
“You know how N-Som is made?”
Mason knew. They all knew. The fact that Rothchilde had somehow passed the FDA's pharmacological review was amazing. The president of DruTech couldn't have done it honestly.
“You know how it's made, and you let me take it anyway.”
“You volunteered.”
“Not for this.” David's eyes took a trip somewhere. Somewhere horrible. “I've seen things, Doc. Things no one alive has seen. Can you imagine?”
Mason couldn't imagine. Once was bad enough.
“Do you know I've died forty-three times? And I remember each time, like movies branded into my head.”
“I'm... I'm sorry.”
His breath was becoming fainter, and consciousness was drifting away. All of Mason's senses softened, grew fuzzy.
“Seeing things like that can really mess a person up, Doc.”
Mason felt as if he was sinking in a deep, dark pool. A small part of him wanted to protest, but didn't have the energy.
“Manny... Manny...”
“Manny isn't here, Dr. O'Neil.”
David cradled the doctor's head in his hands. Mason only had a vague awareness of it.
But he became fully aware when David began to pound his head against the hardwood floor, over and over, trying to crack it open like an egg.
And he was still somewhat aware when David succeeded.
Chapter 24
“Don't let anyone into the building except DruTech staff. If the police come, demand to see a warrant.”
“No problem, Dr. Boone. Everything all right?
Theena smiled thinly at the security guard. “No, Barry, it's not. Has anyone else arrived?”
“Dr. Myrnowski went down to the lab a few minutes ago. She's the only one.”
“Did the delivery come?”
“It came this morning. I signed for it, but the box looked damaged.”
A flash of fear. “Damaged?”
“Cracked on the side, top kind of messed up.”
“Was it leaking?”
“Didn't seem to be.”
“Thanks, Barry.”
Theena went into the elevator, Bill a step behind her. If something had happened to the contents of that package...
“I know this is a stupid question, but are you okay?”
Theena put her key card in the slot and looked away from Bill. He was so concerned. She felt a tinge of something in her gut, and wondered if it might be guilt.
From a very young age, Theena realized that men were the ones with the power. Her father had proven it time and again. Men controlled the money, the government, the world. They did it by threatening, bribing, blackmailing, fighting, insulting, extorting, stealing, and killing. None of these were inherent female traits.
But a woman could have power. All she had to do was learn to control men.
Theena was an expert at this. Flirting. Flattery. Seduction. Sex. They were all tools; a means to an end. Her personal taste didn't interfere with her goals—sometimes she liked the guys she slept with, sometimes she didn't.
Bill, she liked. She liked him so much it was messing up her game plan.
Theena glanced at him, his broad shoulders, the laugh lines in the corners of his eyes. For the briefest of moments, she forgot about NSom, and power, and goals. She pretended that she was just a woman, and Bill was just a man, and they were together. No control, no betrayal, no ulterior motives. Just love.
It was a sweet little fantasy, but that was all it was. Real life conspired otherwise.
“I'm fine. This is a lot to handle.”
Bill nodded. He took her hand. She hugged him, unsure if her actions were real or pretend.
“I have to check something in the lab. If you don't mind, I need to do it alone.”
“Not a problem. I want to look at the N-Som file anyway.”
She forced some crocodile tears and looked at him.
“With all that's happened, you think the drug can still be approved?”
“If it's safe, I'll approve it.”
Theena hugged him again. The elevator stopped and Bill went off to the conference room, a folder tucked under his arm. She had a momentary spike of panic, but then she remembered that there was nothing incriminating in the N-Som file she'd given Bill—it had all been edited.
Her mind drifted to Michael Bitner. Another man she'd liked...
Dr. Julia Myrnowski was in the lab, peering through a microscope when Theena walked in.
“Hi, Julia.”
“Hi, Theena. How are you holding up?”
“Fine. The package is here?”
“In the freezer. I haven't opened it yet.”
Theena took a white smock from her locker and removed a hair net from the side pocket. She put both on. After snapping on a pair of latex gloves, she went to the freezer.
The box was definitely cracked, and the tape on the lid looked like a repair job. This wasn't Sully's work—she paid the morgue attendant too much for him to make mistakes. The courier must have done it.
Theena made a note to change services. If they'd seen what was inside the box, she could explain it away. But dropping important material like this was inexcusable.
“I want to do the biopsy and convert right away. Can you assist?”
“Dr. O'Neil is better at it than I am.”
“Dr. O'Neil isn't here, and I could use a second set of hands.”
Julia frowned. Theena couldn't blame her. It was a pretty hairy extraction procedure. But there was no one else, and this had to get done now.
Theena placed the box on the table, next to the surgical vise. She snugged a pre-fitted plastic cover onto the clamps and turned the handle to open them wider.
Then she went to the autoclave and pulled out the sterilized instruments; enlarging burs, dura separator, skull traction tongs, cranial drill, saw blade and guide, and various retractors, curettes, forceps, and rongeurs.
After spreading out the tools on a tray, the moment of truth arrived.
Theena broke the seal on the box, letting out a breath when a wisp of carbon dioxide plumed upward. If there was still dry ice, perhaps the specimen hadn't been compromised.
