go somewhere interesting.'
'They're going to want an arrest, Paul.'
'Then let's just tell them the truth. We're not ready and we're not moving until we are.'
'Good. That's fine. It's clean and decisive and that's what we'll do. Thanks, Paul.'
'I don't trust him and I'm beginning to think he did it. He botched the suicide and he's improvising now, trying to keep off of death row.
'I don't think he did it. But I don't necessarily trust him.'
She smiled and Zamorra smiled.
'We're a wholesome, humane, optimistic, trusting pair, aren't we? she asked.
'That's us.'
'You really think he did her?'
'He did something.'
Back at her desk Rayborn drew up a list of county limousine services, starting with those in Newport Beach. She only had time to make three calls but all three people told her the same thing. There was no very large, bearded driver employed by Executive Plus, Air Glide or Limo-Dream services. Sorry we can't help you, Sergeant.
The Limo-Dream guy asked for her badge number and she told him, making a note of his nosiness in her blue notebook.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
A minute later Merci sat in one of the headquarters' conference room and watched a dazzling blue wave break beyond a pale sand beach. Then another. Zamorra adjusted the volume on the television and sat across the table from her. He pushed aside the box of financial record he'd collected from Wildcraft's house, making room to take notes.
The title of the movie appeared over the breaking waves- MiraVei and the Treatment of Malignant Blastomas. Produced by OrganiVen Biomedical Research Partnership and the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine.
A factual male voice talked over the waves: 'Cancer has been with mankind since the dawn of civilization if not history herself. It is an organic disorder that afflicts not only human beings, but virtually all of the higher vertebrates and even some plants and trees. A cancerous cell is a cell that has broken free of healthy DNA programming, to metastasize-reproduce-without control within the host body. Such reproduction eventually kills the very host in which the cancerous cell has been thriving.'
The screen went from elegant waves to surgically opened bodies showing tumors of various size and location. Merci felt a quiver of nausea go through her, and a little tremor of lightheadedness. Surgical scenes and autopsies bothered her in a way that crime scenes rarely did, something about the slow precision of the former versus the explosiveness of the latter.
'Treatments for cancers have evolved from the primitive to the sophisticated. But until now, no one treatment, or even a combination of treatments, has shown itself to be effective on the deadly blastoma- or budding-forms of the disease. The common problem in all previous treatment modalities has been the concomitant destruction of healthy cells as the tumor is resected by surgery or laser, bombarded with radiation or chemotherapy, even cooled or heated.
'Enter MiraVen. Developed by OrganiVen Biomedical Research Partnership, MiraVen treatment modality is so effective that Dr. Stephen Monford of the University of California, San Diego, Medical School has called it a…'
The picture cut from a tumor-riddled lung to a white-haired, white-coated man sitting behind a gleaming wooden desk. Merci saw the diplomas on the wall behind him. He was sixty-ish, lean and lightly freckled, with rimless glasses and beautiful blue eyes.
'People in my profession don't use the word miracle,' said Dr. Monford. His voice was soft and slow. 'But I do now. I've seen what MiraVen does and there's no better way to describe it. Two things were necessary to bring about this treatment. The first is nature's simple genius: MiraVen does exactly what nature intended it to do-it destroys cells. The second is the work of the OrganiVen biomedical research team, which discovered a way of totally preventing collateral tissue damage. The results are, well. miraculous. I could talk for hours on the medical aspects of MiraVen, and what OrganiVen Biomedical means to the future of cancer therapies. But why don't you see for yourself what MiraVen can do?'
On-screen, Dr. Monford gave way to a cobra, head raised and hood spread, casually tracking the sway of a turbaned man who kneeled in front of the snake and played a flute.
The first male voice came back then, stern with factuality.
'The snake. The serpent. Wrapped in mystery, shrouded in fear. Some ancients believed the snake was Satan. Some believed he was a god. But they all knew the dramatic effects of snake envenomation on human beings. However, not until the late nineteenth century did modern science begin to explain what happened when a poisonous snake injected its deadly venom.'
The monitor showed a drawing of a human being with only the major components of the nervous system illustrated. A cartoon snake injected a drop of black liquid and the liquid started to constrict the spinal nerves, working its way to the heart and brain.
'Early biomedical researchers determined that snake venom was of two basic types: neurotoxic-which attacked the nervous system, an hemotoxic-which attacked the blood and tissue. It was the fearsome killers-the cobras and mambas and kraits of India-that possesses the neurotoxic poison that could kill a man in less than half an hour after introduction. But a far different venom is possessed by other poisonous snakes of the world: the rattlesnakes, the adders, the vipers. The venom of these snakes works directly on the blood and tissue of the victim.'
Now the screen showed a simplified illustration of blood: red cell, white cells, platelets. A cartoon snake injected a little pool of black liquid into the blood and the various cells began to wither and vanish.
The Voice of Truth and Reason continued:
'In nature, a bite from one of these serpents can lead to a slow painful death. But in the OrganiVen research laboratories, under the direction of the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine, scientists set out to find a way to turn this deadly hemotoxin into a killer of cancer cells, not healthy cells.
Years later, their dream became a reality, and a potential treatment modality for most forms of mankind's most deadly and feared disease.'
Merci watched the picture change to the insides of some kind of animal, but the camera was up so close she couldn't tell if it was human being or a lab rat.
'I wish that pompous ass would tell us what we're supposed looking at,' said Merci.
'The image modality is yet to be revealed by the OrganiVen biotechnical AV presentation team,' droned Zamorra.
Then, Mr. Ass again:
'The neuroblastoma, or heart tumor-an almost invariably fatal tumor when treated by conventional therapies. But watch closely; University of California researchers inject this canine neuroblaston with MiraVen.'
Merci watched. The camera moved in close. A rubber-gloved hand, a syringe, a silver needle pushing through the mush of a black tumor on the beating heart of the dog.
'Things like this make me queasy,' said Merci.
'Close your eyes and I'll tell you what happens.'
'I can cut it.'
Merci took a deep breath. The needle slid away from the tumor and the rubber-gloved hand disappeared. The dog's heart throbbed earnestly and the black tumor attached to one side of it jiggled along with each rhythmic beat.
The Voice of Truth was back:
'You may follow the elapsed time on the screen timer while we speed up this videotape in the interests of time. What you will see in the next minute actually elapsed over fifty-seven minutes- less than one hour.'
