"You first isolated it at Helixia," Brad repeated, scribbling this information down. "Is it patented by them then?"

"Yes," Prajuk nodded, shifting his weight. "I removed this gene straight from the vector and I took it to our lab. I understand that we are violating their patent."

Brad Whitmore shook his head. "No, I don't see it that way."

Prajuk glanced at Shane as if to suggest that they should ask someone more experienced.

Shane leaned forward. "How do you see it?"

"You guys are using this protein in a drug for"-he glanced down at his notes and seemed to suffer a hard time reading them-"alpha-one ant.i.trypsin deficiency. But at Helixia, the protein was used to treat asthma?"

"Yes."

"How different are these two drugs?"

Prajuk replied, "Very different. They cause different reactions in the body."

"Do you think Helixia also patented it as intended for use for alpha-one ant.i.trypsin deficiency?"

"No, most definitely they are not interested in using it for this purpose."

"How do you know?"

Shane cut in, "I asked them. Several times."

"Okay." Brad folded his hands. "You can claim a new composition of matter. See, it's like music. You can't copy someone else's melody and claim it as your song, right? But you can change just a note of it, and technically it's a new composition. This happens all the time, it's how commercial music houses work. And then also, you can patent musical notes in a specific sequence, but you can't patent a G note. That belongs to everybody.

"American genetics patent law works the same way. You can patent a gene or protein you've discovered in the specific composition of the drug you're patenting. But you can't patent the gene itself. That's everybody's property. A gene"-he smiled, unfolding his fingers-"is a musical note."

"Ah," Shane nodded.

"If you use this patented gene in a drug with a different composition, no matter how slightly different, then well, you're good."

Shane shot him a sideways glance.

"That is your opinion?" Prajuk asked nervously, "or this thing, it is legal fact, definitely?"

"Fact."

Shane smiled, thinking it was very possible that he loved Brad Whitmore. He started to stand. The cost of the attorney's hourly advice was out of the scope of his hundred-thousand-dollar investment, which had already been spent. These were bills he could not pay.

"And," Brad said, looking to him, "there's a whole other play here." He swung around on his chair, produced an impossibly thick pine green book, began turning pages. Shane heard the subtle click of a clock that he had not noticed before was there.

"Could you argue that a Helixia shareholder is being deprived of proper value by the revenue you guys will be taking from them with your drug?"

"What revenue?" Shane asked.

"In their eyes, think of greedy little eyes now, are you stealing something of significant market value from them?"

"Absolutely not. They would lose hundreds of millions on our drug, they said so themselves, all the way up the ladder. That's why they said no to producing it, or even applying for an NIH orphan grant. Our drug will do no financial harm to Helixia, believe me."

"Because . . ." Brad read to himself, moving his lips, and then looked sharply up at them. "A company's patent is limited in cases where the benefit to the public outweighs the harm to the inventor."

He snapped the large book shut and gave them a proud smile. "There's miles of precedent for this, guys. If I spent a day in a research library I'd find a brief's worth. In fact, a new use for a known protein is fully patentable. You guys can patent this usage, your, you know, drug, yourselves. You could sell it to some big pharmaceutical firm. I'll draw a patent application up for you."

Prajuk shook his head. "No. There is definitely to be no record of what we are doing. This was our agreement."

Brad held both hands up. "No application. Now, let me be clear. What you're doing is legal. But they will fire you for this."

"You just said we're doing nothing illegal."

"They can fire you for bringing the wrong Munchkins to Doughnut Day. California is a Right to Work state. Your jobs are not secure. If they find out you took this vector from their lab, you're both gone. But they can't sue you. Well, they probably would, but they can't win. Just know that the law is on your side."

"They would send waves of lawyers and appeals until they bankrupted us," Prajuk said.

Brad looked away from them. "Yes, well," he nodded. "They could do that."

Outside Prajuk smoked a cigarette, sucking deeply from his compressed fist, held an inch from his lips. Shane slapped his back.

"I should not be gone this long," Prajuk told him tensely.

"Okay."

"This whole project is taking significantly more of my time than I had antic.i.p.ated."

"We're almost done though, right? Should I call my brother?"

Prajuk nodded. "You should tell him to make arrangements."

Shane looked quizzically at him. "What is it?"

"I have to tell you something."

"What's up?"

"Jon Benatti came by," Prajuk whispered, his breath full of smoke. "He never comes to my office."

Shane smiled, trying to relay a gentle calm.

"He was very curious. How are things going? How is Airifan doing in clinicals? There are people he should ask about this thing, but I am not part of that. Is everything okay? This thing, Benatti, he is very concerned with me."

"To know you is to love you, Prajuk."

