by Owen Grant
Side Effects
Some Benefits May or May Not Be Worth the Risk
© Copyright 2016 by Owen Grant - All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Michelle
Wynelta
Let's Not Talk About Work
A Job Offer
First Day
Day Two
A Risky Move
Revelations
Age Is Relative
Destruction Site
Dangerous Questions
Chivalry
A Meeting With Baxter
Confrontation
Epilogue
Bonus Preview
Introduction
It happened every night at 7:03 p.m. Alan's phone rang, but when he would answer, there was no one on the other end. The other line would be silent, and the phone call would disconnect after exactly six seconds without fail. At first, he shrugged it off as a wrong number. A lot of people dial the wrong number and hang up instead of apologizing for the inconvenience. After a couple of days, Alan figured that it was spam. He reminded himself to be extra careful about where he entered his phone number online. After about a week of the phone calls, Alan started feeling uneasy. The calls started to appear in his dreams. When his phone rang at other times, he would fear that he would answer to hear the same silence that he heard every day at 7:03.
The oddest part of the phone calls was that they always came from a different number. The number always had a different area code, too. Was only one person calling him or was it multiple people? Was that person (or people) trying to hide their phone number for some reason? Alan did everything that he could to forget about the calls. He had to focus on his new job.
Alan just turned 28-years-old, and he recently finished his master's degree in computer science. He worked at a small start-up company as the IT guy before this new job. It gave him plenty of experience that he didn't want including an unreasonable boss and low pay. For his birthday, Alan spruced up his resume and got himself a new job. The pay was better, and he worked in a great building in the Loop in Chicago. He felt professional taking the L from his one-bedroom apartment to his downtown job in his suit with his coffee like everyone else walking down the streets of downtown in the morning.
Alan was an IT guy again, but this company was much different than his previous employer. He had his own office in a high rise building with glass windows that had a great view of the city. However, most of his work took place in a huge room that housed the company's IT equipment. It wasn't dirty and dark like his old company's equipment room. In fact, it looked like a networking wizard's wet dream. Everything was clean, bright, and shiny. Plus, things were even labeled correctly. Hell, things were labeled!
As excited as he was about his new job, he still got that phone call every day at 7:03. After a while, it started to become amusing to him, especially since he was in a generally great mood. He started answering the phone call jokingly:
“Room service!”
“Welcome to Goodburger. Home of the Goodburger. Can I take your order?”
“Ahoy, matey!”
“Hey, sugar tits.”
“Is this being recorded? Be careful! This is not a secure line!”
The person on the other line hung up after six seconds every time.
One day, Alan decided that he would try to look up the different numbers to see if they shared any common characteristics. He wrote down all of the numbers on a piece of paper, but he didn't notice any patterns. Was he missing something? He continued to look at the numbers night after night but never noticed any similarities or patterns. After doing this after work for almost a whole week, Alan decided that he really needed to get a girlfriend.
He decided to look up some of the numbers online and see if he got any results. When he plugged the numbers into Google, a number of different sites claimed to be able to look up the number. Ultimately, the sites never generated a helpful response. All search results would result with “N/A” or “unknown”. Even the paid sites weren't pulling anything up. Every single number he tried resulted in the same empty answers.
One day the number was a local 312 area code. Out of all the numbers that had been calling, Alan was sure that none of them were local. When he answered, he knew that this phone call was going to be different than the rest, and he was right. This time there was a voice on the other end of the line.
“Clinton Blue Line station. One hour.” The voice was a soft, female voice.
Alan didn't think twice about getting ready to leave to the rendezvous point. He immediately put his coat and shoes on, brought his pocket knife just in case, and he headed out. The entire thing was wildly exciting. Alan typically spent his days tinkering with computers and internet networks. When he wasn't doing that, he was usually playing video games or board games with his friends. On occasion, he would go out to a bar only to sit with a friend in the corner daring each other to talk to a pretty girl. This was definitely out of the ordinary, and Alan could admit to himself that excitement was something that he could use in his life.
He arrived at the Clinton Blue Line stop about fifteen minutes early. He didn't know the protocol for arriving early to secret meetings. Afraid that arriving early could be somehow dangerous, Alan walked around the block and took his time. By the time he got back to the train station, he was only a couple of minutes early. He didn't notice anything or anybody suspicious. Finally, at 8:03, he saw a pretty, young woman walk up to the station with a panicked look on her face.
“Michelle? Is that you? Where have you been? I haven't seen you in weeks!”
