Silence
Avery: Mr. Gill, is this how things went?
Silence
Avery: Mr. Gill?
Lawyer: do you have anything that proves your version?
Avery: I do
Lawyer: what proofs do you have?
Avery: Mr. Gill, you lied about the fact that you left from McMurrich’s place before your brother did. I could have just used the pictures of your car speeding up to know, but I also spoke to your brother and he confirmed. So you were the last one to see Janna McMurrich alive. Somebody ran her over, and that person was driving a car with the same tires your car had before McMurrich’s death, before you changed them to try and cover up what had happened
Lawyer: it is not illegal to change tires, and tire imprints are not a final proof. Mark was there, who says nobody else was there after him?
Avery: Mr. Gill, I think you are an intelligent man. Why don’t you just tell me what happened?
Sound of chair moving, deep breaths, sobs
Mark Gill: I didn’t mean to kill her
Avery: I know
Mark Gill: I’ve loved Janna since I met her. I suppose she didn’t as much…she never wanted to marry me. But I love her…I love her…
Sobs
Mark Gill: But Janna began commercializing the polymer…all she cared for was her career, her success, and she wanted to get there whatever it took
Avery: Janna McMurrich circulated the polymer? Is any food company using it now?
Mark Gill: Yes. I found out by chance, she left a file open on her PC and I saw…I saw she sold it to HealthyFood Inc. Do you understand the implications? This company is huge…no matter what we did after Janna gave them the polymer would be disastrous. HealthyFood is a major client of ours. If we took the polymer back after they had begun using it FoodTech labs would have lost its reputation and, most of all, my brother would have lost his reputation. And if we didn’t take back the polymer back…the consequences would be dire.
Avery: FoofTech labs would risk legal prosecution
Mark Gill: no, not really…when Janna gave HealthyFood the polymer she had the company sign an acknowledgment form stating that only certain tests had been conducted by Fooftech labs. Those tests showed no adverse effects on human health, but this didn’t imply that other tests could not – and should not – be conducted. See the trick?
Avery: But you suspected the product was not safe
Mark Gill: I did, but the legislation prescribes only certain tests for this type of products. Legal and good are distinct concepts
Avery: so releasing the polymer was not an illegal act?
Mark Gill: It wasn’t, but if the polymer ended up by poisoning people then – legal or not legal – it would damage the reputation of FoodTech labs and my brother’s, and that is what my brother cared about. FoodTech labs and HealthyFoods are powerful and have the freedom to make some mistakes, but there was no reason to release the product immediately, the risk was too high…
Avery: why was it too high?
Mark Gill: because I have never seen a chemical additive do to bacteria what this one did.
Avery: do you know if HealthyFood is already using the polymer?
Mark Gill: I don’t, but likely they are using it
Avery: Why does your brother want to keep Iris Celati while he fired all her collaborators?
Mark Gill: he wants her to produce a new polymer, safe and equally good, to try and make up for a possible flop with the one Janna released…to make sure FoodTech Labs doesn’t have a major collapse
Avery: but why not keep the whole team?
Mark Gill: My brother says he wants to keep everything top secret. He wants to control Iris Celati closely, rather than have her surrounded by a team of buddies with too much personal initiative. He wants Iris Celati to be a tool for FoodTech labs, he wants her to make a new polymer and disappear
Avery: disappear?
Mark Gill: yes
Avery: He wants to kill her?
Mark Gill: I don’t know, ask him
Avery: you said your brother cared about the reputation of FoodTech labs and his, and what did you care about?
Mark Gill: I wanted a family empire, with Janna as a wife and collaborator, and my brother as business partner. If only Janna hadn’t released this polymer we could come up with a better one and open a new company that could fly…but not after spoiling everything with a flawed product
Avery: so that is why your brother wants to keep everything as secret as possible now? Because he wants to come up with a product that might allow you to open the dream company you had planned to start?
Mark Gill: Maybe…yes, he was still trying to save the plan. But nothing makes sense now, nothing…
Avery turned off the tape recorder. I looked at her and began laughing, and then my laugher turned into sobs, light at first, then dense, uncontrollable, shattering my exhausted body with painful throbs.
Chapter 94
Once the tape stopped Avery and Jack stood there in silence. I felt as if I was being sucked into empty space, devoid of all but my sobs. I cannot say how much time elapsed, but at a point I remember I became emotionally detached. I was aware of what was happening, and I knew that my chances of survival were slim, but all this stopped mattering to me.
“So this is how it all ends”, I said, feeling an odd sense of peace and relief
End.
It seemed like I had an easy way out after all. I didn’t even need to have the guts to decide it for myself, it would just happen. Anytime. It would probably strike me before I realized.