As they climbed into the car and began driving back to work, Shane continued. "You work on the most important projects here. You've worked with Steven Poulos. There are rumors about Roche buying us. He doesn't want to lose you to Amgen or somewhere."

"Yes, maybe. But this little man Benatti," Prajuk nodded. "He is quite a f.u.c.ker."

"He doesn't know anything," Shane a.s.sured him, forcing his best sales confidence up through his eyes.

"He saw me with the centrifuge. He may have run inventory. I told you, if I had even a suspicion of this, I would stop immediately."

Shane felt a surge of panic.

"Healy is sufficient for you from this point."

"No, he's not."

They finished the drive in silence. Half an hour later he pulled into the Helixia lot.

"Hey, Shane," a woman's voice called.

He glanced quickly behind him and saw Stacey waving to him from the lobby doors, where she was opening an umbrella. He felt as if he were caught in the middle of some parking lot drug deal. Which in a way, he supposed, he was.

It was true, their absences were starting to be noticed. Their minds were elsewhere. People might be able to sense that there was something between them worth looking closer into. He patted Prajuk's skinny shoulder, and the smell of nicotine encircled him like a child's affection.

Above them rain began to fall. Funny, Shane thought, glancing up. There hadn't been a cloud in the sky.

The mouse's blood came back positive for alpha-one ant.i.trypsin deficiency.

Shane was elated. This was terrific news, it meant that they had a living creature on which to test Prajuk's drug. Shane read the e-mail from Prajuk on his phone and virtually danced in circles in the elevator.

They met at Greenway Plaza after work. Healy brought a paper bag containing three forty-ounce bottles of his favorite malt liquor. They were opened; ceremonial foam bubbled forth.

"To Thailand," Shane toasted.

"Are you guys going on vacation?" asked Healy.

He pointed at the mouse. "Thailand!"

"You named the mouse?"

"Definitely," Prajuk grinned.

"We don't name the mice, man. That's not right. Seriously. You don't want to bond with the thing."

Shane laughed, taking a great pull of the liquor.

Healy frowned. He lifted his bottle, then hesitated. "Why Thailand?"

"In honor of Doctor Acharn."

"Mot kiao," Prajuk toasted.

Shane raised his bottle, watching the scientist. The news of the mouse had proven strong enough to overcome his desire to stop. But gray half-moons had formed under his eyes. The smell of his hard-inhaled Parliaments preceded him into the lab. Shane thought a week in p.h.u.ket would do him wonders. Before he could suggest it, Prajuk gestured to Healy.

"You want to do it?"

The stout and ripped postdoc shook his acne-marked head no. "You go for it."

With a grimace, Prajuk opened the small cage, lifted Thailand by the tail, and handed him to Healy. Then he removed a syringe from a metal drawer. He took up a vial of opaque liquid and inserted it into the top.

"What's that?" asked Shane, feeling he was missing something of vital importance.

"This is your drug," Healy told him.

"Holy s.h.i.t. For real?"

Healy nodded. Prajuk held the syringe up to the fluorescent light. His small eyes focused intensely as he tapped it. The wheezing mouse, seeming to sense something coming, thrust wildly in Healy's hand. Prajuk injected its flank with the fluid containing his isolated protein, which, mixed with media and transplanted into a bacterial E. coli cell, altered the instructions in his DNA.

Shane stood slack-jawed. He half expected the mouse to convulse and die right then. Healy placed Thailand back into his cage, and swept out some pellets of s.h.i.t while he was at it. He went to the double sink, washed his hands, and refreshed the water bottle from which Thailand could drink as he either began a new life, or ended this one.

Shane watched Prajuk, looking for some sense of reverence. But if the scientist felt the presence of a momentous act, he kept his awe well hidden. Cold distance, Shane realized, was the order of the lab.

And then, to his surprise, Prajuk took his malt liquor and drank it dry.

5.

"There are two ways we can do this," Doctor Frank said carefully.

Caleb sat on the edge of a long metal table and glanced around the tiny clinic. The room carried the scent of cough drops; the walls held paintings of birds.

The old doctor lifted one of Caleb's battered feet. Caleb noticed him shake his head at this willful mangling of the human form.

"First way is, we put you to sleep. Other way"-he coughed-"is we don't."

The old doctor had run this two-room clinic in Arvada for decades. He employed an overweight middle-aged nurse named Sue, who sometimes smelled of alcohol. He was the only doctor Mack trusted with procedures of this sort, which energy healing did not affect.

"How long until I can run?"

"Depends on how your body heals. It's usually three weeks." He hesitated. "With you guys, I'd say one."

Caleb sighed.

"Are we doing all of them?"

"Please."