Lethal Reaction

by Dawn Marsanne

  Chapter 7

  Zac Milburn stretched and yawned, his watch showed it was coming up to 7.30 p.m. so he had only about thirty minutes left before he would have to leave, otherwise, the security guard Mark would come up and tell him that he was about to lock the doors. Well, he’d managed to get about two hours work done after his colleagues had left. Generally, it didn’t matter if Billie was still here late as she rarely came into the actual lab, but he had to make sure that Nick, Kirsty and Caroline had left before he could get on with his chemistry undisturbed. He was almost on schedule providing there were no unexpected hiccups. He anticipated that another week or so would mean he had finished his latest ‘project’ and the pressure would be off him for a while.

  He’d had an anxious day recently when he had a lapse in his planning, he would have to watch that Nick, or nosy Nick as he thought of him. Nick was too keen to worry about what was going on around him rather than concentrating on his own work. Zac would have thought that with having someone to supervise he would be busy enough but he seemed to make it his business to push his nose into other people’s work. Well Nick, he thought to himself, you will have to get up earlier in the morning to catch me out, I’m a master at covering my tracks.

  When he joined BioQex he was a bit worried about the fact that they were now using an electronic laboratory notebook rather than the old bound paper type, which you could keep locked away from prying eyes and only show it to people if they specifically asked. The idea of an electronic notebook was that you could see what reactions your colleagues were doing, check the conditions for the reactions and so on, monitor how well the reaction had gone and examine the attached data. A real boon if for some reason your colleague was off sick or something, but it did mean that you could be under scrutiny all the time. There was also the problem that every reaction that was put on in the lab had to have some sort of reference number allocated to it, so in the event of an incident, people knew what it was. So Zac had realised that his secret reactions would have a to have a duplicate reference to that of his project work, with an additional identifier, making it look like it was another batch. Once or twice Nick had asked him why he was repeating a reaction, or why he had split the reaction into two flasks or something. Clear evidence that he had been nosing through the electronic notebooks checking up on him. Keen not to get caught out again by using duplicate references for his reaction Zac had decided to use the next available blank page in his notebook, but once again it appeared that Nick had been checking up as the next morning he reminded him that he had a reaction set up in his fume-hood but with no accompanying write-up in his notebook, merely a blank page. Zac realised that in future he would have to put another reaction in his notebook for his real work, then assign this to his illicit work, then once the illicit reaction was finished and out of the way he would put on his official reaction. Operating like this was tiring and he had to keep all his wits about him but he was resolute, he would not be caught out. Nosy Nick, thought Zac, you can ferret around all you like but you won’t find what you are looking for, I’ll make sure of that.

  It was such a relief that their new CSO was starting full-time next week. From Nick’s excitement after the presentation, it was clear that he felt there was more to this guy than met the eye. Something to do with an ex-colleague who was before Zac’s time. So if Nick had this to occupy his thoughts then perhaps he would be less interested in what Zac was up to. It gave Zac an idea, perhaps he should work on building up the intrigue surrounding Brett, perhaps adding a few embellishments, he didn’t think it would take too much to push Nick in that direction, and perhaps he could push him too far. It would suit him very well if Nick had to move from their lab or preferably the company if he annoyed Brett. He would give this some thought when he had a spare moment.

  Chapter 8

  The next morning Brett woke with a slight headache. He’d had one too many last night, although he’d hardly had anything much really compared with his past exploits. His tolerance for alcohol was seriously reduced these days. Gone were the days when he could down cocktails, wine, beers, spirits, everything really and remain standing. He shouldn’t really drink at all, his doctor had warned him his liver was showing signs of damage, also he’d been seriously ill one night after a drinking session with Matt, although he still suspected there was more to it than just drink that had contributed to his near-death feeling. He dreaded to think what lasting damage had been done to his system after that incident. He tried not to think about it, that was all in the past. He did think of Matt from time to time. His old mate from university, drinking pal, buddy and source of innumerable ‘loans’ to help him out. They had parted on less than amicable terms and so he had no idea what he had decided to do. Perhaps he was planning to move from Persford, have a complete break. He had done well from his time at BioQex ensuring that he received a sizeable severance payment along with bonuses from time to time. Matt was not likely to be starving or having to take a job at McDonald’s.

  Brett was at a bit of a loose end today, he would be glad to be starting on Monday full time in his new position, so there was only today and the weekend to get through. The trouble was he didn’t have much spare cash at the moment so wasn’t able to do much in the way of going out or entertaining himself. He really shouldn’t have gone out last night for something to eat but he regarded it as a celebration for getting through his first day meeting the staff at his new company. He’d momentarily thought of going to visit his mother, he’d not visited her for six months now. His father was no longer alive as he’d suffered a heart attack before his fiftieth birthday, the result of a forty a day cigarette habit and too much drink. His mother was now in a relationship with the showy and boastful Rex, self-made man with a string of shops of various descriptions. No doubt his mother had been carried along by his accumulated wealth which he was keen to describe to everyone he met. As far as Brett was concerned he was completely odious and as he seemed a constant fixture by his mother’s side he vowed to postpone his visit for as long as possible. He could not face a weekend of being told how a university education was very overrated in Rex’s eyes and how he’d learnt all he knew in the University of Life.

