Chapter 19

Over half of the students from both classes were present for the study session Friday. On one hand, it was funny. On the other, it was sort of pathetic that we were now up to thirty-three students, because thirty of them needed help. We broke them down into groups of ten and rotated through the groups again.

Cindy looked a little disgusted when we were done. “This is ridiculous! How is it that these guys are all so far behind?”

“They’re behind because they’re not planning ahead. They’re either not reading ahead, or they have comprehension issues, and are just too afraid to ask in class,” Beth said.

“Unfortunately, I think you’re right. I’ll talk to the assistants, and see if we can get some help for next Friday,” I volunteered. “Beth, we’re just heading directly over, aren’t we?”

She nodded. “Dora, Margie, and Marcie are going to meet us over there. Cindy, you’re coming too, right?”

Cindy smirked. “Yeah. I don’t know what it’s about, but I’m game this afternoon.”

We took our carts over to the animal sciences building and went inside. I got my badge out of my pocket and clipped it on, so that when we got to the security checkpoint, it wasn’t an issue. I took everyone to the conference room, and was pleased to see my girls already present. Stephen and my lab crew were also there.

I spent a few minutes introducing everyone, while Margie put out a folder with an NDA on the outside in front of each seat. People started showing up at 1:30, and it was rather obvious that many of them knew each other. We simply directed them where to sit, and to please fill out tags since we didn’t know them. At ten till, Helen Blau walked in with a man, and sought me out.

“Cal, this is Frank Young, chairman of the Food and Drug Administration. Frank, this is Cal Lewis, the ‘inventor’ of the reason you’re here today.”

“So I understand, Helen. But I heard the quotes around the word inventor. Why?”

“My mother is the one who actually invented the basic medication, Sir. She’s deceased, and I made improvements to it, to soften the effect upon the women taking it.”

“I see.” He looked over my shoulder. “David, good to see you. How exactly are you involved in all this?”

Korn patted me on the back. “Cal is teaching me all about humility, is how I’m involved in this.”

Young chuckled. “If you’re learning about humility, then the world really is changing. Um, I’m here at the request of the Vice-President, so I’m definitely keeping an open mind about whatever I hear today.”

David nodded. “Good. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.” His brow furrowed as he thought about something. “Cal, can I give Frank a heads-up?”

“I’m sorry, David. Not until the NDAs have all been signed. I created special ones for today.”

Korn nodded. “I understand. Come on, we’re over there, Frank.” They headed for a seat with Stephen and the rest of my crew. I could hear Young asking David about my use of his first name before Helen took the center of the room.

“For our time zone, good afternoon, and thank you all for attending on such short notice. Just for the purpose of introductions, I know you all pretty much know each other. Rather than go by personal names, we’ll go by companies for those of you who represent the pharmaceutical companies. Just stand up and let us know who you’re with.”

It was interesting that the representatives were all men. They were from Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Merck, Abbott Laboratories, McKesson & Robbins, Bristol Myers, Amgen, Squibb, and Eli Lilly.

“Thank you,” Helen said. “There are eight of you that are pharmaceutical manufacturers and McKesson is the largest distributor of pharmaceutical products in the nation. The reason you’re all here today is ... well, there is an NDA form sitting in front of each of you. Absolutely nothing else will be discussed unless that is signed.”

I was paying attention. Two of them actually took the time to read it, and I saw the men from Eli Lilly and Pfizer both look over at Doctor Young with an interested look in their eyes. The others just scribbled their names on it and looked rather bored. Doctor Young looked at what was written on it as well, and with interest, then signed.

Helen said, “Thank you,” once I’d gone around and collected the papers, acting like I was her assistant today.

“As you all know, Stanford University is both a teaching hospital as well as a research hospital. I am Doctor Helen Blau, head of Pharmacology here at Stanford. Also here today, we have Doctor David Korn, Dean of the School of Medicine here, Doctor Stephen Fallow, chairman of the Microbiology Department, Doctor Robert Madix, chairman of the Chemical Engineering Department, and five of our professors and instructors, Doctor James Spudich, Biochemist, Doctor John Ross, Chemist, Doctor Virginia Walbot, Biological Sciences, and Doctors Margaret Billingham and Barbara Egbert, Pathology. In addition, we have several graduate assistants and students present.”

