The Prodigal Sun: A Novel Read online

  John’s thoughts turned to work as he neared his lab at the Neurological Research Center, or NRC. He felt his stomach turn into a knot as he thought about the presentation. Like most people, he didn’t like standing up and speaking in front of people. He could feel himself already starting to sweat under his collar just thinking about it, even though he knew he was prepared and had been going over the material for weeks. John loosened his shirt collar and then wiped the sweat from his palm on the passenger seat before grabbing another cigarette.

  ‘We get this infusion of research dollars John, and I will make sure you are taken care of”. John recalled the conversation he had last week with Frank over a cocktail and a game of chess at his home.

  John stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray and pulled into the parking lot of the large, four-story, block shaped building. The pale gray structure stood out from its surroundings next to the flowering trees and manicured green lawn. John got out of the car and walked past a series of fountains that ran along the west side of the parking lot, which faced the main highway. Over the winter months, the water spraying from the fountains slowly froze and grew to be small mountain-shaped ice-burgs, stretching out of the frozen pond twenty feet. This time of year they were just thin ribbons of spray that shot high into the air and then landed back onto the pond below. The fountains of steady mist created a never-ending rainstorm for anyone who would spend any time under them like the ducks often did.

  John swiped his id badge at the main entrance to the building and the door opened to let him in. His stomach was still churning knowing what he had to do within the next half hour, but now it was starting to hurt. He felt a wave of nausea rush over him as he passed the doorman.

  “Hey John, what‘s good boss?” said the familiar man just inside the door, greeting John with a bright smile.

  “Good morning Steve,” John replied as he handed the tall security guard his badge.

  “Latisha made some cookies last night, they’re in the break room if you want some, just help yourself. That girl outdid herself this time.” Steve handed the badge back to him with a prideful expression.

  “Thanks for the offer, and give that girl a big hug for me now,” John replied as he clipped the badge back onto the belt around his waist. It’s too early for cookies; they probably wouldn’t stay down anyway, as nauseous as I feel. John thought, and then smiled at the analogy between vomiting and tossing cookies. This morning I think I would toss the cookies for sure. John made his way into his office and turned on his computer. His hands were cold and clammy again and the knot in his gut felt more like a noose, slowly cinching away at his insides. We’ll I guess I should go over the material one more time and then see if Frank made it in yet. He might have a few last minute thoughts before we start. John thought, but as soon as he sat down in his chair the desk phone rang, startling him. It was the lab extension flashing on the caller ID screen. He picked up the receiver.

  “John here,” he answered, wondering what could be so important to be bothering him as soon as he walked in the door.

  “John, thank God you answered. You need to come down here!” Came the familiar voice of John’s Lab Supervisor on the other end of the line.

  “What’s up Nick?” John asked, but knew it couldn’t be good. He could hear the panic in Nick’s voice, making the knot in John’s stomach cinch tighter.

  “We lost the entire A4 group last night. All of them, all the animals are dead John!” Nick’s panicked voice blasted into John’s ear in elevated tones. “We found them dead when we got here this morning and the A3 group is acting erratic, nasal hemorrhages, I don’t know, you just need to get down here,” he pleaded.

  “What the hell could have happened Nick? Do we know the cause of death?” John asked as he felt his blood pressure rising. “Never mind, I’m on my way down.” John slammed the phone into the cradle and ran out of his office into the hallway. He flew past the elevators and went straight for the stairs to save time. He pulled out his phone and dialed Frank’s number. John felt his heart throbbing in his chest as he ran down to the second lower level, two stairs at a time. He got Frank’s voice-mail and in a panic continued to dial his cell phone as he slammed through the double doors to the lab, almost knocking Nick over. John heard Frank’s voice-mail message pick up again and ended the call.

  “Sorry…Nick,” John panted as he bent over catching his breath. He wiped the sweat from his brow with his hand and continued. “Okay, so what the hell… is going on… down here?” asked John between breaths.

  “It’s a mess John; we’re not going to know much until we can do a few POSTs on the apes. We’re reviewing the overnight video now and it looks like they just went crazy, beat themselves to death against their cages, I don’t understand,” Nick explained as he pointed at the TV monitor. John could see several of the animals convulsing and jumping around their cages. Several were slamming themselves against the bars so hard he could hear bones cracking. He winced at the sound and turned back to Nick.

  “What the hell am I going to say at the presentation? I mean, my God Nick, we’re FDA approved, and we’ve already started human clinical trials! Everything was fine and now you’re telling me that, out of the blue, they just died, with no warning?” John asked, clenching his fists to cover the fact that his hands were trembling. ”My entire career is riding on this!” John finished, his face turning red as he tried to control his breathing.

  “John I know, mine is too you know. I don’t understand, or what to make of it. We had no warning. This was a shock to everyone when we got in. What do you want to do?”

  John kept rubbing his face nervously with his hand. “See if you can figure out what happened, put everybody on it. Review every chart and find out as much as you possibly can Nick. I have to get back upstairs and find Frank so I can let him know what’s going on. We’re supposed to be making a presentation in a few minutes on how well this project has been going.”

