that animal Nunes to Redding Pharmaceuticals evaporate like morning dew. Then, suddenly, Carl Horner gets admitted to Darlington Hospital with chest pains and gets a medical dispensation not to testify. I don't know. I just don't know.'
'We still have the notebook and the tape, ' Jared said. Kate laughed sardonically. 'The notebook, the tape, and-you neglect to add-a dozen earnest barristers asking over and over again where the name Cyrus Redding or Redding Pharmaceuticals is mentioned even once.'
'Come, come, child, ' Willoughby chided. 'Where's that Bennett spirit?
We've made points. Plenty of them. Trust this old war horse. We may not have nailed them, but we've sure stuck em with a bunch of tacks.'
'I hope you're right, ' she said, as they spotted Terry Moreland waiting for them by the steps to the Humphrey building. The gray under Moreland's eyes and the tense set of his face spoke of the difficult week just past and of the ruling that was perhaps only an hour or two away. 'How're your vibes? ' Kate asked after they had exchanged greetings and words of encouragement. Moreland shook his head. 'No way to tell, ' he said. 'Emotionally, what with your testimony and Ellen's account of her ordeal, I think we've beaten the pants off them.
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem as if we have a very emotionally oriented panel. When that fat one blew his nose in the middle of the most agonizing part of Ellen's testimony, I swear, I almost hauled off and popped him one. Watching the indifference creep across his face again and again, I couldn't help wondering if he hadn't already made up his mind.'
'Or had it made up for him, ' Jared added. 'Absolutely, ' Moreland said as they pushed into the air-conditioned comfort of the office building and headed up to the second floor. That sort of thing doesn't happen too often, I don't think, but it does happen And all you have to do is look across the room to realize what we're up against. Hell, they could buy off St. Francis of Assisi with a fraction of what those legal fees alone come to.'
The hearing room, modern in decor, stark in atmosphere, was largely empty, due in part to the surprisingly scant media coverage of the proceedings. Moreland had called the dearth of press a tribute to the power of Cyrus Redding and the skill of his PR people. Redding's battery of lawyers was present, as were two stenographers and the counsel for the Bureau of Drugs. The seats for the three hearing officers, behind individual tables on a raised dais, were still empty. Moreland and Stan Willoughby led the way into the chamber. Kate and Jared paused by the door. Through the windows to the north, they could see the American flag hanging limply over the Senate wing of the Capitol. 'I don't know which is scarier, ' Kate said, 'the pharmaceutical industry controlling itself or the government doing it for them. I doubt Cyrus Redding's tactics would make it very far in the Soviet Union.'
'I wouldn't bet on that, Dr. Bennett.'
Startled, they turned. Cyrus Redding was less than five feet from them, wheeled in his chair by a blond buck who looked like a weightlifter. The words were the first they had heard the man say since the hearings had begun. 'I have many friends-and many business interests-in the USSR,' he continued. 'Believe me, businessmen are businessmen the world over.'
'That's wonderfully reassuring, ' Kate said icily. 'Perhaps I'd better submit an article to the Russian medical literature on the reversal of the bleeding complications of Estronate Two-fifty.'
'I assure you, Doctor, that all I know of such matters, you have taught me at these hearings. If you have a moment, I was wondering if I might speak with you.'
Kate looked at Jared, who gestured that he would meet her inside and then entered the hall. Redding motioned his young bodyguard to a bench by the far wall. 'I suspect our hearing to end this morning, ' he said.
'Perhaps.'
'I just want you to know what high regard I have for you. You are a most remarkable, a most tenacious, young woman.'
'Mr. Redding, I hope you don't expect a thank you. I appreciate compliments only from people I respect.'
Redding smiled patiently. 'You are still quite young and most certainly naive about certain facts.'
'Such as?'
'Such as the fact that it costs an average of sixty million dollars just to get a new drug on the market, often, quite a bit more.'
'Not impressed. Mr. Redding, because of you and your policies, people have suffered and died unnecessarily. Doesn't that weigh on you?'
'Because of me and my policies, dozens of so-called orphan drugs have found their way to those who need them, usually without cost.
Because of me and my policies, millions have had the quality of their lives improved and countless more their lives saved altogether. The greatest good for the most people at the least cost.'
'I guess if you didn't believe that, you'd have a tough time looking at yourself in the mirror. Maybe you do anyway. I mean, a person's denial mechanism can carry him only so far.'
Redding's eyes flashed, but his demeanor remained calm. 'Considering the hardship my late employee has put you through, I can understand your anger, ' he said. 'However, soon this hearing will be over, and soon we both must go on with our lives. I would like very much to have you visit me in Darlington, so that we might discuss a mutually beneficial joint endeavor. You are a survivor, Dr. Bennett, a woman who knows better than to subvert her needs in response to petty pressures from others. That makes you a winner. And it makes me interested in doing business with you.'
'Mr. Redding, ' she said incredulously, 'you seem to be ignoring the fact that the reason we're here is so that I can put you out of business. Redding's smile was painfully patronizing. 'Here's my card.
The number on it will always get through to me. If you succeed in putting Redding Pharmaceuticals out of business, you don't have to call.
' Kate glared at him. He was too smug, too confident. Was Terry Moreland's fear about some sort of payoff justified? 'We're going to win, ' she said, with too little conviction. She turned and, disregarding the proffered card, entered the hearing room. 'What did Dr.
Strange love want? ' Jared asked as she slid in between him and Terry Moreland. Kate shook her head disparagingly. 'The man is absolutely certifiable, ' she said. 'He told me how little understanding I had for the difficulty, trials, and tribulations of being a multimillion-dollar pharmaceutical industry tycoon, and then he offered me a job.'
'A job?'
'A mutually beneficial endeavor, I think he called it.'
'Lord.'
At that moment, without ceremony, the door to the right of the dais opened, and the three hearing officers shuffled into their seats, their expressions suggesting that there were any number of places they would rather have been. Before he sat down, the overweight, disheveled chairman pulled a well-used handleerchief from his pocket and blew his bulbous nose. Kate and Jared stood by the stairway, apart from the groups of lawyers, teporterss and others who filled the corridor outside the hearing room. Iwhe recess was into its second hour, and with each passing minute, the tension had grown. If over the previous four days the Redding forces had held the upper hand, the brilliant summation and indictment by Terry Moreland had placed the final verdict very much in doubt. Of all those in the hallway, only Cyrus Redding seemed totally composed and at ease. 'I have this ugly feeling he knows something we don't, ' Kate said, gesturing toward the man. 'I don't see how the panel can ignore the points Terry made in there, boots. He's even better now than he was in law school, and he was a miniature Clarence Darrow then.
But I will admit that Strange love over there looks pretty relaxed. Say, that reminds me. You never said what your response was to his offer of a job.'
Kate smiled. 'I thought you were never going to ask. The truth is, I told him I would be unsuitable for employment in his firm because the first thing I'd have to do is take maternity leave.'
Jared stared at her. 'Slide that past me one more time.'
'I was saving the news until after the verdict, but what the heck.
We're due in April. Jared, I'm very excited and very happy… Honey, are you all right? You look a little pale.'
'This is for real, right?'
Kate nodded. 'You sure you're okay? I can see where going from having no children to having a fourteen- year-old daughter and a pregnant wife might be a bit, how should I say, trying.'
