Gavin made a face. ‘Seems like it.’
‘Well, don’t keep me in suspense. Tell me!’
Gavin outlined what he had been doing and showed her the cultures he’d been looking at.
After a couple of minutes Mary looked up from the microscope and said, ‘I’d like to say something like, it’s far too soon to be sure, or you’re reading far too much into this, but I can’t. This is absolutely fantastic: there’s no other word for it. Does Frank know about this?’
‘Not yet, I wanted to be sure of my ground. ‘I’ve got a few more things to check out. I’ll speak to him first thing on Monday.’
‘You do realise that if this works in vivo, it’s going to be the biggest single advance in cancer treatment... ever?’
‘It may have crossed my mind,’ said Gavin.
‘Sorry,’ said Mary. ‘Of course you know it. What a bloody stupid thing to say.’
Gavin smiled affectionately at her. ‘Don’t apologise. You’re one of the good guys.’
‘The whole scientific world will be queuing up to be your friend,’ said Mary. ‘And Graham Sutcliffe will be leading the applause.’
Gavin laughed out loud at the notion. ‘That’ll be worth seeing on its own. So, why are you here this morning?’
‘I’m looking for a bit of peace and quiet to write up my paper. My flatmates had other ideas.’
‘I’ll only be here for another half hour and then I’ll leave you in peace,’ said Gavin.
‘I’m really pleased for you, Gavin.’
Gavin could see that she meant it. He smiled and nodded and then, after a moment’s hesitation, he went over to her and kissed her on the cheek. ‘Thanks for being so nice to me.’
Mary smiled at the clumsiness of the gesture.
Gavin finished establishing the minimum dose of polymyxin needed to kill tumour cells and cleared his bench. Life was good. It was to get even better on Sunday evening when Gavin met Caroline off the train and she told him that her mother had entered a period of remission. She had been in good form at the weekend and was almost back to being her old self. ‘God, it was so nice to hear her laugh again. She always could be so funny. She has a wicked tongue when she puts her mind to it.’
Caroline picked up on Gavin’s muted response and said, ‘All right, I know it’s just a pause in the nightmare and it will come back, but it was just so good to see her without that terrible barely suppressed bitterness for once. It seemed like... we were friends again.’
They went back to Gavin’s flat where he served up spaghetti bolognese and a bottle of Valpolicella he’d bought from Safeways.
‘Why don’t we get a flat together?’ asked Gavin when they had finished.
Caroline shook her head. ‘We’re fine the way we are. If we move in together we’ll have all the baggage that goes with that — laundry, bills, who does this, who does that — I don’t think I could cope with all that right now. Doesn’t mean to say I don’t love you.’
‘That’s all that matters.’
Frank Simmons noticed Mary and Gavin deep in conversation when he came into the lab. Both turned and said ‘Good morning’, before apparently having trouble suppressing laughter over something. He closed the door of his office, thinking that laughter was good in the lab. It was the pained silence that followed squabbles that was the enemy of progress. He sat down and started opening his mail when a knock came at the door and Gavin came in.
‘How was your weekend, Frank?’
‘Crap, if you must know. Our babysitter didn’t turn up on Friday night so Jenny was in a bad mood all day Saturday. We took the kids to a country park on Sunday and they squabbled all the way there and all the way back. Domestic bliss. How was yours?’
‘You can do what?’ exclaimed Simmons when Gavin told him about his weekend work.
‘I can kill cancer without damaging healthy tissue. All you have to do is pre-treat the tumours with Valdevan and this makes them hypersensitive to cationic detergent drugs like polymyxin.’ Gavin explained his rationale for trying this in the first place and his subsequent findings.
‘This is absolutely incredible,’ exclaimed Simmons. ‘If you’re right... and I’m not suggesting for a moment that you’re not... this is going to... Christ, I don’t know.’ He threw his hands in the air. ‘Revolutionise cancer treatment.’
‘Music to my ears,’ said Gavin. ‘I’m sorry I went behind your back to do the experiments. I just couldn’t let it go.’
Simmons waved away the apology with a hand gesture. ‘In this case, the end has justified any means used to achieve it. Who have you told about this, Gavin?’
‘You, Mary, my girlfriend Caroline, that’s about it.’
Simmons nodded. He was finding it difficult to keep his emotions in check. He wanted to dance around the lab.
‘What happens now?’ asked Gavin.
‘That’s just what I’m wondering,’ said Simmons, tapping the end of his pen on his desk. ‘My instinct is to tell Grumman Schalk that their drug, Valdevan, can be a wonder drug after all. What do you think?’
‘Seems only fair.’
‘Hang on a minute though,’ said Simmons, remembering something. ‘I don’t think you can give patients polymyxin-based drugs any more. They were very toxic as I remember...’
‘I checked up on that,’ said Gavin. ‘They were used to treat bacterial infections when they first came out and you’re right, they did prove to be very toxic, but the level of the drug needed to kill the tumours is way below the dose needed to kill bacteria. I think there’s a good chance that patients won’t experience any side-effects at all.’
‘You seem to have thought of everything,’ smiled Simmons. ‘So who’s going to tell the company, me or you? I take that back; it should be you. Give Max Ehrman a call. Bloody hell, this is going to be the mother and father of all phone calls.’
‘Thanks, Frank.’
‘Gavin? What a pleasant surprise. What can I do for you? More Valdevan?’
‘Actually, no, I have some news for you, Professor.’
‘Max, please.’
‘Max, I think it might be possible to use Valdevan after all.’
‘I’m sorry? Use Valdevan? For what?’
‘To treat cancer, just as you guys hoped all these years ago.’
‘Are you kidding? It didn’t work then and it doesn’t work now, and you were instrumental in showing us why not.’
‘I know, but we can exploit the membrane damage it causes in tumour cells.’ Gavin went on to explain his findings.
Ehrman seemed stunned. The silence seemed to go on for ever.
‘Max?’
‘I’m still here. Well, you’ve really given me something to think about, Gavin. I think I’d like to get back to you later if that’s all right. I need to discuss this with my colleagues. But congratulations on an intriguing piece of work.’
Gavin felt deflated. He’d expected a bit more enthusiasm from Ehrman, but told himself that this would probably come later when the company had had time to digest what he’d discovered. Frank Simmons wasn’t in his office when Gavin went to tell him about the call, but he returned shortly afterwards with Graham Sutcliffe in tow. ‘I thought you should tell Graham about your discovery,’ said Simmons. ‘It’s going to affect everyone.’
‘Sure,’ said Gavin, noting again the coldness in Sutcliffe’s eyes, although he was affecting a smile.
The three men sat in Simmons’ office while once more Gavin went through his work. Simmons looked to Sutcliffe for a response when he was finished.
‘Well, I must say, this is all very interesting,’ said Sutcliffe, giving the impression that he didn’t know quite what to say and needed time to get his thoughts in order — not that this stopped him talking. ‘Of course, I need hardly say... I must advise caution at this stage. These are lab results... and as such, are a world away from the human situation... or even animal trials... and as you yourselves say, they are also based on two drugs, one of which has already failed and another which has proved to be highly toxic...’