“No, I will talk to Mori. He said he would be working on finding an antidote, didn’t he? There will be a way out. There must be”, Jack said, his voice unsteady
“Maybe, or maybe not. And if there is, the question is how long it will take to find it. Research takes time, why be delusional about this?”, I replied coolly
What was happening seemed all so logical, there was no reason to be emotional about it. If you believe in your research you should take the consequences of it, shouldn’t you? I had chosen to play a game, and I had my share of fun. I had manipulated the game for a while, and now it was manipulating me.
I wanted the polymer to destroy me, its creator, I wanted to die. The more I thought about it, the more perversely euphoric I felt. Drag me all the way down to hell, I want to know what it looks like!
Avery’s voice cut off my thoughts.
“I will go talk to Sandeep”, she said
“Oh yes, I forgot about him…is he conscious now?”, I asked
“Yes, but he refuses to speak. Anyways the doctors told me that he can be dismissed in one or two days at most, and at that point I will put a tight torque on him. And he’ll speak, believe me”, Avery said
“Try to understand if other people are at risk…please”, I said
“I’ll talk to Mori…”, Jack iterated, uninterested in all but getting me out of the hospital
“Ok”, I replied, shrugging my shoulders carelessly
But then I saw the distress on Jack’s face, the sorrow ponding in the sockets of his tired eyes.
“Ok, let’s see if Mori has a solution”, I said, making an effort to warm up my voice and smile.
Jack moved close to me, and took my hand. He held it for a while, squeezeing it tight, then tighter, as if this way he could prevent me from slipping away.
“Don’t give up, please don’t give up”, he begged
“I won’t”, I said for his sake
Jack nodded and headed towards the door. “I’ll be back tomorrow after doing some research”, he said
I smiled again. I let my gaze follow him to the door, and rest on him in that imperceptible instant of hesitation during which he turned around once more before stepping away
“I’ll leave too, and will be back tomorrow”, Avery said after a moment
“Anytime, I’m not going anywhere”, I replied, my tone and smile ironically bitter now
Avery shook her head, and headed to the door. But then she turned around
“Even if you don’t care to stay alive other people care that you do”, she said, as if reading my thoughts, and walked away before waiting for my answer.
Chapter 95
After Avery and Jack left I fell in and out of sleep, losing track of time. Past events, nightmarish visions of the future and sparks of hope all mingled in an incoherent sequel, fragmented by the greyish-white view of the hospital’s room, by the regular blipping of the machine to which I was hooked, by the clear fluid dripping into my veins.
I was dreaming I had been locked down in a basement. There were people outside I could see from a window, I could hear the voices of the kids playing and I could see their mothers pushing them on small bikes, encouraging them to pedal. “Help!”, I screamed at the top of my lungs but they couldn’t hear. Then I tried propping the window open, but I couldn’t get it to slide, something was causing it to be stuck, but it was impossible for me to see what it was. While I was sweating and cursing in my struggle, feeling the tide of panic rise within me, one of the mothers outside saw me. I waved at her with frenzy, and for a moment it seemed to me that she was heading towards me. I’ll be fine, I thought, and a wave of relief refreshed me for the briefest moment, before I realized she had changed her mind, and had decided to turn away as if she had never detected my presence. I started scratching the glass, fast, faster and then so fast my nails begun to bleed. I knew this wasn’t going anywhere but I kept at it, crazed by the fear, and with the smell of blood invading my nostrils as if I was drowning in it. Then there was a shuffling sound coming from the door.
“Go away!”, I shouted
“Iris…”, I heard
“No, no, go away!”, I shouted again, sure that whoever kept me locked there had come to give me the final blow
“Be quiet Iris, I am not here to hurt you…”, the voice said
“No!”, I yelled again, or maybe I wasn’t yelling but in my half-conscious state I believed I was
Then I felt someone touch my face and I woke up fully. Through the dim light of the room I saw Sandeep’s face. I could have screamed again, but all I did was stare at him, numbed, my eyes wide open.
“Things are not like you think they are and I am not here to hurt you”, he told me again
“We are in this same hospital? Where is the security?”, I asked after the first stupor, strangely curious rather than scared at this point.
I figured he wasn’t there to hurt me, but then why was he there?
“The security guy left. Strange…I don’t know for how long he’ll be away, there isn’t much time”
“Time for what?”, I asked
“For telling you the real story”
I wondered if I was still dreaming. My head felt heavy and I was nauseous. But I wanted to know, regardless, in dream or reality it didn’t matter. Anyways if there was any difference between the two it had become very hard for me to define it.
“Tell me”, I said
“When you brought the samples I started running the tests you asked me, to find out what you needed to know”, Sandeep begun
“Yes”
“And Wilhelm was doing much the same”, he continued
“Then what were you doing with two armed people the day you got shot?”, I asked
“Wait and listen. There is a person working at the Cross-Cancer institute, he has been testing chemicals on patients, without making them aware of the possible side-effects. I suspect he has killed people that way, as a matter of fact I am reasonably sure about it”
“Who is this man?”
“Jonathan Woods. I was collaborating with this man before I found out what he was doing”
“Why did you never report him?”
