by K. T. Tomb
She tap-tapped on her keyboard and brought up a number of windows. The first showed her bank account detail page. The balance stood out in bold font and no surprise; it was almost dry.
Crap, she thought.
She closed the window and tabbed over to the next one, her email inbox. She was waiting for an email from one of her editors, who was always good for a couple thousand dollars in advances when she was good on the idea pitch but slow in coming up with the finished work. But especially when she’d dried up on cash.
Son of a bitch! she screamed in her head, as she read the following email silently.
Court,
Great to hear from you, too. I’m really sorry to hear that things haven’t been going well for you. I’m unfortunately not going to be able to get you that advance—The truth is that we’ve already paid out too much to you without having at least some kind of work to go off of. If you can give us something—even if it’s just a couple of chapters—I can try to get you something more to tide you over.
Let me know,
Ed
She drained the rest of her coffee and then tabbed over to the third window she had open. This was a special log-in window that allowed her to track royalties coming in for books she had already written and had published. It was basically her lifeline to working out her budget because she could take a quick look at it and figure out when she would be getting her next big check.
FUCK AND FUCK AGAIN!
She looked around for a second, afraid the expletive had exploded from her lips, but no one was looking at her, so she figured she was okay for the time being. It seemed to her like all she would receive today would be bad news. She was not due for another royalty payment for another couple of months. She had a number of bestsellers out there with different publishing companies. The problem was that she wrote primarily romance novels. Everyone wanted to release their next hot romance novel once winter hit, so all the lonely housewives in the world could have something to keep them warm through the snowy months. Unfortunately for her, it was the middle of May, so she would not be receiving another royalty payment until the anniversary of her first and most successful book, which was released at the start of November.
Well. This is just great. Now, what am I going to do? she wondered.
She looked back at her email one more time, just to see if anything else had come through, and then she saw it—an email from Kim. A friend from the old neighborhood that she’d been close to a long time ago; they’d stayed in touch occasionally over the years. Court clicked open the email and grew increasingly surprised at the content as she read.
Hey Court!
I hope things are going really well for you. I LOVED the last book you put out—haha—see what I did there? I couldn’t keep my hands off my hubby; it got me so riled up.
Anyway, I just had a bit of a favor to ask. I’m working with this pharmaceutical company right now and I just have some… concerns… about one of our new products, but I don’t really have any evidence at all to bring to the board of the R&D department. So I was hoping maybe you could do some digging?
Give me a call and we’ll talk. I know you had a promising career in investigative journalism before you went with the artist route, so I thought of you first! Not that there’s anything wrong with you writing for a living—I actually think you’ve done a way better job with that than anything else you might have wanted to do!
XOXO
Kim
P.S. The cell number is the same as always!
Courtney was immediately intrigued. She’d loved her investigative journalism courses. More than that, she had excelled in them. She was discovered as a romance novelist when she’d written a number of short pieces as a ghostwriter for a few clients through a website for literary freelancers. She’d done it for beer—well, gin and tonic—money in college. One of her clients passed a piece of her writing directly along to an editor, and from there her career had taken off.
Despite her immediate success in mainstream writing, she’d always been left wondering what she could have accomplished in investigative journalism. So, as she sipped her coffee, she decided she would give her old friend a call to see what it really was that Kim needed help with. She slurped down the rest of her coffee and headed for her car. She loaded her laptop bag into the passenger seat and started the car. But before she could pull out onto the road to head home, she paused for a moment, killed the engine and dialed Kim’s number instead.
“Hello, this is Kim,” the voice on the other line answered.
“Hey, Kim? It’s Court, how are you?” Courtney said into the phone.
“Oh, I’ve been alright. Things at home are crazy, as usual. What about you?” Kim asked her friend.
“Well, things have been… slow…” Courtney said. “I’m shoring up for a rough time ahead financially.”
“Oh, dear! What’s the matter, hon?”
“It just seems like I’m fresh out of ideas for books. I literally have no clue what to write about next. Most of my advances are exhausted and I won’t receive a royalty check for the next six months basically. So, that’s where I’m at.”
“Well, I’m really sorry to hear that Court… I know that probably can’t be easy for you. I don’t know what I would do if I were in your shoes,” Kim said. She paused for a moment then decided to get straight to the point. “Well, here’s the thing—I have a project for you and the company I work for is willing to pay you. And pay you very well if you can help us out and keep everything you find… ummm, under the radar… if you get what I mean,” Kim said. “It’s all highly confidential.”
“Hmm,” Court said. “I don’t know about all that… you’re gonna have to tell me more about what exactly it is they’ll want me to do.”
“Okay—that’s fair enough. Do you know who I work for?” Kim asked.
“Actually, I don’t,” Court said. “And I’m not even sure that at this point if I really want to find out any more. This is all starting to sound like one of those corporate cover-up conspiracy things. Erin Brokovich and stuff.”
