Unacceptable Risk by David Dun Read Free Book Online Page B

doubt. Best we can tell, the original vector technology, as used by Grace, included some other exotic molecule—the French have named it Chaperone, because that is what Benoit Moreau called it. Chaperone prohibits the vector from killing its host."
     
    Sam nodded.
     
    "Gaudet doesn't seem to have the Chaperone part of the vector. If he did, he'd have an unbelievably powerful—and valuable—tool. He wouldn't waste time coming after you and your neighbors. He'd be selling it and maybe using it, depending on whether he'd like his homicidal creations to last more than a day or two. Instead, he doped your neighbors with the raging soldier vector and, according to your report to the FBI, one of them died within hours from the immune reaction."
     
    "Don't be sure Gaudet wouldn't be coming after me. He probably wants me as bad as I want him. But I do believe that Chaperone isn't being used by Gaudet and that he probably doesn't have it or understand it," Sam said. "And I don't understand why he didn't try a much more efficient method of killing me. Using my neighbors wasn't the best method and that is unlike Gaudet."
     
    Figgy stood and grabbed a second Danish. "We're on the same page. We suspect that the people who understood this Chaperone technology are either dead or on the run. From Gaudet."
     
    "And the French," Grogg added.
     
    "Do you think this Michael Bowden knows something about Chaperone?" Figgy asked.
     
    "Maybe. He's an ethnobotanist. In the Amazon he could have discovered an organic material that at least contains the basis for the Chaperone molecule."
     
    "What makes you think that—besides Gaudet's interest in Bowden?"
     
    "For a few years Bowden has sent his organic samples to Northern Lights Pharmaceuticals. They in turn had a long relationship with—"
     
    "Grace Technologies," Figgy said.
     
    "Before we make any deal, you have to tell me what the French want. Is it to catch Gaudet? Or to get ahold of Chaperone? Perhaps it has occurred to them that it would revolutionize the practice of medicine and be worth a fortune."
     
    "Both," Figgy said. "The technology legally belongs to France. I have to be sure that you and the U.S. government will recognize my client's title to the Chaperone technology, if you find it"
     
    "Talk to patent lawyers and the State Department about that. It's not my concern. Stopping and catching Gaudet is. But to do that, I have to know everything the French know about Chaperone." Sam hated the amused look on Figgy's face. For some perverse reason the Danishes had never looked all that tempting until Figgy started wolfing them down with such relish.
     
    "You said Benoit Moreau nicknamed the substance Chaperone. Come on, Figgy. Tell me everything."
     
    Figgy shrugged. "I'll tell you what I know, but my client won't like it. Essentially, Benoit Moreau is not talking, although she has told us a few things and we have gotten other information from Northern Lights." Figgy took a sip of coffee. "As you might suspect, Benoit knew all the scientists. One or more of the scientists obviously understood Chaperone. Benoit knows which ones, maybe even where to find them."
     
    Sam stood and drew a cup of coffee. "Come on, Figgy, there's got to be more."
     
    "I'm getting to it. Northern Lights Pharmaceuticals supplied Grace with a complex protein molecule. They won't admit it, but we can now assume the material came from their client Michael Bowden. They haven't been able to fully analyze or describe the molecule yet. This is apparently typical of complex proteins—it can take a very long time. Synthesizing them is a bitch, and before you can even hope to do that, you have to figure out what it looks like or you have to know the gene that produces it. To some extent, Grace Technologies seems to have lucked into the Chaperone solution. They ordered an extract from Northern Lights, expecting an ordinary immunosuppressant like cyclosporine. It turned out to be about one thousand times