“I’ve got a lunch meeting with Professor Guthrie.
Can you help me with directions please?”
“Which Professor Guthrie are you meeting sir?”
“I didn’t realize he wasn’t the only one.”
“It’s a big campus sir; in fact it’s the third largest university in the country
. Anyway, you said, ‘he’ so that would have to be Professor Scott Guthrie. He works mainly in the Biomedical Research Tower.”
“OK but I’m supposed to me
et him at the faculty members’ cafeteria.”
The guard di
rected him to a visitors’ car park near the cafeteria and to follow the signs on the walkway from there. On the walkway, Alan easily found the first sign and enjoyed the pleasant walk through campus grounds to the cafeteria. He entered the modern, inviting atmosphere of the building and the enticing smell of food filled his nostrils. As his hunger grew with the aromas, he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Detective Beach, I presume.”
Alan turned to see Professor Guthrie dressed in a tweed jacket with suede elbow patches and had to stop himself from commenting on his rather cliché appearance.
“Professor Guthrie?”
“That’s right but call me Scott.”
“And my name i
s Alan. Nice to meet you Scott - and thank you again for your time.”
“My father told me never to turn down a free lunch; shall we
order?” said Guthrie, gesturing toward the food service area.
Alan found th
e professor immediately good natured and likable. They went to the counter and Guthrie recommended a few of his favorite dishes to Alan.
“Any one of those sounds great to me.
Why don’t you order for both of us?”
“
Two Butter Chickens with rice please.” Guthrie said to the attendant.
The men waited for their food and chatted
briefly about the campus until their meals arrived. After paying, Alan followed Guthrie with his tray to a table in the corner, away from other people. Beach thought how well liked Guthrie must have been as most people they passed offered him a warm smile or a friendly greeting.
As they sat, Alan commented, “You’re making me wish I’d gone to university myself
.”
“Well, it’s not for everyone but it certainly is a way of life
for some and a means to a better one for others. By the way, how long have you been friends with Holly?”
“I guess I should have said we’re more than just friends but we’ve known each other less than a week.”
“Ah, young love; I remember it well. You are very fortunate man Alan. Holly is not only intelligent but she has a wonderful sense of humor and disposition. You would be wise to hold onto her.”
“That is certainly my impression but I’m very new at this whole dating thing.”
“I see. I’m sorry to pry but you don’t seem young enough to be inexperienced in such matters.”
“I know it seems strange and to be honest, before I met Holly, I wouldn’t even have answered this question but
now, everything seems different. I was married at a fairly young age to the only woman I had ever loved and she died several years ago. I never really got over it and I gave no thought to ever finding someone else. Holly is the first woman to crack through my shell since then.”
“She is indeed a special woman.”
“I certainly would not argue with you there. Now I’m sorry but do you mind if we turn to the matter at hand.”
“Of course
; how can I help?”
“This may sound like an odd question but Holly assures me that
if anyone can help me, it’s you.” Alan retrieved his notebook and asked, “Can you think of anything that would require the combination of a particularly complex dendrimer, neuro-hormones, cutting edge computer programming and a specially designed delivery system?”
Guthrie looked intently at Alan without speaking.
“I’m sorry professor; did I not pronounce dendrimer correctly?”
Guthrie’s head tilted slightly as he
continued to study Alan’s face and he took on a more serious demeanor. “Detective, do you mind showing me your credentials please?”
Alan was somewhat taken aback by the request but pulled his detective shield out and handed it to Guthrie.
The professor examined it carefully and returned it.
“I’m sorry Scott; have I said something to upset you?”
“Not at all but this could be a highly sensitive matter.” Guthrie’s voice lowered significantly as he leaned forward to speak. “There is only one person who might be working to develop the kind of technology that would require the ingredients you have just listed. His name is Professor Linus Gelling.”
“That’s right; I met him in person but how do you know that.”
“Linus Gelling is an incredibly gifted man. Not only is he well beyond most peoples’ understanding of genius but he has been at the cutting edge of psychiatric pharmacology research for several decades. He is the undisputed leader in this field and a former mentor of mine.”
Alan felt excitement build as he listened intently, hoping for a break in his case.
“It seems Holly was right to send me to you Scott. Please continue.”
“Many years ago, long before chemical engineers discovered how to build dendrimers, Linus postulated a theory that if the right structure and delivery system could be developed, as yet undiscovered neuro-hormones could be used to influence
brain function and human behavior.”
“I’m sorry but I’m not sure I understand.”
“Let me give you a quick, down and dirty lesson in basic brain function. If you imagine the organ is simply a mass of electrical conduits leading from one neuron, or nerve cell, to another and each signal or message that travels between neurons is influenced by a specific hormone, or chemical, then you can see that it is theoretically possible to influence these individual messages or responses.”
“Sounds like science fiction to me
Scott.”
“I understand your misgivings but believe me
; this is already science fact and has been for many years, albeit in a very rudimentary and inexact manner. I assume you haven’t been hiding under a rock for the last couple of decades and would therefore be aware of the modern popularization of the term ‘clinical depression’?”
“I could hardly miss it with all the commercials for various
anti-depression drugs on television.”
“
Quite right. Well, many of the drugs you’ve seen advertised, and which are generally the treatments of choice for depression, are called SSRIs, or Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors.”
