“And why is that?” Jack asked superciliously. “Let me answer: I think you want me to stop investigating what happened out here in Dover.”
“Why would I care at this point?” Wei questioned. “I’ve told you what happened. There is nothing more for you to investigate.”
“I suppose that’s true to an extent,” Jack said contemptuously. “Maybe now you’re more concerned with what I might do with the information, like give a call to the FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations.”
“I suppose that is closer to the truth,” Wei admitted.
“So you think by bribing me with double my current salary and some stock in your organization I would be willing to make a Faustian deal?”
“Hardly,” Wei said, clearly struggling to contain his own emotions. “I thought I could appeal to your humanitarian instincts over bureaucratic requirements. Had the sabotage not taken place, within several months we would have been able to present our results with Carol and Margaret and thereby start our transplant program of human organs grown in pigs immediately. The public would have demanded it. Can you imagine how many lives we would be saving instead of waiting thefive to ten years or more it will take going through the usual FDA approval process?”
“Tell me this!” Jack demanded. “Do Ted Markham and Stephen Friedlander have equity positions in your company?”
“Absolutely,” Wei said. “As I said, I like all my employees to feel that they are working for a common goal. Everyone of consequence is a stockholder and fully aware and supportive of what we are doing.”
“Jesus H. Christ!” Jack exclaimed. “This is all worse than I could have imagined. Everyone is in collusion. Your entire institution’s method of operating is a classic example of confusing means and ends. It’s akin to the dubious ethical argument that it is justifiable to kill one person if you use the organs to save eight.”
“Absolutely not,” Wei retorted. “What we did has nothing at all to do with that simplistic, deontological Kantian argument. We are all more motivated by the consequentialism of ancient Chinese Mohism, as were Carol and Margaret. We were thinking of thousands upon thousands, not eight. Consequences matter. There’s no question. And there is the issue of autonomy, which is equally important. The women were part of the decision. They weren’t forced.”
For a brief moment Jack buried his head in his hands to massage his scalp after hearing such word salad, the meaning of which he didn’t even understand. He was outraged that he had allowed himself to get into a kind of philosophical argument with a paranoid, overzealous, megalomaniacal narcissist who was all too willing to ignore rules in place to safeguard patients in experimental circumstances. But there was one thing that Jack had to give the man credit for: He was right about Jack having learned just about everything he wanted to know and more about the shady doings of GeneRx, the Farm Institute, and Dover Valley Hospital. Now the question was whom he would tell and whether he would have the opportunity to tell anyone, caught as he was in Wei’s citadel. There was no doubt in his mind that the whole crazy affair would befodder for the FDA, the CDC, and the FBI. After a moment of thought he decided that if he could, he would put it in Laurie’s lap.
Suddenly emerging from the shelter of his hands, Jack abruptly stood up, startling Wei, who immediately followed suit.
“This has been a delightful party,” Jack said with his signature sarcasm. “But I’m out of here.” With that said, he took a step sideways around Wei toward the door to the gym. He had decided that his sole potential asset was surprise and intended to make a run for it.
With lightning speed Wei’s hand shot out and grabbed Jack’s arm in a viselike grip, yanking Jack to a stop. “Hold on!” he ordered. “You are not leaving until we have an understanding.”
Jack stared into the man’s broad face with its expression of absolute determination with narrow, unblinking eyes and compressed lips. Wei wasn’t making a suggestion or an offer. It was clearly an order reinforced by his hold on Jack’s arm.
For a few beats the two men stared into each other’s eyes across the personality chasm that separated them. Then, slowly, Jack’s eyes lowered to take in the hand gripping his left upper arm. There was a sense of foreboding in the air, as if a fuse had been lit on a powder keg.
What followed was an explosion of sudden cathartic action as Jack, in one motion, wrenched his arm from Wei’s grasp and, with both hands on the man’s chest, forcibly shoved him backward out of the way.
