by Terry Morgan
CHAPTER 11
It was the trade exhibition at the Conference that really interested me. But I still had no idea how, or if, it would be of any use for my new client, Virex International. That Anna was constantly on my mind was a reflection of how involved in the job I was being paid to do I actually felt. I was in a dreadful state for a grown man. I felt like a teenage boy who thought a girl fancied him because she'd said she'd wait for him after school by the lamp post.
So, picking up a list of trade exhibitors, I took a deep breath and, adopting as manly a walk as I could muster strolled up and down the three main aisles. It was not a large exhibition by some standards but a mix of high tech medical diagnostics companies, laboratory equipment manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies. But on the corner end of the third aisle I found exactly what I was looking for - Biox Research International - the company that, according to Amos Gazit had lost its research director and an ex employee. I stopped, went forward and picked up a sales leaflet.
"Can I help you sir?" I heard an American accent. "I'm John Wardley."
"I'm not sure," I said looking up. "Perhaps some general product information."
"Doctor Stevens," Wardley said, eyeing my neat nametag. "Where you from, sir?"
"Currently in Kuala Lumpur. Local you might say. University. Molecular genetics. Passing interest in viral biochemistry." Hearing my invented story out loud for the first time it sounded passable.
"British though, eh?" joked Wardley, detecting the accent. "Any clinical involvement Doctor Stevens?"
"Peripheral.” I said, vaguely, as I was unsure exactly what that meant. “Actually," I continued in as British a way as I could, "I used to know one of your researchers a few years ago. Chap by the name of Solomon. He and I met at Cambridge. Last I heard he was head of research - done well for himself. I lost touch when I came out here. He went west, I went east." I paused to test the response."
"Dave Solomon," John Wardley said immediately. "I'm surprised you hadn't heard. He disappeared. Last year. Strange story. You say you knew him?"
"Yes, Cambridge. I spent a year there before coming out here but then lost touch with many former colleagues. I've tried to involve myself here as much as I could and my work went in a different direction."
Wardley seemed happy to continue. "Yup," he said, "Disappeared. Just walked out of his downtown apartment, left a girlfriend without even a note and disappeared. There was a lot of talk. He was well respected. In the middle of some very interesting research. Valuable to a competitor, perhaps, but he never surfaced. I know top management in the company were concerned. He was privy to a lot of company information. But I haven't heard him mentioned for a while."
"He was always very political," I said, trying to encourage Wardley to say a bit more. "I seem to remember he was very left wing. Anti-capitalist, environmentalist."
"So I believe, but I didn't know him that well," Wardley said.
"Seems strange how he got on so well with Biox," I went on, pushing it as far as I could. "Although I heard he had toned down a lot after going to USA. Globalization and multinational corporations were always his big hate."
"I don't know a lot," admitted Wardley, "But Jack did." He pointed to an older colleague talking to another visitor. “Jack moved out of the labs into international marketing last year. He knew him well." Then: "Can I get you a coffee Doctor Stevens? We have a system around the back which is designed for guests but mainly to keep us on our feet for the next three days."
His colleague, Jack, was finishing with his visitor and came over.
"Walt Daniels," he said looking straight at me. He put out a big hand to be shaken. "Jack, to many people, I can't imagine why but I admit to liking a drop with the same name from time to time." He laughed at his little joke, but I am very cruel. I recognised it as his usual self-introduction to complete strangers.
Walt took me to a small plastic table covered in empty plastic cups by holding my elbow as if I was his son and my dinner was getting cold. "So," Walt leaned back in his plastic chair, "You interested in diagnostics, Doctor Stevens? Where are you based? Just come for the conference? From England are you?"
Walt was a big man, overweight, probably in his late fifties, balding and looking as though a walk in the Bangkok sun outside might cause problems. I took the cup of coffee and nodded a thank you at John Wardley.
