Megan's Cure (32 page)

Chapter 61

AFTER RECEIVING THE email, it took Enzo Lee the rest of that day and half of the next to do the research.
 
He got the basic background on a half dozen of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies and their key officials.
 
He called one of his old newspaper colleagues who had fashioned a career out of covering Congress and got a half hour lesson on the House Ways and Means Committee and the names of several key staff members.

Then he called Roxanne Rosewell and met her at a café near her home.
 
Over cheddar cheese scones and strong coffee, they spent an hour devising a plan.
 
They moved to an outside table and spent the second hour eating oatmeal cookies and tracking down Novak’s lawyers.
 

Lee then placed a call to Merrick & Merrick and asked for Edwin Merrick.
 
His call went through to a young man who identified himself as the CEO’s assistant.
 
Lee guessed Merrick had several assistants and wondered how this one ranked.
 
But it didn’t matter much.
 
He just wanted to ask for a meeting.
 
He knew that one of Novak’s lawyers would call Merrick & Merrick’s general counsel within 20 minutes and set the ground rules for the meeting.
 
By the time he dropped Roxanne back at her house, he had a confirmed appointment for the following afternoon.

Back home, Lee fed Max and poured himself an ice-cold Stoly from the bottle he kept in the freezer and squeezed the juice of an entire lime into it.
 
It took him a few minutes to print out both documents he wanted to take with him and place them all into a manila folder that he left on his desk.
 
Then his phone rang.

“It’s Roxanne,” said Rosewell.

“Hey,” said Lee.
 
“Everything okay?”

“Yes,” she said.
 
“It’s all as we discussed.
 
There’s…uh…just one thing.”

“All right.”

“I discussed this all with Walter, as I said I would,” said Rosewell.
 
“And he wants to come with you.”

Lee was quiet for a moment.

“How is he?” he said finally.
 
“What do you think?”

“He’s much better,” she said.
 
“You know that whole episode on the boat.
 
It was…it was like a fever that broke.
 
He’s been subdued…and embarrassed.
 
But on the whole, quite good.”

“Is he there?” asked Lee.

Instead of answering, Lee heard Rosewell hand the phone over to Novak.

“Enzo,” he said.

“Hi, Walter,” said Lee.
 
“Look.
 
I can’t tell you not to come.
 
You’ve got a lot at stake here.
 
But we only get one shot.
 
If we show weakness, they’ll try to exploit it.”

“I…I understand,” said Novak.
 
“I’m sorry.
 
I’m sorry about what happened.
 
I need to stand up.
 
I need to finish this.”

Lee sighed heavily into the phone.
 
He didn’t mind if the scientist heard it.
 
He wanted him to hear the ambivalence.
 
A strong Novak in the room determined not to break would be a big asset.
 
A crumbling, unstable Novak would be disastrous.
 
He needed five aces in his hand to win this.
 
Not four aces and a weak card they could exploit.
 
And he was running out of time.
 
Only two more days to get his grandmother more Roxaten.

But it was all about Novak’s discoveries.
 
And now the drug giant was bent on personally ruining the scientist and destroying his reputation as a means of discrediting Roxaten.
 
Even with the others at risk – his grandmother and Megan – could Lee really deny him a place at the table?

“Okay, Walter,” said Lee.
 
“I’ll pick you up at 1 p.m. tomorrow.
 
It’s early.
 
But I want to talk about the ways this might go so nothing will be a surprise, even if they come after you.”

“I’ll be ready,” said Novak.
 
“Thank you.”

* * *

When Enzo Lee and Walter Novak entered the office of Edwin Merrick, the CEO was standing in front of the magnificent picture window that looked out over San Francisco Bay with the towers of the Bay Bridge in the foreground.
 
Lee guessed it was the executive’s standard opening posture whenever he wanted to preempt any question of status.
 
Here was a man who had earned a huge office in a huge building with a huge view that would be the envy of all but a handful of humanity.
 

Lee knew Henry Roth by reputation.
 
The slim lawyer with slick-backed hair stood respectfully to the side.
 
But he shifted his weight almost imperceptibly from the ball of one foot to the other.
 
It was a fighter’s dance, as if he harbored a welter-weight boxer in his soul eager to get out.
 
He was too dangerous to ignore.

 
“So,” said Merrick after the initial introductions, hand shaking, and beverage requests were completed and the four men took their places around the coffee table.
 
