Terminal Reaction

by Dawn Marsanne

  The standoff was broken by Piers who thanked Melanie profusely for her detailed explanation and presentation, ‘So any further questions?’

  ‘Yes,’ interjected Brett, ‘I want to come on to the utilisation of the empty laboratories and your proposal for BioQex to bring in house all our contracted large-scale syntheses. This seems completely at odds with our remit of being a research organisation with a relatively small workforce.’

  ‘Which we are intending to expand, Brett,’ countered Mel immediately. ‘As I said previously, the contract house you have used up to now has increased its costs exorbitantly over the last three years, a matter which seemed to have escaped my predecessor,’ this was a clever dig at Frank who was unable to defend himself. He was remembered for running a tight ship yet had strangely never pointed out this fact presumably because on balance it was still cheaper to contract out when all things were fully costed, ‘and,’ she continued, ‘is downsizing their workforce due to post-Brexit concerns. My proposal would give us more control over matters and could be cash generative, we have enough capacity to offer a service to the science park,’ and Melanie flashed a smile at the other occupants of the room.

  ‘Have you considered the hazards of taking on large-scale work Melanie?’ asked Brett.

  ‘Yes, of course, but I’m sure you would relish the opportunity to make this work for the company,’ she said with a hint of malice, ‘it’s all about embracing new challenges. That’s my mantra.’

  Brett was inwardly fuming, she was being so patronising. Trying to make it look like he was some sort of Luddite set in his ways, ultra-cautious, a complete killjoy. Arguing with Mel was like being tied in a sack trying to fight your way out, just when you thought you had some way of making an impact it was countered, the path of escape sealed up. He refused to grace her last comment with any sort of reply, he looked away towards the window, his jaw set in an angry grimace.

  ‘So, I’m sure you would all agree with me that Melanie has done a super job in drawing up this exciting plan to take us forward. And in such a short time. Is it only really a week since you joined us?’ Ever the diplomat Piers decided to try to gloss over the recent spat, making it clear where his loyalties lay.

  ‘Certainly, but I always like to hit the ground running,’ added Melanie, relishing the opportunity to throw in another cliché.

  ‘So, a quick show of hands to whether we endorse this plan,’ entreated Piers.

  Three hands were raised, one remained firmly on the desk and that belonged to Brett. There was an uncomfortable frisson of embarrassment.

  ‘Brett, I am rather concerned that you aren’t able to join us in wholeheartedly supporting these plans,’ said Piers.

  ‘I can’t they’re too risky, I would like to see them scaled back. There’s no way we can recruit so many staff in such a short time without compromising our current research plans. Add to that the dilution of activity which will obviously result from essentially setting up a new enterprise in the shape of a large-scale facility. To put it bluntly, I think we will be fucked.’ Any team members starting to doze off were immediately wide awake after that comment.

  ‘Brett, there’s really no need for that sort of common language,’ admonished Piers, ‘organisations need to evolve and not stand still. From what I can see Mel has done the detailed costings and they all look sound. It saddens me that we are not all fully behind this but it’s a majority decision and I declare the plans carried and I will ask Melanie to draw up detailed actions for all parties with realistic timelines. I have a good feeling about this, we are on the cusp of a new era.’

  So with that presidential pep talk, the meeting was ended. Brett gathered his papers and his cup and walked solemnly back to his office. It was only 3 p.m. but he’d had enough. He started to pack up his things, he would visit the gym to burn off some anger, then he would be ready for his evening drink with Matt. He only hoped that his chat with his old adversary wasn’t going to be more bad news.

