An Acute Attraction (12 page)

               Sat in the coffee shop I nurse my cup of coffee and tissue with Marc sitting opposite me; he looks so striking in his dark blue 3-piece suit, white shirt and blue tie. Even after I have soaked tears and goodness knows what else into it.

 
             “You didn’t have to drop everything that you were doing to come over here you know, but I am really glad you did. Thank you.” I look up from my cup.

 
             “Isabel sometimes you need to have someone there for you. I know you are a strong, independent woman, but you cannot carry everything on those shoulders of yours, I want to be here and in any case, I wouldn’t have been able to concentrate on my work at the College thinking about the both of you.” I can tell he is sincere in what he says.

 
             He pauses before going on. “Perhaps now isn’t the time for us to discuss what we were going to.”

 
            I don’t want to put off what he needs to explain. I have to hear it now; it will also take my mind off what has happened and help me to stop worrying so much over Joseph. “No I think it is. Emelie had an ulterior motive for wanting to see me today and I need to hear it from you what on earth she is trying to get at.”

 
            Marc sighs looking down at his coffee cup, “What exactly did Emelie say to you?”

 
            “She asked if you had mentioned or spoke about your family to me and that I shouldn’t take you at face value, first impressions.”

 
             Marc shakes his head before sighing again.

 
            “I suppose she is right to a certain degree, you shouldn’t but that is only for you to judge once I have told you all there is to know. I do hope that you take everything into consideration and that your perception of me doesn’t change the fact I care for you, a lot. What I do suggest is that you drink something stronger than coffee though, as I am not sure caffeine alone will help to prepare you for what I have to say.”  

 
             It all sounds very ominous, none the less he deserves to have his say.

             Sitting at a corner table in the opulent Michelin starred Midsummer House Restaurant in Cambridge; Marc has ordered a bottle of Pinot Gris from off the menu, along with our food. My mental maths is pretty good, so I am astounded when I calculate that the final bill will not be far off my Teaching Assistant’s weekly wage. Pouring more wine into each of our glasses, I feel as though I should be sitting comfortably ready for a long story to begin; however I am anything but comfortable at this moment.

 
           “My father is an advisor to the Attorney General in America. He is a very proud and private man, who has exceptionally high standards and expectations of everyone around him, whether that is from the colleagues he works with or his own family. I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I left school and went into college with no career ambitions or aspiration, but my father pushed me towards the medical profession as science is what I was strongest in and if I am honest, I think he wanted to see me have letters after my name. Unfortunately for my father, his other son, my step brother didn’t want to be pushed around and went away to do what he wanted to.”

 
            Taking a couple of seconds to pause, Marc sips at his wine. I don’t want to say anything to him as yet, as I do not want to him to lose his train of thought or stop him while he is telling me this.

 
            “My step brother, Christian, made some pretty bad decisions and despite my father’s best efforts; offering money, refuge and education, he got himself involved with the wrong crowd at the wrong time. Two years ago he was involved in an armed robbery which also involved the manslaughter of a store assistant. Christian didn’t pull the trigger, but he was there, part of the gang. This resulted in a sentence of 16 years in prison without parole.”

 
              I instantly reach across the table to hold on to Marc’s hand when I see the pain on his face. His hand grips mine as if doing so will take the edge off what he is saying and I am starting see a different part of Marc. I have seen his; smart, caring, sexual and funny side, but this is the first time I am seeing his emotional side. He looks dejected, not for himself, but for his father.

 
              “I am sure you can imagine how that affected my family. Not only were they distressed by what happened, they were also let down and ashamed of Christian. In the end though, blood is blood and my father did everything he could to help him, which included pulling many strings to help keep the crime out of the press. My step brother has the same surname as his mother, so that made things a little easier and so far we have managed to avoid it being leaked. If it was ever to become public knowledge, my father would not only have to give up his position within the Government, it would also break him.”

 
             I finally feel that the time is right for me to say something about all of this.

 
             “Oh Marc, I am so sorry about all of what you and your family have been through, but I don’t understand what this has to do with Emelie.” Marc looks out of the window and my heart goes out to him. Eventually he turns back to me and I feel him stroke his thumb across the back of my hand.

 
             “Emelie has somehow found out about Christian and is using this information to blackmail me.”

 
              Blackmail! I have only ever read about this in the newspapers or books. Blackmail! I do my best to keep the shock from showing on my face.

 
              “If I am thinking correctly, why would she want to blackmail you? Surely you have to have something damning against a person to want to do that, to want to bring them down. What does she have on you?”

 
              “My medical knowledge and strict vow to do any research ethically.” Ok, I have to briefly let go of Marc’s hand so I can rub my temples and eyes.

 
              “So what are you saying Marc?”