“Do we understand the ground rules here?”

Lee nodded.

“My understanding is that everything discussed here is off the record,” said Lee.
 
“Nothing gets into the newspaper and nothing can be used in litigation.”

“Correct,” said Roth.
 

Lee didn’t need to add that although the actual words uttered in the 20 minutes would never be directly turned against their speaker, any hints they carried of strategy, weakness or fear would be ruthlessly exploited by the other side.
 

“You seem convinced you’ve got something say that I’m interested in hearing,” said Merrick, directing himself to both Lee and Novak.
 
“I seriously doubt this is the case unless Walter wants to tell me he’ll return the $80 million we paid for his company and admit that Roxaten is a complete and utter fraud.”

Lee smiled.
 

“Not today,” he said.
 
“But I recently received an email that I think you’ll find interesting.
 
Let me read it to you.”

Lee set the manila folder he was carrying on the coffee table, opened it and pulled out two pages.
 
He began to read.

“
We met in the basement conference room of the Florentine Hotel and Casino in Macau on April 21,
” he read.
 
“It was one of a series of secret meetings held at least once a year and included key executives at the largest pharmaceutical companies worldwide.

“Mr. Merrick started the session by describing the Roxaten drug and the disruptive influence it could have on the industry by providing an inexpensive, more effective cure for many cancers as well as the possible basis for a general cancer vaccine. Participants agreed to cooperate in discrediting the drug as well as its discoverer despite its possible health benefits.

“Another topic at the meeting was an updated minimum pricing schedule for medicine organized on an ailment by ailment basis to avoid price competition.
 
This arrangement has been standard practice within the industry for at least the last 12 years.

“Attendees also agreed to increase lobbying activities and expenses in a concerted effort to reduce the pressure to provide medicine at cost to impoverished regions for such diseases as AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and typhus.
 
Cash payments directly to key officials in the United States and European countries were discussed that would constitute illegal bribery under the laws of those nations
.

“I have included at the conclusion of this email a complete list of the attendees at the Macau meeting
,” Lee concluded.
 

He let the pages in his hand drop onto the coffee table between them.
 
Merrick’s and attorney Roth’s eyes were glued to the white sheets of paper as they drifted down.

The room was silent for several seconds as everyone tried to get a read on the others’ reaction to what Lee had just read.

“And who is the author of this missive?” asked Roth.

“It’s anonymous,” said Lee.
 
“Unsigned.”

“Hmm,” said the attorney.
 
“Even fiction usually is signed by the author.
 
You can’t run a story based on this.”

“No,” said Lee.
 
“Of course not.
 
There still is reporting to be done.
 
Corroboration.
 
Interviewing regulators to get their take on it.
 
The usual beating of the bushes to see what comes out.”

“These are vicious allegations,” said Merrick.
 
“If you bandy them about, you can expect to hear from Mr. Roth and other attorneys.
 
I won’t stand by and let you destroy my reputation.”

“You do what you have to do and so will I,” said Lee.

“And don’t think for a minute that we will stop what we are doing,” said Merrick, rising to the attack now.
 
“We will continue to correct this…this swindle that Walter has perpetrated.
 
The assault on the girl.
 
Everything.
 
You are mistaken if you think we will pause for an instant.
 
You have not seen anything yet.”

Merrick glared across the coffee table at Novak.
 
His face was red.
 
A muscle in his neck twitched.
 
Lee half expected him to jump up or throw something.
 
He pulled his feet under him in case he needed to get between the two men.

Novak cleared his throat.
 
When he spoke it was ragged at first, as if he hadn’t talked in a long time and was getting accustomed to hearing himself speak once again.

“You…you have taught me one thing,” he said.
 
“Along the way, I’ve sometimes been seduced by…by the signs of success.
 
The money.
 
Recognition.
 
The trappings and…and accolades.

“You’ve threatened all of that,” continued Novak.
 
“You’ve forced me to remember why I started down this path.
 
And it was for none of that.
 
Thank you.
 
Thank you for that…that reminder.
 
What really matters.”

All four in the room were silent for several seconds.

“Okay,” said Lee, getting to his feet.
 
He picked up the manila folder on the coffee table.
 
He thought briefly about pulling out the second email but decided against it.
 
Instead, he nodded at the two pages on the coffee table.