I grinned inside, because she’d done exactly what I’d asked her to do, which was to point out that there were a lot of scientists in the room.

“Gentlemen, we have a demonstration for you to watch. If you would all follow me, this should take no longer than an hour.”

Perfect! I was going to be watching for who was checking their watches. Two of the representatives were already looking bored. While there wasn’t enough room for everyone to get into the animal observation room, we held the doors open so that everyone who wanted to see could do so.

Doctor Blau picked up the microphone. “Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready?”

One of the handlers said, “Yes, Ma’am. We have extra people on hand, because our instructions were to have fifty fresh chimpanzees available for today’s experiment. If it’s the same results as last time, we’re ready for it, and we’re ready to pamper them when we’re done.”

“Good, thank you. You have it set with no placebos, all fifty samples will be live?”

“Yes, Ma’am. We’re actually pretty excited, even if these ladies don’t know what’s going to happen to them yet.”

“Very well. You may proceed.” She put the microphone back. “Gentlemen, we’ve already conducted two blind tests, each using thirty female chimpanzees. There were fifteen doses of the medication and fifteen placebos given during each of the blind tests. The results were one hundred percent effective. Today, we’re doing a fifty animal sample. These are female chimpanzees, all of breeding age, none of them pregnant. As you’re aware, there are ten primate species that have menstrual cycles. We have two of them here today: chimpanzees and humans. In large groups, it’s obviously a lot easier for our animal handlers to deal with fifty chimpanzees than fifty gorillas.”

That got a little chuckle.

“What you are seeing them do is insert a newly patented medication into a snack. The handlers will give the snack to the chimpanzee and monitor to make sure the animal eats the snack and the medication. Once this is complete, based upon previous tests, we shall begin seeing results within thirty to ninety minutes.”

The representative from Merck asked, “What results?”

“It was written down on your NDA,” Doctor Blau said.

He at least had the decency to look abashed. “I’m sorry, I’m so used to having to sign all sorts of NDAs that I really didn’t look at it. We do this so many times per week it’s sort of routine.”

She looked back into the room, then her eyes seemed to settle on me. “You’ve had a bit to do with this, come on up and explain.”

The representatives had all been watching her eyes, so most of them were rather amazed to see me come up to the front, since I hadn’t been introduced.

“Thank you, Doctor Blau.” I took a deep breath, then blew it out, acting like I was nervous. “Okay, um, so, what we’ve got is, uh a, medication that will reset the female menstrual cycle. It, um, causes the shedding of the, um, uterine lining. Levonorgestrel is primarily used for, uh, birth control pills. However, there are instances where, um, a woman has had sex, primarily due to sexual assault, uh, and she may not be on the pill. Diethylstibestrol was frequently used in, um, the last decade as a, um, morning after type of medication, as an off-label use. The Yuzpe regime for, uh, emergency contraception uses ethinyl estradiol and levonogestrel. It, uh, helps inhibit ovulation. Simply using a larger dose of levonogestrel alone would, um, actually be more effective. Those do, uh, only work if taken within, um, seventy-two hours of coitus.”

I moved around a little, acting like I was uncomfortable talking about this. “The, um, medication we’re showing today, can, uh, be taken up to three weeks after, um, coitus. It will, um, shed the lining, even if a blastocyst has implanted. It, uh, does not upset the female hormone balance, and um, it simply skips an ovulation cycle for the female.”

I could see Doctor Young was looking concerned, so Stephen whispered something to him that caused Young to first give him a look of, ‘Oh, really?’, then a large smile, and finally put on a poker face.

One of the reasons I’d spoken so poorly was that I wanted to give the medication time to work. It did, and before long, everyone watched the animal handlers running around, assisting the confused chimpanzees. The last one started shedding just after seventy minutes.

“Thank you,” I said. “If we’d all head back, now?”

I was placing bets with myself on who’d stay. I was off by one, as four stayed instead of the three I’d guessed. The other five quickly made their excuses and left, while Eli Lilly, Bristol Myers, Pfizer, and Amgen stayed. I made sure that Margie had the NDAs from the other five. They were all in a world of hurt if any of them decided to manufacture a morning after pill using a larger dosage of levonogestrel. That specifically was covered.

Helen looked at me, then back at the four representatives that stayed. “Gentlemen, thank you for staying.”

