Pam’s mouth tightened as she read the email from the chair of neuroscience at Yale.

With apologies for the late notice, I regret that we have to cancel your lecture scheduled for next week. We’ll be in touch again when we’re able to reschedule.

She got up and looked out her office window. Another slap in the face. The rumors about her work had become widespread and there were no more invitations to give talks or attend meetings. Just cancellations. Like I’m a suspected criminal.

To make things even worse, Mary O’Connor had backed away from their long-standing friendship and treated her like the subject of an investigation rather than a colleague. She refused to say anything about how the experiments were going, and had instructed George and Holly to do the same. Pam was kept totally in the dark, her career taken out of her hands.

The phone rang and Pam took the call.

“This is Sharon Dawson from Science magazine. We’ve heard that the Langmere Institute has initiated an independent attempt to repeat your experiments with aneurinide, given that others in the field have been unable to do so. Do you have any comments on the situation?”

Pam’s stomach turned over. “What? Who told you such a thing?”

“Our source doesn’t matter. Are you denying that’s the case?”

Pam tightened her grip on the phone. Keep cool. Talking to a reporter isn’t going to help. “I can’t comment on unverified rumors. All I can say is that I’m confident our work will be confirmed in time.”

She was sweating when she ended the call. An article coming out in Science was even more bad news. A public exposition of her disgrace. And how had they heard about O’Connor’s experiments? I’ve got to find out what’s going on.

Hoping to catch her, Pam took the stairs up to O’Connor’s office. Her jaw tensed when she found the door open and O’Connor reading something on the computer, a mug of coffee in her hand. Pam knocked and went in.

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but could we talk for a few minutes?”

O’Connor turned to her with a cold stare. “I’m busy working on this paper. What can I do for you?”

“I was just hoping you could update me on how the experiments are going. Holly and George say they aren’t supposed to talk to me about it, which is fine. But I’d really like to know what the status is and when you think they’ll be finished.”

O’Connor put down her coffee and glowered at Pam. “Look, hunting me down like this isn’t helping matters. You know that you can have no involvement in this process, which is why I’ve told your postdocs not to discuss it with you. And I can’t discuss it with you either. The experiments are proceeding and I certainly hope we’ll be finished soon. But obviously that’ll depend on the results. In the meantime, I have my own work to do.”

Pam tried to keep the desperation out of her voice. “I understand, but can you at least tell me whether things are going well technically?”

“No, I cannot. I’ve been directed not to discuss the experiments with you or anyone else. Clearing up this mess is a high priority for the Director, and I intend to cooperate fully with him.”

“Mary, please. You’ve always been a friend to me and you must realize how hard this is. The rumors that DeSilva is doing a special investigation of my work have become widespread and lots of people seem to know that you’re doing these experiments. I even got a call from a reporter at Science writing an article about it for Christ’s sake! It’s incredibly destructive and I need to know what’s going on. How has this been leaked all over?”

“Are you insinuating that I’ve spread rumors of this? I’ve told no one, and that’s an insulting allegation. My instructions from the Director are to keep this confidential and report the results directly to him. Once that’s done, I’m sure he’ll inform you of our findings. But until then, there’s nothing for us to talk about. Now please leave and let me get on with my work.”

Pam was shaking with rage as she left. How can they treat me like this? My only sin has been, what, to discover an Alzheimer’s drug? She forced herself to breathe deeply and calm down. Hang in there, it’ll be alright in the end. Aneurinide will work. It always has.