She unwound the tape and lifted off the top. The smoke dissipated, allowing her to see the perfectly preserved severed head.
Theena's lower lip trembled. She pulled the wires out of its tear ducts and gently removed the head from the box.
“Daddy.”
The tears came. Theena gingerly placed Dr. Nikos Stefanopolous's head in the vice, and after sniffling once, she reached for the scalpel.
Chapter 25
Bill sat in the conference room and leafed through the file he'd found at Mike Bitner's house. Almost immediately, he began to notice differences between this file and the one Theena gave him. Omissions, mostly. But also some completely different experimental results.
Some of Manny's CTs and PETs showed abnormalities, which grew as his N-Som usage continued. In the file Bill had at home, the scans were all healthy and normal.
There were also notes that Manny had been put on the antidepressant Prozac and Xanax antianxiety. The doses had continued to go up, rising to levels that Bill thought were toxic. Eventually, Dr. Red Fletcher began giving him Compazine. This was a powerful antipsychotic, given to people with serious mental problems.
Manny's mental health wasn't the only irregularity. His diet had become increasingly extreme. He once went without food for a period of six days, refusing to eat. When the fast ended, he went into a phase where he only ate marshmallows and raw meat. Last month, Dr. Nikos came into Manny's room to find him devouring a box of pencils.
Theena's story of Manny being on a Stairmaster for nine hours was true, but it didn't end because the equipment failed. It had ended because Manny began to scream, and was unable to stop screaming for several hours, until his throat began to bleed.
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But Manny wasn't N-Som's only casualty. The more Bill read, the worse things became. He leafed through one disastrous animal experiment after another. Test subjects would become catatonic, or erratic. They would refuse food and sex. Some became sick, others became violent.
The worst thing that happened was to poor Sam the monkey. Bill located the missing page, the end of the experiment. After Sam had become lethargic, he'd gone into a rage, attacking Dr. Nikos, biting Theena, and eventually...
Bill read the paragraph again.
Day 241—We found Sam this morning, dead in his cage. Cause of death was a massive hemorrhage. Sam had pulled his own eyes out.
He scanned through the autopsy report. A lesion was found in Sam's corpus callosum, extending upwards to the cerebrum. Smaller lesions were found on the cerebellum, medulla, hypothalamus, and pons.
The monkey's brain was almost twenty percent scar tissue.
Bill put down the folder and pushed away from the table. Could Theena have known how dangerous this drug was? Could all of this information have been hidden from her somehow?
He tried to make it work. He wanted her to have been deceived. Her father could have falsified data. Maybe she was kept in the dark. Maybe...
He picked up the Sam report again. The notes were in Theena's handwriting.
So she knew.
She knew N-Som was dangerous. And she tried to hide that fact.
“What else have you done?”
Bill stood up, his heart racing. Had she been lying to him about her feelings, too? Was she in league with Rothchilde? Worst of all, did she have a part in Mike Bitner's death?
He'd been deceived. Used. Played for a fool. The tenderness that had been growing inside him crumpled and blew away.
Bill collapsed in the chair, wondering what to do next. There was only one certainty. He wasn't going to approve N-Som.
There was probably another certainty as well; Rothchilde's men were going to kill him.
Bill had to make sure the truth about the drug got out, so even if he died, the drug wouldn't be released. The media was probably the best option for that.
But first...
First he had to confront Theena.
Bill headed for the lab. He had every right to be angry, but mostly he was numb. He had no idea what he was going to say to her. Accuse her? Ask for an explanation?
He opened the lab door, watched as Theena quickly tossed a cloth over whatever she'd been working on.
“Bill! I'm sorry, I'm in the middle of something. If you could wait outside...”
“I know.”
She began to say something, then stopped. Her eyes changed. Bill detected sorrow in them, but sorrow wasn't good enough. Nothing would be good enough.
Julia, who was standing by Theena, saw the intensity going on between them. She excused herself and hurried out of the room.
Bill walked over and calmly pulled the sheet off the bulge on the table.
Dr. Nikos's head was in a vice. Theena had performed a craniotomy, and the skull cap was resting next to the head, upturned like a bloody, hairy bowl.
All at once, Bill knew. He knew a secret even worse than N-Som's damaging effects.
N-Som wasn't synthetic.
“You make the drug out of people's brains.”
Theena said nothing. She just gave a soft nod.
“So the pill I took, where I had the nightmare about Mike Bitner's death...”
“I didn't know, Bill. My father prepared that sample. I thought Rothchilde had paid Bitner off. I swear.”
Bill was barely listening. He pulled out a chair and sat down.
“That wasn't a nightmare, was it? It couldn't have been. The images were too strong for a nightmare.”
“Bill...”
Bill focused on her. “I was experiencing his last thoughts, wasn't I?”
“Bill, I'm sorry.”
“You grind up people's brains to get the neurotransmitters. But memory is chemical. So you're actually stealing their thoughts as well.”
Theena grabbed his hand, knelt down next to him.
