by K. T. Tomb
“Okay, that makes sense. But what’s this new product about? I mean, you’ve got this… umm… supplement… this compound out there, right? What does it do, and how does it do it?” Courtney asked.
“As I’m sure you can see—just from what I saw on your laptop when I walked in—there are all kinds of other products out there that people will use to get an edge in the gym. Whether they’re just looking to feel better overall or wanting to see better results faster. Whatever it is, they want to excel. So, that’s the market we targeted—more precisely, a specific part of that market.”
“You mean bodybuilding? But don’t the professionals have to do like…ummm, drug testing and stuff?”
“You’re quite right, Court. There are very strict rules and regulations for competitive bodybuilding. But for your average Joe down at Silver’s Gym looking to get onto the amateur stage, and who’s just looking to get to the point where his or her physique is developed enough to qualify for competition; there are almost no strictures whatsoever on what can or can’t be used. So a lot of them end up using steroids that cause incredibly harmful long-term side effects. The other problem they typically face is that it takes a long time to build up that kind of muscle. So by the time someone who is, say, twenty-five decides that they want to compete, they may have already been using steroids for two years, and they’re almost past their prime competition age.”
“At twenty-seven? But that’s not old at all. I can’t actually believe that…” Courtney trailed off.
“You’ve got to think that it’s the male equivalent of the Miss World competition. Most men who make it in competitive bodybuilding are retired by age twenty-nine or thirty. It goes fast. Typically, the body can’t stand up to the constant stress of the weight they are required to lift to maintain the mass. Plus, the stress on their joints over the years can cause some serious aches and pains. Most of those guys start training at a very, very young age—eighteen or nineteen. Once they get to that age, the combination of joint degeneration, steroid side effects and for some the time commitment of going to the gym, when real life sets in alongside their bodybuilding, is too much,” Kim finished.
“Okay, so where does ProTenX Thermo come in then?” Courtney asked. She had been taking notes the whole time.
“Just call it PTX—that’s what we call it,” Kim said, smiling. She was encouraged by Court’s mounting interest. “Anyway, PTX comes into play because our main target market is the people that are just getting into bodybuilding and want an edge to make up for lost time or get a head start to begin with. We also wanted to help the older bodybuilders get back some of what they’ve lost. A lot of those guys help the younger ones with their training. They help them make the right choices about supplements and general nutrition. They help them figure out where to start, and even if they can’t train someone, they know someone who will give the newbies the help they need.”
As the server returned with their steaming cups of coffee, Kim paused for a breath and silently arranged three packets of sweetener on the table top in front of her. She stirred her cappuccino and took a long sip, savoring the cinnamon and milky foam that floated on top of the creamy coffee. Court added a large pour of brown sugar to her café au lait and took a long drink as well. When both their cups had returned to the saucers, Kim continued talking.
“We’re trying to help make the sport somewhat safer—if we can take the regular anabolic steroids off the recreational use market, then we can help mitigate the damage that frequent steroid use causes. The eventual goal is to introduce this as a product that is safe, effective, and that can help builders achieve better, safer, longer-lasting results. Eventually, this product could have been accessible to professional athletes. If we could make it that far, the product would have been an unlimited cash-cow. The chemical compound is completely patented; everything is legally protected, down to the last molecule. No one else would have been able to replicate it,” Kim said.
“So, let me get this straight… this miracle supplement can basically turn back time for older bodybuilders, help young bodybuilders speed up their career and stay at their peak longer, and then, on top of that, helps them build their target body? What’s the catch?” Courtney asked.
“That’s the thing. We did a lot of research. Clinical studies. Time studies. We even did a case study that went on for five years. We had five groups—each group took the supplement for one year, two years, three years, four years and the last group took it for all five years. For the most part, there were no side effects. A couple of the guys had allergies to some of the ingredients and we had a few of them that had some cardiovascular issues, caused by the vasodilator we use. But really, that was it. Until now,” Kim said.
“Until now what? What happened, Kim? Is that the reason why you need my help?” Courtney asked.
“I had a call from one of the test subjects’ wives. She said her husband was acting extremely strange,” Kim started to explain.
“Wait,” Courtney interrupted. “Why did one of the subjects’ wives have your number?”
“Because we weren’t sure what kind of reaction this combination of chemicals would cause on the human body and it was important to us that the families of these people that were helping us develop this supplement be aware of what was going on and that we would be here to help them if they needed anything at all. We have life insurance policies on all of them as well, so that if anything happens, their families would be taken care of. We monitor their annual physicals as well because we want a good picture of what a lifetime on this product will do—any negative side effects, we want to know about,” Kim said.
“Sounds like you guys really do care about them. But that’s not really what I asked… I want to know what happened with the wife—what did she tell you her husband was doing that was strange? How did he start acting?” Courtney asked.
“There it is—the investigative journalist. I knew she’d show her teeth sooner or later. I was actually depending on it,” Kim said.
