Be patient, Mom, she thought. I’m going to do my damnedest to make a landmark contribution; then I’ll go into practice—promise.

“Has Macintosh been in touch with you since he left?” Nadia asked.

Doug shook his head. “Not a word. As I said, not a real gregarious sort.”

“Let’s just hope he solved that ‘bitch of a problem’ before he left.”

“Even if he didn’t,” Doug said with that lopsided smile she loved, “you’ll just breeze right through it.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” She held up the rose. “And thanks for this. But now you’ve got to breeze out of here.”

“Hey, Nadj, you’re talking to their top salesman. They don’t want to lose me. Besides, they’ve gone a bit overboard with the security thing, don’t you think?”

“Not a bit,” Nadia said. “We’re going to be working with human hormones.”

“So’s everybody else.”

“Right. But let’s say you find a way to alter estrogen so it doesn’t increase the risk of blood clots and breast and uterine cancer but still prevents osteoporosis, hot flashes, and keeps cholesterol down. Or better yet, say we take an anabolic steroid and block all its undesirable side effects but enhance its ability to burn fat. How much would a product like that be worth?”

Doug gave a low whistle. “You could fire the entire sales force. People would be knocking down the doors.”

“Right. And that’s why Dr. Monnet wants whatever we discover here to stay behind these doors until it’s registered with the U.S. Patent Office.”

Doug held up his hands. “All right. You win. I’m convinced.” He stuck his head out the dry lab door and looked around. “Elaborate as this is, I’d have thought there’d be more to it.”

“How so?”

“I don’t know how much you know about GEM. It started off selling generic antibiotics but went public a couple of years ago to raise capital to buy the rights to TriCef from Nagata in Japan. GEM would have gone under if TriCef flopped, but luckily the profits are pouring in. And according to the Pharmaceutical Forum, it’s a top seller. Everybody’s using TriCef. I should know—my commission checks show I’m earning big bucks just on that one product. But GEM’s not paying dividends. Plus, it’s been cutting its sales force. My territory is now so big I can barely keep up with it.”

“Just means they’re confident in you. Plus they’ve got a hot new antibiotic, so maybe they don’t need to push it so much.”

Doug looked at her. “No dividend, cutting the sales force—that sounds like a company on the ropes instead of one that’s raking in the profits. Did you see the annual report?”

“Well, no, I—”

“It says the company’s pouring most of its profits back into GEM Basic.”

Nadia raised her hand. “Hey, that’s me.” GEM Basic was the research division—right here where they were standing. She pointed to the molecule imager. “There’s your proof.”

“The amount of money they say they’re spending on R and D would fund dozens of these. Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?”