EJAX-472: Ch. 07

The officers moved down upon Philip in a flash, cuffing his hands amidst Bonnie's protestations. As she watched him being led away, another officer placed a set of cuffs around her wrists. She looked at me with a look of despair, tears flowing down her flushed cheeks.

And then it was my turn to have the cold, metallic cuffs placed over my own shaking hands. Me, of all people, who had only sought to do good, was now being led away like a common criminal.

"Let's go Luis," Richter said. "You're going too."

"Oh, fuck man," he replied, still grasping his crotch. "I don't want to go back to that stinking jail!"

"Shut up or I'll make you walk all the way back!" the officer warned.

Michelle put her hand in mine.

"I am going to rally support for you Chris. Don't worry. We're all on your side."

"That's right," Rebecca said. "Don't let these assholes fuck with your head Christiana. Remember you're innocent."

"Innocent," Jennifer repeated. "Did you hear that doctor?"

"I heard it," I said feebly.

Maria and Cheryl came up to me and put their arms around me. Cheryl was crying.

"I can't believe they're doing this to you," she said, her voice breaking. "You didn't do anything wrong."

"Don't cry, Cheryl. Everything is going to be all right. You'll see."

"We'll take care of everything while you're away. I promise," Maria said, kissing me on the cheek.

Rebecca, who usually let nothing get to her, put her hands on both of her friends' shoulders, fighting valiantly to ward off the tears.

"Keep you head up Chris," she said. "The three of us will keep things running around here."

"I'm not worried Rebecca," I replied, my throat tightening up. "You girls are like my Three Musketeers."

And then, to my surprise, the tears came, flowing freely down my face as if a dam had burst. Rebecca threw her arms around me and held me tight. My dearest friend, the one who had always been the strongest of us all, was now mingling her own tears with mine.

But our show of affection was short lived. Bonnie was being led away, and I felt the hands of the officers separate me from my friends.

"Can you believe this sis?" Bonnie wailed as she was escorted to the outer door ahead of me. "My poor husband! My God! What are we going to do?"

"Don't worry Bonnie!" Michelle called after her. "I'll call your attorney!"

Amidst all the tears and confusion, I was aware of a voice chattering in some foreign tongue, acting as a subtle counterpoint to the misery taking place. Then I heard a sadistic laugh.

"I'll break you like a stick!" it said, filled as it was with utter contempt.

I looked down at the little insect of a thing that had tried to pass itself off as a man and spat directly in its face.

"And I'm going to crush you like a bug!"

Richter jerked the insect by the arm before the foul creature could say or do anything, and pushed him out toward the door.

"If I hear another word out of you Luis," said the detective, "I'm going to kick you in the same place those women did."

The two of them disappeared out the door.

Then it was my turn.

With an officer on each side of me, I was gently escorted out. Behind me I was leaving a group of sorrowful, discouraged faces as I began my painful trek toward a sea of blue uniforms. I saw "Big" Barney hugging his wife Janine, his normal jovial appearance now reduced to little more than a frown. Stuart and Denise, Jeffrey and Priscilla, John and Ann—all of them stood next to each other hand in hand, offering words of encouragement to me as I passed by them. John looked especially unhappy, seeing his own chances of acquittal fading with my own incarceration. Adam stood next to Jill and Laura, all three looking bewildered and distressed.

"Good luck," Marlene said, reaching out her hand to touch my arm. "Michelle is right. We're all going to come to your aid, you'll see," she said, smiling feebly.

Sylvia just looked on, shaking her head in disbelief, not venturing to say a word.

At that point, Rebecca, Maria, and Cheryl made an attempt to follow me to the front entrance but were held back by Endland.

"I told you to stay here," he said to them. "And that goes for the rest of you."

Jennifer and Sheila spoke a few words to me as I was almost out the door but I didn't hear them. They looked defeated. Michelle stared after me, giving me the "thumbs up" in a gesture of hope, done more I supposed for her sake than mine. I wanted to tell all these people that I would be fine, but at that moment I wasn't so sure. I was, after all, going to jail. I felt like Dr. Frankenstein: done in by my own creation.

I saw my entire life pass before me in a flash, the transient images finally coming to an abrupt halt at the beginning of the seven-year period when I had made a major breakthrough with the development of EJAX-472. I knew then that I had hit upon something unique and wonderful—something that would earn me the recognition I had craved for so long. I saw Rebecca's beautiful face staring down at the jumble of equations that defined the schematic of the wonder drug, sensing her excitement as she painstakingly proofed every theorem until the parts of the whole were revealed to her in all their logical glory. I remembered how, in her exuberance at my discovery, she suddenly embraced me and held me a little too long for my comfort, and how she immediately knew this and drew away, still happy, but with a trace of regret. And despite knowing that she could never share that part of my life, she stayed on, working alongside of me year after year, with a sense of dedication that few employers had ever enjoyed or expected from their employees. She was my right hand and my loyal friend. And even now, as I looked upon her and the others with a mixture of sadness and defeat, I knew I could trust her to carry on with my work in order to keep the promise of EJAX-472 alive.

Suddenly the officer to my right stopped to answer his phone. For a few moments the three of us stood quietly as he paused to receive instructions.

"We're by the door now...yes, sir...Understood sir. We'll be quick."

He pocketed the phone and turned to the other officer.

"There's a few hundred people out there," he said. "Reporters, news people, everything. It's crazy. We'll have to use the rear exit instead."

'A few hundred people?' I thought. How was that possible? I could not fathom how so many people could congregate outside in such a short time. How could the media have possibly learned about the events taking place at my Clinic? Somebody must have tipped them off—but who?

We resumed our journey toward the outer hall in silence. Just as I was about to walk through the door of the lab, I turned instinctively one last time toward my friends, who were now huddled together in one corner being questioned by the police. Only one face looked up at that point to meet my gaze. It was Craig's. He was holding Cheryl's hand as she fielded some questions, still very much upset. For some strange reason, he was smiling at me. It was neither a smile of encouragement, nor one hinting of regret. It was rather a smile that denoted, strangely enough, a sense of victory. Or so I thought. Before I could ponder the matter further, the handsome face clouded over again as the barrage of questions continued. His was the last face I saw before I passed into the outer hall and into a waiting squad car.

End of Chapter 7