Courtney mimed a bow, twisting her hand in a circle and bringing her arm to her waist.
“She said that Ben was starting to have issues. He would wake up in the middle of the night, sobbing uncontrollably. He was forgetting things. He’d come home from work, and then go straight back to his office, sweat through his sheets at night. He would be freezing, his skin cold to the touch. And it started to get worse. She walked into his shop one day and found him hitting the wall. Repeatedly. His fist—his hand—was a bloody pulp. Had to have it surgically reconstructed.”
“Holy shit!” Courtney said. “What the hell are you guys selling to people?” she asked.
“Nothing we feel is harmful,” Kim said in a defensive tone.
“I’m sorry Kim, I didn’t mean to sound accusatory. Okay, so what did your company do?” Courtney asked.
“We brought him in. We performed full medical exams—more than what would normally have been done in the hospital. MRI, CAT scans, blood work… we did it all. Everything looked fine except we noticed something that was just… kind of strange. Our doctors found that there were two things going on in his brain. The first was that it looked like his frontal lobe was…. contracting. The rest of the brain looked fine, and it was minimal, but compared to the last set of scans we’d done, it seemed like there was something going on there. The other thing we noticed was that his hypothalamus was slightly enlarged,” Kim said.
“OK, so what happened next?” Courtney asked.
“He… he killed himself,” Kim said, looking completely distraught. “He took his own life. He didn’t even leave a note. That’s… that’s why we… why I… felt the need to get ahead of this thing. I need to know what’s going on and if it’s just a fluke or if it really has something to do with the supplement. It’s been on the market for a while. There are people out there using it. Hell, they’re fucking blogging about it!” she wailed, waving her hand at Courtney’s laptop. “And if these side effects are happening to anyone else�
�� especially if that someone… hurts someone else… it could tank the whole project. Not to mention that people could be getting hurt.” Kim finished her sentence with a sad sigh and lifted her coffee cup to her lips again.
“Yeah,” Courtney said, at a loss for comforting words. “But… what do you want me to do about it?”
“This product has only been on the open market for a few weeks. I haven’t been able to convince my superiors to pull it because of all the positive feedback we’ve been getting. But here’s the thing—it’s really only been put into distribution locally; pretty much just in our own backyard. We don’t have sales orders for it anywhere else… yet. So what I want you to do is go to some of the local gyms and find out if people there are using it, and if so, if they’re having any side effects,” Kim said.
“Really? That’s all? Of course, I can do that… do you have an idea of where I should start?” Courtney asked.
“Oh, Court! Thank you,” Kim said explosively. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. And yes, I can definitely point you in the right directions to get started on this. But in the meantime, there’re a couple of things that I’ve got here for you.” She picked up her giant purse from the chair beside her, plopped it up on the table and began rummaging through it. After a moment, Kim placed some papers on the table in front of her and returned the bag to the chair. She pushed the smallest piece of paper across the surface toward Courtney.
“This is a check for five thousand dollars—you’ll get four more of these as things go along. We’re hoping that you can have all of this wrapped up in a couple of weeks, so that’s twenty grand for two weeks of your time and a bonus check if you finish on time. If you need longer, you’ll get paid more, but there’s no telling what the new pay rate will be. Truth be told, I’d rather we didn’t drag this out any longer than necessary.”
Courtney sat staring at the check in her hands.
Oh em gee! she thought. I’m fucking saved by the goddamn bell. She almost didn’t hear Kim as she continued to speak.
“Here is a list of gyms in the area with trainers that specialize in bodybuilding, as well. We know that because they all consistently host a number of competitions throughout the year. And they all have trainers that were bodybuilders or are aspiring to become bodybuilders,” she finished.
“Wow,” Courtney said. “Thank you for this, Kim. I really appreciate this. God knows that I can really use the money right now. What do you want me to do if I find a bunch of these bodybuilders are having the same side effects?”
“Just report back to me at this point. And not just about the symptoms I’ve described either; I want to know about anything they’re experiencing that’s out of the ordinary. Different people react to chemical compounds differently. If there really is something going on out there, well… we have… steps… we can take but I’m really hopeful it’s not going to get that far,” Kim said.
“OK, I can do that,” Courtney replied.
“Well, I gotta run,” Kim said. “It was great catching up with you, and thank you again for agreeing to help me out with this one.”
“No problem, Kim,” Courtney said. “I’m actually looking forward to it.”
Once Kim had left, and Courtney was sure she was gone, she fired up her laptop again and immediately got to work looking up where the gyms on the list were located. They were, for the most part, all within a fifty-mile radius. Then she called each of the gyms and set up appointments with the owners and trainers so she could ask some of them about their gyms, their programs and what they recommended to their clients as far as supplements went.
Chapter Two
The next morning, Courtney woke up and made herself a pot of coffee.
