Kevin brightened. “So, what I did wasn’t so bad after all?”
She turned to glare at him. “Yes, what you did was terrible, Kevin. You betrayed my trust, even if it does turn out okay in the long run.”
He looked down at his feet, crestfallen. “Oh.”
Suddenly, in spite of her anger at him, she also felt sorry for him. After all, he is really just a kid at heart, she thought.
“Oh hell, Kevin,” she said, striding over to him and pulling him to his feet. She looked into his eyes. “I can’t stay mad at you, you little shit.”
When she hugged him to her, he almost gasped with relief.
She pushed him back and stared again into his eyes. “But this will not happen again, right? We need to know we can trust you or the deal is off.”
He smiled and crossed his heart with his index finger. “I swear I will never again breathe a word to anyone about anything concerning our research . . .”
She pointed her finger at him. “Or about anything we do or plan to do in the future!”
He kissed his little finger and held it up in the air. “Pinkie swear!”
Kat laughed and punched his shoulder. “You really are just a little kid.”
Kevin’s smile faded. He didn’t want Kat thinking of him as a “little kid.” He wanted her to realize he was a man, a man who cared about her more than he could ever admit.
Kat turned away and again began pacing around the lab. “What do we do now?”
She sat at her desk and motioned Kevin to sit across from her. “What you are going to do, Kevin, is to buy us some time. I want you to call your uncle and tell him that we are very favorably disposed to take his deal, but that we will need a couple of weeks or so to iron out some wrinkles in the formula, and then to find and treat another human with the formula to make sure it is safe for his patient.”
“Okay, but why lie to him?”
“It is not a lie, Kevin. We do need the time, and we need to be assured that while we are working on this, no one will get overly anxious and try to steal or otherwise interfere with the formula before we are ready to make the deal.”
“Oh, I see.”
She nodded. “We’re also going to have to move our lab to someplace secure, someplace away from prying eyes like Captain Sunshine’s, and we’re going to have to make damn sure no one can get their hands on our formulae. Not now that we know it’s worth millions of dollars.”
“Anything else?”
She thought for a moment. “Moving is going to be expensive, because we can’t take any of BioTech’s equipment with us . . . We’re gonna have to buy all new stuff. I think you should ask your uncle for a good-faith advance of about fifty thousand dollars to keep his patient first in line for our treatment.”
Kevin’s eyebrows raised. “You think they’ll go for it?”
“Kevin, fifty thousand dollars is peanuts compared to millions. If they can’t play for fifty, then I don’t trust them to come across with millions later.”
She thought for a moment, then snapped her fingers. “I know what will convince them.” She picked up Ramsey’s camcorder from her desk and held it up before him. Then she burrowed in her desk and took out a small pile of pictures. “Here are some pictures I’ve taken of Angus from earlier this year. We’ll wake Angus up and you can take some videos of him to show how young and smart he is, and then you can take them to your uncle and show him the before pictures and the after videos of Angus, and that should give them enough evidence of what we’ve got to make them trust us with an advance of fifty thousand dollars.”
He nodded. “I agree. After I take the videos, I’ll go right home and call my uncle tonight.”
She wagged her head. “No, not just yet. I’ve got to talk this over with Burton first before we make any hard and fast decisions. After all, we’re all in this as partners.”
“When will you talk with him?”
“It’ll have to be sometime tomorrow. Tonight he’s going over to his ex-wife Sheila’s house to try to talk her into helping us find a human subject for our next experiment.”
* * *
Later that night, after calling ahead, Ramsey showed up at Sheila’s apartment with an armful of Chinese takeout.
She greeted him at the door and showed him to the dining room table. “What’s with the Chinese?” she asked. “You usually don’t eat anything but American.”
He blushed as he arranged the cardboard boxes on the table and unwrapped the chopsticks. “Well, Chinese is less expensive, and I’m running a bit low on funds at the present time.”
She put her hand on his arm. “Well, if you need a short-term loan, you know you can always call on me, dear.”
He started to snap back at her, but when he looked into her soft eyes, he realized she was sincere in her offer of help and not trying to needle him. “Uh, thanks, Sheila, but I’ll manage to get by.” He gave a shy grin. “After all, I lived on bologna sandwiches for years in graduate school, and I’m not too highfalutin to do the same now if need be.”
She got a wistful look in her eyes. “I remember those days, Burton. Looking back on them, it seems they were the best of times.”
He put his hand over hers on the table. “For me, too, Sheila . . . for me, too.”
“Now,” she said brightly, “let’s see what magic our Chinese chef has performed for us tonight.”
* * *
Later, after dinner and over coffee taken on the balcony looking out over the Houston skyline, they talked.
He started by telling her of the remarkable changes that had taken place in Kat’s dog, Angus, and how astounded they’d all been at the massive increase in intelligence the dog evidenced along with his new youthfulness.
“Oh, that’s wonderful, my dear,” Sheila said, squeezing his hand with hers.
“And that brings me to my second point,” Ramsey said, his face reddening under her gaze.
“Uh-oh,” she said, leaning back on the settee. “Why am I now afraid of what you’re going to say next?”
