don’t believe you.’ said the voice on the phone.” Cain was trying to get a meeting with the CEO of the Aquarius Medical facility in Albuquerque.
‘You have to understand I have information that is . . . you’ll find extremely beneficial to your facility’s future; it really will answer a lot of your …’
The CEO interrupted, ‘I’m sick of you and your corporation’s games, I’m not going to see you, and quite frankly, I don’t know whether to be disgusted or embarrassed at your call. Either way, just crawl back into the hole you came from.’ The CEO hung up, inadvertently saving his life.
The finality of the dial tone left Cain speechless. This was Cain’s first big rejection and it took him a while to recover. He really couldn’t feel too badly about the conversation — not after the way his corporation had treated this facility. With his confidence shaken, Cain decided it would be good to talk to a friend, so he picked up the payphone and dialed his old secretary Gina’s cellphone; the automated message told him the number he’d dialed was no longer in service. After dialing it again and getting the same message, he started to get an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He immediately dialed his old office number and asked to be put through to her.
‘I’m sorry, but Gina no longer works here; she left for Europe a couple days ago,’ came the reply.
Cain’s unease had turned to fear, he knew damn well what left for Europe meant. Quickly going through his notes, he punched in the number for the man he’d met with in New York.
‘Hi, can I speak to Dr. Allport,’ Cain coughed into the receiver.
‘Unfortunately, Dr. Allport is no longer with us.’ The voice on the other end of the phone was somber.
‘Don’t tell me he’s gone to Europe too, has he?’ Cain asked, bracing himself for an answer that he just knew would be bad — but the reply was much worse.
‘Dr. Allport was shot dead in a home invasion.’
Cain hung up the payphone in stunned silence; his mission wasn’t just getting people into trouble, it was getting people dead.
His head throbbed as he confronted a real dilemma; what should he do? Should he involve his LA contact and ultimately put another life in almost certain peril, or should he realize his ex-employer would never let him go through with what he was doing, and simply quit.
He suddenly felt weaker and more exhausted than ever. Weaker than he’d felt when his doctor delivered the life-changing news of his deadly illness, weaker than when his boss dictated the only course of therapy available to a man in his position, and even weaker than during his time in the hospital throughout all the numerous and worthless treatments he’d received. His cough had returned: a lung-stinging, chest-destroying bark.
As his breath came back, so did his resolve.
‘I won’t die without the truth being told,’ he announced staunchly to no one but himself, but he was equally sure he wasn’t going to put anyone else’s life at risk.
The throbbing in his head subsided and a plan formed; he’d break into his LA contact’s office at night, load all the information onto their computers, and send it out to the world — it was time to get it out to the press — contact all media big and small, from blogs and tweets to global news corporations. Surely, someone would listen and someone would tell his story. It was what he should have done at the start.
Elwood left Turnbold’s house and called his boss.
‘I think you have a bit of a problem. Cain is not just giving out copied forms, he’s got a flash drive too — and according to Turnbold, it’s got virtually everything on it.’
He nodded as his boss rattled off orders on the other end of the phone, and then replied, ‘Yes, Turnbold is silenced. Thanks to one of your prototype drugs, he suffered a very violent seizure and a massive coronary — actually unpleasant to watch. Sure, I’ll fire off a
‘You have to understand I have information that is . . . you’ll find extremely beneficial to your facility’s future; it really will answer a lot of your …’
The CEO interrupted, ‘I’m sick of you and your corporation’s games, I’m not going to see you, and quite frankly, I don’t know whether to be disgusted or embarrassed at your call. Either way, just crawl back into the hole you came from.’ The CEO hung up, inadvertently saving his life.
The finality of the dial tone left Cain speechless. This was Cain’s first big rejection and it took him a while to recover. He really couldn’t feel too badly about the conversation — not after the way his corporation had treated this facility. With his confidence shaken, Cain decided it would be good to talk to a friend, so he picked up the payphone and dialed his old secretary Gina’s cellphone; the automated message told him the number he’d dialed was no longer in service. After dialing it again and getting the same message, he started to get an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He immediately dialed his old office number and asked to be put through to her.
‘I’m sorry, but Gina no longer works here; she left for Europe a couple days ago,’ came the reply.
Cain’s unease had turned to fear, he knew damn well what left for Europe meant. Quickly going through his notes, he punched in the number for the man he’d met with in New York.
‘Hi, can I speak to Dr. Allport,’ Cain coughed into the receiver.
‘Unfortunately, Dr. Allport is no longer with us.’ The voice on the other end of the phone was somber.
‘Don’t tell me he’s gone to Europe too, has he?’ Cain asked, bracing himself for an answer that he just knew would be bad — but the reply was much worse.
‘Dr. Allport was shot dead in a home invasion.’
Cain hung up the payphone in stunned silence; his mission wasn’t just getting people into trouble, it was getting people dead.
His head throbbed as he confronted a real dilemma; what should he do? Should he involve his LA contact and ultimately put another life in almost certain peril, or should he realize his ex-employer would never let him go through with what he was doing, and simply quit.
He suddenly felt weaker and more exhausted than ever. Weaker than he’d felt when his doctor delivered the life-changing news of his deadly illness, weaker than when his boss dictated the only course of therapy available to a man in his position, and even weaker than during his time in the hospital throughout all the numerous and worthless treatments he’d received. His cough had returned: a lung-stinging, chest-destroying bark.
As his breath came back, so did his resolve.
‘I won’t die without the truth being told,’ he announced staunchly to no one but himself, but he was equally sure he wasn’t going to put anyone else’s life at risk.
The throbbing in his head subsided and a plan formed; he’d break into his LA contact’s office at night, load all the information onto their computers, and send it out to the world — it was time to get it out to the press — contact all media big and small, from blogs and tweets to global news corporations. Surely, someone would listen and someone would tell his story. It was what he should have done at the start.
Elwood left Turnbold’s house and called his boss.
‘I think you have a bit of a problem. Cain is not just giving out copied forms, he’s got a flash drive too — and according to Turnbold, it’s got virtually everything on it.’
He nodded as his boss rattled off orders on the other end of the phone, and then replied, ‘Yes, Turnbold is silenced. Thanks to one of your prototype drugs, he suffered a very violent seizure and a massive coronary — actually unpleasant to watch. Sure, I’ll fire off a
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