Chrysalis

44

As the two headed for the exit, Logan suddenly remembered Dr. Purchase was still on hold. He tapped his Voyager. “Terribly sorry, Dr. Purchase. Thanks for letting me know about Janelle Deston. Could you please send a list of all those ‘doubles’ — as you call them — to me, Ms. Asperton, and Peyton?”

“I’ll take care of it myself.”

“Thanks.” Logan paused. “You said there was something else you wanted to tell me earlier?”

“That’s right.” A brief clearing of the throat. “I’ve been doing some of that… well, that research you asked for. Checking candidate compounds, preclinicals and so forth, for any interactions that might somehow have gone unnoticed. And two things came to my attention I thought you should know about.”

Two things. Logan took a moment to try wiping his mind clear of everything else. “Go ahead,” he said, praying this would be quick.

Purchase must have picked up something in Logan’s tone, because he seemed to snap to attention. “You’ll recall we were talking about Bridger’s implant. The one he was planning to have upgraded.”

“Yes,” Logan said. “The Mark Two. With the Continental tire.”

“Um. Right. I told you it supplied doses of Ambutrexine for his osteoarthritis. I also noticed, tangentially, no corticosteroids were present in his blood — which they would have been had he taken Ambutrexine before the flight.”

“Tangentially.” It seemed that was the word management liked to use whenever they accessed the Helix for data.

“The ME did find traces of silodosin in Bridger’s blood. That’s a drug used to treat enlarged prostates — pilots take it sometimes so they won’t need to urinate as frequently, so its presence in his blood was no surprise.”

“Go on,” Logan prodded.

“Well, knowing as I did what happened to Mr. Bridger, I looked further into the matter. Theoretically, if Bridger was administered one very specific drug at the same time as the Ambutrexine implant was active, it could have caused a highly dangerous interaction.”

“What drug is this?”

“An anticonvulsant, oxcarbazepine. Not only would the interaction cause extreme vertigo, dizziness, syncope… but the anticonvulsant could disguise itself as silodosin in Bridger’s bloodstream. Especially given the amount of time that passed before any bloodwork was done… and especially if the pathologist wasn’t actively looking for foul play, or an ADR. Adverse drug reaction.”

But now, at last, you are, Logan thought. “Fascinating. So it’s possible Bridger’s implant might — indirectly, at least — have been responsible for his death.”

“If combined with that anticonvulsant, yes. And it would be undetectable unless, as I said, you were looking for just such a thing.”

“How exactly did you discover this?”

A hesitation. “Given your other requests, it seemed like a practical line of research to undertake.”

“Thank you, Doctor. I appreciate the initiative. And this finding might be of great importance.”

So it wasn’t certain Bridger’s death was accidental. But neither, it seemed, could they prove otherwise — not in the time left them. As the weight of the conundrum grew more onerous, Logan’s mind drifted to the pub he had noticed earlier, the Crosskeys, and he concluded he was now well overdue for that glass of single-malt scotch.

“There’s one other thing, Dr. Logan. I stumbled upon it while doing the research you requested. It’s something of an anomaly.”

Hearing this, Logan’s sixth sense came alive again. A faint warning bell went off in his head.

“I’ll tell you what,” he told the BioCertain manager. “How about if I come by your office in five or ten minutes?”

“Of course.”

“Thanks.” Logan disconnected and turned toward Asperton, who’d been waiting for his talk with Purchase to end.

“I’m going to follow Peyton, watch them interrogate this Benjamin Cardiff,” she said. “Care to join the show?”

“Under other circumstances, yes. But I’m off to talk with Dr. Purchase.” He waved to her and left the room.

Whether Purchase had to wait five minutes or ten depended on if the Crosskeys had a bottle of sixteen-year-old Lagavulin on hand.