The burst of physical conflict surprised both men. Wei was shocked it had happened at all because invariably his Schwarzenegger-like size and muscles physically intimidated others. Jack was surprised because the man hardly moved despite Jack having given vent to his frustrations with what he thought was a mighty shove.
The next flurry of movement caught Jack off guard as Wei unleashed, more by reflex than thought, a martial-arts-style kick aimed at Jack’s head. Thanks to Jack’s superb physical condition, he not only saw the kick coming but was able to mostly duck under it. It also gave him anopportunity in the milliseconds that followed to rush the larger man. Jack had made an instantaneous decision that he wasn’t going to stand off and be outclassed by exchanging blows with someone trained in martial arts.
In high school in Indiana, Jack had played defensive safety in football and had developed a forte for tackling, even players significantly larger than himself. As he plowed into the heavier Wei by leading with his right shoulder into the man’s gut, Jack could hear the wind go out of the man’s lungs. Jack lifted as he drove through the tackle, sending both men sprawling back onto the carpeted floor and colliding with director’s chairs and lounge chairs. There was a tremendous clatter as furniture upended and shattered.
For a few minutes the two men rolled around on the floor, with neither gaining the advantage, although Wei was hampered by having to try to catch his breath at the same time. Both men were taken aback by the other’s strength and athletic agility. Ultimately, the deciding factor was home court advantage. Both men had forgotten about Kang-Dae, who had gone for help the moment the confrontation developed. The scuffle had also been seen by security on closed-circuit television. Within minutes a group of five armed and uniformed security personnel rushed into the room and latched on to the struggling, entangled combatants, pulling them to their feet. As they wrenched the fighters apart, both Jack and Wei managed to get in a final punch. Both were a bit worse for wear and out of breath, Wei even a bit worse off than Jack, a fact that gave Jack a modicum of satisfaction.
40
THURSDAY, 2:29 P.M.
Although the guards continued to restrain Jack, Wei was immediately released. Jack eyed the man, unsure of how Wei intended to take advantage of the circumstance. But once again Jack was surprised. Wei was far less angry than Jack reasonably expected, as the first words out of his mouth were, shockingly enough, complimentary. “I admire people in good physical condition,” he said as he adjusted his V-neck, miracle-fabric workout shirt. It had become twisted around his torso. “Your physical fitness speaks well for your basketball playing and bike riding. Maybe I should look into both. You are certainly in far better shape than most Americans your age.” He then retied the drawstring of his sweatpants.
Jack tried to shake off the two sizable men restraining him, but they responded by tightening their grip. Wei noticed and told his guards to let him go. Once free, Jack immediately rearranged his own clothes and straightened his tie, which had somehow remained in place through the tussle. While Jack made himself more presentable, Wei and Kang-Dae had an extended and animated conversation in Mandarin.
“I hate to interrupt,” Jack said when it seemed Wei and Kang-Dae were going to talk interminably. Even some of the guards had begun toshift their weight out of apparent boredom. “As I said, this has been a delightful party, but all good things have to come to an end. I’ll be heading off, if you can give me a hint how I might get back to civilization.”
“That’s not going to happen right at the moment,” Wei said, interrupting his lengthy chat with Kang-Dae. “We are trying to decide what to do with you.”
“I imagine the OCME will soon be curious as to my whereabouts,” Jack said. “They’ll be calling the Dover Valley Hospital before too long, since I haven’t checked in like I was supposed to do.”
“I doubt that very much,” Wei scoffed. “It was one of the reasons we were intent on ferrying you out here after we heard you were put on leave. I think there is a good chance no one knows you are here.” He sighed. “All this is so unnecessary. You could have made this much easier than you have.”
“Sorry not to be more cooperative,” Jack said mockingly, but under his bravado he felt a chill, as it was dawning on him that Wei had told him too much. It was true that no one, not even Warren, knew where he was, and his only connection at that point with the normal, sane world was his mobile phone in his pocket.
