Ramsanjawi rolled up Freddy’s sleeve and injected the serum into his arm. Freddy faded for a moment, then regained consciousness. His eyes were glazed and his speech was slurred and halting, but he accurately answered Ramsanjawi’s preliminary questions. Then Ramsanjawi turned to more important matters.
“What do you know about Cramer?” – “He din’t have Orbital Dementia . . . Drugs made him crazy.”
“And O’Donnell?”
“Drugs make him crazy, too. Differen’ drugs.”
“And you think that Roberts gave them the drugs.”
“Roberts friend of Cramer. Make sense.”
“But who gave the drugs to Roberts?”
“Don’ know.”
“Why are you interested in Roberts’s interest in O’Donnell?”
“My job. . . .Protect O’Donnell. Protect his work.”
“So you killed Aaron Weiss.”
“No.”
“Who did?”
“Don’ know.”
“What is O’Donnell working on?”
“Impor’ant stuff.”
“Not part of Trikon’s work?”
“More impor’ant.”
“What?”
“Can’ say.”
“But you can tell me.”
Freddy paused. His features twisted as his better judgment struggled unsuccessfully against the sodium pentothal.
“Bug… to use against . . . cocaine.”
“The product or the plants themselves?”
“Plants.”
“Bah. That has been tried. It was unsuccessful.”
“Not this one.”
“And I suppose you know how it works.”
“Not me. O’Donnell.”
“O’Donnell is not here, Aviles.”
Freddy hovered weightlessly, silent, slack-jawed, while Ramsanjawi thought furiously.
At last he said, “O’Donnell has his own computer, does he not?”
“Yeah.”
“And all his data is stored in it?”
“It was.”
“Was? What do you mean?”
“Crashed his files.”
“You what?”
“So nobody could copy,” Freddy muttered.
Ramsanjawi wanted to slap him. Then he realized, “You made a copy, didn’t you?”
“Sure.”
“Where is it?”
Freddy’s hand flopped against his chest. “Here.”
Ramsanjawi removed a diskette from an inside pocket of Freddy’s shirt and loaded it into his computer. There had been several attempts to destroy cocaine production at its source—chemicals, herbicides, even insects specifically crossbred to feed only on coca leaves. None of these plans had worked, and to Ramsanjawi’s knowledge the United States government had ceased trying.
O’Donnell’s attempt proved to be different.
Ramsanjawi perused the computer files and immediately grasped the thrust of the project: the development of a genetic sequence that would block the production of a specific enzyme necessary for cells of the coca leaf to manufacture cocaine. O’Donnell had not quite perfected the sequence. But he was close. Very close.
Ramsanjawi stored the data in his computer and returned the diskette to the pocket in Freddy’s shirt. He prepared another dose of tranquilizer to keep Freddy asleep through the rest of the night. Freddy might remember this encounter; he might not. It mattered little to Ramsanjawi. The plan that was coming together in his head would be executed quickly.
Ramsanjawi placed Freddy in his sleep compartment and returned to his office. In less than an hour of reviewing the data, he knew exactly how to apply O’Donnell’s groundwork. With just a few basic alterations to the genetic sequence and to the RNA messenger molecule O’Donnell had developed, he would possess a unique commodity. Sir Derek was welcome to the toxic-waste superbug. The ability to destroy the world’s coca supply would be far more valuable.
Then a new insight flashed into his mind. How much would the drug cartel pay for this information? And the techniques for guarding against it? Ramsanjawi felt himself glowing like the sun. Or better yet, I could use this technique to alter ordinary plants and make them produce cocaine! How much would the cartel pay for the ability to insert the coca-producing enzyme into ordinary plants? Chakra laughed aloud. Cocaine-yielding potatoes! Spinach! Watermelons!
He pictured himself living like a maharajah in a splendid villa on the Riviera. Who needs Oxford, and its airs of shabby gentility? With this kind of money I can buy all the respect I want.
Chuckling happily, Ramsanjawi shut down his computer and prepared himself for a long night of designing. Perhaps Lady Elizabeth had been correct after all. Good things happened to those who waited. And his long wait was finally over.