“It’s not a cover-up,” Kim said, but her reply was a little too quick for Courtney’s liking. “Listen,” Kim said again, “hear me out, okay? I’m in pharmaceuticals now… well pharmaceutical sales really. The company I work for has had recent successes in the fitness supplement market but then there’s our newest venture and most of what I know about the issues it’s had on the market aren’t common knowledge. Most of the people above me aren’t even aware of any problems yet.”
“So what do you need me to do?”
“Research the local distributers, find the customers who are using it and retrieve as much product and information as possible.”
“I don’t understand what you really need me for though, Kim. This sounds like something your in-house team could handle. You should have all the information you’re asking me to look for.”
“Not really, Court. A lot of the first production batch was given to local pharmaceutical sales reps to leave with their clients. Our sample quota in new production launch budgets is usually up to a million units… ProTenX Thermo had a launch budget off three million promotional units.”
Courtney let out a low whistle.
“We honestly have no idea who’s hands all of the assets have made their way into.”
“Hmm,” Courtney responded as she was thinking, I really need the money. And who knows, maybe there’s a story here that I could sell to the press, if I can get permission. On the other hand, this sounds like a corporation trying to get rid of a bad product and trying to cover it up. Damage control. Maybe that’s all the reason I need to get off my ass and take this job. Maybe I could even help someone else out—actually help people not get hurt.
“Okay,” Courtney said. “I’m in. I’ll help you out. So give me some more details about what you need me to do. What do you know so far? Where do I start?” she asked.
“Ummm… I’d prefer to talk about this with you in per
son. Is that okay?” Kim asked.
“Sure, that’s fine. Where and when would you like to get together?” Courtney replied.
“Have you eaten lunch yet? I know it’s late but maybe I could at least buy you a cup of coffee? This is pretty urgent and, now that you’ve gotten in touch, I’d rather just get the ball rolling on it,” Kim told her.
“Sure, I can do that,” Courtney said back. “I’m actually sitting in my car outside a great little coffee shop here in downtown Waunakee. Want to meet me here? They have a great sandwich selection, and you can even get a salad if you want. It’s called M & N’s Coffee and Bistro.”
“I know where that is—I can meet you there in about twenty minutes,” Kim said.
“Sounds good,” Courtney replied. “I’ll take a table where I know we can talk privately. See you then,” she added.
She hung up her phone, grabbed her laptop and went back inside. She sat down in one of the oversized, overstuffed leather armchairs at her favorite table in front of the gas fireplace. She loved the leather chairs—they were a buckskin color that matched the floor, which was some type of light-colored hardwood. The fireplace was built of rough, gray stones, and it had openings on four sides which allowed the heat to disperse evenly throughout the whole store. She loved how the armchairs had the perfect balance of a reclined angle but also allowed her to sit up straight when she was needed to type. Although the table was front and center to the fireplace, it sat solo and very segregated from the other tables and booths that hugged the store’s perimeter and monopolized the large plate glass windows. When she was working on a project, Court would exercise almost military level security over the manuscript. It would have been mortifying if one of her conversations or books was leaked to the internet by a coffee shop eavesdropper.
Court put her laptop on the table in front of her and pulled up a web browsing window. She typed into the Google search window, ‘best new workout supplements’ so she could see what was on the market. The number of results that search pulled up was astonishing, to say the least. But in the same breath, most of the things that she saw were pretty typical. A lot of them were based on weight-loss or mass gaining goals. The latter mostly contained nitric oxide—the main chemical that helped dilate veins so that blood flow could be increased and so the user could deliver more oxygen to the muscles during exercise. They also helped deliver more protein to the muscles post workout.
The mass gaining supplements also typically contained ingredients like creatine and testosterone. Creatine helped with bulk muscle growth and increasing free testosterone in the bloodstream, allowing the user to not only increase speed of muscle growth but also helped with stamina and general performance. The other growth supplements had either human growth hormone known as HGH or were anabolic steroids that would allow the user to make massive muscle gains in a very short amount of time, and the side effects of supplements like those were also well documented.
It was all pretty well-known stuff. The same big brand names you see on TV commercials every winter’s end and spring. But she was trying to concentrate on finding something different in the search results, something that was new. She didn’t know how the new product would appear, or what exactly it would be advertised to do, but she did know it would be cutting edge. The company Kim worked for was known for its big marketing flair. On the other hand, Court was certain it wouldn’t have a ton of reviews yet. Whatever reviews it did have would probably only be good ones because the supplement wouldn’t have had the time to build up in the users’ systems yet and start causing any side effects.
This is beginning to look hopeless—so much for getting a jumpstart on Kim. I don’t even know where to begin or what exactly I’m even looking for.
Despite her frustration, she decided to take another look at the browser and though she was able to eliminate most of the popular and standard products she came across, something appeared further down in the list that caught her attention. It was a blog by an amateur bodybuilder who was raving in a recent post about a new product he was using. She clicked on the link and was immediately bombarded by pictures that blew her away. In the before picture, the blogger was average in muscle size—he was a naturally big guy but it was obvious he was going for a much bulkier and defined look than he had. More recent photos of the man looked like a completely different person.