  Chapter 19

  Brett felt much better after his gym session although he wished he’d been a member of a boxing club then he could have imagined Melanie’s face on the punchbag. He felt he was caught between a rock and a hard place. If he stalled on the plans for expansion he would be accused of trying to scupper the venture and the blame would fall on him. However, if he went along with them he felt he would be diluting effort and effectively putting research on hold when they could least afford it. The trouble with a large scale recruitment drive was that the existing staff had to spend a lot of time and effort settling in new employees. In addition, from what he’d gathered it had been hard to attract enough high calibre biologists in the past, one of the reasons why they’d been stuck with Bob, well past his retirement age in Brett’s opinion. It was a complete nightmare. He’d also have to find someone to man this new large-scale facility, who could that be? The obvious choice was Nick Thomas but he was still not one hundred percent fit after his assault. Billie was new to the company, he couldn’t ask her, besides she had too much supervisory responsibility. The handful of less experienced chemists could not be trusted to take on such a responsible task alone. What a nightmare. He couldn’t help feeling that his other male colleagues had been totally charmed by Melanie’s beguiling ways. She was like a mythological siren beckoning them to disaster on the rocks.

  He’d stopped off at a supermarket to buy some provisions for the weekend and chose a ready meal for this evening prior to his meeting with Matt. He didn’t feel like browsing much so he quickly navigated the aisles, choosing the self-service check out. He was soon back at his flat, relishing its comfort. There were a few items of post waiting for him along with a slip from the postman telling him that he had a letter to sign for at the sorting office. No doubt his new credit card, at last, thought Brett. He would have to go along on Saturday morning to collect it. At least things seemed to be back to normal now with the postal delivery.

  He’d showered at the gym so he just needed to change into some casual clothes for this evening whilst his ready meal cooked. Annabelle was seeing some of her girlfriends this evening, it seemed to be the first of a long line of events prior to her friend’s wedding. Annabelle had mentioned a wedding invitation recently and she’d told her friend that she now had a new partner, so his name had been included. It would be the first time he would be introduced to her social circle although he’d met her colleagues at a work event recently. He’d not wanted to moan on too much about work to her over the phone as she’d also had a tough week, so they’d agreed to meet up on Saturday afternoon and spend the rest of the weekend together. They would get a chance to discuss his worries in more detail then. The timer on the oven sounded that his meal should be ready, he switched on the news to catch up with world events whilst he was eating.

  His attention was merely cursory, too much was circling round in his head from the previous week and his thoughts drifted to the visit by the FCA next week. He wondered whether he should mention that to Matt. Could he trust him not to blab about it? Piers wanted it to be kept just between the four senior team members. Perhaps he might steer the conversation round to Frank Stevens whom Matt had worked with during his tenure at BioQex. He’d be interested in whether Matt ever felt that Frank had not been on the level so to speak.

  He finished his pasta meal, downed a glass of water and headed into town for his meeting with Matt. It was a pleasant evening so he decided to walk. He’d plenty of time for the thirty-minute walk, it would be good to get some fresh air after being cooped up all day. Depending on how late they stayed at the wine bar he would either walk or get a taxi back. Persford was a reasonably safe town providing you kept away from some dodgy areas as Nick Thomas had found to his cost. The traffic was still busy with people making their way home from work so Brett took a slight detour taking the riverside pathway. By the time he reached Barista Nuovo he felt quite relaxed, some of the tension from his shoulders had been released. He scanned the seating area and soon spotted Matt
Pearson who raised his hand by way of greeting. Brett approached his table and Matt stood, there were a few seconds awkward hesitation then Matt offered his hand and Brett shook it. They both smiled.

  ‘So Brett, what do you fancy, my shout?’ asked Matt.

  ‘Oh, a pint of Stella please, I need a cool drink, warmer than I thought this evening, didn’t need the jacket.’

  ‘Coming up,’ and Matt headed off to the bar to get served.

  This situation seemed unreal thought Brett after the events earlier in the year. What had happened couldn’t be undone but Matt had made the first move and showed he wanted to banish things to the past and move on. Not to accept his offer would have appeared churlish. Brett thought back to their relationship and it hadn’t been all bad. They’d both behaved dishonestly but it was time to draw a line under things without holding grudges. Brett checked his phone and saw that Annabelle had sent him a quick message to say she was looking forward impatiently to tomorrow and wished she could have got out of round one of the hen celebrations. He acknowledged the text with a few words and put his phone on silent as Matt approached bearing two pints of lager.

