Trade Secrets

by Kathleen Knowles

  The previous year, they had submitted results from the Advia machines for proficiency testing. This time, they had to use the Leonardos, and Erica and the company would have to stop and fix the Leonardos, which, Tony thought grimly, hadn’t helped yet. This prospect soothed her considerably. GHS would be busted by an outside agency, and they’d have to clean up their act, and no one could blame Tony for anything.

  When the samples came in, Sanjay told Tony and Tan to split them up and run half on the Advia and half on the Leonardo. Tony was surprised and pleased at his directive. She still hoped that real numbers could convince the management to halt the headlong forward motion that Tony knew was ill-advised.

  When she showed the data to Sanjay, he shook his head. “Well, that’s too bad.”

  Tony bit her tongue. Was that all he had to say? What a travesty. This guy surely had some level of integrity. “Which set of numbers will we report to CLIA?” Tony asked.

  Before Sanjay could answer, they heard a booming voice behind them.

  “So, what’s the news?” It was Huey.

  “Take a look at the results. They’re right here,” Sanjay said.

  Huey muscled his bulk between them rudely. “What are these?” he demanded.

  Sanjay explained to him which results were which.

  “What did you do that for?” Huey was irate.

  “Well, we wanted to see. And unfortunately, I’m sure the Advia numbers are correct, and the Leonardo’s number are not.”

  Whoa. Sanjay was offering a real opinion. She watched as Huey glared at Sanjay, clearly trying to get him to back down. Sanjay didn’t speak, but he kept eye contact with Huey.

  Huey at last threw the printout in his hand onto the bench. “Report the Advia results to those regulatory people.” He couldn’t remember the name of the agency, and he likely didn’t care anyhow.

  “That’s what you think we should do?” Sanjay was incredulous. Tony was right there with him, thrilled he was doing the right thing.

  “That’s what I said,” Huey nearly shouted. “Are you deaf?”

  He turned and stalked out of the lab. Tony and Sanjay stared at one another.

  “He just told us to commit fraud with the data we’re giving to a federal agency,” Tony said.

  “Yep.”

  “Are you going to do what he says?”

  “Yep.” Sanjay wouldn’t look at her.

  * * *

  “I’ll move in as soon as the lease runs out on my place in the City,” Tony told Sheila.

  “I’ll pay the penalty to break the lease if you want to leave early. I want you here as soon as possible.”

  “No. You have to let me do it my way.” Tony followed with a hug to take the sting out of what she’d said.

  “Right. You are right.” They were busy talking about their future life together and how they would deal with questions of money and spending. Tony was struggling to stay calm about the latest happenings at the lab and keep her work and home life separated better than she had in the past.

  She wanted to see how things played out before she told Sheila any of the latest lab shenanigans. The shit would hit the fan eventually, or it would all turn out fine, she hoped. Or the GHS board of directors would have to do something. Sheila wasn’t on the board anymore. Her dad had come back to work and taken over.

  Anyhow, Tony wanted to focus on what she and Sheila were doing and how they were doing. She had relinquished her sense of responsibility over what was going on in the lab. Once Tony had made that decision, she felt much better and was less anxious. She loved Sheila, which was the vital fact. They were going to live together. Tony even speculated a tiny bit about marriage but reminded herself to take it slow. First cohabit and see what that was like.

  * * *

  Sheila couldn’t wait to talk to Roy after his first board meeting. She was deeply curious about what was going on with the company. Tony had stopped telling her stories about the goings-on at the lab, and she hoped that meant things had smoothed out.

  As soon as she knew Roy was back from the meeting, she marched into his office. “Did they throw you a party?” she asked, making a joke to cover her eagerness.

  “Ah, no. Gary wants me go out for a couple rounds of golf. I think I can get Doctor Whosit to sign off on that.”

  “Doctor Wen. What were they talking about this morning? What did Erica have to say?” How did he forget the name of his doctor?

