Final Venture

I saw again those dull blue eyes, the pale face, the trickle of blood, the absolute stillness of death.

A cold feeling of revulsion and fear crept over me. People around me were being killed. Seemingly normal, harmless human beings.

Like Mahoney, I was sure that the two murders were connected. And also like Mahoney, I suspected I might be close to the connection. But I didn't know how. For the first time since Frank had died, I sensed that my own life was in danger.

If Frank and John both knew something and had died for it, then I was in danger of stumbling on the same thing. But I couldn't turn back. Not if I wanted Lisa back. And I now had somewhere new to look.

BioOne.

25

Monday morning was horrible. The meeting was short. Gil, looking exhausted, said a few words about John's death. Everyone was stunned, even Art. Gil spoke about the difficult time we could expect from the press over the coming days, and urged everyone to direct all comment through him. Despite having read all the newspaper speculation, no one at the meeting mentioned me, for which I was grateful.

There were some desultory remarks about BioOne's stock price, which had slid back down to forty-one dollars. Diane reported on her checks with the venture capitalists, which had confirmed Tetracom's story. Gil said the Bieber Foundation were in the middle of their review of venture capital investments, and so far there was no news from Lynette Mauer on how Revere was faring. Then it was all over.

No one yet knew the full story of John and Frank's relationship, and I didn't want to be around when they found out. I left the office as soon as I could, barely exchanging a couple of words with the shocked Daniel.

I had work to do.

I took the 'T' to Central in Cambridge, and walked the few blocks to Boston Peptides. Despite its august new owner, the building looked as scruffy as ever.

I smiled at the receptionist, who recognized me, and asked for Henry Chan. He was with me in a moment.

'Hello, Simon. How are you? What can I do for you?'

He had a huge moon face with very large square glasses, and eyes that always seemed surprised. He had been born in Korea, brought up in Brooklyn, and educated at the best universities the East Coast had to offer. His huge head seemed to be literally stuffed with brains, giving him the aura of almost extra-terrestrial intelligence. He had tempted Lisa out of Stanford to join him at Boston Peptides, and since then had acted as a kindly, but quietly demanding, mentor. He was dressed in a white coat as always, and underneath it a shirt and tie.

'Can you spare me a few minutes, Henry?'

'It's about Lisa, I take it,' he said. His accent had lost any traces it might once have had of Korea or New York, and was flawlessly East Coast academic.

I nodded.

'Come through.'

He led me rapidly down the corridor towards his office at the end, looking quickly from side to side, as if he was scared that someone would see us. We passed the door to Lisa's lab, and I hesitated in front of it.

'This way,' urged Henry, and I followed him.

Henry's office was a box of paper and computer equipment with a small desk and two chairs. I sat in one and he sat in the other.

Henry blinked at me. 'I hear Lisa's left you. I'm sorry.'

'So am I,' I said. 'I also hear she's left you. Or rather you dumped her.'

'It's true, we have gone our separate ways,' Henry said coolly.

'Why did you do that? Didn't she do the important work on BP 56?'

Henry sighed. 'Your wife is a very intelligent woman. She made a tremendous contribution here. We will miss her greatly' He hesitated. 'I will miss her greatly'

'Then why did you fire her?'

'I didn't fire her, Simon. BioOne is a very different company from Boston Peptides. She wasn't going to fit in. That became obvious.'

'But why didn't you stand up for her?'

'There was nothing I could do.'

'Henry! You were her boss. You could have gone too. But I suppose you didn't want to lose those stock options.'

Henry Chan's bewildered eyes suddenly focused on me. For a moment I thought he was going to throw me out before I had had a chance to ask my questions. Then he took off his glasses and slowly rubbed his eyes.

'You're right, I do have stock options. But I did seriously consider resigning. The thing is, Boston Peptides is everything to me. I've devoted my academic career to it. My house is mortgaged to the rafters for it. And with BioOne's support, I believe I can make something of it in a couple of years.'

'Boston Peptides meant a lot to Lisa too,' I protested.

'Oh yes. I know it did. But when BioOne took us over we both had a choice: we could either fight them and lose, or stick with them and make something out of our technology. Lisa decided to fight. I decided to stick it out. Believe me, I don't like the way they do things any more than Lisa does.'

'What is it Lisa didn't like?' I asked. 'She didn't tell me precisely. She just said something about how the company stinks. She wasn't specific'

'I'm sorry, I can't be either, Simon. Remember I work for BioOne now'

'You've heard about Lisa's father's murder?'

Henry nodded, a slow downward movement of his huge head.

'I'm sure you also know that I'm the principal suspect?'

Another nod.

'Well, now someone else at Revere has been killed. And I think the connection between the two murders might have something to do with BioOne. I'm trying to find out what that is.'

'You're trying to prove your innocence?'

'Yes. But not just to the police. To Lisa. I need to get her back.'

Henry looked at me thoughtfully. 'OK. But what I tell you doesn't go any further than this room, and you mustn't name me as your source, whoever you talk to.'

'All right. Tell me a bit about BioOne.'

'What do you want to know?'

'What's wrong with it? I've heard some of what Lisa has had to say about it, but I'd like your opinion.'

Henry paused. 'I think what we both find most difficult is the secrecy. You see in an ideal world scientists would share their discoveries with their peers as and when they make them. That way the scientific world as a whole can progress much faster than any one scientist working in isolation. But this isn't an ideal world, especially in biochemistry. Even in academic institutions scientists are jealous of their research. They're constantly afraid that someone else will steal their ideas, publish a paper first, attract research funding that should be theirs.'

'I can imagine,' I said. Lisa had frequently talked about the politics of academia.

'Now, once you start talking about companies with stockholders and stock prices and patents, then openness of information becomes even more difficult to achieve. To successfully file for a patent, a company must show that its process or drug is not "prior art". The best way of ensuring that is to tell no one anything about it until the patent is safely granted.'

'But all biotech companies must be secretive,' I said.

'That's true to some extent. Although at a place like Boston Peptides we don't make a big issue of it. We're not going to do anything stupid to jeopardize our patents, but we're all here to find a treatment for Parkinson's disease, and if we can help other scientists without harming the prospects for our own projects, we will.'

'So what's the problem?'

'BioOne is different. Their whole culture is permeated with secrecy. It's extraordinary. There are dozens of scientists working in different groups who are allowed no contact with one another. All their research results are passed to the centre, and they are only made available to others in the company on a need-to-know basis. And it's set up so most people don't need to know.'