 
              “I found out a month ago that Emelie and her husband, Stefano haven’t been working along side the same code of conduct and practice as me or other researchers. I have known the both of them for some years and in fact we have become close friends, until I found out what I have. They have been researching on a similar line as me, trying to find the best cures and vaccinations. It can be a big money business if you find one, with pharmaceutical companies fighting over who is going to discover the next big thing, a molecule that would create a revolution in the medical world, such as Viagra did a few years back and eventually distribute it around the world as soon as the clinical trials are under way. It shouldn’t be that way but regrettably when people either become desperate or money hungry, it does.” Marc drops his head obviously distressed by what Emelie and Stefano have been doing.

 
                I take a hold of his hands again with both of mine.

 
               “In any business there are people that cut corners to either speed up a process or to make more money or both. This is a risk that cannot be taken in anything that’s medical, especially when it’s other people’s lives that are at risk.” Marc tone turns to anger and I can see how passionate he is about his job and beliefs.

 
                “Before a medicine can be put out there it has to be vigorously tested on closely monitored research subjects. That’s what clinical trials are for. Infecting people in the name of research would never be allowed by an ethics committee. We can do that on animals during laboratory protocols, but even that has to be approved by ethics. However, infecting humans would never be allowed unless it’s for an essay on vaccines.  Vaccines are produced either by attenuating a whole virus enough, so it becomes harmless for the subject or by using only a portion of the pathogen to trigger an immune response against it. So, the next time the immune system comes in contact with the same virus, it will recognize it and will be able to produce antibodies against it immediately, therefore stopping the infection before it spreads and the subject becomes ill.  In an essay on vaccines, we give a certain dose to the research subject and then test the level of antibody production by running tests on his blood after definite periods of time. What Emelie and her husband did is that they injected a virus into people who have signed confidentiality agreements and are being paid compensation or danger money I suppose you could call it. Once a subject shows signs of the infection, they are then given this newly discovered drug so that Emilie and Stefano can then gather the results into how or if it works. Unfortunately the test subjects they are recruiting for this experiment are mainly people from third world countries who for one; cannot read so the ‘confidentiality agreement’ they sign is probably loaded with other small print they don’t know about or understand and secondly; the money that is being paid to them may not be a lot by our standards, but to them it could be up to a years earnings! The laws in these countries can sometimes be non-existent and therefore companies like this one will not be bothered by the authorities and if so they are willing to pay a significant amount of money to make things go their way.”  

 
              Even though I don’t understand all of the medical jargon, I do get the gist of what he is saying, and it’s not good.

 
              “As soon as I realised what was going on I approached Emelie initially. I confronted her and said I knew what was going on and I wanted to give her an opportunity to cease with the research straight away, but she was in too deep by the time I found out; she said there was no way they could turn back from what they had discovered and were going to put out the medicine to pharmaceutical companies in Italy and the US.”

 
               There must be so many feelings going through Marc’s body right now; frustration, anger and upset at being betrayal, to name but a few. He obviously thought they were close enough friends and that he could trust them.

 
              “I had no choice Isabel; I told them both that I was going to put my findings into a report to pass onto the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) and the Italian counterpart at the Ministry of Health. I suspect that they have either funded the research themselves or have been using money paid to them from a Pharmaceutical company that has bought the patent on the molecule; I was unable to get any proof of that myself. Before I could finish the report I had the first of many threatening emails through and once they saw I wasn’t going to stop my campaign, the blackmail started.”

 
                It’s only now I see how much this has got to Marc, physically. He looks tired as though he is in a losing battle. I don’t know what I can do to help, but if just listening to him and allowing him to unburden some of this offers some relief, well then I’m glad I could do that. Surely though, there must be something more we can do. Yes I mean ‘We’. I cannot let him go through this alone.

 
                “Have you told your father about this? He must be able to help surely.”

 
                “Yes I have now. I didn’t want to; I was hoping I could deal with it somehow, but now that Emelie has involved you I can’t take anymore risks. I don’t want to see you come to any harm and I have to put a stop to them. Their blackmail requests are getting more and more frequent, as well as them wanting more and more money.”

 
                 I suddenly realise something, “Is that what was behind your behaviour at the dinner the other evening and your nightmare this morning?”

 
                Marc acknowledges me. “She and Stefano have told me to get two million dollars together by Saturday and drop it off at the hotel they are staying in, before they leave for Italy. If they don’t get it, by midday they’re going to the press; in Washington, London, Paris and anywhere else that will take an interest in the story.”

Chapter 11

                  Two million dollars! Where on earth is he going to find that sort of money? If I am brutally honest, I don’t see why the hell he should have to pay the ‘ransom’ even if he does have it! To think that Marc has been handling all of this on his own for the sake of his father, his step-brother and well his entire family…It is no wonder he has been having nightmares. As if reading my mind again, Marc continues.

                  “Getting the money is no problem, but I cannot see them stopping when the information I hold is priceless! What I have is enough to not only to strike them off any medical registers for life, but also to put them away for a very long time. So as soon as Emelie told me that she had met with you this afternoon, I knew there was nothing more I could do and they will stop at no lengths to get this put out there. You mean too much to me Isabel for me to take the risk of carrying on the way I was and despite the fact I have never met your sons, I feel that I know them through you and therefore care for them just as much.”