  “Oh, the drugstore thing is launched. If it goes well, she said they’d go national next year. Eight hundred stores. And that’s just the beginning.” Roy all but rubbed his hands together in glee.

  Sheila grinned, but she thought of Tony and what she’d said in the past about the tenuous nature of the technology. No doubts were voiced at Erica’s level, and no one on the board was asking because they didn’t know what to ask. They still weren’t told or didn’t care about the colossal rate of employee turnover and why that was occurring. She wanted to check in with Tony and hear what she had to say.

  “Did you meet Harry Blevins?”

  “Oh, yeah. What a shark. But he’s our shark.” Roy grinned smugly.

  “Did he have anything to say?”

  “Nope. Oh, wait a second. He said they’ve got a new plan to make sure their ex-staff are adhering to their NDAs.”

  “Did he provide any details?”

  Roy leaned back in his chair and tossed his nerf basketball and made his basket.

  “Nah. He and Erica sort of cackled together evilly. Erica said, ‘We’re not going to have any issues with leaks of our discoveries. We’re never going to let Quest Diagnostics or LabCorp get their hands on our tech.’”

  “Hm. Well, that’s been her worry from the beginning. I guess she’s got someone like Blevins to take care of that.”

  Roy shot the basketball and missed, and he grimaced. He was already disengaged from their discussion. Sheila left, closing the door quietly.

  * * *

  They stood side by side in Sheila’s kitchen, chopping. This was what it was going to be like. Cozy domesticity, cooking dinner together. Tony caught Sheila’s eye, and they both smiled.

  “How are things in the lab?” Sheila asked.

  “Eh, since you advised me to not get as involved, I’m better.”

  Sheila swiftly dismantled a turnip and threw it into the pot, then reaching for a sweet potato. Sheila was watching what she was doing and not making eye contact. Tony presumed she didn’t want to cut her fingers off.

  “I’m glad to hear that, but what is actually happening?”

  “Oh. That’s a different question,” Tony said, sardonically. “We’re about to lie to a federal regulatory agency.”

  Sheila stopped chopping, her knife poised, and turned face Tony. “Oh, really? That doesn’t sound good.”

  “Nope, it’s not, but I didn’t have any say in it. It was Huey’s deal. He’s the one who’ll have to answer for it if they find out, and they might or might not. They never inspect unless you plead with them to come out and inspect you. No regulator does that. They have no manpower. They’re underfunded and busy.”

  Tony reeled off all this information like it was no big deal, but it made her stomach ache. “Oh, and the Leonardos are going out to the Graff stores, but they’re pieces of crap.” Tony turned back to her work and slashed savagely at the onion she was working on.

  “I heard from Roy that the Leonardos are going out to the drugstores, not the part about them being pieces of crap.”

  Tony sighed. “Yeah. I can’t wait to hear how that goes.”

  “Are you keeping your mouth shut at work?”

  “Yep. Just like you told me to.”

  “Good, ’cause Erica has hired a lawyer who’s famous for his aggressive tactics.”

  Tony threw her diced onion into the soup pot. “Nice.”

  She wasn’t as carefree as she made out to Sheila, but she was determined to hold her tongue for as long as possible and wait to see what would happen.r />
  “It’s good to hear that you’re keeping a low profile. I don’t want you to get into any trouble.”

  “Nope. Not me. I’m like a little lab mouse. I’m barely making a sound above a squeak.” Before they kill me dead, which is what usually happens to little lab mice.

  “Great. Let’s put the soup on and have a glass of wine, then sit on the couch and snuggle while we wait for it to cook.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  * * *

  A couple of weeks later, Sanjay, Tony, and Tan were in the lab looking over the patient test results, which didn’t look good, and they were having a tense discussion to decide what to do about the situation. The door opened, and Huey stalked in, followed by a bunch of movers all trundling shrink-wrapped Leonardos on moving dollies.