“No, no, it’s nothing like that, Sheila. It’s just that I know you are opposed to us experimenting on human beings with our serum without going through FDA protocols.”
“That’s right.”
“But you know how that is, dear. If we file an application for human trials, the procedure could take ten or fifteen years before we get approval, and by then our formula will no longer be a secret.”
“But what other choice do you have, Burton? Even if you could get some person to agree to be a test subject, you’d still have to divulge the effects you would be hoping to get and your secret would still be out.”
“Let me propose something to you, Sheila . . . but you have to promise to let me finish before you make up your mind.”
She gave a half grin. “I have a feeling I’m going to regret this . . . but okay.”
He drained his coffee, set the cup down, and took both of her hands in his. “How about if the next time you work at the Ben Taub Clinic, you keep your eye out for a truly hopeless patient? One who is on his or her last legs and for whom there is no medical treatment available that will ameliorate their symptoms or improve their quality of life in the slightest.”
“But . . .” she began until he held up his hand.
“Let me finish, sweetheart. You’ve told me many times how working at the clinic often breaks your heart because of the many hopeless cases who come through the door. Men and women who are at the end of their lives and who are truly miserable and who are suffering greatly.”
She sighed and nodded her head. “Yes, it is true that I occasionally come across patients like that, but that doesn’t mean that I could in good faith offer them what is at best a crapshoot at a better life.”
He shook his head. “No, that is not what you’d be offering them. If the formula works as we think it will, they would have a chance at a completely new life, one in which they are younger, healthier, and even more intelligent. And the beauty of this
chance is that if our formula fails to work, they will be no worse off than they were to begin with.”
She started to object, but he cut her off. “No, Sheila, I am telling the truth. Kat and I have agreed to let you see the ingredients of both of our serums so that you can see that there is no way either serum could do the patient any harm.”
She sat back and looked out over the city, thinking. After a few moments, she looked back at him. “You are absolutely sure that the formula will cause no harm, even if it doesn’t work as you hope?”
He nodded vigorously. “Even in the beginning, before we combined our serums, when they didn’t work the rats weren’t harmed—they just weren’t benefited. And it is the same now.”
“Okay, Burton. I won’t promise anything more than that I will keep my eyes open, and if I come across such a patient, I will arrange for you and Kat to talk to him or her and make your proposal. But I will be there to make sure that you give them full disclosure that the serum has never been tried on a human before and that you make no unreasonable promises.”
He grinned and leaned forward to put his arms around her in a hug. “That’s all we can ask and all that we want.”
When she hugged him back and gave a low moan of pleasure, he leaned his head back and stared into her eyes for a moment, then he kissed her gently on the lips.
When he pulled back, she smiled and whispered, “Would you like to stay the night, Burton?”
He sighed and nodded. “More than anything in the world.”
“Good,” she said and stood up, taking him by the hand and leading him into the apartment and into her bedroom.
He saw the bedcovers were pulled back and his pajamas were laid out on his side of the bed.
He smiled at her. “Did you know the evening would end up like this?”
“No, but it never hurts to hope, does it?”
“No, and I want you to know that I have never given up hoping, either.”
CHAPTER 18
It was after ten o’clock the next morning when Burton Ramsey strolled into the lab. He had his hands in his pockets, and he was actually whistling and smiling, two things Kat and Kevin had never seen the man do before.
Kat and Kevin were both sitting at her desk drinking coffee. Angus’s bed had been moved over to a corner of the lab, and he was sitting in it, his attention fixed on a small portable TV on a table in front of the bed.
Ramsey stopped mid-whistle and looked from Kat and Kevin over to Angus, his eyebrows raised. “Are you two trying to get the dog addicted to daytime soap operas?” he asked, his smile still on his face. “What, are you trying to make him stupid?”
Angus heard the voice and glanced back over his shoulder, then he jumped up and trotted over to sit in front of Ramsey. He sniffed a couple of times, and then with a wag of his tail, he slowly raised his right paw.
“We think that means you’ve been accepted as one of his pack,” Kat called over to him. “Which means even though he’s loads smarter, he still has poor taste in friends.”
Ramsey grinned and leaned over to solemnly shake Angus’s paw. “I resemble that remark,” he joked. “Who wouldn’t want a nice guy like me as a member of their pack?”
After the shake, Angus turned and trotted back over to his bed to resume watching TV while Ramsey fixed himself a cup of coffee and took a seat across Kat’s desk next to Kevin.
Kat and Kevin glanced at each other and Kat whispered, “Kevin, who is this man and what has he done with Burton Ramsey?”
Ramsey laughed and took a sip of his coffee. “What, just because it’s a beautiful day and I’m in a good mood, you have to give me jazz?”
“It’s just that there have been plenty of beautiful days, and we’ve never seen you react like this before,” Kevin said, staring at him.
As Ramsey shrugged and took another sip, Kat snapped her fingers and grinned. “Aha!”
“What’s with the aha?” Ramsey asked.
“Your meeting with Sheila must have gone exceptionally well last night, Burton.”