I’d get on top of him—hell I’d get under him. I wish I could find a man that looked like that. He even has a pretty decent face. She finally finished her mental rant with the thought, I just need to get laid.
Court knew she was distracted. Ever since her marriage had gone down the toilet and ended in divorce, things had gotten harder. It hadn’t entirely been her ex-husband’s fault, either. She had spent a lot of time traveling and for a while there she’d hardly been home. Too much time away on book tours, appearances and signings left her fully aware that she needed to spend more time at home. But the flurry of being somewhat famous had gotten to her and she’d reveled in it.
She continued looking at the blog. In just two weeks, the blogger wrote, he was able to go from two hundred pounds to two hundred and thirty pounds. And in that same amount of time, he cut his body fat percentage by half and stacked on muscle.
He’s actually kind of gross now. That’s just too much.
The amateur had muscles on muscles. The creases between abdominal muscles were like canyons, and his back was carved and shaped like a ski mountain. His arms were like Greek columns; they looked hard as marble and every vein was visible. Even the muscles in his jaw and forehead looked more than well-defined.
She continued to the blog post, where the bodybuilder was raving about a product called ProTenX Thermo. It was a product, he said, unlike any other that combined all the key ingredients of everything else that was out there. He claimed that the thermogenic ingredients worked around the clock and helped him cut fat, while the free testosterone was a new blend that helped raise the hormone levels to the point where he felt invincible. The amount of weight he could lift, after even one dose, was more than double what he could have previously. He went on to say that he didn’t even experience the amount of muscle soreness he would expect after workouts and that the growth he experienced after just a week was astronomical.
Courtney went back to the web browser and typed in “ProTenX Thermo” and started looking at more before and after photos.
“Pretty impressive, huh?” Kim said, sneaking up behind her.
Ugh! It was exactly the sort of behavior she stayed guarded against whenever she worked in public. Immediately, she caught herself and her ‘I love all my fans’ smile spread across her face, effortlessly hiding the irritation she felt at being caught with her proverbial pants down.
“Hey, Kim! It’s so good to see you again!” Court said, turning around to stand up and hug her friend. “God, how long has it been since we’ve seen each other?”
“Must have been a while—probably since right after the… uh… divorce… right?” Kim said, feeling awkward.
“Oh, that’s right—you took me out on a ‘new bachelorette’ party. We got hammered, remember?” Courtney said.
“Yeah, we did! I caught so much hell from John the next morning for being irresponsible,” Kim giggled.
“God! That morning was terrible for me too. I just remember lying in bed the entire freakin’ day. It was awful. I couldn’t even eat. I’m just happy I didn’t wake up like that next to anyone. That could’ve been embarrassing,” Courtney replied, laughing.
“Speaking of,” Kim continued, lowered her eyelids and looked at Courtney, “any new prospects in that department?” She had a conspiratorial look on her face.
“Nothing to speak of. It’s kind of killing me, actually. It’s been so long,” Courtney said.
“Well, you’re a bombshell doll! You’ll figure it out. And of course, if you found you needed something freaky but without any long-term commitment, you could have just about any man you wanted. All you gotta do i
s get out there and look,” Kim said encouragingly.
“Well, that’d certainly be easier if I had the cash to go out there and look. Which, unfortunately, I don’t,” Courtney said, despair clouding her voice.
“It’ll be okay, Court. You’ll bounce back, you always do. In the meantime, let’s get started on this. It’ll give you something to focus on, and it’ll put some man-hunting cash in your purse. How’s that sound?” Kim said back, trying to lighten the mood and cheer up her friend at the same time.
“Yeah, let’s get started. So what exactly is it that you want me to do?” Courtney asked her.
“Well, you can see that our product clearly gets results. We’ve been working a long, long time to develop the… the compound that delivers those results,” Kim said.
“First, tell me who you work for exactly, and then tell me about the product,” Courtney said.
“I work for BoostTech Laboratories. We’re an offshoot of a bigger pharmaceutical company that makes all kinds of drugs—over-the-counter stuff like painkillers all the way up to prescription drugs like antihistamines and cholesterol blockers. Just your general day to day meds; but the fact of it is, those products are not very lucrative. There’s not much profit in them with every two-bit lab in India formulating generics of pretty much the same things and also because doctors don’t play favorites with drug companies anymore. They basically prescribe an equal amount of every product that’s out there in each class so they can safely play the odds against side effects on their patients.”
Court nodded her agreement with Kim’s logic. It made a lot of sense. They both paused for a moment as a server stopped at the table to take their order, them Kim continued telling her story.
“BoostTech Supplements is the company that we produce their fitness products through. We have the usual NO2 supps out there, your basic energy supplements as well—B vitamins mixed with other chemicals that help stimulate the mind and give the body energy. We also have the expected workout recovery products out there as well—protein powders that can be mixed with milk or water, fruit-flavored enzyme and electrolyte drinks, that kind of thing. Appetite suppressant tablets, bars and chews that people wanting to lose weight can take to help curb their appetite. It’s all just standard, basic stuff.”
