AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’m pretty sure sleeping with a sponsor won’t get me that grade-level promotion.”
“You’ve got that in the bag,” Karlene says, slinging her purse over her shoulder as if to emphasize her point.
I wish I had half her confidence. But there are at least two other candidates, just as qualified as me. It’s anything but a sure bet.
“OK, so say you’re on the hiring board,” I tell her. “Three candidates are presented to you. One is the son of the chief scientist, another is a certifiable genius with a Davy Medal, and the third is a woman who slept with a high-profile sponsor and delayed the approval of a potentially lifesaving drug. Who do you pick?”
Karlene pretends to think about it as we leave the ladies’ room.
“Does the third one also have a Doctor of Pharmacy degree?”
I try not to smile. “She does.”
“And is she the daughter of famed biochemist Dennis Flemming? The fourth-most-quoted physician in the U.S. with five honorary Doctor of Science degrees—”
“This is the most ridiculous discussion,” I say, stopping her. Listing my dad’s accolades will take all day. Besides, those are his achievements, not mine. I want this because I’ve earned it.
“Time to put your game face back on,” Karlene says as we walk through the main door and she steers us toward her office. There’s coffee in the meeting room, but she has a thing about germs—she’ll only drink from her own machine.
“Think our no-show will be there yet?”
Karlene shrugs as she pushes down the handle and the Keurig comes to life. “Who knows. You’d think he’d want to make a better impression, but a guy like Hayden Tanner probably isn’t worried much about little old us.”
I’m inclined to agree. When I worked in Maryland at the main FDA headquarters, there were fewer of those types than there are here in New York. But they still existed. And they never seem to learn.
Except at the highest levels that no one really talks about, the Food and Drug Administration can’t be bought. A sponsor submits a new drug application. A hundred-plus-person team reviews it, the process presided over by one production manager (in this case me). And the director decides whether it should be deemed safe or not.
The amount of money in the sponsor’s bank matters very little. There are checks and balances built into the review process to ensure it. Even so, at least once a year some mega-billionaire comes along and tries to buy their way through the system. Or doesn’t show up to a meeting with the new RPM—the very person who could, if not morally obligated to do otherwise, make the process a living hell.
“He should be,” I mutter, about to follow Karlene back to the boardroom. But I notice a loose thread in the sleeve of my blazer, and when I reach for it, I realize that my wrist is bare. “Shit.”
“What is it?”
“My bracelet.” I look down to the ground. “I know I had it on earlier.”
“Is it in your office, maybe?”
I shake my head, glancing around her office. “No, I reclasped it in the bathroom. It’s been coming loose.”
I curse myself for not having taken it to the jewelers to be fixed. My mom gave it to me when I got my job at the FDA, and it has sentimental value.
“How much time do we have?”
Karlene looks at her watch, which she wears religiously to keep track of steps.
“Six minutes.”
“OK.” I leave her office and head in the opposite direction, back toward the bathroom. “I’ll meet you there.”
Although the meeting can’t start without me since I’m running it, I don’t want to be late. Unlike Mr. Angel, Inc., I have a high regard for being on time and would rather die than be late to my own meeting.
But I need to find my bracelet first.
3
Hayden
Istep off the elevator and look for a water fountain. Six minutes until the meeting starts, again. I’ve been here before and know the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research is just down the hall. Taking two pills out of my briefcase, I find the blessed water fountain and pop them into my mouth. When our product goes to market, hangover headaches won’t be a problem. Neither will drunk driving, at least for people who drink our products.