Michelle
Alan and Michelle had gone to high school together. In fact, they were in the same math class in junior year. They sat next to each other. Michelle wasn't the greatest at Calculus, but Alan was impressed with how hard she worked at it. She got an A in the class even though the subject didn't come easily to her.
After that class, Michelle would smile at Alan in the halls. She was absolutely gorgeous, and Alan always wanted to talk to her more, but he didn't know how to initiate conversation. Luckily for Alan, Michelle wasn't exactly shy. She would strike up a conversation with Alan and whoever he was with whenever she wasn't late for class or ditching class. She was a wild girl. Alan remembered seeing her tongue ring when they were in high school and imagining how painful that piercing must have been.
The only time that they had hung out outside of school was once during senior year. The seniors could go off campus for lunch, and they happened to both go to the same nearby Chipotle. Michelle helped herself and sat down with Alan and his old high school friend. Alan remembered thinking that this was finally his opportunity to develop a relationship with Michelle and maybe even possibly ask her out. His hopes were quickly killed when they started talking about college, though.
“I just got my acceptance letter to Arizona State. I think I'm going to go there. I don't want to go to one of the colleges around here. I want to
have fun and see some place new. Where are you going?”
“Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I think I'm going for computer science or computer engineering. How about you?”
“I'm undecided. I have a couple of ideas, but I don't want to declare a major before I even start classes.”
Alan didn't know how she planned on picking classes for her first year if she didn't know her major, but he didn't want to get into her poor planning. The more important revelation was that they were pretty much going to be on opposite ends of the country. He'd probably have to wait until he got to college to start pursuing girls. What was the point in starting a relationship if he was leaving in a couple months? Despite the disappointment, they enjoyed lunch together that day. When school was over, they signed each other's year books and went their separate ways.
Alan didn't expect to see her about ten years later in the same building that his new job was in. She still looked as beautiful and wild as she did in high school. He saw her in the lobby on her phone. He was building up the courage to go up to her and say hi after all of these years, but she saw him first. She quickly got off of her phone, smiled, and ran up to give Alan a hug. Her warmth was surprising to Alan. He wasn't used to talking to girls, let alone having them run up and give him a hug.
“What are you doing here?” Michelle asked.
“New job. What are you doing here?”
“Well, I moved back to Chicago after I finished college and got a job for this pharmaceutical company in Downer's Grove. I got a promotion about six months ago, and they transferred me here. Isn't the building beautiful?”
“Yes. It is! So what are you doing? Pharmaceutical sales?”
“Not quite. What are you doing now?”
“I'm the new IT guy. It's actually my first day.”
“Sweet! I think I remember you saying that you wanted to get into that field. Well, I have to get upstairs. It was really nice to see you, though!”
It was now or never. Alan had a crush on this girl since high school. Seeing her again had proven that nothing had changed. He didn't want to go on without at least taking a chance. “Wait! Do- do you maybe want to go to dinner tonight?”
Michelle smiled sweetly. “I'd love to. It'd be great to catch up, and you can tell me all about the new job.” They exchanged numbers, and Alan told her about a nice restaurant just a couple blocks away that they could meet at after work. Alan was already happy with his new job. He was going to be meeting a great girl for dinner afterward? It couldn't get much better than this!
Alan had to admit that Michelle was rather distracted during dinner. She seemed a little more focused on her cell phone than Alan. She was so sweet and warm this morning. What had happened? Alan tried to make the best of it. Maybe she was having a bad day.
“I'm so sorry if I seem preoccupied,” Michelle said. “It was a really rough day at work.”
“I'm sorry to hear that. What happened?”
“Oh, it's the same old b.s. as every other day. Why don't you tell me about your first day?”
“It was great! The office is great. The equipment is up-to-date and clean. The pay isn't half-bad, either.”
“That's good to hear. It's nice knowing that you can pay back your school loans, right?”
“I was lucky enough to get some scholarships and grants, but, yes. Everything left is being covered.”
“Well, I'm glad you're doing well- Um. Hold on one more second,” Michelle began looking at her phone again. She was getting antsy and, without even ordering anything more than a glass of wine, jumped up from the table, gave Alan a hug, and apologized profusely while she put her coat on and got ready to leave. “I'm so sorry!” she said one last time as she started walking out of the restaurant.
Alan was left at the table alone. He proceeded to pay for the two glasses of wine and left. He couldn't bear to stay and eat a dinner alone. He texted Michelle to see what had happened, but she never responded. He never saw her in the office building again, either. Alan assumed that she simply wasn't interested and was avoiding him. He never connected the phone calls he started getting with her disappearance. Until now.
“Michelle, were you the one calling me this whole time?” Alan looked at the scared girl standing in front of him at the train station.