“It’s not that easy. He menaced to hurt my family if I said anything, you know? And by the way, there was a policemen investigating about this, he came to talk to me and then he was gone”
“John?”
“Maybe, I cannot recall his name now”
“Bald, green eyes and a bit stocky?”
“Yes”
“He was investigating about the death of a young girl…”
“Yes, but the whole story was buried in silence. Woods has lots of protection from big shots, corporations, he is pretty much untouchable”
“So he can just keep killing people unpunished?”
“Let me continue, they might find me here anytime. Woods found out about your polymer, don’t ask me how, he went through that data we collected and he figured it altered the behaviour of cells. When I figured what was happening I deleted all the data, but it was too late. I explained the situation to Wilhelm, and I told him we should get rid of all the polymer we were storing”
“But you took some away and brought it out in the fields and buried it…”
“No, Woods did that. He wanted to know how to synthesize the polymer, but it was hard for him to reverse engineer it, he needed time. He stole some of the sample you brought us and hid it where you found me with the police”
“How did you know where he kept it?”
“Ronny found out”
“Did you hire him?”
“No, not exactly…his daughter was a victim of Woods practices. Ronny is a private investigator, and he knows where to look to get his answers. He dug out the people who had collaborated with Woods, and to make a long story short he found me and we teamed up”
“To kill me?”
“No, to make sure you kept what you synthesized as secret as possible to prevent further damage”
“What about the cleaning lady? She tried to kill me, and that’s a fact”
“She tried to kill you before Ronny and I made contact with her”
“When did you make contact with her?”
“After you got back from Italy”
“What about when she faked being dead?”
“She had followed you to kill you, but then you saw her. She wanted you to lower your guard and pretended she was dead. Then Ronny got a hold of her and we convinced her that to reach her objective it was more effective to stay on our side than try to kill you”
“But why was she trying to kill me to begin with?”
“Because you were involved – unknowingly – in killing her sister”
“Her sister? What? What do you mean I killed her sister?”, I asked, my voice pitching involuntarily
“Your polymer. Woods used it on her sister, perhaps he though it could cure what she was affected by...but she was quite healthy, her pathology was a very small one, certainly curable with conventional methods, and after his trials she…”, Sandeep started, but his sentence ended in midair as a policeman propped the door open, holding a gun
“Stop!”, he shouted pointing it as Sandeep
“He is not trying to harm me”, I said, almost in a whisper
“Hands up!”, the guard shouted, ignoring me
Sandeep obeyed. The guard approached him and pounded him against the wall. Sandeep fell almost immediately.
“Don’t hurt him, he was not trying to attack me!”, I said, and this time my voice was loud and firm
But the policemen pushed Sandeep’s face on the floor, keeping his gun at him, and handcuffed him. Sandeep’s eyes were closed, and he was silent. I wondered if he had passed out as he lay on the floor, and I felt deep compassion for this man.
And what had I done?
“Because you were involved – unknowingly – in killing her sister”
Who had I killed, who had I killed, who had I killed, who had I killed…
Chapter 96
The policemen pulled out the radio with one hand while keeping Sandeep pinned to the ground with the other.
“Avery, this is Logan”
“Everything ok?”
“I found your man in Iris Celati’s room”
“Did you stop him?”
“He is handcuffed and unconscious”
“I?
??ll head there now. Make sure the man doesn’t get away”
“You bet”, the guy said, and stuck the radio back onto his belt
“Are you all right miss”, he asked, looking up at me, but before I could answer a nurse cam rushing into the room
“I’m perfectly fine, the man was just talking to me, not menacing me in any way”, I said as calmly as I could, talking to both the nurse and the policeman
The nurse shot an alarmed look at Sandeep and then at the machine blipping beside me, counting every one of my heart beats. Their rate had increased, I think, or maybe they had been like that when I was sleeping and I hadn’t noticed.
The nurse rang the bell and after a moment another nurse arrived. When he saw Sandeep on the floor a shocked expression shot across his face.
“What happened?”, he exclaimed, “I’ll go get a doctor!”
“No, get a stretcher first. We’ll get the doctor after bringing the man to his room”, the senior nurse replied authoritatively
I didn’t like her, but she seemed to have a strong hold on the other nurse, a trim boy much younger than she was. He left swiftly and came back before I knew it, bringing away Sandeep, followed by the police officer.
“What will happen to him?”, I asked
“I’ll give you some tranquilizer”, said the nurse instead of answering my question, and produced a syringe that she filled with fast precision
“Take care of the man on the floor that was lying on the floor rather than stuff me with drugs!”, I replied angrily
“You are in a critical condition”, the nurse insisted, “and we must make sure your conditions don’t deteriorate”
“I realize that, but if you overdo the drugs my reaction to those that are really needed might be very different from what you expect…if there can be any expectations at all, considered that the stuff I synthesized and ingested does all but what it is expected to do on cells and organs”