  His mind drifted back to some of his meetings. That Billie was stunning, long dark hair, slim yet curvaceous, eyes like dark pools you could lose yourself in. It was just a pity she was going to report directly to him, although it wasn’t completely off the radar. People did have affairs at work, didn’t they Matt, he thought, but they needed to be extra careful. He wouldn’t put it past that Nick to be watching him like a hawk. After all, it was a bit strange he ended up in the same wine bar as his colleague Sarah when she was having a drink to complete a bit of business. Of course, he wasn’t sure how Billie would feel about a relationship with her boss, she might be one of those straight-laced principled types. He would see if he could read the signs when they had some further meetings together. Once they got to know each other she might relax a bit and he would be able to assess his chances.

  Brett went to collect the post, seriously hoping there weren’t any more bills. He made himself a cafetière of coffee, he needed a serious amount of coffee to wake up this morning. He scanned the post, nothing looked like bills. There was a credit card statement which was for just over six hundred pounds and thus not too much by his standards. He was making sure it got paid off each month now rather than accruing interest. Also a letter from one of his online betting accounts thanking him for his final payment and confirming in writing that his account was now closed but that he had been a valued customer and if he ever wanted to open his account again they would be only too willing to welcome him back. Not bloody likely thought Brett to himself, no way I’m going to go down that path again, it is going to stay closed. Brett had been seriously into gambling until his debts mounted causing him to take drastic steps to clear them. It had been a crazy episode in his life, part of him was ashamed of the way he had behaved. Things were going to be different from now o
n.

  He switched on his huge TV to watch a bit of the morning news but it was all very depressing, the ongoing conflict in Syria, the child abuse enquiry, so he switched it off and turned his attention to his phone to check his emails. Most of them he simply deleted, but one caught his eye. It was a reminder about an alumni dinner from his old university. It was taking place in London at the Hurlingham club. There were still places so if he would like to take part he needed to email them back and click on a link to pay seventy-five pounds, there was always a catch he thought. It was taking place in a couple of weeks. He’d had the original message several months ago and had simply deleted it, but now that he was CSO at BioQex he began to reconsider. It would be nice to tell all those arrogant people that he was actually head of science at a biotech company. That would make people sit up and take notice. A career in science often wasn’t considered as prestigious as those in law or the city but he would enjoy telling people how far he had come and that he was in charge at BioQex, well almost. By then he would have his new and generous salary so he would no longer have to be quite so careful with money, why not he thought to himself. London wasn’t far to go, he’d leave work a bit earlier than usual, get the train and be there in time for dinner. It was on a Friday so it didn’t matter if he got the last train back and got home at 1 a.m., he could recover over the weekend. He replied that he would like a place at the dinner and logged on to the secure link to pay the fee.

  Chapter 9

  Over at BioQex, it was mid morning, and things were ticking over quite nicely. The mood in Nick’s lab was quite subdued. He was still chewing over his argument with Polly the night before, he felt very sore about her accusations that he was inventing intrigue where it didn’t exist. He didn’t want to lose Polly, they had been together for a long time now and he wanted to marry her, settle down and have a family. Perhaps he was embroidering things, he just didn’t know, for the time being, he was just trying to concentrate on his work.

  Kirsty and Caroline were also knuckling down to their work, although they did keep chatting about gorgeous Brett as they liked to call him. Thus followed typical girlie chat about secretly wishing they were having a relationship with him and so on, Nick tried not to listen. Some of the whispered things they were saying which then caused peals of laughter were obviously not for his ears. Zac reckoned he’d heard from someone at StourMed that Brett had a reputation for ruthlessness, however when Nick questioned him further to cite examples he became very vague. It still gave Nick concern that if crossed he might be vindictive and he was worried about their previous encounter being remembered or used to punish him in some way.

  Just before lunch, he heard Zac’s mobile which caused Zac to quickly remove his gloves and answer his phone, stepping over to one side of the lab away from his colleagues. Nick couldn’t catch much of what was said as he turned his back away and was facing the window as he spoke. Then he ended the call, took off his lab coat and left the lab heading down through the office area presumably intending to carry out the rest of the conversation outside the building. Most people left their mobiles on their desk or in their bags and didn’t take them into the laboratory. It was quite strange that Zac seemed to be taking these secret calls, he wondered if he had a girlfriend though he never admitted to one, or perhaps he was conducting an affair with someone who was married.