"I'm based in KL, Kuala Lumpur - the University," I repeated for Walt Daniels' benefit. "I'm doing some lecturing and research in molecular genetics. Not really in to your specialist area, I admit, but I had a few days leave and it's quite a quick flight up here from KL. I don't think you will sell me much but, as I was telling your colleague, the name Biox International was familiar. We were discussing David Solomon. I knew him at Cambridge but lost touch. I hear he disappeared."
Walt took a mouthful of coffee and wiped his lips. "Weird, that's what I call it. I worked under him in the virology department. He was head of one of the research divisions so he controlled a lot. My department was working on some second generation tests, those that will come in after all these." Walt waved towards the sales brochures that lay in neat piles on the exhibition stand. "Dave Solomon was more directly involved in virus genetics. He had worked on HIV some years back and was looking at new treatments, enzymes and other things. A very highly respected young man was Dave."
"So how long have you been with Biox?" I asked him.
"I've been there ten years - joined just after it was set up. Biox has pioneered a lot of this type of virus research. Made a lot of money for the backers and for Josh Ornstein the Vice President though not much has come this way." He laughed, drained his cup, and then asked, "So how is Malaysia. How long you been there?"
"Two years, but I also worked in Perth and Singapore after leaving UK."
By this time, I had already used up most of my invented CV and hoped the questions wouldn't linger. I usually think up my stories in advance but it can depend how complicated the subject matter is. Without a PhD in virus genetics I knew I would quickly start to struggle here. I hate the bullshit that sometimes comes with this job. I usually try to divert conversations away as quickly as possible. I tried it this time. "I've been around a bit, you might say, but I like this part of the world," I said, hoping this would divert things away from the deeper aspects of molecular biology. I also wanted to bring another matter into the conversation.
"Tell me, didn't Guy Williams also work for Biox?" I asked. "He was another ex Cambridge graduate. Someone told me that he was back in Cambridge but then I heard he hadn't stayed long either. What is it about Biox? When are you going to disappear, Walt?"
"My wife would find me wherever I went," Walt grinned. I pushed a bit more.
"Did you know Guy, Walt? He and I shared a girl friend once in Cambridge. Every Friday night she used to decide who she preferred and we would have to accept her decision. Very civilized English behaviour really."
This was nothing like up to my usual standard of bullshitted probing and I knew it. But my own girlfriend was standing there at the back of my brain. I just couldn't get her to move away. Walt smiled politely and looked at me. His look bothered me and I wondered if I'd just lost a point or two. I was later to be proved right but hindsight, however quickly it comes, is no use in the bullshitting game
"Oh, yeh?" he said. "Guy Williams. Yeh. He worked for Dave Solomon for about a year. They were good friends. Guy went back to Cambridge. He had his eye on a Professorship I think. And yep, apparently he also disappeared late last year. Perhaps you should go back now and find that girl friend. You could have first picking every Friday night."
I remember telling Walt I was trying to stay single, which was sort of true. But then I saw John Wardley cozying up on the other side of the trade stand to a couple of young Japanese girls, nurses I think. I decided I'd better move on. The Biox ice was now broken and I could always come back. Walt and his brochures would be around for a couple more days.
"I must be going,"
I said, "Thanks for the coffee."
"No problem," said Walt as I got up. But then he added, "How about joining us this evening? We have a small company drinks reception for some delegates at eight. Afterwards, I'm told the nightlife gets interesting and we haven't had a chance to look around yet."
“Good idea," I replied. "I'd be very pleased to join you." Which would have been true a few days ago. But Anna was still lurking there. I could almost hear her winding herself up for another telling off.
I then left the Convention Centre, called a taxi and sat in the back looking out of the window, seeing nothing of the traffic jam around me but thinking about the lectures I'd just listened to. It's surprising how quickly you can become an expert on flu epidemics and epidemiology. But Amos Gazit's words were proving right. I definitely sensed some genuine concern amongst these leading specialists. It was not only the growing bacterial resistance to antibiotics that we all get told about but the regular and apparently spontaneous arrival on the scene of new viruses with quick and fatal consequences and no effective treatment available.
