Trade Secrets
Page 18
“No good. It’s all over the place.” Tony put the data from the Leonardo next to the data from the Advia runs. They had replicated all the conditions exactly, but the Leonardo’s results bore no resemblance to the results from the Advia. Even worse, Tony knew that, though the Advia had been modified to be able to test the tiny volumes, she had no confidence in its numbers either. In lab parlance, it was being used in a manner not sanctioned by the manufacturer. But Sanjay had decreed the Advia was gold standard. Because he had a MD/PhD and was the boss, she shut her mouth and followed orders.
“Let me see,” Sanjay said and took all their data and spread it out on a bench.
Tan and Tony looked at one another glumly as they waited.
Sanjay returned and handed the data back to them.
He’d check-marked a lot of numbers in each test printout with a red pen.
“Delete the values I’ve checked and rerun the analysis program. We’ll report out the COV on the rest of the numbers. Do that for all the rest of the ranges.” He meant for them to literally throw out the results that didn’t fit. Tony and Tan looked at each other wordlessly, and Tony saw her alarm mirrored in Tan’s face.
What Sanjay told them to do was scientifically dishonest and required them to manipulate statistics in an inappropriate way. Tony had never done such a thing, nor had she ever been asked to do anything like this in her work life.
“But couldn’t we have some of the R and D engineering people take a look and see if maybe there’s an obvious flaw they can fix to improve the results?” She knew the answer as soon as she asked the question.
“No time for that. Huey and Erica are waiting. Just do it the way I told you to.” Sanjay didn’t make eye contact with her or Tan. He walked out of the lab. The discussion was over, and it was clear they were under orders to validate the Leonardos as functional devices or else. And then they were going to send them out to be used on the public. Who knew what would happen next?
Tony and Tan took a break to eat some Chinese food Huey had delivered. He had brought it to them himself, all smiles. He clearly loved to see the lab staff chained to their benches for hours on end. It was seven thirty in the evening, and both she and Tan had been at work since eight o’clock in the morning.
“When are you two geniuses going to be done with this project? I feed you good so you can get more work done faster.” He was both menacing and genial at the same time, and it was truly creepy.
“We can do maybe one more trial tonight,” Tony said.
He appeared happy with that promise.
She debated with herself and finally blurted out her thoughts. “The Leonardos aren’t performing all that well. Can we bring in a couple of engineers for consultation?”
“What? What are you saying? Does Sanjay know?” he demanded.
“Yes. He does, but he said—”
“I’ll talk to him. You keep up the good work.” He swept out of the empty cafeteria. It was hard for Tony to believe that Huey didn’t know already what was going on, since he hovered over Sanjay like a hungry turkey vulture circling a corpse. But he wasn’t that technically savvy, and Tony figured Sanjay could snow him and probably did, in the name of not getting in trouble with Erica. Tony didn’t care if she got Sanjay in trouble with Huey. She had to at least make an effort to convince her bosses that they were headed down a dangerous road.
* * *
At Sheila’s that night, Tony made her routine call to her dad. She listened listlessly to his recital of trivial bits of news and barely said a word back to him.
After she finished, Sheila asked, “How about I rub your head until you fall asleep?”
“Okay.” Tony felt guilty about all she wasn’t telling Sheila or her dad about GHS, and all she wasn’t telling about herself. She was having trouble falling asleep at night. Her long hours at the lab didn’t help either. But she convinced herself it was all temporary.
* * *
It was time for another board meeting, and Sheila had never received any draft partnership agreements from Erica. What should she do? She was being stonewalled and didn’t like it. Gary’s story of the board member who’d asked too many questions stuck in her mind. If she crossed whatever invisible line Erica had drawn, it would likely be her fate as well. It was curious that no one else on the board was at all worried. Maybe she shouldn’t be either. She wanted to stay on, both because she needed to look after Pacific Partners’ interests in Roy’s absence, and, secondly, she wanted to see what was going to happen to the woman who was the most famous CEO in Silicon Valley and her much-lauded company. Sheila faithfully read all the news about Erica and GHS, and it was wondrous how positive it was.
Sheila concluded that discretion on her part was the ticket, even if she disliked Erica’s arrogant approach to the people on the board, who were essentially her bosses. It was hard to question her since she was clearly doing something right. GHS was the most highly valued start-up in the Valley. And the ongoing undercurrent of sexism of the Silicon Valley culture sure made it look like any criticism of Erica Sanders was suspect. Between the astronomical paper worth of GHS and Erica Sanders’s stratospheric fame, no one wanted to say the tiniest negative thing. Sheila recognized her unease and her suspicion, but she was reluctant to start causing trouble when she had no actual evidence other than her own dislike of Erica’s management style. Even though board meetings were supposed to be confidential, things had a way of getting around.
For this meeting, Erica made her grand entrance with a tall, handsome, balding man in tow. He wore an expensive pinstripe, three-piece suit that broadcast “high-powered lawyer” loudly, though he sat by Erica quietly, smiling throughout her introduction.
