She picked one tablet and tried it. It was true. She turned to Martin.
Martin wasn’t interested, but her stare pushed him. He didn’t like the tablets lying exposed to the filth on the table. He carefully picked one up and immediately shoved it into his mouth. His eyes widened. Nex could actually be produced.
“It dissolves with the saliva,” Frank said. “And goes straight into the blood stream-”
“-Having an immediate effect,” Burrows completed the sentence.
There was a brief silence.
“Satisfied?” Frank said, as if he was talking to someone else in the room.
“Yes, but how?” asked Ms. Zee.
“Do you have my money?” he said.
“First. How?”
“No, no, no. I showed you, now my money.”
Ms. Zee nodded to Martin, who removed a folded manila envelope and placed it on the table. Frank snatched it and disappeared into another room.
Burrows plucked another tablet off the table and crushed it between his two fingers. “It’s powder.”
“Yes, of course it’s powder,” Frank said coming back.
“Now will you tell us how?” Ms. Zee said. “That is why we paid you.”
“It’s freeze-dried. It’s a precise process-but once done will give you that result.”
“What does it contain?” Burrows said, looking at the powder on his fingertips.
“Gelatin, mannitol, glycine, sodium laurylsulphate, and sodium hydroxide, and some sweeteners for elegance.”
Ms. Zee didn’t understand, but she hoped Burrows did.
Burrows responded, “Those are polymers, permeation enhancers and flavour and sweeteners: the usual excipients you find in any tablets.”
“Yes, the key is the process.”
He disappeared into the same room and reappeared with a stack of paper bound at the corners. “Everything you want to know is in here. The steps must be meticulously followed to ensure a functional product.”
Ms. Zee picked the stack and, without looking, handed it to Burrows. He immediately began digesting the pages.
“I never gave that to you,” Frank said.
Ms. Zee understood. Patents and copyrights were not his problem.
“Everything is in here,” Burrows said with a glimmer of hope. “It
Back in the car, Martin asked, “How did you know about Frank?”
“Frank works for Bantam. Once I realized what the drug needed I contacted him. He refused at first; he didn’t want to lose his job. But when I told him how Bantam had screwed me and so many others and that one day they’d likely screw him, too, he agreed to provide Bantam’s secret delivery process designs. For a large sum, of course.”
Ms. Zee didn’t care for the reason, just that she now had the manufacturing process in her hands.
We were in Scarborough and Beadsworth had just gotten off the phone with Aldrich. We were good to go. Tonight we were going to raid the building across.
Shortly before, Nemdharry had notified us that the white U-Haul had made a stop at a large warehouse in Niagara Falls.
We were waiting for the sunset. We were waiting for darkness. It was only a few hours away. I was getting anxious. This was my first raid.
“Have you ever used a gun?” I heard Beadsworth say.
“Yeah, of course,” I replied.
I had trained, of course, but had never used a gun in real life.
He leaned over and from the glove compartment pulled out a Glock. How do I know it was a Glock? I watch a lot of movies.
“This is more for intimidation than enforcement,” he said.
It was heavy and black. I felt powerful and scared-all at the same time.
“Would I have to shoot anyone?” I asked Beadsworth. He was sketching a diagram of the building. Earlier he had circled the building from a distance.
“If necessary, yes,” he answered.
“Have you shot anyone?”
He paused and thought about it. “Do you mean have I fired at anyone?”
“Same thing.”
“Not quite. I
I thought about it. “What if I have to shoot someone?” I asked.
“If you have to.”
“What if I can’t?”
“Then they will shoot you.”
What if I did shoot someone and they died? I didn’t know if I could live with that. Or worse, what if I got hit? I might die. This lingered in my mind.
A Toyota drove up and parked a few cars away. Garnett and Herrera emerged. Garnett had the usual
“Finally, we do something practical,” Garnett said.
Herrera nodded. He looked anxious, and fidgeted.
Garnett had given authority over this raid to Beadsworth. Like us, he was looking forward to ending this.
Another car approached. Two plainclothes officers emerged from inside. They were introduced as Officer Ross and Officer Moro. They were both in their early thirties and looked like they knew what they were doing.
“Now that we are all here,” Beadsworth said, spreading the paper with the design of the building on top of the car hood. We all circled around. “From my observations the building has one main entrance and several exits in the back. There is a main loading dock. There are two emergency exits on either side. Beside these exits there are two additional fire exits going through each level.”
Beadsworth paused, looking over the paper. “Around eight-thirty a white U-Haul truck will park behind the building. Management has confirmed that the loading dock is shut down after eight o’clock. Meaning if there is any movement of goods it occurs through the emergency exits.
“Detective Garnett and Detective Herrera will move in from the front. Officer Ross and Officer Moro will take the fire exits and Officer Rupret and I will go up the emergency exits. Do you all have protection?”
Protection? I looked around.
Both Ross and Moro tapped their chests.
“Officer Rupret will need one,” Beadsworth said.
Garnett went over to his vehicle and pulled a blue Kevlar vest from the trunk and handed it to me. It was heavy. “Do I get a helmet?” I asked.
“What?” he snorted.
“What if I got shot in the head?”
“That might not be such a loss,” he said, and walked away.
I put on the Kevlar and then my jacket. I tapped my jacket pocket for the Glock. I then returned to the group.
“How’s Barnes doing?” Moro asked Herrera. In the force only a handful knew what had happened to Barnes.