She poured the fragrant beverage into her favorite cup and sat down at her kitchen table, stirring absentmindedly as she turned the pages of the morning paper. She sighed as she folded it and picked up the papers that Kim had given her the day before. The list of gyms wasn’t as daunting as it had been the day before because almost every establishment on it that she’d called had turned out to have a pretty helpful owner running things.
Then there was the check… her saving grace. BoostTech Laboratories to the rescue.
Court took her phone from her pocket and tapped the icon on the screen for her mobile banking app. She logged in quickly and positioned the phone over the check lying on her counter. One quick snap and a few more clicks and the check had been successfully deposited into her almost empty bank account. All she had to do now was drop it in one of her bank’s ATMs, which would be no bother since she needed to get some cash anyway.
Breakfast was comprised of a bowl of cereal and a small glass of juice after which, Court took a hot shower and got ready for her first day on the job as BoostTech’s investigator, thanking her lucky stars that she’d get to wear really comfortable clothes all day.
Nothing in the world could be better than wearing yoga pants and a tank top for the whole day.
She picked up her bag, paperwork and keys and stepped out the front door toward her car. The first gym, Fit Planet, was about four miles away and as she drove onto the highway she turned the country radio station all the way up. Finally, she pulled into the parking lot and got out of the car. It was a smaller gym, obviously one of the specialized owner-operated types. A basic brick building with very narrow windows and as she walked in, the smell of old sweat and stinky socks assailed her.
Woof, she thought. That is the smell of straight-up garbage.
She opened the door and walked up to the front desk.
“Hi, my name is Courtney and I have an appointment with John? Is he here?” she asked the front desk attendant.
“Yeah, he’s in the back. I’ll go get him for you,” she said. “Is there anything I can get you while you wait?”
But the girl didn’t even bother waiting for Courtney’s reply before she ducked through a door and disappeared. It was hardly believable that the young woman could work in a place like that. It was filthy. She also could not believe how rude the attendant had been by not waiting for her reply. The girl emerged from the door a few minutes later, followed closely by a man that Courtney rightly assumed was John.
“Hello!” he bellowed, sticking his hand out in greeting. He was tall, broad-shouldered and stacked with muscle. He had a very well-built chest, and his arms were quite defined. But beyond that, the man had gone slightly to seed—he had a bit of a belly, and there was fat on his hips.
He must have noticed her looks, because he smiled knowingly at Courtney and said, “Yes, yes I know. I’ve got some extra baggage now. Not in nearly the kind of shape I used to be in.” He laughed. It was a deep, clear laugh that made her like him instantly.
“Now then, I’m John and you must be Courtney,” and he held out a calloused, rough hand. Courtney took it and was not surprised at all at the strength of his handshake.
“Yes, I am. We spoke briefly on the phone yesterday,” she replied.
“Yeah, that’s right. So, what brings you to my humble gym?” John asked.
“I have some questions for you about getting a membership here and what kind of training programs you offer,” she explained as they started the tour of the gym.
“Well, I can certainly answer those questions for you,” John replied. “A membership won’t cost you much. Is it just you?” he added nonchalantly.
“No, it would be me and my boyfriend,” she said.
“Ah, that would be forty per month,” John said.
“Wow, that’s not a whole lot at all. Your website said you also offer personal trainers—is that included in the price?” Courtney asked.
“Yes, the trainers are included in the price. Truth be told, I don’t really make my money through the membership fees,” John said. “The real money maker is bodybuilding. I charge for competition level training here and the trainer also gets a cut when someone he’s trained places in a competition.”
“Very cool. My boyfriend is actually interested i
n getting into bodybuilding. What do you recommend for a program?” Courtney asked.
“This is our cardio area where we have treadmills, stair climbers and rowing machines. We also have a few elliptical machines. There are plenty of ways for both of you to get the results you want here. I train the bodybuilders myself, by the way,” John added. “Like I said, I charge for the bodybuilding sessions—three to six times a week, three hours a day. It all depends on the fitness level. I expect hard work from anyone I take on and I expect that the people I train will compete, even if it’s just in amateur competitions. I take a percentage of the prize purse when they place in a competition.”
“That sounds really good. What kind of a lifting program do you put your clients through?” Courtney asked.
“I use an older technique—it’s fallen out of favor a little bit—but I think it yields the best results. Most people will tell you that the best way to build mass is to use isolation exercises. The basic premise is that a workout should consist of heavy, multi-joint work—like a bench press—and single-joint work—like a chest fly. That’s the newer style of bodybuilding, and I can’t argue that it gets results. I believe, however, that push-ups, pull-ups and exercises like the Turkish get-up and military press can be equally effective in addition to building functional strength,” he said. “That’s the older style of bodybuilding. And most of my clients do well when they compete because their muscles have the look of functional muscle. Not just mass stacked on top of bone.”
“I can tell you’re passionate about what you do,” Courtney said. “What’s your take on steroids? Do you ever recommend that your clients use something to get an edge?”
