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STEVEN STOOD AT THE door of the conference room and collected his thoughts. He’d gone over and over what he would say. But, actually going in there and doing it was something altogether different. These men and women had invested time, money, and trust in Frank Howard’s scheme to perfect a drug that would revolutionize the world and make the company boatloads of money. They’d been wrong to sign off on testing children prematurely, but he didn’t think they were privy to the actual details–until after they were broadcast on the ten o’clock news.
Except for Marcus. His father-in-law knew much more than he let on. Marcus had been in thick with Devlin until their recent fallout and he would bet the man still harbored secrets harmful to the company. He intended to find out what those secrets were and use whatever means necessary to rid the company and the board of Marcus Dunbar. But for now–he’d bide his time and watch and wait.
WCCO news had done several segments on the story in the past week. He’d given them exclusive rights to the story and watched as they gulped down the baited hook of information he threw them. The investigative reporter named Dr. Carl Devlin as a rogue scientist working without company approval, and implied that the police were now reviewing the recent deaths of Frank Howard and Dr. Akhilesh Kapoor to see if foul play had been involved. Detective Miller was quoted saying he didn’t believe in coincidence and two suspicious deaths just weeks before all of this was more than coincidence. It smelled of conspiracy. He mentioned Dr. Alicia Brock’s murder as a terrible tragedy, a case of knowing too little too late. Which made Steven wonder how much the police really knew? Did Dr. Brock have information in her apartment that linked the company?
Steven pushed through the door and was met with an uncomfortable silence. The judge sat alone at one end of the conference table, his hands splayed on the top, his chin raised sharply as though waiting for a jury to assemble and announce a verdict. The others were scattered around the other end of the table, eyes looking anywhere but at him.
“Good morning,” Steven greeted, and took his seat. He sighed. “First of all, I want to express my condolences to you, Judge Fillmore, on the death of your son. It was a terrible tragedy attached to all the rest.”
“Tragedy?” Philip ground out. “The tragedy is he didn’t suffer first. Sounds like he died instantly. After what they said about him slitting that pretty doctor’s throat and kidnapping a little girl, I think he got off way too easy.”
“And in the process, made our company look like some kind of freak show. After this, stock prices will be in the toilet,” mumbled Clancy.
Through all of this, Judge Fillmore sat perfectly still, not reacting.
“Stock prices will definitely drop, but we can pull out of this. Devlin was creating his own crazy mind control drug, but what about the drug he was working on for us? What about Sensiline? I thought it was nearly ready. With that out in production in a few months time we should make up for any losses incurred because of bad publicity.”
Marcus threw back his head and laughed. “I wish we could recoup our losses so easily, Pat, but Devlin wasn’t really working on the drug he promised. It was all a lie. He was obsessed with his own agenda. Luckily, the news people didn’t get a whiff of that for their story. They simply reported he was experimenting on his sons–which is bad enough P.R. for the company.”
Steven tried to avoid looking at Marcus because every time he did, he wanted to throttle the man for what he’d done to Serena. He didn’t trust him and never would. He drew a deep breath and raised his hand. “Okay, here are the facts. Carl Devlin was doing illegal experimentation on children with your approval. I have Frank’s backup of every document signed, all the details of what transpired since the beginning, and the part that everyone played. I will use it if I have to, but I assume that won’t be necessary.”
“What are you getting at, Steven?” Marcus demanded, leaning forward and glaring across the table. “Are you threatening to blackmail us?”
“I’m ending this. The project is done. Finished. There is to be no more Sensiline. The entire idea is scrapped as of this minute. My son and his sister are no longer a part of this. As far as Frank’s records indicate, there were no more children involved other than Devlin’s sons. Thank God. Devlin was obsessed with twins, so although there were six recorded single births, Frank noted they had been sent away with their mothers. So, we can rest easy about that. The computers in the lab are toast. No one knows what happened. They had surge protectors but apparently none of them worked. That means there’s nothing for the police to find here. But if any of you have information on your computers regarding the project, I suggest you wipe your hard drives immediately. I am having the lab cleared out as we speak and all information pertaining to it, destroyed.” He paused to let that sink in and then cut to the chase. “What we did was wrong. The end doesn’t always justify the means. Hurting children for the sake of science or to make the company a ton of money is beneath us, beneath our purpose here. What Devlin did to those boys and what Andrew did to cover it up is something we all have to live with for the rest of our lives. We’re all responsible.”
Everyone started talking at once, angry accusations and denials.
Judge Fillmore rapped the table with his knuckles. “Listen to him! He’s right. We are all responsible. We can’t change what happened, but we can try to do something better.”
Steven stood up. “Howard Pharmaceuticals will be launching a new campaign very soon. I plan to invest our time and energies into something that will actually benefit humanity. We are going into cancer research–namely AIDS. We’re no longer looking for temporary fixes to line our pockets. The world doesn’t need drugs to grow thicker lashes or help men with sexual stamina, they need cures for sick and dying people.” He let his gaze rest on each shocked face around the table. “This company is going to stand for something and you’re going to help me do it.”
*****
MARCUS DROVE HIS NEW BMW out of the parking lot and away from Howard Pharmaceuticals. He looked in the rearview mirror and couldn’t help smiling at his reflection. Things could not have turned out more perfect if he’d planned it himself. Of course, killing Devlin with his own hands may have been quite satisfying in the short term but this was, dare he say it...?
“Freak’n awesome!” He laughed and shook his head.
Everything was going his way. All records were destroyed, the project shut down, Devlin and Fillmore out of the way, and he alone possessed the formula for Sensiline. Not the revised, revamped version the psychopathic doctor had continued to treat his sons with, but the original serum, the one Zander’s birth mother was given. The one that would give him everything he’d ever wanted. Extreme Power.
He drove to the house in Brooklyn Park and pulled into the garage. He’d be crazy to leave his car parked out on these mean streets, alarm system or not. The house was large but shabby on the outside. It needed a new coat of paint, among other things. But they didn’t want to attract attention by making improvements. This was the kind of neighborhood that sat forgotten in the city – unless a drive-by shooting placed them on the six-o’clock news.
He let himself into the house and listened for the sound of running feet. It was quiet. They didn’t know he was here yet. He smiled and pulled open the refrigerator. Helped himself to a cola and popped the tab. He took a long drink, downing half the can, then set it on the counter and headed for the stairs.
Halfway up the worn carpet treads he was met by an eight-year-old girl, her blond hair pulled back in a braid. She grabbed his leg and held on the rest of the way up. “Daddy!” she squealed with excitement. “Give me a pony ride!”
Two more children wandered out from the upstairs rooms, a boy wearing a Vikings jersey, and a teenage girl with a short Afro and blazing smile. She hugged him and kissed his cheek.
“Hey, Daddy. We missed you,” she said.
“I missed all of you too, honey,” Marcus said. He swung the little one up in his arms and tickled her tummy. “Where are the others?”
The boy pointed down the hall. Marcus moved to the last room and looked inside the open door. Three children of various ages sat at a long table, electrodes taped to their heads, hooked to a monitoring computer. A woman glanced up from the screen and smiled. “Well, it’s about time you stopped by. The children have been asking for you.” Kirsten rose from her chair and moved to meet him at the door. She put her arms around him. “How did it go?”
He kissed her long and hard.
She pulled away, laughing. “I guess that means it went well?”
“Beyond anything we imagined.”
“Good. We have news for you too. Marked advancement in two of the children this week. I think Tanya may even be surpassing Landis. ”
Marcus followed his wife into the room to greet the other children. He was the only daddy they would ever know, and they lived to please him. He patted each of them on the head in turn and praised their progress, watching them light up at his touch.
End