The Pfizer rep replied, “Personally, I think they’re idiots. You don’t set up this big of a dog and pony show, with this many research scientists and physicians, without an ulterior motive in mind. I’m guessing you were thinning the herd.”

That got a laugh from my instructors. “Of course we were,” Helen said. “Survival of the fittest, as it were. Why’d the three of you stay?”

The Bristol Myers rep laughed. “You just showed us all something special, spectacular, even, and they were too stupid to notice.”

The Eli Lilly rep shook his head. “I read the NDA. I’ve personally not met him, but when a university takes the trouble to have the Chairman of the FDA at the initial presentation of a new drug, there’s something serious going on. We’re shutting down our last DES line next year, because the medicine is out of date. I’m looking for a replacement.”

“We’re California based, and we know Stanford,” said the Amgen rep. “I didn’t need any other reason to stay, no matter what or how long it takes.”

Helen laughed then. “Very good. Patience is a virtue. First, let me introduce Doctor Frank Young, the chairman of the Food and Drug Administration, to those of you who haven’t met him before. Frank, do you have anything to say so far?”

He stood up. “Obviously, that was a rather impressive demonstration. I have questions about the medication shown that I’m sure you will have answers for, if you’d continue with the presentation.”

Helen waved to me. The four of them were sitting at two tables, so I simply went to the row ahead of them, scooted a chair out of the way, and plopped down on the table in front of them, using the chair as a footrest. While I was doing that, Jim and John brought two rotating white boards into the row behind me.

“Hopefully, that performance I just gave, will simply qualify as incredibly bad acting. Do any of the four of you follow high school and college football?”

I thought the Amgen guy was going to jump out of his chair, he pumped his arm, saying, “I knew it!” The other three had sly grins on their faces, and weren’t quite so dramatic.

“That answers that question. Gentlemen, my name is California Lewis. I am the CEO of CEDEM Financial, formerly the quarterback for the Hutchinson Salthawks, and the starting quarterback this fall for the Stanford Cardinal. Of course, the minor detail that CEDEM Financial has a net worth in excess of, actually, all four of your companies combined, and I’m a whopping sixteen years old, should neither intimidate nor influence you in any way, shape, or form. Obviously, what you just saw demonstrated was a medication that I am credited with as the inventor and patent holder. It’s actually something my mother created, and I modified, because her version had too many unpleasant effects upon a woman taking her pill.”

The Pfizer rep nodded. “Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to come out here quite this early, but I’m sure I speak for these three as well. As soon as I heard there was a medical breakthrough coming from Stanford, I knew you were involved, and I knew I wanted us to be involved.” The other three nodded as well.

“I told Bill Gates I have no desire to run a computer software company. Gentlemen, I have no desire to run a pharmaceutical manufacturing company.” I turned and looked at my instructors. “No laughing!” Then I turned back. “I am simply here at Stanford to learn as much as I can, and get a quality education. I heard that!”

Stephen said, “That wasn’t a laugh, that was a quiet snort. No bullshitting me, Cal.”

“Fine, be that way. I’ve already earned eight bachelor’s, and if I can get a paper or two done, a couple of doctorates by April. I may also be here to get a few letters behind my name so people don’t look at the sixteen or nineteen year old and wonder about the kid, they’ll know by looking at what I’ve done here.” I paused. “You look a little amused.”

“I’m Kevin Stahl. I have a twelve year old son, Jimmy, that plays junior high school football. He made me find copies of the Saturday paper from Hutchinson so he could read about you, and we watched your state championship game. His coach used you as the example of good sportsmanship, and I did a bit of research on my own, including the Wall Street Journal article. I’ve been with Pfizer for fifteen years. We do a tremendous amount of our own research and development. But we don’t suffer from the ‘not invented here’ syndrome.”

“Antonio ... call me Tony ... Gianetti. I’ve been with Lilly for twelve years. I was three rows behind Kevin on the way out here from Indianapolis. The boys at Purdue were upset you didn’t go there, but like Kevin said, we’ve been watching for something to come from here.”

“Billy Loomis. I cheated. I’m from our Redwood City research facility, and my kids go to Menlo School. I just live south of El Camino Real, off Selby. So, I’ve been paying a bit more attention to the CEDEM research facility being built here than anyone else has been able to. It doesn’t look like much of a research facility to me, and I’ve been with Bristol Myers for fourteen years.”

