Frank Deldeo knew he was dying. His lungs were screaming for oxygen now. He fought the urge to just give up, gasping for breath in vain. He felt his eyes bug out of their sockets, and his head felt like an overripe watermelon about to burst.
Finally, as Deldeo felt himself going unconscious, the last thought he had was the sheer terror of his own impending death.
* * *
The frog jumped out of Deldeo’s mouth and onto the floor, where Stephen Vetter retrieved it. Vetter gazed at Deldeo’s lifeless body.
Useless lump of shit.
He pushed his intercom and paged security.
“Could you come up to my office, please? I have some garbage that needs disposed of.”
“There’s more,” Katherine Blair said.
Lindsey studied her. Her own experience with people and the cruelelties of which they were capable was well earned, perhaps because it was based on first hand knowledge. Still, to imply there could be even more than what Katherine had already told her, exceeded even her expectations.
“How can there be more?”
“Lindsey, I haven’t been completely honest with you. I swear to you I knew nothing about this sick plan of his. But there is one thing I failed to tell you.”
“Well let’s have it. Could it be much worse?”
Katherine stared straight ahead and dug into the cuticle of her thumb with another nail. “When they built Indian Springs, they installed video cameras in all the heating units. So he could keep a watch on everyone. I thought it was just his voyeuristic personality. It seemed harmless at the time. Now I understand why he really did it. It was his way of monitoring the clinical progress of his–“
”His guinea pigs? Is that what you’re going to say, Katherine? You knew this and didn’t tell me. You are an officer of a company--a huge company--and you let Vetter play some sick game with his employees?”
“I swear I didn’t know about the rest.”
Lindsey had stepped forward and her face was just inches from Katherine’s. “How can I believe you? How do I know he isn’t on his way over her right now with one of his goons? Where’s the trust?”
“I know how you feel. He betrayed me the same way. That’s why you have to believe me.”
Lindsey shook her head. “I can’t believe he saw everything. I made love to Jason in that house. I guess that sick bastard filmed that, too.”
Katherine looked away.
Lindsey felt as if the moorings to reality had come loose and they were pulling her back and forth by tides she couldn’t see. “This is too much,” she said.
“He knew he couldn’t get approval for clinical trials,” Katherine said. “So he did the unthinkable.”
“Is it even
possible
to do it?” Lindsey asked. “I mean he would have to regulate the levels precisely. Wouldn’t he?”
Katherine shook her head. “Without going into all the biochemistry involved, the answer is no.”
“Could you explain?” Lindsey asked.
Katherine took a deep breath.
“It’s a well-established principal of pharmacology and toxicology,” Katherine began. “That the effect of any drug or chemical substance depends on its dose. Bliss is so effective at penetrating the blood brain barrier that it works in the microgram range. We call that the threshold dose. In other words, very minute amounts are equally effective at producing a result.”
Lindsey opened her mouth to speak, but Katherine waved her off.
“Basically if they drank the water,” Katherine continued, ”they’d get the same effect as taking a pill. Every time they drank the water. Normally, the liver filters excess drugs out and excretes them via the urine and feces. That’s not the case with Bliss. It continues to build in the system until you get untoward side effects. Deadly and horrendous side effects.”
“I’ve witnessed them,” Lindsey said.
Lindsey realized the implications of what Katherine had just told her all too clearly. Though she was not schooled in pharmacology, she had been around the business long enough to understand the physiological action of medicine. Every drug and chemical has a safe dose parameter. As the patient increases the dose beyond that, harmful or toxic effects occur. Finally, death results at an even higher dose. Bliss at any dose “piled up” in the body until the side effects reached catastrophic proportions. Lindsey shuddered at the thought.
Katherine walked mechanically to the kitchen and lifted a teakettle from the stove. A wispy column of steam rose up then stopped as she filled two cups then dropped in tea bags as if it were an afternoon tea party. She returned to the living room and put the tray on the coffee table.
They sat in silence. Finally Lindsey lifted her eyes and spoke.
“We have to stop him.”
“We need more proof,” Katherine said. “We’ll have to get into Imec and find the source of the drug and how it’s getting into the water supply.”
