Chapter 31
Charles Daniels was furious. Dinesh Kheradpir, his chief technology officer, had decided to resign the day before the May investor meeting, that Charles had been carefully planning for months. This was a crucial step to present the new products that were based off of Telomerax, and to prepare for a stock offer worth several billions of dollars. Luckily, George, who was one of the main investors in the new venture, had been able to replace Dinesh and they had agreed to keep his leave secret, justifying his absence with unexpected personal issues.
This would calm the financial analysts for some days, maybe weeks, yet Charles and George had to quickly figure out why Dinesh had left the company, and what his plans were next.
They anticipated the answer. Dinesh was going to start his own venture, and maybe he had already been working on it for a while. The rewards of Telomerax were too high not to ignite the ambition of brilliant people like Dinesh, especially now that the Russians were being knocked out of the market and Louis Picard, the inventor, was under heavy surveillance. Charles and George needed to know more, quickly, so they decided to call Skip for help.
A few weeks later, in June, Skip invited both of them to Washington, D.C.. He was now working to become the next CIA director, and he could not afford to leave the Capital for a single day.
Skip set the tone of the meeting on a sarcastic note.
“My dear, brave venture capitalists, heralds of entrepreneurial initiative and of the free market, it looks like the two of you persuaded your government into killing two hundred and forty-five innocent citizens, a few months back, for nothing.”
Skip paused for a while. George and Charles shifted uneasily and Skip continued.
“Your old colleague is back in India. He has set up a pharmaceutical laboratory close to Mumbai, which is guarded very well. It is a mix of private security and regular soldiers, which means he has good connections in the government upper ranks. We are trying to find out more about the involvement of the Indian government.”
“Um....any idea of what he is making there?” George chimed in, with the most sheepish tone he could manage.
“Ideas? You think we can be satisfied with ideas here? You are the ones that make money out of ideas, not us!” Skip snapped back. Then he regained control and continued, “this is what they are making there.” He opened a drawer under his desk, lowered his arm, and raised his arm, a small paper box firmly in his hands.
“The last time I handed a few pills over to you, Charles, it ended up with a plane crash in the middle of the Indian Ocean and no results in terms of our control over the diffusion of the drug. Apparently also the Indians are making their own strain, the Russians came to know and they are now refusing to give up their own variant. The outcome is, the drug is getting around completely out of our control. It is a complete fiasco, let's face it. Lastly, I have to report this to the new President in two weeks. You can imagine she will not be very glad to know that the evolution of the drone attack strategy of his predecessor Obama, started with hundreds of victims,” Skip stopped just short of saying that this was jeopardizing his chances of becoming the next director of the CIA.
A short silence followed, as each of them thought of possible ways forward. George was the first to speak,
“Alright, we are in a situation where Telomerax, no matter what version, is accelerating its diffusion, mostly in an illegal way. In the last meeting I had with Mr. Lee, he showed me that we have more than three hundred and fifty thousand people addicted, all around the world. It sounds like a large number, but it is less than five percent of regular cocaine users. Each of them are paying an average of fifty thousand dollars a year for the treatment, which means more than fifty billion dollars net profit every year. We do not know how many users control the Russians and their allies, but we can assume several tens of thousands as well. Quite soon, the Indians will join the party as well so-..”
“So what, Sean?,” Skip cut in. “I know the CIA is getting almost three billion of unaccounted cash per year from this, but I cannot tell the President this was the real reason behind destroying the plane. It would be highly inappropriate.”
“What I think George is trying to say,” Charles responded, “is that we have to look at it from an economic standpoint. The illegal market is going to expand, with new players coming in, so we have to secure a bigger market share by increasing the production and by speeding up the launch and the adoption of a legal version of Telomerax. If we arrive first, we can dominate the legal market by fighting a patent infringment war with the Indians and the Russians. The cocaine users will switch to the legal variant, and Mr. Lee and his friends will not lose money, as organized crime will just increase the price of cocaine.”
“Exactly,” George continued, “This is the only way we can follow, to make sure that those people in the plane did not die in vain.”
Skip pondered the proposal. It seemed like it may work, yet there were still missing pieces.
“Let me recap. You said you want to manage this in a fully transparent and legal way, so I understand the CIA won't be called in for the kind of services we did last time. But then how about Louis Picard, the inventor? He could come to court and claim he holds the rights.”
“Louis actually created a system to make sure everything would be kept secret,” added George, as he had already imagined all of the consequences.
“Yeah,” Charles joined in, “but he might change idea, when he sees that we are making money by the tens of billions...Skip is right, we have to take care of that. By the way, it looks like Louis has disappeared as well, a few weeks after his Swiss laboratory was destroyed by Skip’s team.”
“Gentlemen,” Skip interrupted, “Let me be very clear. I helped you to activate Zeus, because there was a clear danger to US interests, but this does not mean that the CIA is now at your service. If you do not know how to locate and deal with Louis, this is your problem, not mine.”
As he finished the sentence, Skip thought that his involvement in the first, failed activation of Zeus could cost him the promotion. He had to reduce his dependency on Mr. Lee and his friends.
Charles drew to the conclusion.
“Alright, we can all agree that we have to proceed with the launch of the anti-aging pill. Louis might become an issue, in that case we will try to manage it between us, without asking for Skip’s support. Unless we identify a clear threat to US interests, of course.” George nodded, and Skip was quick to understand the subtle blackmailing in Charles' words.
“Correct,” commented Skip, “I think we are all set. Are you flying back to California tonight? Otherwise we could have dinner together - no business, just small talk.”
Charles responded first, “Thanks for the invitation, but I am losing my girlfriend if I am not back home in Long Island tonight. I have been on the road for the past three weeks.” George, on the other hand, had a Netjets private flight waiting for him at Reagan Airport. They both left.
Charles received the call from Skip about two hours later, just after he got home. Sally frowned.
“Good evening Skip, did we leave anything out of our talks today?”
“I believe we covered it all,” answered Skip, “however there is a new scenario I have to assess. What if George also decides to leave your company, just like Dinesh did? Would he be able to start his own?”
“He may be able to copy our Telomerax, but he would be exposed to the same infringment suits and without the protection of a foreign government, things would be much more difficult. So I think he realizes it would be better for him to stay near Louis and the original formula. This is my problem, you said it.”
“Indeed, Charles, indeed,” Skip rushed to confirm. “It is just to get an idea of future events. We have to be prepared to face anything. I trust you are not sharing this with anyone, not even Sally.”
Charles stopped, wondering when he had ever told Skip about Sally, but before he could put together a question, Skip had hung up the phon
e.