“Why wasn’t this published?” Waller asked.

“Dr. Marshall fully intended to publish,” Raymond said. “But there were some minor details he wanted to work out before he did so. It was his department head that forced him to present at the meeting. Lucky for us!

“After hearing the talk, I approached him and convinced him to go private. It wasn’t easy, but what tipped the scales in our favor was that I promised him the lab of his dreams with no interference from academia. I assured him that he would be given any and every piece of equipment he wanted.”

“You had such a lab?” Waller asked.

“Not at the time,” Raymond admitted. “Once I had agreement from him, I approached an international biotechnology giant, which will go nameless until you agree to join our group. With some difficulty I sold them on the idea of creatively marketing this phenomenon.”

“And how is that done?” Waller asked.

Raymond moved forward in his chair and locked eyes with Waller. “For a price we create an immunological double for a client,” he said. “As you can well imagine, it is a significant price but not unreasonable for the peace of mind it affords. But how we really make money is that the client must pay a yearly tuition to maintain his double.”

“Sort of like an initiation fee and then dues,” Waller said.

“That’s another way to look at it,” Raymond agreed.

“How do I benefit?” Waller asked.

“Myriad ways,” Raymond said. “I’ve constructed the business like a merchandising pyramid. For every client you recruit, you get a percentage, not only of the initial price but each year from the tuition. On top of that, we will encourage you to recruit other physicians like yourself with collapsing patient bases but who still have a number of wealthy, health-conscious, cash-paying patients. With every successful physician recruitment, you get percentages from each of his recruitment efforts. For instance, if you choose to join, Dr. Levitz, who recommended you, will receive percentages from all your successes. You don’t have to be an accountant to understand that with a little effort you could be earning a substantial income. And as an added incentive, we can offer the payments offshore so they will accrue tax-free.”

“Why all the secrecy?” Waller asked.

“For obvious reasons as far as the offshore accounts are concerned,” Raymond said. “As for the whole program, there have been ethical issues that have been overlooked. Consequently, the biotechnology company that is making this all possible is paranoid about bad publicity. Frankly, the use of animals for transplantation offends some people, and we certainly do not want to be forced to deal with animal-rights zealots. Besides, this is an expensive operation and can be made available to only a few highly select people. That violates the concept of equality.”

“May I ask how many clients have taken advantage of this plan?”

“Laymen or physicians?” Raymond asked.

“Laymen,” Waller said.

“Around one hundred,” Raymond said.

“Has anybody had to utilize the resource?”