But Virex International had engaged me to help with their own particular problem of losing research material. Was there a connection with what I'd just learned rubbing shoulders with all these white coats? Both Charles Brady and Amos Gazit from Virex seemed to think so but they had provided me with very little evidence - none in fact.
I had never met these two disappeared scientists, David Solomon and Guy Williams, of course, but my made-up stories of having known them were having an effect on me. It was often like that. I can understand how actors playing a character can't just instantly drop the character when the acting's finished.
I started to think about Gazit and Brady. Perhaps they knew a few things about these two guys that they were not letting on. I was, in fact, damn sure of it. I had tried to extract more but they had both been vague and had conveyed nothing factual. I tried to recall exactly what Charles Brady had told me back in London? Talking about Solomon, who, let's not forget, had never worked for Virex but for the other Boston based company, Biox, Brady had said:
"I met him several times. He was good. We were thinking of getting him to join Virex. We used to meet at seminars. But then I started to lose confidence in him. Always trying to suggest we should change our emphasis. Always trying to suggest that medical research should be heavily subsidized on an international basis. Always suggesting that the new drugs we were looking for should be available to all and not just the rich countries of the West. He didn't seem to understand that specialised drugs needed highly trained doctors and facilities. Just look at modern cancer therapy in the West and then compare it to Africa. It's a sad fact that in some places there is still only one doctor to several thousands of people let alone specialists available. It didn't seem to affect him. To him it was still wrong."
Yes. I can go with all that, I thought. Nothing particularly wrong there. Solomon talks some sense at least some of the time.
And why had Brady suggested I come to this Conference? He genuinely seemed to think it would help lead to some answers if I mixed with people and companies. But he hadn't given me anything more specific.
I was still deep in thought when my taxi arrived near the river. Close to the bank of the wide and muddy water, rafts of green lotus weed floated past. Ploughing its way upstream was a long barge being pulled by a single noisy tug and amongst it all, was the throaty roar of river taxis. I love Bangkok. Every free space beside the road at this point was taken up by food carts and the pavements was crammed with rickety tables, chairs and people eating.
I suddenly felt very hungry. Something hot and spicy eaten at one of these hawker stalls appealed. But alone? No. I'm always alone. Relaxing company was what I suddenly craved. Someone I could sit with, in total un-pressured comfort, and absorb the heat, the sound, the smells and the views of one of my favourite cities. So what should I do about that other burning question? Goddamn it, Anna was bothering me every few minutes and she wasn't even there. My life recently seemed to be a perpetual battle between conscience, duty, desire, the excitement of my job and the fear of personal commitment. I was becoming as pathetic as that vision I'd seen.
The taxi turned down another side street and within minutes I was back in the hotel. Now the next question?
Should I stay there or check out and return to my normal hotel off Sukhumvit Road? I had only moved to the river side hotel because Virex had booked me the room so I could meet Amos Gazit. I hadn't spoken to Gazit at the Conference because I'd been complying with my arrangement with them. Virex did not want to be seen by anyone to be in any way connected to this guy Doctor Mike Stevens from Kuala Lumpur.
I hate being indecisive. I took the lift to my room. An hour later, showered and changed, I sat on the bed and phoned Anna. But there was no answer. Somewhat dejected, I went down to the hotel bar, ordered a cold beer and sat in the corner. I suppose I could have got drunk and forgotten about everything. I could have got up, taken a taxi to the airport and flown back to London and my mate Colin. I could have ditched Virex and dumped.........no. I just couldn't do any of that. Not now.
Anyway I don't drink much alcohol and I actually hate beer. I do not link beer with jovial, social gatherings in English pubs or American bars. I may have done when much younger but I now link beer with lone drinking in dark corners.