“I’d like you all to meet my new corporate counsel, Harry Blevins. I thought it would be a good idea to have him join the board as well. I’m sure most of you are familiar with his reputation.” Erica’s smug expression irritated Sheila, but she diligently tamped down her pique and reminded herself that lawyers were always necessary in any company. Blevins was a catch. He’d had a hand in some of the highest profile legal cases of the past couple decades. His love of publicity was legendary as well, and he obviously knew it would benefit him to work with GHS.
Blevins made a boilerplate, mock-modest speech. The other board members, wide-eyed and worshipful, welcomed him, and they all settled back to enjoy Erica’s optimistic news of more publicity and more potentially lucrative partnerships in the making.
“We expect to be shipping out Leonardos to the forty stores in the pilot project in two months,” Erica announced with a certain amount of fake modesty.
That must be what Tony had been working on and stressing over, though she didn’t say much. Well, that’s how the start-up business worked, any business, really. When the boss said to the staff, “Jump,” your only question was “how high?” And if she said, “This has to be done-yesterday,” then Tony had to move as fast as possible. It was the way things were done.
Sheila reminded herself that she had to be sympathetic to Tony’s plight, though she personally was several years away from being an ordinary worker and at the command of someone else. She was the boss’s daughter, and the nature of her work was radically different than Tony’s. She mused about the effect this all might have on Tony’s agreeing to move in with her. It was not likely a good time to discuss that, unless Tony mentioned it, and Tony hadn’t brought it up.
She tuned out of the board meeting—they weren’t discussing anything of substance anyhow—and thought about how she could make Tony feel better about everything. She wished she could persuade her to practice Buddhism, but Buddhism didn’t work that way. One chose the Buddhist way; one didn’t get recruited into it as though it was some underhanded religious cult. To help Tony, Sheila thought she ought to at least start with the tried-and-true remedies: she would schedule a house-call masseuse, then some hot tub, a couple of drinks, and a tasty meal. Tony needed pampering, and if she didn’t have to work on the weekend, th
en they could go somewhere romantic. Big Sur, maybe.
Sheila returned her attention to the meeting because Erica was talking, and she picked up on the word employee.
“I’m sure you know about my concern over leaks of proprietary information through our staff. We have a small number of disgruntled people, most of them gone, but some still employed, and Harry is going to help us manage them.”
“Manage them? How?” Sheila asked.
“Let me answer that.” Harry tapped Erica’s arm gently.
“It’s unfortunate but true that sometimes staff members don’t take their NDAs quite seriously enough. They need gentle reminders and some incentives to return to the fold.”
Harry’s smile was predatory, and Sheila didn’t care for it. She could imagine what sort of lawyerly “incentives” Harry Blevins might deploy in service of Erica’s intense desire to control everything and everyone. Along with offering food, sex, and massage, Sheila was going to have to diplomatically again remind her girl to watch her Ps and Qs at work and maybe not gab with Ricardo or with anyone else, for that matter, about what was bothering her. And Sheila would tell her about Harry Blevins and his new role and his little speech.
* * *
“It really hurts my feelings that you would go over my head and complain to Huey,” Sanjay said.
Though she wasn’t sorry she’d done it, Tony had decided to placate Sanjay and pretend she was, though it was against all her instincts to lie about something like that. She was deeply concerned.
“Well, I know, but you weren’t listening to me, and I thought about it, and that’s the only thing I could come up with. I’m sorry, but what are we doing here? You ought to know that throwing out data points is just wrong.”
Sanjay’s expression looked even more pained. “I think you have an inflated idea of your own intelligence and an unrealistic view of how this all works. We have to be flexible, and we have to do what we’re asked as best we can. The powers that be are determined to kick this thing out the door. We’ll have time to fool around with it later, your ideas of perfection aside. You know the saying, ‘Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.’ I, for one, can’t be insubordinate. Huey can revoke my work visa, and I’ll be on the next plane back to Mumbai unless I can find another job pronto.”
He looked hard at her, and Tony felt bad. She wasn’t the only person involved in this conundrum, that was true. Sanjay had legitimate concerns about his job.
“Yeah. Okay. I’m sorry. I don’t want that to happen to you.”
“Thanks. Huey and I had a long talk, and we have got a new procedure I think will answer your concerns. And by the way, he wasn’t overjoyed at you going over my head either. You know what can happen when you get on Huey’s shit list. You better lay low and keep quiet—if you can, that is.”
Tony swallowed at the implied threat. Then she composed herself to listen and be open-minded, though she wasn’t optimistic.
Sure enough, Sanjay described a cockamamie protocol where they would collect data from six different Leonardos and then throw out the lowest and highest numbers and average the remainder and evidently pray that result would fall within the acceptable range. That was almost as insane as the first method Sanjay had cooked up, but there it was. Tony was a respecter of authority, and she would go along.
* * *
When Sheila came to pick her up at work, Tony climbed into the Volt and gave her a distracted kiss but said nothing.
“You okay?” Sheila asked, looking at her intently.
“Yeah. Just tired.”
“Are you working this weekend?”
“Uh-huh.” Tony tilted her head back and closed her eyes.
“What can I do?” Sheila asked.
“Nothing. Just take me back to your place.”
“Are you hungry?” It was nine p.m., and Sheila truly hoped Tony had already eaten.