“Bill, I swear. I only found out about Bitner's death today. Albert told me in the car. He's after both of us now.”
Bill looked at her as if she'd just sprouted horns.
“How could you? How could you do this, and still try to get the drug approved?”
“Bill...”
“Was it the money? You did it for the money?”
“It wasn't for me, Bill.”
“Then who?”
Theena bit her lower lip. The tears streamed down her face.
“I did it for Nikos.”
“For your father?”
“He was more than my father.” Theena looked away, her face burning with emotion. “He was also my husband.”
Chapter 26
Theena focused on the floor, unable to bare Bill's accusing stare. She could never make it up to him. She knew that. But at least she could offer an explanation.
“My real father had me late in life, when he was in his fifties. He died on my ninth birthday. Heart attack. It was sudden.”
Theena closed her eyes, tried to remember his face. The memories were elusive. She had a vague recollection of a dark, fat man, whom she and her mother feared.
“Nikos was my cousin. My uncle's son, on my father's side. After my Dad's death, he began to see my mother. They eventually married. But there was a problem. I had a terrible crush on Nikos.”
Theena swallowed. She chanced a look at Bill. His eyes were far away, but he appeared to be listening.
“Nikos was everything my father wasn't. He was my mother's age, almost twenty years younger than my father had been. He was handsome. He was a scientist. And he treated me like a princess.”
Theena hadn't spoken about this in over ten years, since she went to see that psychiatrist. He'd called it an Elektra Complex. The female version of Oedipus, being in love with your father. But Nikos wasn't her father, really. He raised her, and acted like her father, but the incest taboo wasn't there. In Greece, cousins are free to marry.
“Nikos loved my mother. He loved me, too, but not in that way. And I began to hate my mother for it. Can you imagine? Being jealous of your mom? But I was. I took up an interest in medicine, just so he'd pay attention to me. I knew I could win him over. And I did.”
Theena could remember the day clearly.
“I'd been terrible to him for many years. Teasing him. Leaving the door open when I showered. Walking around the house naked. Breathing in his ear when I kissed him goodnight. He always remained a perfect gentleman. Up until the day I graduated high school. That night, while my mother slept, he came into my room.”
It had been Theena's first time. Recalling it still gave her shivers.
“We tried to hide it for a while, but my mother eventually found out. She left us. I begged Nikos to marry me. At first, he refused. He was becoming prominent in his field, and didn't want the scandal. I convinced him, eventually, and we had a secret ceremony. But while in public, I had to be his daughter. I took the last name Boone, just so I could wear his ring.”
She smiled ironically.
“Here's the funny thing. For years, I was always competing with my mother for his attention. And then, when she's finally out of the picture, I had to compete with his work.”
She stared into Nikos's eyes, wide open and dead. They looked at her with the same feeling as when he'd been alive.
“N-Som was his dream. His life. I became a neurosurgeon so I could be part of his dream. But he was never fully mine. He was married to science, not me.”
Theena lost her smile.
“I'll never forget the first time he asked me to sleep with another man. A Senator, with a lot of money and power. We needed the government grant, so my father, my husband, pimped me out.”
The sobs came suddenly, racking her body. She'd never allowed herself to feel the shame before. Theena had always cited love as her motivation. She slept with
other men because she loved Nikos. She worked with him on N-Som, knowing it was potentially dangerous, out of love. Love led her to betray her own mother. Love led her to bribe Mike Bitner and initiate a course that led to his death.
She hadn't lied to Bill about that. She truly thought Bitner had left the country with a suitcase full of cash. But Rothchilde had used her, just like Nikos had. Theena had never been in control. She'd been fooling herself.
Theena sat on the floor; the guilt was so heavy she could no longer stand. Her nose was running. She could feel Bill's eyes on her, burning like heat lamps. Theena wanted to run, hide someplace far away, where she could never hurt anyone again.
“I'm going to tell the media.”
Bill's voice startled her. She didn't look at him, but she silently agreed.
“The authorities will get involved, Theena. There may be arrests.”
She sniffled. “It's the least I deserve.”
“I have one question.”
Theena didn't know if she could handle it. But she nodded anyway.
“You're trying to make N-Som out of Nikos's brain. Why?”
“I think... I think Albert murdered him. This is the only way I can prove it.”
“You want to see your husband's death? Feel his last thoughts?”
She found an inner reserve of strength and met his eyes.
“I have to. I have to know who killed him.”
Theena could sense Bill was struggling with it, figuring things out.
“I'm sorry I got you involved with this, Bill. My motives were selfish, and now you're in danger.”
Bill walked over to her. He seemed more preoccupied than upset.
“How does N-Som affect a person in long term use?”
“We're still not totally sure. Manny has become unbalanced, and there are some shadows on his CT that might be lesions. When they first appeared, I pleaded with Nikos to stop the experiment. But he and Manny insisted on continuing.”
“How about short term? Taking it once and a while?”
“I've taken it almost a dozen times. Not consecutive days, but every few. My last CT was normal.”
He squatted down next to her. Theena wanted, needed, for him to just hold her, but she didn't dare ask.
