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CHAPTER 072

Ellis sat down across from his brother Aaron, in Aaron’s office at the law firm. The office window looked south over the city, down toward the Empire State Building. It was a hazy day, but the view was still spectacular, powerful.

“Okay,” Ellis said, “I talked to that guy in California, Josh Winkler.”

“Uh-huh.”

“He says he never gave anything to Mom.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Says what he sent was water.”

“Well, that’s what you would expect him to say.”

“Aaron,” Ellis said, “they gave her water. Winkler said that he was not going to transport anything across state lines. His mother wanted it done, so he sent water, to test the placebo effect.”

“And you believe him,” Aaron said, shaking his head.

“I think he has documentation.”

“Of course he does,” Aaron said.

“Sign-outs, lab reports, other documentation maintained by his company.”

“Falsified,” Aaron said.

“That documentation is required by the FDA. Falsifying it is a federal offense.”

“So is giving gene therapy to friends.” Aaron pulled out a sheaf of papers. “Do you know the history of gene therapy? It’s a horror story, Ellie. Starting back in the late 1980s, the biotech guys went off half-cocked and killed people right and left. At least six hundred people we know about have been killed. And plenty more we don’t know about. You know why we don’t know?”

“No, why?”

“Because they claimed-get this-that the deaths couldn’t be reported, because they were proprietary information. Killing their patients was a trade secret.”

“Did they really say that?”

“Could I make this shit up? And then they bill Medicare for the cost of the experiment that killed the patient. They kill, we pay. And if the universities get caught, they claim they don’t have to give informed consent to subjects because they are nonprofit institutions. Duke, Penn, University of Minnesota-big places have been caught. Academics think they’re above the law. Six hundred deaths!”

Ellis said, “I don’t see what this has to do-”

“You know how gene therapy kills people? All sorts of ways. They don’t know what’s going to happen. They insert genes into people, and it turns on cancer genes, and the people die of cancer. Or they have huge allergic reactions and die. These goofballs don’t know what the hell they are doing. They’re reckless and they don’t follow the rules. And we,” he said, “are going to smack their asses down.”

Ellis squirmed in his chair. “But what if Winkler is telling the truth? What if we are wrong?”

“We didn’t break the rules,” Aaron said. “They did. Now Mom’s got Alzheimer’s, and they’re in deep, deep shit.”