“We haven’t even been a company for five full years; Amgen just started in April of ‘80. But I’ve been there the whole time. Jerry Carson, I work with Doctor Berk, mostly. You guys all have it good, with just names.” He laughed. “Applied Molecular Genetics was just too long, and sounded ‘off’, I guess, so now we’re Amgen. I didn’t cheat quite like Billy did, but we heard a rumor that you were working with Doctor Fallow, and I’ve been champing at the bit ever since.”

I grinned. “Technically, Billy, it is a research facility. We just don’t have to come out and say what it’s researching. You’re right on the name, Jerry. I’ve heard of Doctor Berk, so you’ve got some big guns there. Tony, sorry to disappoint you, but Purdue wasn’t even in my top twenty choices. Kevin, sounds like I’ve got a fan. So, what’d you guys think about the demonstration?”

The four of them looked at each other, then Tony said, “I already said we’re looking for a replacement for DES. Where are you on clinical trials?”

“Good question. Margaret, how many tests of ‘No Regrets’ as of today?”

“Three more since yesterday. Seventeen total, now. All, one hundred percent effective, just like the animal trials. That includes six confirmed implantations as well.”

“Jim, please turn over board one.” He spun it over. We’d already written some things on it.

“Gentlemen, the top figure of ninety thousand that you see on this board is the number of reported rapes and sexual assaults in the United States last year. Based upon actual crime statistics, and due to the stigma that society puts on the victims, the actual number is somewhere between twice and three times this amount. That’s up to seven hundred thirty nine women raped every ... single ... day, in the United States. You see below that the number thirty-two. That’s the number of women reported raped just here in the state of California ... every ... single ... day. Realistically, it’s closer to ninety-five, again, because of the stigma attached to it. The medication you just saw demonstrated is one hundred percent effective in causing the shedding of the uterine lining. Even two doses of levonogestrel, which can only be taken within seventy-two hours of sex, is only ninety-four percent effective. ‘No Regrets’ can be taken from immediately after sex, up to twenty-one days afterwards. It is purposely not effective after twenty-four days. That’s my moral compass, and I will not budge on that. Women who are on massive amounts of blood thinners or are true and actual hemophiliacs, as opposed to simply being carriers of the genes, are the only ones at risk, and they’re at risk from a normal menstrual cycle.”

Frank Young had quietly walked around the room and to join the four pharmaceutical reps.

“John, turn over board two. Thank you. Yesterday, in my lab here on campus ... and yes, I used the possessive ‘my’ on purpose ... Jim and two graduate assistants made six hundred human doses and four hundred chimpanzee doses. Chimpanzee dosage is basically one-third of a human dose. We used fifty of those chimpanzee doses today. We’d previously made fifty human doses and thirty chimpanzee doses for a total cost of four hundred thirty two dollars in raw materials. They made seven hundred and thirty three human dose equivalents, in my lab, with four thousand, two hundred and fourteen dollars worth of raw materials. Out of the initial cost of four hundred thirty two dollars, we have made sure that six women that were raped and impregnated by their rapist did not have to either get an abortion later, or carry that child to term, and we have given eleven other women the peace of mind in knowing that they were not impregnated by their rapist.”

All five of the men looked stunned.

“Gentlemen, here’s the first carrot, because you weren’t rude. ‘No Regrets’ or whatever your advertising departments decide to call it, will be produced and sold by your companies. I don’t want to run a pharmaceutical company. But there’s a big damned world out there, and the US isn’t the only place where people manufacture drugs. CEDEM is a multinational company, so I really don’t care. No doubt you’ve heard of Ice-X before. Dora, did you bring ... thank you.”

She handed me the plastic bag of liquid oxygen that had been in the lab. I put it on the table in front of the five men. Then she handed me the really strong magnet she’d kept away from the bag.

“Let’s see who knows their chemistry. Not a lot of people have seen this demonstration. What gas is light blue in its liquid state?”

No one answered for fear of being wrong. “It’s okay to be wrong in the classroom. Here, I’ll give you another hint. This is about a fifty pound magnet. Watch.” I brought the magnet closer to the bag, and it started to pull it across the table. I carefully kept it far enough away that it wouldn’t snap the bag to it and potentially rupture it.