  As soon as John finished speaking he looked at his watch and felt his heart skip. “Jesus, I’m already late!” he yelled. He looked at Nick again and stared intently into his eyes. “Call me on my cell the second you have something, okay?” He didn’t wait for a reply and headed back towards the double doors. “God damn it!” John yelled, slapping a stainless steel tray on one of the workstations as he walked by, sending it flying across the room. By the time the tray and its contents crashed to the floor, John was running again.

  He immediately headed to Frank’s office on the top floor. John flew through the stairwell door and past the elevators, stopping for a second in front of a window to catch his breath. He noticed two black limousines pull up to the front of the building. I guess they're here. John rushed down the hallway and waved at Amy, the Admin assistant, as he passed by the reception desk. He had been up to Frank’s office enough for her to recognize him, but she was on the phone and seemed distracted with a nervous look on her face. Frank’s huge corner office was down the hall and John always thought it was more like the size of he and Jenny’s first apartment. It was at least thirty feet square and filled with luxurious furniture. There was a wet-bar towards the back, right next to the full bathroom on the opposite end of an oversized cherry desk. There were bookcases full of books, but several of them were usually missing from the shelves, either lying open on Frank's desk, or strewn across his meeting table along with several notes and stacks of papers.

  John made it to Frank’s office, out of breath again, but the door was closed. Strange, Frank almost always left his door open when he was in. John thought. He knocked on the office door and waited a few minutes, but there was no response. He looked down the hallway and noticed that all of the partners’ doors were closed. He had a quick moment of panic and then realized that everyone must have already headed to the conference room. John quickly walked back towards the reception desk where Amy was seated. “I guess everyone is already assembled in the conference room?” he asked her.

  “Good Morning, can I he
lp you?” Amy replied with a wrinkled brow as she nervously twisted her curly brown hair with her left hand.

  “Amy, it’s me, John,” he said, still puffing from the effort of climbing the stairs.

  “Oh I’m sorry John, I didn’t recognize you. Are you okay?” she asked, noticing the sweat on his forehead and his labored breathing.

  “Yeah, I’ve been…running,” he replied, not knowing what else to say. “Where is everybody, are they in the conference room?” he asked her again trying not to sound frustrated.

  “Uh, no, actually no-one is here yet. I am having a terrible morning,” Amy replied, dropping her head into her hands.

  “Yes, those seem to be going around today,” John answered, no longer able to keep his frustration hidden.

  Amy looked up at him and wrinkled her brow. The worry was obvious in her tone as she spoke. “I’ve already had to cancel one of Dr. Schultz’s appointments this morning and no-one has called in.”

  Just then the elevator doors opened and Steve stepped out with at least half a dozen business men in suits trailing behind him. “Amy, these gentlemen are here for a meeting, should I escort them to the main conference room?” Amy gave John a sideways look and then glanced back at Steve, forcing a smile.

  “Yes Steve, that would be fine,” replied Amy, still twisting her hair. By the looks of how Amy's day was going, and her nervous hair twisting habit, John thought she would soon have a knotted piece of rope attached to her head.

  As the entourage headed down the west hallway following Steve, John could see the tears well up in Amy’s eyes. “What am I going to do? I know this is a huge meeting for the company and no one is here yet. No-one has called in. I tried Dr. Wentworth at home and paged him several times, with no answer,” she said as she nervously began shuffling papers from one side of her keyboard to the other. John could feel a lump starting in his throat and wished the pain in his stomach would go away. “Where could everyone be?” Amy asked rhetorically as she shook her head in disbelief. She let out a deep breath in frustration as Steve made it back from the meeting room.

  “Well I know Frank, um, Dr. Johnson was on vacation for the last two weeks, which means he was probably on a dig site in the middle of some jungle somewhere,” said John.

  “Yes,” agreed Amy, “but he was supposed to be back yesterday. He didn’t have any appointments, but he had himself scheduled to be in the office. Dr. Schultz was in Atlanta at an Alzheimer’s convention along with Dr. Wentworth all last week. They both had some vacation before that, but they were coming back over the week-end and were supposed to be here yesterday too,” Amy explained as she grabbed a tissue from her desk and wiped her eyes.

  “So when’s the last time anyone has actually seen or heard from them?” asked Steve.

  “Oh at least a few weeks I guess, but that’s not unusual, really. They don’t like to be bothered when they’re away and I only have Dr. Schultz’s pager number in case of an emergency, which I have called three times this morning, but still haven’t heard back!” Amy was trying hard to hold back the tears, but now her nose was running and she took another tissue to remedy the situation. John looked at his watch and let out a breath of exasperation.

  “I guess we’re going to have to send the suits home,” he said with a serious expression.

  “You can't do the presentation John?” Amy asked, wrinkling her face up in a hopeful expression.

  “What, by myself? No, I don't think so.” John replied, shaking his head back and forth slowly. “I was nervous enough just helping out. I'm just not confident enough to do it on my own. We're going to have to send them home.”

