“Apply, Chakra. I assure you, the position will be yours. There are ways for these things to happen.”
“I know,” said Chakra. He leveled a hard stare at Sir Derek. His eyes were two black dots in narrow yellow slits. “I know the way things can be done—when you want them to be done.”
Sir Derek let the comment pass.
“Ciba-Geigy is not Oxford,” Chakra said.
“It is your first step back,” said Sir Derek. “Allow me to explain. If you have been reading the newspapers . . . sorry, that’s right. You no longer read newspapers. If you have been paying attention to the telly, you undoubtedly realize that the United Kingdom is threatening to pull out of the EC. I think this is a foolish course, and I have labored long and hard to convince the Prime Minister and Parliament that participation is in our best interests. But none of the dolts has the wit to listen to me. I predict that by the year 2000 our economy will be in a shambles and our once preeminent place among nations will have been lost.”
“So what?” said Chakra, almost vehemently.
“I know you don’t feel that way,” said Sir Derek. “You love England as much as I, almost.”
“You think that?”
“Almost.”
“What is your proposition, Derek? I want to be reinstated to my professorship at Oxford. You tell me to work in Switzerland.”
“Simply this. I trust you are familiar with Fabio Bianco.”
“He is a microbiologist of great reputation,” said Chakra. “And he has the soul of a crusader.”
“His crusader’s soul is currently ascendant,” Sir Derek said. “He is attempting, with a significant chance of success, to create a consortium of multinational corporations that will pool their research capabilities in order to solve various environmental problems facing the world through the use of genetic engineering. The work will be so sensitive and so potentially hazardous that it will be performed on a space station.”
Ramsanjawi’s eyes widened slightly.
“The Ciba-Geigy board of directors fully intend to vote in favor of joining the consortium,” Sir Derek continued. “If you are chief research coordinator of the Basel lab, you will most likely be assigned to this project.”
“What do you want, Derek?”
“What I want is to be the father of a new empire. Since that cannot be, I will settle for saving us all from going to hell in a hack.”
Chakra smirked. “And you propose to do that by sending me to Switzerland to work for a research lab that may become part of a research project that has not yet begun.”
“Will participate in a project that will begin,” corrected Sir Derek. “It will be a coordinated effort to create a supermicrobe. I want that microbe.”
“For Britain?” asked Chakra.
“For England,” said Sir Derek.
“For yourself, you mean.”
Sir Derek’s nostrils flared slightly. “I am already a very wealthy man, Chakra. This will make me even wealthier, it is true. But I do this for England, believe me. I want to save my country despite the obstinate idiots in charge of its government.”
Chakra knocked back his brandy. Instantly, a servant appeared and whisked the snifter out of his hand.
“And my cooperation will lead to my reinstatement at Oxford?”
“If at all possible.”
“Now it is merely possible,” said Chakra. “My banishment was not merely possible.”
“You brought that on yourself.”
“Bah!” said Chakra.
“What other options do you have? Seriously.”
Chakra turned on his heel and walked toward the doorway. Sir Derek noted that the years had added a rockiness to his smooth gait.
“You know,” Sir Derek called, “Mumsy—that is, Lady Elizabeth— encouraged me to become an economist.”
Chakra froze at the doorway.
“It was after you declared your intention to become a scientist. Her reasoning was that economics was far enough removed from science that our egos would not clash. Wouldn’t she be gratified to see us cooperating so swimmingly.”
Chakra walked out the door without turning around. Sir Derek knew the words had stung.
“I’ll wait to hear from you, Chakra,” he muttered.
17 AUGUST 1998
— FLORIDA
DRUG SWEEP NETS 1,000 ARRESTS
A task force consisting of Drug Enforcement Administration agents and the Los Angeles police conducted massive sweeps in three drug-infested Los Angeles neighborhoods early this morning.