“That’s a mouthful!”
“To the layperson, yes but to a scientist, it makes perfect sense. Serotonin is a neuro-hormone which is partially responsible for regulating happiness and euphoria. If it becomes depleted or if the receptors which are designed to accept and react to Serotonin become damaged or over used, this can cause clinical depression. There are other neuro-hormones involved in this process but so far, Serotonin seems to be the predominant player in mood management. Hence, SSRIs are used to block the reuptake of Serotonin to make more of the compound available within the nerve synapse, or junction.”
“I thought depression just meant that you’re sad.”
“Well, in lay terms it does but the fact is that long term sadness is now known as clinical depression and it is directly caused by neuro-hormonal imbalance or the inability of specific receptors in the brain to function correctly. When you consider that every message or signal that occurs in the brain is dictated or influenced by neuro-hormones, it becomes obvious that this phenomenon is also likely responsible for virtually all psychiatric illnesses.”
“You said the science is rudimentary and inexact – it sounds pretty specific to me.”
“Indeed the treatment is designed to affect specific receptors but when you see the television commercials, they mention a great number of potential adverse events. These unwanted effects are caused by the fact that SSRIs use a scattergun approach. In other words, they affect all of their target receptors when only certain ones require treatment. The result is that areas not requiring treatment are treated anyway and that can lead to unwanted effects.”
“OK, I think I get it.
So what you’re saying is that Professor Gelling may have developed a much more specific approach to neuro-hormonal manipulation – is that it?”
“
You are a quick study Alan - that is exactly what I mean. And be assured that if he and his team have made a significant breakthrough in that field, the potential profits could be enormous! I mean many billions of dollars.”
Alan
’s mind raced to find a motive for Helen’s death amongst the science and the potential profits the professor had just explained. Tom Finch had told him that each scientist in the Blue Sky research team was dependant on the others for their potential bonuses so he couldn’t see how money would be a motive. Frustrated that nothing obvious was jumping out, he pulled himself back to the conversation to focus on one confounding point.
“You
’ve explained a great deal for me Scott but one thing I’m missing is where the cutting edge computer programming comes into the picture.”
The professor paused introspectively then turned his gaze back to Alan.
“I can only suppose they are employing advanced computer technology to design intricate dendrimers to deliver whatever drugs they have developed to the specific sites they are targeting.”
“I would agree with you except for one thing; the computer expert on their team is Eric Rothstein, the famous computer game
designer and programmer. His expertise is in designing ultra lifelike animation so it really wouldn’t fit with what you’ve explained to me.”
Guthrie scratched his balding
head and absent mindedly pushed some chicken around his plate. He seemed very deep in thought but slowly came back to say, “I need to ponder this for a while. There are some avenues I can look down. Can you give me a couple of days?”
“
By all means; anything you can do to help would be greatly appreciated. One more question for now though; you said Gelling is altruistic. Can you expand on that a bit?”
“I
’ve known Linus for many years and he is a true gentleman. He has no interest in personal wealth, no family, and lives only for his work. As long as I have known him, he has always strived to develop treatments to help his fellow man. From what I’ve heard, he doesn’t even keep the patents to his discoveries for himself. In fact, as far as I’m aware, he donates them to charities. I’ve never met anyone as driven and selfless as him before.”
“
Sounds like quite a guy. I thank you very much for these insights and your time Scott. I certainly owe Holly a big thank you for sending me to you.”
“It was my pleasure.
I always enjoy an interesting hypothetical discussion. I also love this free Butter Chicken!”
“Not at all
- and you’re right; this is some of the best Butter Chicken I’ve ever had.”
The two men continued chatting on lighter subjects as they finished their lunch then Alan thanked Guthrie again and left.
Walking back to the car, his mind was still swimming with the possible ramifications of such a theory, when his phone rang. The display showed Larry Phillips’ name and he pressed the button to accept the call.
“Hi Larry.
Any luck with your FBI contact?”
“Well, I’ve got some bad news, some more bad news, and a significant revelation for you.
What do you want first?”
“I guess we’d better start at the beginning.”
“OK, the creepy little guy doesn’t exist in the FBI database and my friend even searched the Interpol files too – sorry, no hits.”
Alan groaned in disappointment.
“OK, what next?”
“I tried to trace the owner of the web site you sent me.
It led me down a very convoluted and well protected path until I finally got to the source page but as soon as it came up; the site crashed and simultaneously released a particularly nasty worm into my system which eventually shut the whole thing down. I don’t know who set this thing up but their skills are way beyond mine. There are not many people around that could build such a fast-acting and effective booby trap as that. It’s going to take all day to get my system back to full operational capabilities.”
“I’m sorry to hear that
Larry - I do appreciate your efforts though. You said there was a revelation?”
“Yes;
the source page flared in the split second before it disappeared and left a temporary ghost shadow burned on the old CRT screen I was testing at the time so I boosted the gain and put the monitor into negative view, which allowed me to make out the ghost of the final screen. It wasn’t clear but in the seconds before the shadow faded and I got a quick peek at an address in New Jersey. The crazy thing is that if I had been using one of the newer high definition monitors, I would never have been able to see it. Hold onto your hat, Al – you’re never going to believe this. The address is leased to a consumer rights advocate called Matt Lewis.”