“Now, what gas is light blue in its liquid state, and magnetic?”

“Liquid oxygen is the only thing I can think of,” Tony said.

I tossed the magnet back to Dora. “Pick the bag up, Tony.” He did so. “You’re now holding right at one quart of liquid oxygen in your hands, in a plastic bag with two coats of Ice-X; one on the inside, and one on the out. Sayel, do we have enough food for five more?”

“Yes, Master. We anticipate almost three hundred pounds of pork, and six hundred pounds of beef, tomorrow.”

“The five of you are invited to Moffett Field in the morning, to watch that bag and another one just like it get tossed onto a fire where we’re going to have a cookout. But, back to my point. I’m a pretty good chemist, and as Stephen knows, I’m pretty good with microbiology, too. Here’s carrot two. And this, gentlemen, is the really, really big, fat, juicy carrot. Doctor Young, you’re a microbiologist, you’ll appreciate this. So will you, Jerry, since you work with Doctor Berk. DNA manipulation to create an antiviral cell programmed to seek out viruses, trick the virus into leaving the host cell and then bind to the created cell, to be flushed from the body through normal waste.”

Jerry looked at me with awe in his eyes. “Can you do that now?”

“I have done it. The process I used was quite morally and ethically wrong, but the patient is personally important to me. Now, I have to work with Stephen to figure out how to do it properly.”

“Fuck it, we’re in. I’ll call George right now, if you want. We weren’t expecting this, but you’re talking the Holy fucking Grail,” Jerry said, with reverence in his voice.

The other three reps looked slightly puzzled. Doctor Young didn’t.

“The Vice-President said that I had better pay damned close attention to you, when she told me that I was coming here today. You’ve made an antiviral that worked.”

That got the other three reps attention.

I nodded. “As I said, I cannot do it that way, ever again. It was dangerous, reckless, and stupid of me to even try, but ... well, we all do dumb things at times for the people we love. That’s why David and Stephen are on me to do this right, so that it’s not tailored just for one person. And yes, I created and administered an antiviral that worked.”

“Sweet Jesus Christ,” Kevin said. “If I have to go all the way to the top, I’ll do it, too. Good Lord, Jerry. This isn’t just the Holy Grail, this is everything.”

Tony said, “Jerry’s right. I’ll call Indianapolis and scream bloody murder if they don’t jump all over this.”

Kevin looked thoughtful. “I’m out of the research farm we have in Terre Haute. This has so many veterinary implications, let alone the human ones ... Christ, this is the biggest thing since penicillin.”

I held up both hands. “I don’t have it yet. And I don’t know if it’ll have to be specific to each particular virus, or if I can get broad-spectrum. I figure it’s going to take me a couple of years to know for sure, but at the same time...”

Young figured it out. “All those folks that have AIDS now have a death sentence. Same with anyone with terminal cancer that’s viral. Fuck me! What do you want?”

“Approval for ‘No Regrets’. Margie, Marcia?” They got up and came over. “This is Margaret Lewis. She’s the CFO of CEDEM Financial. And Marcia Lewis, the head of advertising for CEDEM Financial. For you four, your worst nightmares. If you want any bit of the antiviral, you’ll play nice with them. Melissa, please come here. Doctor Young, this is Melissa. She is a nurse here at Stanford. She is patient zero for human testing of ‘No Regrets’. It wasn’t her choice. Some despicable animal assaulted her, impregnated her, and made sure that she couldn’t take a morning after pill. She’s the human face of what I want done. That’s why I called Vice-President Kirkpatrick. I couldn’t care less how much, if any, money I make from manufacturing and selling that pill. Neither should they,” I said, pointing at the drug reps.

“Not for someone who was assaulted. You messed up and slept with the wrong guy a week ago and you have regrets? Yeah, you get to pay to have ‘No Regrets’. You were beaten, knocked unconscious, and raped? You can have the pill for free as far as I’m concerned.”

He looked at me, looked at Melissa, then looked back at me again. Then he turned in his chair and looked at the four reps. “Gentlemen, I withdraw my previous objections, the ones that I had when Vice-President Kirkpatrick told me I was coming out here. The FDA considers Phase III trials complete. Please make appropriate warning labels on the medication regarding blood thinners. I’m not an idiot, Mister Lewis. There are millions of people around the world under a death sentence right now. Help them.”

