Pleasuria by John J. Jessop

Author:John J. Jessop
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-63393-727-7
Publisher: Koehler Books
Published: 2018-05-05T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

The following Monday, Jason saw a notice on a bulletin board at work announcing the upcoming appearance of Dr. Lance Harden, SVP, CureStuff Pharmaceuticals, at an FDA conference to speak about CureStuff’s research program related to antidepressant drugs. Jason called him and invited him to dinner while he was in town, and Harden accepted. To Jason’s surprise, Dr. Harden was dressed in suit and tie like everyone else. His presentation appeared to be purposefully vague with respect to his research program. The symposium ended at six and Jason drove Harden to a nearby Wendy’s. Jason intended to question Harden further about his research, but he had to be careful not to let on to Harden that one of his own lab techs had ratted him out on the “humping” side effects of Pleasuria. Jason didn’t want to get her fired; it could prove handy to have someone on the inside.

When Jason pulled into the Wendy’s drive-through, Harden looked confused. He said, “Dr. Longfellow, when you asked me out to dinner, I assumed we would be eating somewhere with plates.”

“I’m a little low on cash right now. I work for the government, I’m trying to start my own PI business on the side, and I only have one client at the moment. No one’s going to reimburse me for this meal, and it’s not ethical for you to pay since I also work for the FDA. So, Wendy’s it is, unless you’d prefer McDonald’s, just up the road. Besides, I thought we would have more privacy if we ate in the car. If you insist on a plate and silverware, we could go inside, if a paper plate and a spork would do.”

Harden responded indignantly. “Oh, for Heaven’s sake. This is fine. Let’s just get this over with.”

Once they received their orders, Jason parked the 4Runner and handed Harden his bag of food. Jason asked, “So, Dr. Harden, when I visited CureStuff, I heard from a number of people that it was your research that led to the discovery of the company’s new potential blockbuster drug to treat depression. You must be very proud of your staff. I hear that the drug’s supposed to be worth hundreds of millions. Is that true?”

“Well, it depends on the how the clinical studies go in the next few months. I must confess, I am hopeful. As you know, the data can’t be unblinded until the study is finished, but I’ve been hearing some good things from the clinical researchers.”

In order to make Harden as uncomfortable as possible, Jason left the windows up in the car. Temperatures were in the 80s. Then, as a further distraction, Jason cleverly dropped a greasy french fry on Harden’s pant leg. “Shit, that’ll make a mark.” He said, “Let me get that for you,” as he smeared french-fry grease into Harden’s pants, trying to wipe it off with a paper napkin.

Harden slapped Jason’s hand away, took the napkin from him, and started wiping himself. “Please, let’s finish eating and you can take me back to my hotel where there’s a wonderful air conditioner and no you.

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