  ‘Great stuff, thanks,’ said Brett, ‘so how’s your MBA going?’

  ‘Well it’s early days but I’m glad I made the decision, I hope that when I get to the end it might open some doors for me. But I’m enjoying the combination of the studying and more of a family life.’

  ‘So how’s Emma doing? What branch of law is she practising, remind me.’

  ‘Corporate law is her thing. Company litigation, grievances due to employment law, employee relations that sort of thing. Anything to do with business law really.’

  Brett nodded, sipping his pint. ‘And your boy, Tony is it?’

  ‘Close, he’s called Toby, he’s doing well, nursery three days a week, the other two days I look after him.’

  ‘So you don’t miss BioQex too much then?’

  ‘Oh, come on, things were just too intense before, I couldn’t hack it, I should never have thought I could. I wasn’t a natural at science,’ and he paused, ‘well you know that don’t you?’

  ‘Look, don’t be too harsh on yourself, you weren’t such a bad chemist, after all, you set BioQex on a promising pathway and now it’s going from strength to strength. I don’t want to brag but have you seen the share price recently? It’s done so well on the back of our recent announcements.’

  Brett was waiting for an enthusiastic response but Matt continued to drink his pint at the same time twirling a beer mat. He drained his drink and offered to get another round.

  ‘No, let me, same again?’ asked Brett?

  ‘Please,’ replied Matt, handing him his glass. Brett thought it was strange that the mention of the share price had seemed such a conversation stopper. It was as if he’d mentioned some taboo subject and yet it had been such an innocuous comment.

  Whilst Brett joined the queue at the bar Matt considered the best way of approaching the subject which had caused him to ask Brett out for a drink. He’d been momentarily wrong-footed when Brett actually raised the share price just then. The refilling of their drinks came at an opportune moment for him to run it through his head again. It was merely suspicion at this stage but he felt he wanted to broach it. Brett returned after about five minutes and they both set about their second pints. Matt was the first to speak.

  ‘Brett, as you know I’ve had a fair bit of time on my hands recently, so on the days when I’m not looking after Toby I like to keep up with the news of what’s happening in the world of pharma, BioQex particularly.’

  Brett nodded, this was no surprise to him, you don’t spend so much time building up a company then forget about it and dismiss it completely from your life.

  ‘I also still hold shares in BioQex and some options which might be exercisable soon if the share price continues to rise.’

  ‘It will, it will trust me,’ joked Brett, showing his fingers crossed.

  ‘I considered dabbling in the stock market recently, now I’ve got a bit more time. I did a bit of reading around what moves share prices, volumes, market conditions, etc. and the obvious of course, company announcements.’

  Brett continued to nod at the same time as wondering when Matt was going to reach his punchline.

  ‘So I looked back at the trading history of BioQex and that’s the reason I wanted to have a quiet word.’

  Brett raised his eyebrows, indicating encouragement to continue, ‘And?’ he prompted.

  ‘There have been some very significant price movements but when you check carefully, the biggest movements correspond with the volumes traded of course, however from what I can see they occurred before you made your announcement on the second prototype. Before, not as a result of the press release. Not only that, when you had the unfortunate business of that guy making illicit drugs the share price continued to rise despite the adverse publicity. To me, that suggests someone knew that something major was going to be announced,’ and he paused.

  Brett’s lager was now giving an unpleasant taste in his mouth. He felt a fool for not checking more carefully himself, but he was full-time trying to run the science programme. He only gave the share price a passing glance. Matt had independently come to the same conclusion as the FCA. The company could be in deep shit, his brain was quickly working on his response. He now felt he could justifiably mention Frank Stevens.

  ‘From what you describe I assume you suspect some sort of market manipulation, commonly called insider dealing,’ said Brett slowly, ‘shit, if this is true then we could be in for a rough ride,’ and he rubbed his forehead. He needed to feign shock, and in some ways, he was shocked that Matt should have spotted this.