  Well not long to go until the weekend thought Nick, he had been thinking of a way to make things up to Polly, perhaps they could go out for the day on Saturday or Sunday. Spend some quality time with each other, get out of the flat, go and see somewhere new. Perhaps some nice National Trust property, the weather was set to be nice, he had checked the forecast. They could take a picnic, spend the day visiting somewhere, then get a pizza or something and a bottle of wine for the evening and watch a film. It would certainly be a perfect day as far as he was concerned, he just hoped he could sell it to Polly.

  Nick had a meeting with Billie this afternoon to check progress and plans for the next couple of weeks. He had been preparing for this as he wanted to make a good impression with his new supervisor. She seemed OK as far as Nick could tell so far, very professional, efficient, she didn’t seem to have much of a sense of humour, but perhaps that was because she was a bit stressed with just starting the job. It wasn’t easy particularly if you had to move from a different area. Nick could sympathise, he had moved to Persford about three years ago, there was a lot of upheaval having to find somewhere to live and make new friends at work.

  Whilst Zac was out of the lab he took the opportunity to have a quick look in his fume cupboard. He was a tidy worker, nothing he needed to reprimand him about. He scanned his various flasks and Petri dishes of solids and so on. He was looking for duplicates of reactions, that was something he had spotted before in Zac’s fume cupboard and couldn’t understand why he seemed to have split his batches. Well, nothing like that seemed to be going on. He had a quick look along his bench, just to check he was storing his reagents properly. All appeared to be in order. As his eyes scanned the rows of bottles he was a bit surprised at a couple of them. They were basic types of reagents or building blocks for more complex molecules but he couldn’t think why Zac would have withdrawn them from their central storeroom. He didn’t remember any of Zac’s plans involving a starting material like that. Perhaps he had some new plans, he was in a different team from Nick so it was possible they had suddenly changed what they were doing. He would wait until Zac got back and ask him how his work was going, casually, of course, otherwise, Zac would think he was being interrogated.

  **

  Billie was pleased that the working week was coming to a close, she was exhausted. Life here at BioQex was still very new, she was finding it quite a strain having to get used to all the company practices. She thought she was making progress though, and it was fortunate whilst she was finding her feet that her supervisees were getting along quite nicely without too many interventions. She was lucky to have Nick, he was very experienced and very competent. He just seemed to lack focus from time to time. She had just noticed him having a nosy in Zac’s fume cupboard, why was he so interested in what he was doing, she asked herself. Then she saw him having a look at the reagents that had been delivered, Nick seemed rather puzzled by what he’d seen.

  She didn’t want to get off on the wrong foot with Nick but she felt that he would need to be reminded that he needed to focus on his own work. He was often seen chatting in the lab, and with everyone and anyone who popped into the lab. It was fair enough but sometimes those conversations seemed to go on for rather a long time.

  She felt she was quite fortunate that she’d been assigned to a project that had already been running for a while at BioQex and was looking very promising. The prototype from this therapeutic area was already destined for development but there was always room for improvement, so a backup compound which had been put on hold for a while was now being worked on along with some closely similar entities to see whether they could find something even better. She was pleased that at this stage she wasn’t having to start a project completely from scratch.

  In truth, she was having trouble concentrating after her short meeting yesterday with their new CSO, Brett. He didn’t wear a wedding ring, most men of that age opted to wear a ring if they were married, not like her father’s generation. She’d only looked at his left hand when she had noticed his gaze drift towards hers. Cheeky sod she thought, he was the CSO and shouldn’t be thinking of his staff as a recreation activity. She had been conscious of her face flushing slightly during the meeting, had he noticed, she wasn’t sure, she hoped he hadn’t taken it as a symbol that she was attracted to him. Billie was in a steady relationship and she liked to keep her private life private. There was something about Brett that she didn’t really like, it was niggling at her, it wasn’t just the flash persona, there was something else. It was her sixth sense in operation she told herself. It was a pity she had just moved into the area as she would have tried to make conta
ct with some colleagues from his previous company, find out what he was like. She might see what clubs she could join locally, she was a keen runner and something like that would be bound to attract the sporty types from Brett’s old company. At least she would be doing her fact-finding in her own time unlike her supervisee Nick who spent far to much time chatting in her opinion.

  She was disturbed from her reverie by Zac walking speedily past her desk heading back into the lab, his rapid transit creating quite a draught in his wake, ruffling a few papers on her desk. Well it’s good to be keen to get back to work she smiled to herself, but he had a face like thunder because at that precise moment Nick was having a careful nosy along the reagents on Zac’s bench.

  Chapter 10

  Zac flung open the door to the lab and grabbed his lab coat from his peg, headed over to Nick saying, ‘were you looking for something, Nick?’

  ‘Oh, hi Zac, no, it’s just I was expecting something to have arrived by now and I was just wondering if it had been left on your bench by mistake,’ said Nick, his neck reddening somewhat.

  ‘Well did you find it, I can’t see any packages with your name on them, can you?’ said Zac, getting quite annoyed by this stage.