I shook his hand and then had something happen I hadn’t planned on. Melissa grabbed me in a big hug, tears running down her face, while she kept saying, “Thank you,” over and over again. I knew her reaction was because she knew I wasn’t a threat to her, but I hadn’t expected it.

Margaret and Barbara were instantly at her side, comforting her and making sure that she was okay. I had instinctively put my arms around her, to help comfort her, but I quickly pulled them back. The two physicians led her away from me, congratulating her on being so strong, and then took her out of the room.

Helen was nodding to herself, then looked at me. “I’m pleased to see she made the breakthrough already. That’s a major step on the road to recovery.”

“Since she’s now working for me, I want counselors available to help her,” I stated.

“Already on the books, Cal,” David said. “Stephen knows I’m an asshole, but I take care of our own.”

“Thank you. Um, Margie, if you and Marcia have this, I...”

“We’ve got this,” she said.

Dave and Sayel caught up with me before we made it to the golf cart. I simply got in and started driving for the house. Sayel said, “Master, I would suggest that you channel the anger you are feeling now, and not let it control you.”

“I appreciate your concern, Sayel. It won’t control me. But I really feel the need to go hit something right about now, and the only place I can do that is Colombia. Presuming they don’t listen, of course.”

They didn’t. I had to spend a good ten minutes underwater in the Pacific Ocean to get most of the smoke smell off of me, and then another half hour in the shower once I got home finishing things up. That’s when Dora, Beth, and Eve joined me, so they could help scrub my skin.

Then they dried me off and simply held me while I cried myself to sleep.

“Come on, Love, time to get up and get dressed for this morning.”

I opened my eyes to see my blonde lover smiling at me.

“Okay. We’re going to have a busy day, I can’t be a slug, can I?”

“No, you can’t. Even though there’s going to be a cow involved, the girls are still excited to see more of America today.”

“It’s not that much, just a cook out. Albeit a really large one.”

“While that’s true, this is still freedom for them. Something they didn’t have before.”

I couldn’t argue with that, so I didn’t. “Um, no comments regarding yesterday afternoon and evening?”

Beth’s expression was almost funny. “Are you kidding? You’re the Messenger from Above. You gave them a choice. Free will has consequences, after all. No, I thought it was rather dramatic, when you carried those three stacked semi trailers full of money to Quito and told them to hold it in escrow for whatever government formed in Colombia, but that was about it. That’ll save a lot of lives in the rest of South America, because it’s been on CNN nonstop about how serious you are regarding destroying the bad drugs.”

Other than that, breakfast was normal, albeit early. We headed over to Moffett Field, arriving shortly after eight in the morning.

Things were already organized. Tables and chairs were set up inside Blimp Hangar One. Parking for the new guards was in the commissary parking lot. They’d closed the ramp area and the west runway, with six locations set up in the green space between the ramp and runway itself, where the fires had been laid. Most of the new security officers were already present.

Chuck was the one who escorted the bus I rode this morning, and led me into the hangar. “We’re treating this like it’s a deployment, so we told them to get here early. That way, they can get issued their uniforms and basic equipment. Some of them will be housing in the barracks here, but a lot of these folks are people that already worked for us, or another security company in the area, and live here already.”

“I wondered how you were doing that,” I said.

“Not our first rodeo, Cal.” He looked around to make sure no one was nearby that didn’t already know about me, then quietly said, “Nice work last night. You got your mad out, and more of the world learned that business as usual doesn’t exist any longer. And in the grand scheme of things, you didn’t kill that many people, and I don’t think anyone that didn’t need it, anyway.”

“I hope eventually they learn.”

He heard my feelings in my voice. “It would be nice, wouldn’t it? If you ever feel like you want to talk, Dave and I have seen the elephant, too. Obviously, Mike has as well, but we’ve ... learned, is the polite way to phrase it ... to not go there too often with him. There was some bad shit that he had to do a couple of times. And yeah, I know what you’ve done, but that was impersonal, if you know what I mean. We’ve had to do some fucked up shit, so ... yeah, keep doing what you’re doing, so no one has to do that kind of stuff any more.”