“No. It wasn't me. I guess we have a lot to talk about. Let's go get a coffee.” Michelle grabbed his arm and directed him to the nearest coffee shop. “I'm really sorry about how I left dinner the other day. I'll explain everything. I really hope that you still have those phone numbers saved on your phone.”
Alan was just relieved that Michelle hadn't been avoiding him. He didn't have any idea what he was getting himself into yet.
Wynelta
Michelle and Alan walked over to the coffee shop a couple of doors down from the train station. Alan wasn't quite sure how to talk to Michelle.
“Are you still working at the same building?”
Michelle looked surprised at the small talk. “Um, yeah. What do you want? I'll buy.”
“Don't worry. I'll get it.”
“I insist. Trust me, it's the least that I can do right now.”
Alan did have to admit that the phone calls were a bit odd. He also started to realize that this was just the beginning. “I'd like a chai tea with steamed milk.”
Michelle bought their drinks and led him outside.
“Don't you want to talk for a bit?”
“Yes,” Michelle said. “But I think that the coffee shop is a little too small. I don't want anyone to hear us talking.
Alan couldn't imagine that whatever Michelle wanted to talk about truly required the secrecy that she wanted, but he was willing to play along. He had done weirder things to spend time with a girl. Once in college, he even pretended to be a Vegan. That was the hardest two dates of his life. This would be nothing.
Alan and Michelle went to a park outside and sat down on a bench. Alan waited for Michelle to start talking, but she just sat there enjoying her drink.
“So, what exactly is going on with you?” Alan asked. “You're ok, right?”
“I sure hope so,” Michelle said. “Ok. So, let me explain. Remember when I told you that I worked for a pharmaceutical company?”
“Yeah! Sales, right?”
“No. I was never in sales. My job was to help get drugs FDA certified. At any moment, there are a number of different drugs in different phases of getting accepted. Part of the process is a large amount of testing. I work very closely with the scientists who perform the studies on the drugs. Every now and then, we come across something unusual. It can be very bad side-effects or a drug can be found to have different effects than we originally anticipated. That happens a lot, actually. Viagra was created to help with heart conditions. During different studies, they found a more efficient and profitable use for the drug.”
“I'm still having some trouble understanding how this has to do with the phone calls.”
“I'm getting there. Bear with me. So, we were working on getting a specific drug approved. It was called Wynelta. Scientists created Wynelta to curb people's appetites. A lot of these drugs are created because they make money. The ones on the market today don't even work. Imagine how rich a company would be if they found an effective one! Obviously, I figured that this pill would be rejected in the early stages or that it would be very similar to what's out there already. Reading the ingredients, I did notice something different. I kept asking the scientists what this ingredient was, but they never gave me a direct answer. They gave me some medical jargon and blew off my questions hoping that I wouldn't pursue the matter anymore. Well, I took note of what the ingredient was called. I also made a point to pay close attention to the drug's progress in getting approved. I was sincerely just interested. I like that part of my job is discovering new medications. More interesting, though, is a new ingredient. Anybody can create a medicine with the same ingredients.”
“Hold on. What was this weird ingredient?”
“It was called trayleme. I spend all day looking at different medications, the ingredients, and I read the results of the studies. I had never heard of this ingredient at all. Now, new ingredients come up all the time. This isn't particularly rare. However, usually when I ask about a new ingredient the scientist showing me the drug is more than happy to talk my ear off about how the ingredient was discovered and where it originated from. This time, everything was kept rather discrete.”
“Wait. Don't you need special authorization to get the information about what is in a trial medication?”
“Well, the ingredients of medications aren't exactly a secret. People want to know what is in the medication that they are taking. Knowing the ingredients can greatly help doctors and patients choose the correct medication out of a number of options, too. The ingredients are pretty clear throughout the research process, too.”
“So, did the weight loss pill work?”
“That's the thing. I never found out. It only took one study for them to remove the drug from the lineup of drugs that they were trying to get approved.”
“So, it didn't work. Or it had some negative side-effects. You even said that this happened all of the time. What do you care?”
“That's what everyone else said. They told me that my curiosity was unnecessary. I just didn't understand why everything was such a secret. I could tell that people were not happy to answer my questions. There was one kind scientist along the way, though. He's one of the people that I work with on a daily basis. When I asked him questions about what happened to the drug, he actually gave me some information.”
At this point, Alan was starting to get drawn in by the story. “So what happened with the drug?”
“I don't think that I should divulge that quite yet. The thing that's more important is that that scientist is now missing.”
“He's missing?”