Now his face flamed red and his eyes left hers and wandered around the room.
Kevin looked at Kat and nodded. “I see . . . meeting with the ex-wife last night, late arrival at lab this morning, and when you add in whistling and grinning like an idiot, it can only mean one thing.”
“Okay, you win,” Ramsey said, setting down his cup. “We had a good dinner, a great meeting afterward, and Sheila asked me to stay the night.” He smiled and spread his arms, “It seems there just might be a chance for a reconciliation in the future.”
Kevin slapped him on the shoulder, “Well, good for you, Dr. Ramsey. Sheila is a great person and I wish you luck.”
“Me, too,” Kat said, but then her expression turned serious. “But Kevin and I have some news to share with you that is of the utmost importance, and it concerns Sheila, too.”
“Oh?”
“Tell him what you told me last night, Kevin.”
Kevin scooted his chair to the side so it was facing Ramsey and retold the story of his uncle’s offer just as he had to Kat the night before.
At first, Ramsey’s face reddened in anger at Kevin’s slip of the tongue, but as the story unfolded and it got to the part about the offer of millions of dollars for the treatment, his temper cooled.
“Do you think this is a legitimate offer, or some sort of scam?” he asked Kevin.
Kevin shrugged. “I believe my uncle wouldn’t lie to me. We are very close, and I do know that for the past couple of years he has had the use of a private jet to fly him back and forth from Corpus Christi to here to take care of an eccentric, rich patient. I also have noticed that he is living way above the lifestyle of most doctors. He spends money like it is nothing.”
He looked at Kat. “What do you think?”
Kat shrugged. “I don’t know, but I think I’ve come up with a way to find out if there is as much money in play as they say there is.”
She went on to explain to him her idea to ask for a good-faith advance of fifty thousand dollars in exchange for videos and pictures of Angus before and after treatment.”
Ramsey raised his eyebrows. “And just how did you come up with the sum of fifty thousand dollars?”
“Well, it is obvious that now that we are at the end of our experiments with rats and are moving on to bigger and better things, we are going to have to abandon BioTech and move to a new lab. There are just too many prying eyes around here for us to start to work with larger animals or even a human, and the security sucks and we definitely need to protect our formulae.” She went on to tell him about Kevin catching Captain Sunshine snooping around the lab, including his getting into her laptop.
He slowly nodded. “I knew that son of a bitch was up to no good, but at any rate, I’ve been thinking the very same thing. It is high time we tell BioTech our research projects are going nowhere and that we are moving on to greener pastures.”
“Uh, guys, I have a suggestion, if you don’t mind,” Kevin said.
“Go ahead, Kevin. Like we said before, you are now a full partner in this group,” Kat said.
“Captain Sunshine is gonna get awfully suspicious if two of BioTech’s best researchers give up their projects and leave at the same time. It won’t take much more snooping for him to find out that the two of you have been spending an inordinate amount of time together, especially since Dr. Ramsey has never been known to make friends among the other scientists here.”
“Good point, Kevin,” Ramsey said. “What do you suggest?”
“Well, I think one of you could say that your research has come to a dead end and that you are leaving all of your notes and journals to BioTech and are going to take a sabbatical and then start up on some other project. Meanwhile, after about a week or so, the other one can claim some sort of family emergency and ask for a couple of weeks’ leave to deal with it. Then, after the two weeks is up, you can call and say that the emergency is going to last a while longer and recommend that Bio
Tech have someone else take over your project and that you will provide them with all of your notes and journals. And if Captain Sunshine wishes, I can offer to stay on board for a couple of months and help the new guy or gal get up to speed on the project.”
“Kevin, that’s brilliant,” Kat said. “And since the three of us will be split up as far as BioTech is concerned, they won’t have a clue that we are all working together.”
“Thanks,” Kevin said. “The only fly in the ointment is that if two of us at first and then one of us later is going to be pretending to continue working at BioTech, the new lab is going to have to be within easy commuting distance so that we can all continue to be involved in the real project.”
Ramsey smiled. “I think I have that covered.” He looked at Kat, “As I told you before we started working together, I had already planned to abandon BioTech and take my formula with me. Even by itself, it was a pretty good product and would have made me a tidy sum if sold on the open market. So, in consideration of the day when I finally left BioTech, I was in the process of setting up a new lab in Conroe, Texas. It’s only about fifty miles from Houston and is an easy forty-five-minute drive in normal traffic.”
Kat frowned. “Why did you set up a new lab so close to Houston if you were going to stiff BioTech? I would have thought you would have gone halfway around the world to South America, or at least to Mexico or some other remote location.”
He nodded. “You’re right, of course, and, in fact, I also have made arrangements for a lab in Monterrey, Mexico, for when I get ready to do large-scale manufacturing of my serum, but for . . . uh . . . personal reasons, I wanted to stay close to Houston for as long as I could.”
Kat smiled. “I see. You didn’t want to be too far away from Sheila.”
“Yeah, I have been hoping we could get back together for a couple of years now, but until recently I was too consumed with anger over my perceived failures to give our relationship a chance.”
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