“What about the suicides and the murders. Isn’t that enough proof for the authorities?”
“I don’t think you understand how broad Vetter’s influence is. He’s got people on his payroll everywhere.”
Lindsey jumped up. “Oh my God, Katherine. I just realized something. Jason was sick when I called him. Maybe he overdosed on Bliss. He spent the week at my house then suddenly he’s ill. I’ve got to call him right away.”
“Wait. Why put him in danger? Let’s just see if we can get into Imec and take care of Vetter ourselves. Anyway, it’s possible he was sick from something else. You didn’t get sick or have any side effects, did you?”
“No, and I wouldn’t. One thing Vetter didn’t count on.”
Katherine furrowed her brow.
“I only drink bottled water,” Lindsey said.
At 8 P.M., Detective Dan Warren
arrived at the newest crime scene in Indian Springs. The uniformed officers had left the bodies exactly as they’d found them.
The first victim, Paula Landers, lay sprawled on her back, half on and half off a kitchen chair, a needle and syringe still embedded in her arm. Rick Landers was sitting nearby on the floor. His arms limp at his sides. A thick cord around his neck was strung tight over the door and tied to the knob on the other side. Death had colored his face a deep purple. He had hung himself.
Seated at his desk, Stephen Vetter watched the police go through their routine, from the monitor in his office. The Landers had been the latest to flip out. He keyed up the audio on the monitor and listened...
“Looks like this is becoming an epidemic here,” Warren said.
“Yeah, I guess,” A uniformed officer studying the contents of a syringe, said.
Warren strolled into the kitchen and brushed the lint off his jacket. Warren, a bear of a man, with close-crop salt and pepper hair and a perpetual five o’clock shadow, had been with the Arizona State Police for twenty years. He seemed unimpressed. “You find something there?”
The young cop scratched his head. “I don’t know, but whatever he shot her up with, killed her before the syringe was even half empty. Very powerful stuff.”
Warren nodded. “They both work for that pharmaceutical company. Hard to tell what they got their hands on.”
Another uniformed cop came in a minute later. “I checked with the neighbors. No one heard anything. The lady’s sister called in; concerned she hadn’t heard from her. So we came out to check it out. All these people work for Imec that live in this development.”
“Yea,” Warren said. “I found that out the last two times I was here. I think it’s time we go back and talk to someone at that company again.”
The uniformed cop paused and held his head as if listening for something.
“Something wrong?” his partner asked.
“Just thought I heard something. Some kind of whirring noise.”
Warren frowned. “That’s the sound of death. Get used to it, kid.”
Vetter smiled to himself. No, that’s the sound of me watching you.
Fools.
“This is not what I expected,”
Katherine said.
Lindsey glanced at Katherine. “I don’t know what to expect. What if they saw us last night and they’re waiting for us tonight.”
“I don’t think they would expect anyone to break in two nights in a row.”
Lindsey frowned. “Yea no one is that stupid.”
The women were sitting in Katherine’s car in the Imec parking lot. It was just after midnight. Katherine had pointed the vehicle toward the south end of the building with the engine idling. The parking spot afforded a view along the entire rear of the complex. All the second story windows were ablaze with light.
“The whole place is lit up,” Lindsey said. “This isn’t going to be easy. They must be working round the clock.”
“It makes sense,” Katherine said. “He knows his plan has failed and he’s speeding up production.”
“Well what are we going to do?”
Bright car lights suddenly appeared at the building’s north end.
“Shit,” Lindsey said. “Now what?”
“Just get down. And don’t move.”
* * *
At the other end of the parking lot, Romwell, the security guard, recognized the car immediately. They’d parked it in a spot pointing toward the building’s exit. What caught his attention was that although the head lights were out, the brake lights were on.
Someone had their foot on the brake, sitting in the car.
As the security van skirted the perimeter of the compound, Romwell was able to make out the silhouette of two heads in the front seat. He continued as if he were making his normal rounds around the building.
