“Neil, I mean these things are … er … always a surprise,” Lopez said awkwardly. “But in Dr. Horton’s case, are you—”

“No,” Ryland cut her off. “I’m not surprised at all.” His voice cracked. “She told me exactly what she planned to do.”

Lopez frowned. “She told you?”

“A couple of days ago.” Ryland looked away and nodded slightly. “Said she felt like warming up her car an extra hour or two in the garage. But then she said it was just a tasteless joke.” He paused and added in a voice not much above a whisper, “I guess I just didn’t want to believe things could have gotten that bad for her.”

Kilburn leaned forward and gripped the table. “She sounded awful when I spoke to her two days ago. She told me everything was wrong at SeptoMed. What was she talking about?”

“Oraloxin,” Ryland said softly.

“Oraloxin?” Lopez repeated disbelievingly. “Have you seen the news?”

“The press doesn’t know about the lab chimps,” Ryland grunted. “Yet.”

“What lab chimps, Neil?” Lopez asked.

“A couple of months ago, one of the chimps we were testing with high-dose long-term Oraloxin developed bone marrow failure,” Ryland said. “We weren’t too concerned. He was one of hundreds. But then two weeks later a second one developed it too.”

“So it was no coincidence,” Kilburn said.

“And then, a couple weeks ago, there was a third.”

Lopez’s expression hardened. “What were you planning to do about it?” she asked.

Cohen reached over and touched her elbow. Go easy, Lina, his eyes said, and she nodded her understanding.

“Nothing, at first.” Ryland rubbed his eyes roughly with his palms. “These monkeys were on massive doses for much longer than intended for humans.” He hung his head and sighed. “We thought … we hoped … it was a dose-and time-related reaction.”

“But you didn’t report it?” Lopez asked, her voice less accusatory.

Ryland shook his head. “Just over a week ago, at this very table in fact, we talked about it. Vik … Viktor Leschuk, the other member of our team—”

“The one who drowned last week, right?” Cohen said.

“Yeah. At Struble Lake. Ellen was devastated. They were close. We all were.” Ryland cleared his throat again. “Two days before it happened, he brought El and me here after the third chimp died. Vik wanted to go to the FDA and come clean about the monkeys. He begged us to do the right thing.”

“Why didn’t you?” Lopez asked evenly.

Ryland pointed to Kilburn without looking at him.

Kilburn’s mouth fell open in surprise. “Me?”

“Ellen had just heard from you, Graham. That you were testing Oraloxin on the MRGAS samples. We decided—” He interrupted himself and sighed. “To be fair, it was mainly me persuading them. Anyway, we opted to wait for those results. In case Oraloxin offered some hope where the other antibiotics didn’t.”

“I had no idea,” Kilburn said softly.