He unfolded his arms and gestured toward one of the framed pages from Horton Hears a Who! Pierce's eyes followed and he saw it was the page that showed Horton being persecuted by the other jungle animals. He could recite the words in his head. Through the high jungle tree tops, the news quickly spread. He talks to a dust speck. He's out of his head!
'I am helping you by doing this, Einstein. You understand? This is your dose of reality.
Because don't expect the semiconductor people to sit around while you cut them down, either. Consider this a fucking heads up.'
Pierce almost laughed but it was too pathetic.
'My heads up? Man, that's great. Thank you, Cody Zeller, for setting me straight in the world.'
'Don't mention it.'
'And what do you get for this great gesture?'
'Me? I get money. Lots of it.'
Pierce nodded. Money. The ultimate motivation. The ultimate way of keeping score.
'So what happens?' he asked quietly. 'I make the deal and what happens?'
Zeller sat quietly for a moment while he fashioned an answer.
'Do you remember that urban legend about the garage workshop inventor who came up with a form of rubber that was so strong, it would never wear out? It was a fluke. He was trying to invent one thing but came up with this rubber instead.'
'He sold it to a tire company so the world would have tires that would never wear out.'
'Yeah, that's right. That's the story. The name of the tire company was different depending on who told the story. But the story and the end were always the same. The tire company took the formula and put it in a safe.'
'They never made the tires.'
'They never made the tires because if they did that, they wouldn't make very many tires anymore, would they? Planned obsolescence, Einstein. It's what makes the world go around. Let me ask you this: How do you know that story is urban legend? I mean, how do you really know it didn't happen?'
Pierce nodded before he spoke.
'They'll bury Proteus. They won't license it. It will never see the light of day.'
'Do you know that the pharmaceutical industry invents and studies and tests several hundred different new drugs for every one that eventually comes to market after the FDA is through with it? Do you understand the costs involved? It's a big, huge machine, Henry, and it's got energy and momentum and you can't stop it. They won't let you.'
Zeller raised a hand and made some kind of gesture and then dropped it to the armrest of the chair. They both sat silently for a long moment.
'They are going to come to me and take away Proteus.'
'They're going to pay you for it. Pay you well. The offer's actually already on the table.'
Pierce sprang forward in his seat, the pose of calm completely disappearing. He looked over at Zeller, who was not looking back.
'Are you telling me it's Goddard? Goddard is behind this?'
'Goddard is only the emissary. The front. He calls you tomorrow and you make the deal with him. You give him Proteus. You don't need to know who is behind him. You don't ever need to know that.'
'He takes Proteus from me, then holds ten percent of the company and sits as chairman of my fucking board.'
'I think they want to make sure you steer clear of internal medicine. They also know a good investment when they see it. They know you're the leader in the field.'
Zeller smiled, as if he were throwing in a bonus. Pierce thought about Goddard and the things he had said - confided -during the celebration. About his daughter. About the future. He wondered if it was all sham. If it had all been part of the play.
'What if I don't do it?' Pierce asked. 'What if I go ahead and file the patent and say fuck you to them?'
'Then you won't get the chance to file it. And you won't get the chance to work another day in this lab.'
'What are they going to do, kill me?'
'If they have to, but they don't have to. Come on, man, you know what's going on. The cops are this close behind you.'
Zeller held up his right hand, his thumb and forefinger an inch apart.
'Lilly Quinlan,' Pierce said.
Zeller nodded.
'Darling Lilly. They're missing only one thing. They find it and you're history. You do as you're told here and that will all go away. I guarantee it will be taken care of.'
'I didn't do it and you know it.'
'Doesn't matter. They find the body and it points to you, then it doesn't matter.'
'So Lilly is dead.'
Zeller nodded.
'Oh, yeah. She's dead.'
There was a smile in his voice, if not on his face, when he said it. Pierce looked down. He put his elbows on his knees and put his face in his hands.
'All because of me. Because of Proteus.'
He didn't move for a long moment. He knew if Zeller were to make the ultimate mistake, he would do it now.
'Actually…'
Nothing. That was it. Pierce looked up from his hands.
'Actually what?'
'I was going to say, Don't beat yourself up too badly about that. Lilly… you could say circumstances dictated she be folded into the plan.'
'I don't -what do you mean?'
'I mean, look at it this way. Lilly would be dead whether you were involved in this or not. But she's dead. And we used all available resources to make this deal happen.'
Pierce stood up and walked to the back of the lab where Zeller sat, his legs still up on the probe station table.
'You son of a bitch. You know all about it. You killed her, didn't you? You killed her and set the frame around me.'
Zeller didn't move an inch. But his eyes rose to Pierce's and then a strange look came over his face. The change was subtle but Pierce could see it. It was the incongruous mixture of pride and embarrassment and self- loathing.
'I had known Lilly since she first came to L.A. You could say she was part of my compensation package for L.A. Darlings. And by the way, don't insult me with that thing about me doing the work for Wentz. Wentz works for me, you understand? They all do.'
Pierce nodded to himself. He should have expected as much. Zeller continued unbidden.
'Man, she was a choice piece. Darling Lilly. But she got to know too much about me.
You don't want anyone to know all your secrets. At least not those kinds of secrets. So I worked her into the assignment I had. The Proteus Plan, I called it.'
His eyes were far off now. He was watching a movie inside and liking it. He and Lilly, maybe the final meeting in the townhouse off Speedway. It prompted Pierce to draw another line from Miller's Crossing.
'Nobody knows nobody, not that well.'
'Miller's Crossing,' Zeller said, smiling and nodding. 'I guess that means you got my 'what's the rumpus' coming in.'
'Yeah, I got it, Cody.'
After a pause he continued quietly.
'You killed her, didn't you? You did it and then you were ready, if necessary, to put it on me.'
Zeller didn't answer at first. Pierce studied his face and could tell he wanted to talk, wanted to tell him every
