Prescott decided none of the talks in the morning session were worth his time. The speakers were all young scientists, nobody of real importance. So he spent the morning hiking around Squam Lake, running through possible scenarios for his talk with Holly. The trick would be convincing her to turn on Pam Weller without making himself look unethical. He’d need a delicate hand.

He took the opportunity to avoid conference food and had a steak sandwich for lunch at the inn. Holly was waiting outside the dining hall when he got back to the conference a few minutes before two.

“You’re right on time,” he said.

“Of course, I wasn’t going to keep you waiting. Thanks again for meeting with me.”

“No problem at all. Like I said last night, I’m happy to have the chance to hear about your work. Let’s walk for a bit and find someplace comfortable to talk. I’m free until the poster session at four.”

They headed off along one of the trails leading from the center of the campus, enjoying the warm summer day as they strolled through a forest of pine trees. Prescott chatted lightly and asked her opinions about the lectures this morning. These young women loved it when he pretended they were equals. They wandered away from the other conferees and in about fifteen minutes came to a stream flowing down from the mountains. Prescott sat on a boulder and motioned Holly to sit next to him. Only then did he turn to the topic at hand.

“So, I was intrigued by your email. Tell me about your work.”

She paused for a minute as if she were thinking about her response. Then she gave him a half-smile. “Well, the bottom line is that I’ve found a drug that prevents the formation of Alzheimer’s plaque.”

His stomach knotted, but he kept his voice steady. “That’s pretty exciting alright. How’d you do it?”

“We used the cell culture system Pam developed when she was a postdoc to screen the compounds in the Langmere chemical library. And I found one that worked.”

“Great! But of course it’s a long way from that to a drug.”

“Yes, but this stuff can also reverse the early stages of plaque formation and brain cell death once the process has started. Plus, we’ve been able to show that it works in mice, not just in culture. And again, it works even once the disease has reached its early stages. It’s already been tested as a cancer drug, so it’s even ready to develop for clinical use.”

“That sounds amazing. Pam must be pretty excited, too.”

“Oh, she is. Once I showed her my data, Pam put the whole lab on it. Everything’s done now and we’re writing up the paper.”

Prescott’s heart sank. This was a paper that would bring Weller to unquestioned primacy in the field, with his own work shrinking in importance. I need to get the drug and move fast.

But why was Holly telling him this? She didn’t seem stupid and surely Weller would have told her lab group to keep quiet until the paper was published. Was she after something?

“Holly, this is terrific. You’ve discovered the Holy Grail of Alzheimer’s research. And for a young person like you to have made such a discovery is really super. You’re off to an amazing career, and I’m going to look forward to watching it develop.”

He was surprised to see her turn and look over at a small woodpecker working away on one of the nearby trees. When she looked back at him, her expression was serious.

“Thanks, I’m happy you feel that way. I just wish Pam did.”

“What do you mean? Pam’s got to be thrilled with this.”

“She is, but she’s screwing me on the paper. She’s making me second author, so the other postdoc in the lab is going to get the major credit.”

“What? Why would she do that?”

Holly’s face flushed. “I don’t know, it doesn’t make any sense. We worked together on the library screening, and Pam said I was just lucky to have found the active compound instead of him. Maybe that’s true, but I’m still the one who found it and did the experiments to prove it works. And now Pam’s robbing me of the credit for my discovery just because George, that’s his name, has been there longer.”

There has to be more to it than that, Prescott thought. Pam Weller’s no fool and there’s probably a good reason for whatever decision about authorship she made. But no matter, this was the crack in the armor he might be able to exploit. And it almost seemed as if Holly was setting him up to do just that. He wondered who was manipulating whom.

“That’s terrible. I mean, you’re right, you discovered this compound and the credit should be yours. This sounds totally unfair and you have every right to be furious. Maybe I can help you do something to fix it.”

Her eyes were moist as she smiled faintly at him. “Thank you, having your support would mean a lot.”

He reached out and took her hand. “I just hope I can help. Do the people who made the drug know this is actually your work? Maybe we can get them involved. If it’s from a pharmaceutical company, it’ll be important to them that there’s no dispute about the patent. What is this stuff, anyway?”

Her expression became guarded and he could tell she wasn’t ready to give that up. She’s definitely after something.

“We just know it by my code name, 40492. Pam didn’t want anyone to know what it was until all our experiments are finished. I looked up its properties earlier, but I’d have to go back to my spreadsheet to see what it really is.”

“You mean Pam doesn’t know either?”

“No, she told me to keep it to myself for now. She didn’t want anyone to be able to say she was influenced by the pharmaceutical company that made it.”

“I see, that’s interesting. Well, that leaves out going to whoever made the drug for the moment, but we can think about that when you identify it in order to write the paper.”

He looked at his watch. “It’s three thirty already. I have to be back at four because I’m supposed to judge the poster session, and then I have to chair the lecture session after dinner. But I need some time to think about this anyway. I’d like to figure out a way of fixing this for you, of getting you the credit you deserve. How about having dinner with me tomorrow night and we can put our heads together and see if we can come up with a plan?”

“I’d love to.”

“Great. I’m staying at an inn about fifteen minutes away. It’s a nice place to have dinner. We can go there and be able to talk privately. I could pick you up in the parking lot at six thirty, after the others have gone in to the dining hall. Would that work?”

“That sounds really nice.”

“Perfect, I’ll see you then. Now why don’t you head back first and I’ll follow in a few minutes. It’s probably best if we’re not seen together, just so word doesn’t get back to Pam.”

Prescott watched her walk down the trail, her shapely rear end accentuated by the light cotton shorts. He was excited by the prospect of being with her tomorrow night. She seemed grateful for his help, so maybe dinner would be followed by other pleasures. But more important, he was beginning to get a glimmer of an idea. A way to discredit Weller as well as steal her compound. He had until tomorrow to work this out.