  The three of them watched silently. Huey was barking directions and cautions, and then he turned to the three of them. “These need to be fixed. I’ll bring the engineers in, and you all get to work.”

  “What about the other units in the other stores?” Sanjay asked.

  “They’re fine. The stores these came from? They are going to be sending their samples by courier over to us, and you do the tests in house.”

  Sanjay, Tony, and Tan looked at each other. Something must have happened, and the Graff stores sent their Leonardos back. Since Huey was in a foul mood, they didn’t ask him. Tony would ask Ricardo later. In spite of Sheila’s admonition about yakking with him, Ricardo was still the one in the know.

  “Are we testing the samples on Leonardos? Or on the commercials?” Sanjay asked, meaning the Advia machines.

  “Advias, until we get this straightened out.” Huey practically growled.

  “Roger that,” Sanjay said, smartly. “Will they be finger sticks or venipunctures?”

  Huey looked even angrier. “Regular blood samples.” He likely didn’t know the word venipuncture.

  Courier-delivered samples were problematical, which was one of the reasons the Leonardos were situated on site. The finger-stick-derived blood deteriorated, adding yet another layer of uncertainty to the results. In the meantime, there were still GHS devices out there analyzing the patients’ blood. Tony remembered what Ricardo had told her months ago. Huey knew all along what they were going to be doing—yet another way they’d surely misled the Graff company.

  Later, Tony visited Ricardo and asked him if he knew what had happened. “Oooee. It was a mess. I understand a couple of store managers called Erica and yelled at her. A couple of people who used their Leonardos then went and got some regular blood tests, and the results didn’t match so the customers were upset, and the Graff store managers were pissed. I think a call came from Graff’s project manager.”

  “Yikes.” That was all Tony could think of to say.

  “Uh-huh. It’s ugly.”

  Sanjay told Tony to call him if any customer complaints came in while she was on duty testing patients’ blood.

  It wasn’t too long before that happened, and Tony listened to Sanjay’s soothing and utterly false reassurances to the doctor who hadn’t believed the test results.

  Tony finally spilled all of this to Sheila one evening while they were eating dinner.

  “This isn’t going to end well,” she said. “Maybe you ought to talk to your dad, and he can try to pin Erica down.”

  “It doesn’t sound good, and I don’t think Roy would do anything.”

  Tony put her fork down, appalled. “Why not?”

  “Tony, baby, I believe you, but it’s going to take a lot more than that to convince him. I still think it sounds like typical start-up growing pains. Erica knows all about it, you said. Though I told you not to talk to Ricardo, you did anyhow.”

  “Excuse me, but I think my talking to Ricardo is missing the point.” Since Tony knew that Sheila didn’t like her to talk to Ricardo, Tony never mentioned him until then.

  “Sorry. You’re right, but I still worry. What are you going to do?”

  “What am I going to do? What are you going to do? The company is going down the toilet. You told me to keep my head down. Fine. I still care, though.”

  Sheila tapped her fingers on the table and was silent for a few moments. Tony had never seen her show this much impatience.

  “I’ll talk to Roy and see what he says. You stay calm.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I’m okay,” Tony said, tersely.

  She had a hard time falling asleep that night, though Sheila was out for the count, as always. It was irritating how well she could sleep when Tony couldn’t. Tony hoped that, at last, somehow, Sheila and Roy would get Erica to what? Listen? Do something besides spin everyone on everything?

  Tony received an answer the next day, but it wasn’t the one she wanted.

  Sheila said, “I’m sorry to tell you, but Roy isn’t ready to step in yet. He said, quote, Erica has it under control, end quote.”

  “Huh. Well. Thanks for trying,” Tony said, but she wasn’t satisfied. There was something she could do, and she’d been thinking about it for a while. Sheila wouldn’t likely think it was a good idea, but so be it.

  * * *

  After Tony made her request, Ricardo looked at her for a long time without saying anything.

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked, uncharacteristically somber.

  “Yes. I’m serious.”