“Nope. Had dinner. Indian.”
They arrived at the condo, and since asking questions wasn’t working well, Sheila shut up.
Tony dumped her bag on the living-room easy chair, walked to the bedroom, and, without another word, took off her clothes, put on a T-shirt, and climbed into bed. It didn’t seem as though anything romantic was going to happen, so Sheila put on her own T-shirt and slid into bed next to Tony, turned her bedside light down, and perused her smartphone.
Tony lay on her stomach, her face in her pillow. She groaned and flopped onto her back. “I’m too tired to sleep,” she announced, put an arm over her eyes, and sighed. Sheila didn’t find a need to respond. She stayed silent to see how this was going to play out. She scrolled through her emails, flagging or deleting them as needed. Tony flipped again and faced Sheila, who met her gaze but still stayed mum. Tony was clearly disturbed about something and had to make up her own mind to disclose it. Or not.
“I don’t understand what they’re doing. We don’t have a viable product. Leonardo doesn’t work, or it doesn’t work in the way I would assume it should work, and they’re sending them into drugstores to test actual people.”
Sheila put her phone down and gave Tony her full attention. She remembered fleetingly what she’d heard in the board meeting and what she wanted to tell Tony, but this wasn’t the time. It was time to let Tony vent, if that’s what she wanted to do.
Tony continued. “It isn’t right. At least I don’t think it is, but I’m not in charge, and other people are A-OK with letting a crummy product out the door. We don’t have any regulatory people to put the brakes on. There are no brakes.”
“What are you afraid is going to happen?”
“Someone will get a wrong test result.”
“The consequences would be…?”
“The patients could get a wrong diagnosis, or the doctor wouldn’t know to check them out for an underlying condition.”
“Are you sure that’s what will happen?”
“No. I can’t be sure, but based on my experience, it could.”
“So, Erica is aware of this?”
“I would assume so. Huey knows. He’s the one forcing my boss to do it his way, so if Huey knows, Erica has to know. They’re—”
“They’re in a relationship, and he’s the COO, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So, if Erica knows, then she’s decided it’s okay. And you have to accept that.”
“Yes. I guess so.” Tony was not agreeing, but she was resigned.
“You’ve made your opinion known, I’m certain.”
“Yes,” Tony said. “They know what I think, but they don’t care. If they did, they would do it differently.”
“Come here,” Sheila said and spread her arms. Tony scooted over and nestled against her.
Sheila stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head. “That’s the real reason, isn’t it? They’re not taking you seriously.”
“No, they’re not. But you do, right?” She turned her face up so their eyes could meet.
“Yes. Of course, I do, and I understand why you’re upset. But think of it this way. You are not in possession of all the facts. Erica and Huey might know something you’re not aware of.”
“I suppose. But…” Tony told her what Sanjay had said.
She added, “He’s trying to save his own butt. I don’t trust him to do the right thing.”
“Out of your control. You need to give people the benefit of the doubt. Maybe Erica has priorities you’re not aware of. Maybe the Graff people know this is an experimental device.”
Tony burrowed into her and said, “Yeah. I know. Maybe sometimes I take too much on myself.”
“Yes, you do. The Leung code of honor.” Sheila hugged her tighter. “Now you have to try and relax, darling, or you’ll never get to sleep.”
Tony let her body go limp. Sheila massaged her temples and said softly, “There you go. Let it all go. Sleep will find you. You will sleep and be at peace. The universe turns and the heavens are eternal. There is nothing whatever you have to do but sleep.”
Chapter Twelve
“Thanks for making time to have lunch with me.” Sheila favored Erica with a neutral smile as she placed her napkin on her lap.
Erica had been surprisingly open-minded to Sheila’s invite, and here they were on the outskirts of Menlo Park in a shopping mall in a Japanese place removed from the hubbub (and prying eyes and ears) of downtown Palo Alto.
“Oh, my pleasure. I’ve been so caught up in everything I haven’t had time for any socializing, but I thought, you know, I ought to get to know Sheila better. In this environment, you need allies, right?” Erica said, brightly. She pulled a water bottle filled with some sort of brown sludge out of her bag and set it on the table.
Sheila thought about asking her what it was but thought better of it. No sense in making her defensive right away. That’s sure to occur later. They stuck to small talk until after they’d given their orders and the waitress was gone. Erica ordered exactly one thing—tuna sashimi. That was it. Was she anorexic or what? Apparently, the brown sludge was to serve as her lunch.
Erica’s remark about needing allies sparked Sheila’s curiosity. That could be meaningful or not. It wasn’t a secret that women had it tough in Silicon Valley. But in Sheila’s opinion, Erica had it easier than most. She was the CEO of a bona fide unicorn. She was a celebrity, literally, celebrated in myriad ways. But what was going on inside her company? Why did Erica not fulfill the most basic requests for documents? Were Tony’s misgivings about the lab justified?
“I was wondering if you might have forgotten my asking for your draft partnership agreements a couple months ago.”
“Oh, yeah.” Erica smacked her head in an admirable display of remorse. “Yes. I’m sorry. That was dumb. I’ll text Abby right away.” She typed rapidly on her phone for several moments.