by Tia Siren
“Oh yes,” she muttered with another pout.
Julian felt bad about disappointing her. She raised her eyes and looked pitifully at him so that he felt his insides melt. There was something bubbling beneath the surface between them, an unmistakable attraction. Julian was the one to hold back, having been burned by love as little as four months ago.
“Don’t worry; I’ll still buy you breakfast, but you can’t sit at our table.”
Just as he was wondering about arranging a single table, the maître d’ presented himself. “Is everything all right, Mr. McConnell?” the stiff suited man asked.
“I need a table for one.”
The man planted a plastic smile on his face and guided Colleen to a table at the other end of the room. With that settled, Julian returned to his guests who had already ordered and were waiting for their food to arrive. The plan was to eat before getting down to business.
He ordered a French omelet with sausages and toast. Coffee arrived first, and he took a sip of the black unsweetened liquid. His eyes inadvertently strayed toward the main area where Colleen was speaking with a waiter.
Julian’s eyes lingered a moment on her high firm breasts beneath her skin-hugging low-cut dress. Catching himself, he quickly looked away. He reminded himself that he had sworn off dating… for now anyway. His breakup with Nicole was still fresh, and he wasn’t ready to jump back into the dating saddle. However, he couldn’t help noticing how attractive she was when he glanced her way again. His heart raced as his eyes lingered a moment too long on her luscious lips before cruising her neckline. She raised her head and glanced his way, and he quickly returned his attention to his table. He made a mental note to focus on his guests and not his MD’s assistant.
The breakfast and subsequent meeting went well. Leonard and Harold were delighted about the new cancer-reversing chip Julian was developing. It was still in the early stages, but if successful, would revolutionize the cure and prevention of the disease.
Harold was already involved in the health industry as a manufacturer of cranberry-based diet products. He was also involved in other cancer-research initiatives. After his mother and wife died of cancer, he donated to various organizations for research. He told Julian that this was dear to him and that he was happy to be on board. Leonard was a business mogul who invested in startups, taking them from ‘pennies to billions,’ was his tagline.
“My wife died of cancer four years ago. I wish this had been around then,” Harold said in a gravelly tone.
A lump rose in Julian’s throat as he remembered his own mother and how she suffered before she finally passed away when he was in college. He’d been working on this technology ever since. He wanted to name it in her honor when the project was ready to market.
“I’m sorry,” Harold apologized, dabbing the corners of his eyes. “I know your mother also passed because of this disease.”
Julian’s eyes also glistened, but he swallowed to try to reign in his emotions. “No need to apologize,” he told the man.
Leonard, perhaps seeing how emotional the two men had become, rushed to ease the discomfort. “Let’s hear the report, shall we?”
“We have tested only on rats, but have seen great results,” Julian said. He pushed a seven-inch tablet across the table. “This is the latest lab report. With some tweaking, we should have better results within the next few weeks.”
Harold’s eyes glistened. “Can you tell me more about the test?”
“We tested on six rats that had malignant tumors. There was a 33 percent success rate. We inserted the chips on rats without any tumors and then infected them with carcinogens using a special serum. In half of those, we found no traces of the carcinogens or any cancer when tested after three weeks.”
“A serum?” Leonard asked.
Julian nodded. “A serum with cancer-causing prorates. There are actually two serums. One with cancer causing elements such as nicotine. The other serum contains a viral element that when ingested will develop into malignant tumors.”
“My God, did you create these?”
“Yes, I’ve been working on them for a while.”
“How soon will we be able to get this approved by the FDA?” Leonard asked.
“Another three months and we are good to go, given that nothing sets us back,” Julian told him. “We hope to take it a bit further to the World Health Organization.”
“That sounds fantastic,” Harold remarked, shaking his head.
Both men seemed pleased, but Julian was uneasy. His mind strayed to his associate, wondering what the emergency was about. Usually, he was the first person Ryan would contact, but not today. Was Ryan upset because he hadn’t yet signed the document to make him an official partner?
They’d been talking about this for fourteen months, and he wanted to have his friend as a partner, but something was telling him to wait. Perhaps it was time to forget his reservations and just do it. Harold was speaking, and Julian returned his attention to the meeting.
“Did you bring the documents to sign?” Harold asked. “We’ll look them over and arrange another meeting to finalize things.”
Taking a folder from his briefcase, Julian pulled the files and handed one to each of the men. They both started scanning the documents even as they said they would have their lawyers run through them.
“We’ll meet again in two weeks to finalize this,” Leonard said with Harold in agreement.
“I’ll have Ryan set up the appointment,” Julian replied.
With the meeting over, Julian made his way out of the restaurant. Harold and Leonard had left already, and he assumed Colleen also left, having not seen her since the meeting ended. He tried calling Ryan several times but got no answer.
He was in the parking lot when he spotted Colleen walking toward the street. He quickly got into his Mercedes and drove over, stopping at her feet. Sliding the window down, he asked, “Where’s your car?”
“I took a cab.”
“Get in.”