  “Okay, then. I’ll talk to Andy for you.”

  The scenario Tony had cooked up had two problems. The first was putting her hands on the proficiency results, which Sanjay had in his possession, and, second, making sure Sheila would be willing to go along with her plan.

  She approached Sanjay a couple days later and asked to see the proficiency testing data. “I want to be sure the comparison calculation I performed was correct because I think I might have made an error.” Tony willed her voice to stay steady.

  Looking resigned, he said, “It’s all over, so it’s basically irrelevant.”

  “Yeah. I know. But I still don’t want to leave anything wrong. In case.”

  He shrugged. It was easy, after all, to exploit how utterly beaten down Sanjay was and how little he even seemed to care. Tony felt somewhat sorry for him, but he was still a weenie.

  She took the printouts of the proficiency testing results and the letter she had written and called Andy the programmer. He came over to the clin lab, and after she had printed the letter and copied the printouts, Andy erased the printer/copier’s memory. No one would ever know she’d used the printer for the purpose she’d employed it.

  At Sheila’s that evening, Tony showed the documents to Sheila and explained what they were.

  “I want to scan them and email them to the section of Medicare that regulates clinical labs, anonymously. Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments office.”

  Sheila read what Tony had handed her. Tony’s letter laid out clearly how she believed GHS was violating the law. Sheila’s eyes widened.

  Tony said, “I can’t do this at work, as you know, since they monitor our email. I want you to do it or let me do it from your laptop here at your house. I’m asking you to help me. I don’t know what else to do.”

  Sheila read the letter again. “What do you think will happen?”

  “I hope they’ll do a surprise inspection and investigation and shut the lab down.” Tony spoke as firmly as she could, but her voice still shook.

  “You realize you’re asking me to sabotage the company we both want to succeed.”

  “I’m not asking you to sabotage anything, Sheila. I’m asking you to help me right a wrong. GHS needs to put the brakes on, correct some of its behavior, and start behaving ethically. It doesn’t have to be a death blow.”

  Sheila said, after a long pause, “All right. I’ll do it, because I believe you, because I love you. You may be right that there is no other way. Erica won’t do anything voluntarily.”

  “Nope. We have to force the issue.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Sheila kne
lt in front of her living-room altar, focused on her statue of Guan Yin, the goddess of wisdom and compassion, and said a silent prayer. She took the lotus position and meditated for a half hour. The experience was soothing and calming, but she still had doubts. She’d never done anything in connection with one of her start-ups as she’d agreed to do for Tony. It felt ethically slippery. On the other hand, Tony’s certainty was compelling, and if she didn’t give her lover the benefit of the doubt, what good was their relationship?

  She prayed and meditated again in the evening after work was over. She could face Tony with a clear conscience.

  “How long will it take, do you think, for them to respond?”

  “Hard to say. It’s a government agency.”

  “Well, we have to wait then.”

  “Yes,” Tony said, grimly. “We wait.”

  * * *

  It turned out to take only a month for the inspection to happen. Sanjay told Tony about it in a curiously noncommittal fashion, and she didn’t find out why until the day of the inspection.

  Huey came to the lab early in the morning. “You three just stay in here. Don’t go wandering around. I’m handling it. I know somebody in here talked, so I’m going to find out who, and then we’ll see what’s what.” He sounded menacing, and Tony was scared, even though she knew he’d never figure out it was her. Sanjay was ignorant, as was Tan. They couldn’t get into trouble, nor could they name her as the culprit.

  “What did the CLIA people say was the reason they were inspecting us?” Tony asked, innocently.

  “Licensing.” Huey bit off the word.

  “Oh,” Tony said. “Okay.”

  They were stuck in the office the whole day, and it was a major bore. Tony tried to read some journals, but she mostly fiddled with her phone. No inspectors showed up, however. They must have rescheduled for some reason.

  She and Sheila went out to dinner, but she had nothing to report. They concentrated on their moving-in-together plans, a much happier subject.