  ‘Well, yes, it’s a horrible thing to suggest to you but from what I can see I think it’s a distinct possibility. That’s why I didn’t want to speak on the phone about it.’

  ‘Well I hope you’re wrong, but I have to say from what you’ve said it’s looking that way, the question is who is our or rather my, bad apple? Any ideas?’

  Matt just shrugged and continued to look intently at his friend.

  ‘Hey, just a minute, you surely don’t think I’ve been up to something like that do you?’ Brett knew that his previous reputation hadn’t been exactly whiter than white but he had given up those slightly dubious traits.

  ‘Calm down, people are looking,’ whispered Matt. ‘It’s not for me to say but I just wanted to let you know and emphasise how serious this is. It’s not the person who benefits from the rise in the share price who’s in the deepest shit even if he’s acted on a tipoff, it’s the person who passed on the information. Well, from my reading about insider dealing that’s the case.’

  ‘Listen, Matt, I know I’ve been tempted by gambling and some slightly creative accounting on my tax returns in the past but there’s no way I’d risk the position I’m in now just for a bit of extra dosh, no way. If I were caught that would be my career finished, I could go to gaol!’

  ‘Shush, shush,’ he said again looking around at the other customers, ‘well someone’s up to something, I’d put money on it, pardon the pun,’ added Matt.

  The mood between the two men had cooled somewhat, they both looked tense. Brett was conscious of his leg starting to jiggle up and down as it did in times of stress. He saw Matt notice and made an effort to settle it.

  ‘Frank Stevens left us suddenly between the key announcements. Do you think there’s any chance it could be him?’

  Matt laughed loudly at this suggestion, ‘Frank? You must be kidding. He’s as straight as they come, he’d never get involved in a caper like this. Far too honest. Does things by the book. And why would he need to? He’s been head-hunted by that other company whose name escapes me, and besides his wife has a good job, consultant or something. Their children are grown up now and in good jobs, it’s a preposterous idea.’

  ‘Well I’m at a loss, I can’t think of anyone else in the company who’d do such a thing. But I appreciate you f
lagging this up to me. Forewarned and all that, as the saying goes.’

  Brett had decided to hold back on mentioning the FCA investigation for the time being. There was a real possibility this could get nasty and very tricky indeed. He would no doubt be questioned, possibly under caution, he had no idea. Until he had further details he had better keep the news to himself.

  ‘Sorry to spoil our evening but if I’ve spotted this pattern then the chances are the FCA might soon spot it,’ added Matt.

  Brett knocked his empty glass over at this last remark but managed to fumble with it keeping it on the table. ‘It’s OK, you didn’t ruin it, I appreciate it. I wish I could get my hands on the bastard who’s leaked the news. I’ll give him a right going over. This could ruin us. Our shares might get suspended for a while, we could lose our reputation and go belly up, who knows. Fuck, I’m so angry.’

  ‘Look calm down, it might be just a little blip. We don’t know how much money has been made from this, do we? Perhaps someone is merely stake building, the timing could merely be a coincidence. That might be good, you could get taken over. Then you would get a big windfall. How does that sound?’

  ‘Hmm, well good, obviously, but I have to confront the other scenario. Jeez, what a shit week this has been. We might be being targeted by animal rights as well,’ Brett exhaled loudly and rubbed his hand over his face.

  ‘Really? Well, that’s a bummer, there was never any trouble from that lot whilst I was at BioQex. In fact not heard of them having much of a presence in the area, but of course, you can get a small group starting up at any time.’

  ‘Yes, and it would be just my luck for them to start to be active whilst I’m there,’ said Brett miserably. ‘God what a bad run of things recently,’ and he paused, ‘did you know Bob’s wife had died suddenly?’

  ‘No, what? I can’t believe it, what was it?’

  ‘Cancer, a particularly virulent strain, they had no idea, she was only fifty-five poor sod.’