  “Fine, can one of you guys tell them? Those people always give me such a hard time when I break appointments. They can be so mean to me,” Amy pleaded as blew her nose again.

  “No way, not me, I’m just the doorman,” Steve said as he smiled and then chuckled in his deep voice. “I’m not getting in the middle of this one.”

  “Sure, that’s fine. I-I will Amy,” John stammered. His tone was anything but sure. “I’ll tell them that we’re going to have to reschedule and then I’ll stop by Frank’s house on my way home for lunch.”

  “You know where Dr. Johnson lives?” Amy asked as Steve raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

  “Yeah, I‘ve been over there a couple times.” John had a, so what, look on his face as he spoke.

  “Whatever, you hanging with the big boss, it be none ‘o my never mind,” Steve said as he walked around the reception desk and faced Amy. “I’ll talk to the HR department though, so they can start tracking down any relatives they might have in their files, or emergency contacts, or something other than what we have. If we haven’t heard a whistle out of anyone by the end of the day, I’ll notify the police,” Steve said, trying to take control of the situation. John anxiously drummed his fingers on the reception desk, not looking forward to what he had to do.

  “Hey, you‘re the security guy, whatever you think,” John finally replied.

  “Let us know what you find out,” Amy said and tried to give John a reassuring look. “Good luck, I’m sure they're already getting anxious in there.”

  “Thanks, and please let me know the second you hear from Frank. I have an emergency going on down in the lab. I really need to talk to him right away,” John explained before heading down the corridor to the conference room. He stopped in front of the door for a moment to collect himself, took a deep breath, and entered the room. Immediately there were five pairs of eyes on him.

  “My apologies gentlemen, we are going to have to reschedule this presentation,” John said, trying to sound confident, but his voice was shaky. There were immediate frowns from everyone in the room. One of the men that looked older, slightly rounder, and a little shorter than the rest, who appeared to be in charge, stood up. John knew that this must be Jacob Whitehouse, one of the wealthiest men in the world and owner of Whitehouse Pharmaceuticals, one of the most successful and well branded, global pharmaceutical companies. He was also founder, and director of the board, for Sky Capital, the largest and most successful venture capital firm in the country. Jacob was not accustomed to being stood up.

  “This is ridiculous! Do you know who I am? We flew here from New York! We’ve been traveling all morning! Someone could have had the courtesy to call!” he yelled with a foul frown on his face.

  “I-I-I’m sorry. The partners of this center have come into a situation and couldn‘t make it,” John lied, not knowing what else to say.

  “Well, this center will not be receiving any infusion of money from me!” Jacob yelled as he stood up. His face was flushed red with annoyance. “You tell your bosses that if they think they can get away with insulting me in this way by breaking this appointment they have another thing coming. This center would not even be here if it were not for me and Whitehouse Pharmaceuticals!” His words spat venomously from between his pudgy lips as he waved his arm in the air, pointing his finger at John. The rest of the entourage stood up and they followed Jacob out into the hallway. Steve led them to the elevator and quickly escorted them inside.

  “See, they always seem to take it better from a man.”, Amy said to John as soon as the elevator doors closed and they were alone.

  “That was better? I thought Mr. Whitehouse was going to come across the table and choke me with his bare hands,” John said with a fearful look, then his expression quickly changed. The thought of the short, round man actually crawling across the conference table with his face beat red from the effort made John smile. Amy must have had a similar thought because John noticed she was smiling too.

  John headed back to his office with his thoughts racing, wondering why all three of the partners would just not show up for an important investor presentation. His stomach still hurt from the stress. What could be so damn important that would make them blow it off? Or has something bad happened? He decided to stop by Frank’s place right before lunch, on his way to the doctor’s appointment he had with Jenny. It w
as urgent that he get a hold of Frank as soon as possible about what happened in the lab. John called Nick several times but they were no closer to figuring out what caused the reaction in the lab animals and by the time 11:00 rolled around John was pretty confident he was brewing an ulcer. Between the terrible nightmares, the news at the lab, the botched meeting, and Frank missing, it was turning out to be the worst day he could remember. John’s cellular phone rang and he checked the caller ID. It was Jenny. Even with the day he was having John smiled and pushed the talk button.

  “Hi Honey.”

  “Hi Baby, how’s your day going?”

  “Awful so far.” was all John could come back with.

  “Awful. Really?” Jenny asked.

  “Yeah, the big presentation I was supposed to give this morning?”

  “That’s why I was calling, I just wanted to see how it went. I know you were nervous about it.”

  “Well, it never happened. I had to send the investors home around 9:00 this morning. None of the partners showed up, even Frank, and I got bad news from the lab,” John explained as he nervously fiddled with the pen on the desk in front of him.

  “That‘s strange they just didn’t show up, are you coming home for lunch today?

  “Yes, I planned on it after our appointment.”

  “Okay, good, because I’m out with Barb at the store, I’ll just have her drop me off at the Clinic, then we can ride home together okay?” Jenny asked.