Running Dark Read Online Free PDF Page B

and a vial in the other. He reached out and gently took the needle from her. He placed it on the table.
    “You didn’t tell me someone had injected you. Tell me everything. Now.”
    Emma gave him a short version of the man with the pen.
    “Could you have been dreaming it? You said you’d taken a pretty hard fall.”
    Emma was getting a little tired of people suggesting that she’d imagined the attacker.
    “I still can’t account for my results. My feet had been swollen; they shrank back down, practically in front of my eyes. I was at the last third of the race, but my endurance increased a hundredfold.” Stark looked away. He appeared nervous—frightened, almost.
    “Did you tell the authorities?”
    Emma shook her head. “I told a police officer at the finish tent, but he was preoccupied with the bombing. He gave me an address and number to call in order to create a report. I did that, and I’ll contact the race organizers to tell them what happened after I get these test results back. Maybe there’s nothing there.” And maybe it’s a grouptargeting me from my last adventure, Emma thought. But there was no need to add that to the mix for Stark. That issue could be addressed best by Banner.
    Stark nodded. “Sounds right. There’s nothing that can be done immediately.” He shifted on his feet. “Can you give me an idea of what’s in your report on Cardovin? As I told you, I have some unexpected business in Nairobi, and I won’t be able to attend the scheduled meeting.” He grabbed a stool, rolled it close, and sat on it.
    Emma tensed. She had known that this moment would come, but she wanted to avoid it a little longer, if possible. She hated to be the bearer of such bad news.
    “It’s in my report. You can read it when you finish in Nairobi.”
    “What are you going to say to us?” Stark’s voice was flat and brooked no further delay.
    Emma took a deep breath. No sense gilding the lily. Best be out with it fast and leave no room for doubt.
    “Cardovin doesn’t work.”
    Stark went still. All Emma could hear was the muffled sound of a car alarm, somewhere in the distance. She shot a glance at his face. He stared at her with a look that was a combination of anger and disbelief.
    “What do you mean?” Stark’s voice was soft but held an intensity she hadn’t heard from him before.
    “It doesn’t work.”
    “At all?” He sounded shocked.
    “At all,” Emma said. She felt some pity for him. The results were devastating. They would annihilate Price’s profits for a long time to come. The stool squeaked as Stark leaned toward her, his motion followed by a faint whiff of his cologne.
    “Do you realize you’re telling me that a drug sold all over the world, that cardiovascular doctors in every teaching hospital in seventeen different countries prescribe every day, that represents overfour billion dollars in sales for Price, doesn’t work?” Now he sounded incredulous.
    “Yes.”
    Stark shook his head. “You must be wrong.”
    Emma bit back a retort. “I am not wrong. My methodology will stand up to any scrutiny your scientists at Price wish to subject it to. The drug doesn’t work. Period.”
    “If what you say is true, how do you explain the conclusions reached by Price’s own scientists? Results that won us FDA approval? Clinical trials showing that not only does the drug work, but it works extremely well?”
    Emma sighed. “Actually, at first I deliberately avoided reading their studies before undertaking my own, so as not to be swayed by their approach. Remember, you hired Pure Chemistry to test this drug and urged us to start from scratch. That’s exactly what we did.”
    Stark nodded. “Go on.”
    “After, I went back and looked at every test with a positive finding. None of them tested Cardovin on its own. All of them tested it in combination with other, well-proven cardiovascular drugs, which is why Cardovin is approved only as an adjunct to those drugs. When it was combined