“I don’t want to impose,” she replied.
Julian sensed that she was upset with him as she continued walking away. This was unlike her. It was not his intention to make her sit by herself, but he could not put this project at risk. As it was, something weird was happening in the office, and he needed to figure out what was going on. At the moment, it was difficult to trust anyone. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Just get in.”
She complied, and silently latched her seat belt before staring through the window.
“Are you mad at me?” he asked
“Why on earth would I be mad at you?”
“I don’t know, the way you are acting right now,” he said. “Come on, don’t be like that.”
“No.”
“What can I do to make it up to you?”
She turned to face him. “You know what I want.”
His heart skipped a beat. “I can’t… not yet.”
2
Julian’s forehead puckered as he stared at the laptop monitor. The figures seemed out of sequence. He stared for a moment as his mind ran through the calculations. Something was definitely wrong. This was not the configuration for the current project.
He was sitting at a round table with his team of three members inside the room he liked to call the ‘Think Pad.’ Robert was the most senior of the three, with more technical experience. Mark was the medical student turned software specialist, and Rick was the child genius, the youngest of the lot at only nineteen years old.
This was where they brainstormed and solved problems. In the room were individual desks with computers specifically designed to handle the scientific data. In addition were the laptops and tablets each member was in possession of.
Off to the right of the room was a door which was kept locked. That room was his personal lab and office. Inside was also a small area with a daybed, a bathroom, and everything he needed when he worked for days without going home.
“What’s wrong, D?” said Robert.
“Did you reconfigure the DBS chip?”
“No, the configuration worked fine. There was nothing more needed. The FDA approved, and it’s ready for production.”
“Look at this,” he beckoned to his colleague and indicated the unencrypted code on the screen.
Robert pulled up a chair beside him. His eyes scanned the monitor as a single crease formed between his brows. Robert slowly shook his head as his fingers tapped the keyboard. The others also came to join them, and all eyes scrutinized the figures.
“This is incorrect. We all checked it and approved the final configuration. How could it just change?” Mark remarked. “Do you think someone is trying to sabotage us?”
“I don’t know, but if I’m correct, this formula would have no effect at all on those wearing this chip,” Julian replied. “The numbers do nothing at all.”
“If someone changed the numbers, wouldn’t they do so to make it work the opposite of how it’s supposed to work?” Mark asked.
Rick fingered his chin. “You mean, instead of increasing insulin production naturally, it would slow the production, causing the patient’s glucose level to get worse?”
“Exactly,” Mark replied. “But, if a child were to tamper with this and change one number, it would make the sequence null. That’s the way it was designed.”
The formula in question belonged to the chip designed to control diabetes by sending signals to the blood cells and pancreas. This would increase insulin production and repair cell damage. The chip was scheduled to go into production within a couple of days.
“You all check your data,” he instructed. “See what damage has been done.”
Each of them returned to their laptops to check their files. A few second passed as they pulled up the file in question.
“Mine’s changed as well,” Robert informed him.
“Mine too,” Mark said.
“Yeah, mine too,” Rick added.
Julian sighed, hoping no one got to the prototype. While he was not too worried about this, he was concerned about who could have tampered with the system. Only five people had access to this, including the four of them now in the room and the fifth being Ryan. But Ryan had no technical abilities, let alone the ability to tamper with a medical technology algorithm.
Ryan was clueless when it came to the developmental aspect of the business. That was the duty of the technical team. Julian would never sabotage himself. Therefore, it left the three sitting in front of him.
Julian checked the date the file was last modified. It was two days ago, the day before his meeting with the investors for the new cancer chip. Was it a coincidence? The diabetes chip and cancer chip were not connected. In fact, the cancer microchip was his personal pet project, and his team was not involved with it at all.
Checking the security login for the team network, he saw a remote login. The IP address was blocked. That left him extremely suspicious. A blocked IP address meant that someone was trying to hide. It would take some work, but he could unblock the IP, given time.
Raising his head and eying his teammates, he tried to figure out which one was more likely to do this and why. He’d always thought they were trustworthy, but this incident made him think twice. A knock at the door broke his thoughts.
Without a key card, no one could enter this area. Only five people held a keycard to the think pad, and those included the three team members, Ryan, and Julian. Julian pressed a button on the table, which allowed the door to open. Colleen entered.
“Julian, Ryan is asking for you,” she announced.
He excused himself and met her at the door. As soon as the door closed, Colleen grasped his arm. Julian glanced at the hand on his upper arm. The warmth of her fingers seeped through his skin. He was dressed as usual, in his T-shirt and jeans. Her grip was just below the sleeves of the T-shirt, where her fingers touched his skin.
“I just wanted to thank you for the other day,” she murmured.
“What about the other day?” he asked.
The subtle scent of her floral perfume wafted up to his nostrils and tickled his senses. Inadvertently, his eyes settled on her lips as she reminded him of the breakfast.
“Breakfast and then the lift back to the office. Thank you.”
“It’s no big deal,” he replied, noticing the way her lips curled at the corners when she smiled. Tearing his eyes away, he asked. “Where is Ryan?”