When he was out of sight, Romwell pulled off to the side of the road and killed the engine. Rather than bother Vetter, he would handle these two women himself. He donned a black jacket and jumped out. He jogged back up the road, then skirted the edge of the parking area. In a few minutes he had the car in sight, and he could see the two heads in the front seat, still moving.
* * *
“I’m scared,” Lindsey said. “Why don’t we just go? You said yourself that you didn’t expect this much activity here.”
“Calm down!” Katherine ordered. “It was just security making nightly rounds. And besides, if that guard is the usual one, Vetter told me the guy is an idiot.”
“Yeah, well suppose that idiot has a gun?”
“He’d probably shoot himself in the foot,” Katherine said. “Now will you calm down? What happened to all that bravado from earlier?”
“I guess I just lost my nerve. I’m exhausted and tired of playing hide and seek.”
“I know how you feel, but we have to get inside the production facility. It’s the only way to end this.”
Lindsey nodded. “I’m all right now.”
“Production is underneath us, so we’ll have to get in the side entrance and take the elevator down. We need some sort of distraction.”
Katherine opened the driver’s door and stepped out into the cool night air. It never failed to amaze her, how the desert cooled off so quickly at night. She slipped around to the trunk, put on a dark windbreaker, then returned inside the car.
“I just saw someone at one of the windows,” Lindsey said.
“It’s just the cleaning service. All the night work goes on below ground.”
“I can’t believe you’re not worried,” Lindsey said.
“I never said I wasn’t. Now are you coming?”
Lindsey took a deep breath. “Do I have a choice?”
“Not if you want to nail that bastard as bad as you say.”
“Have you figured out how we’re going to get in there with Barney Fife on our ass?”
“Like I said. We need a distraction.”
“I’m all ears,” Lindsey said.
Katherine put the car in gear and backed out of the space.
“What are you doing?” Lindsey asked. “Are you crazy?”
“Just watch and learn.”
Katherine put the car in drive and let it move forward toward the side entrance. “Get ready to jump out,” Katherine said.
“What?”
“Just do it. Now!”
Katherine and Lindsey opened their doors and both jumped clear of the car as it continued to move past the entrance and toward the fence surrounding the compound.
Lindsey smacked the ground hard and tumbled to a stop. Katherine ran over to her and crouched down next to her. “Are you all right?”
Lindsey pushed her hair out of her eyes. “Yes, I think so.”
“Let’s go,” Katherine said. She grabbed Lindsey’s arm and they were up and sprinting toward the side entrance door. The light from the exterior vapor lamps cast their shadows across the parking lot as they flattened themselves against the building. “My access card will get us in,” Katherine whispered. “Ready?”
Lindsey gave an unsure nod.
“Stay to the right when we go through the door. There’s a camera on the left you can avoid if you hug the door frame on the way in.”
“Something Vetter taught you?” Lindsey asked.
“Something like that.”
Lindsey grabbed Katherine’s arm as she started to move away from the door. “Wait a minute. I’ve got an idea.”
“Okay, but don’t tell me it’s that we should leave.”
Lindsey rolled her eyes. “No, really. If we split up we’ll have a better chance of getting down there. Even if one of us gets caught, the other can probably get down there and stop production. You said yourself it’s a big control room. One of us gets in there and starts pushing buttons.”
“No way.” Katherine countered. “We need to stay together. Besides you don’t even know your way around here. This place is a labyrinth. If you get lost, it could be very dangerous.”
“All right, if you’re sure,” Lindsey said.
“I’m sure. Down on the right is a coat closet. There’s lots of lab coats in there. I think we should grab a couple. If nothing else it will make us look more professional and avert any suspicions.”
Katherine slid her card in the access slot and pushed the door open.
So far so good.
The women hurried down the hall to a small reception area. Unlike the daylight hours, it was dark and deserted now. They ducked into the coat closet, closed the door, and turned on the light.
Katherine was right. There were plenty of white doctors’ coats, although few in small sizes. They finally found two that fit reasonably. Katherine tucked her access card into her pocket. “Look,” she said, reaching across to a shelf. “A flashlight. Perfect.” She stuck it inside her other pocket, turned out the light and reemerged into the hall.