“In his office.”
Julian had to get a grip on his thoughts. He could not allow himself any distractions now. He was at a critical juncture in his cancer technology and needed to focus all the more, now that someone had tried to mess with his work.
Colleen left him to attend to the telephone while he knocked and pushed Ryan’s door open. He was about to scold his friend about missing the meeting and being AWOL for the last two days when he pulled up short. Ryan’s right hand was in a cast, and his head was bandaged.
“What happened to you? Why didn’t I know you got hurt?”
“Relax,” Ryan began, a broad smile spreading across his face.
“How the hell can I relax when I am the last one to know anything? What happened to you?”
“I was in a little accident, but I’m fine.”
Julian ran a large hand through his dark waves as he gritted his teeth in frustration and guilt. He’d been miffed about Ryan missing the meeting and out of office for two days. Now he was a little disappointed that his friend hid such a thing. “Was this why you missed the meeting?”
Ryan nodded. “I knew you would postpone if you knew, so I asked Colleen not to say anything.”
“You’re goddamn right I would have postponed!” Julian burst out. “How could you hide such a thing from me, what if…?”
Memories of when he was in high school came crashing back. He was in junior high and had just received an invitation to join the science club, an elite group of aspiring chemists, biologists, and physicists. He’d won first place in the science fair with his prototype, a pen that doubled as a blood glucose monitor. At the time, juvenile diabetes was on the rise, and many students had to be rushed to the nurse’s office when their levels dropped. The pen was not yet usable, but the idea behind the device was what won the hearts of the judges. A company bought the rights to his design, and that’s when he made his first medical device sale. The company completed the development, and that pen was well received on the market.
That day at the science fair was also the worst day of Julian’s life. That was the day he learned of his father’s accident. Now, looking at his friend with his head bandaged and arm in a cast, he was reminded of that day as though it happened yesterday.
“Are you sure you shouldn’t be in the hospital?” he asked, dropping himself in the armchair in front of Ryan’s desk.
“I assure you, I’m fine. I know the head bandage looks terrible, but I just have a minor cut,” Ryan told him, holding up the arm. “My arm isn’t broken. It’s just a sprain.”
“They don’t use casts for sprains.”
“Okay, okay. It’s not a sprain… just a hairline fracture. The cast is just to make sure everything heals in place.”
“You know it will take me just a few minutes to find out what really happened, right?” Julian warned. “You better not be lying to me.”
Ryan laughed while holding up his good hand. “I swear, I’m telling the truth. It’s not as bad as it appears. Now, you’ve got to do me a favor.”
“What’s that?”
“Stop moping about that girl, man. There are plenty of girls around. Take, for instance, my assistant. She’s crazy about you.”
Julian shook his head. “I don’t have time for that. Someone tried to tamper with the DBS chip.”
Ryan shot to his feet. “What? Are you kidding? How is that possible?”
“Don’t worry; I got this covered, but I have to find out who’s trying to sabotage us.”
“What do you mean you have it covered?”
Julian
chuckled. “Don’t you know me by now? Do you think that the only copies of this program would be in the office?”
“You take your work home with you, yeah.”
“That’s not safe either, but I do have a backup elsewhere. Sorry buddy, I can’t tell you where.”
“I don’t need to know,” Ryan declared. “I wouldn’t know what to do with that stuff anyway.”
“I need to go check out who logged into our system the night before the meeting.”
“Could it be a hacker?”
“Could be, but I don’t think so. The person had a password, which they used to log in once. They also masked their username,” he told Ryan. “Plus, something weird about the numbers they changed. It was a complete novice who knew nothing about the program.”
Ryan sat back in his seat and fingered his chin. “Thank God, they didn’t do any damage. But still, this is unsettling. You think one of our people did this?”
“That’s what I need to find out,” Julian replied. “You, buddy, need to go home and recover.”
“I’m fine, boss.” Ryan grinned. “There’s nowhere else I’d rather be than here. But consider what I was saying.”
“What’s that?” Julian was a little confused.
“About dating again. Colleen likes you.”
“Is that why you called for me?”
“Well… that and to tell you about my accident,” Ryan answered. “Are you going to deny a guy in pain? This could be my last wish you know… ouch… my head… my arm… ouch!”
Ryan’s mock grimace did not escape Julian. Ryan continued his fake cry of pain, gripping the side of his head with his good hand and rolling his eyes back.
“Cut it out,” Julian growled. “You won’t…”
“Ahhh… that really hurt!”
“Okay, I’ll go out with her once.”
Ryan’s face suddenly brightened. “Wow, the pain’s all gone!”
“You’re a sonofabitch!” Julian snapped. “Fucking moron.”
“I love you too, bro.” Ryan grinned.
3
Colleen carefully applied her makeup as her heart raced. Mission accomplished. Julian had agreed to one date. Now it was up to her to make sure there were many more. After her makeup was done, she gave her blonde waves one more brush before donning her scarlet spandex dress.