| General Fiction posted March 14, 2025 | Chapters: |
...42 43 -44- 45... 
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Dana gets Rudy to send her to Charlotte
A chapter in the book The Devil Fights Back
The Devil Fights Back - Ch. 44
by Jim Wile
The author has placed a warning on this post for language.| Background Three intrepid women team up to conquer medical challenges. |
Recap of Chapter 43: Marie arrives at Brian and Julia’s house and meets the three new bodyguards. Brian leaves on his weeklong trip to find new test subjects. On an outing to the park, Julia, Johnny, and Marie are escorted by the bodyguard named Woody.
While at the park, two thugs appear and deliver a message to Julia saying that Brian is to quit the Glyptophan trials, or dire consequences would result. Woody, with his gun on display, orders the men to leave, and soon after, Julia and her crew leave too. Julia calls Brian with the news of the verbal assault, and Brian decides to cut his trip short and return the next day.
Chapter 44
Dana
I’ve been biding my time just working at my job the last couple of weeks because nothing’s been happening here worth reporting to Fran. That changed when I decided to mention to Rudy Spangler that I’d be interested in helping out in his campaign to suppress the release of Glyptophan. I reminded him that I had participated in this effort at my former job with Newman-Price.
“Well, Dana, as a matter of fact, there is something you could look into for me. I really would like to find out how the Glyptophan phase-2 drug trials are going. I haven’t seen any interim results recently, and I’d like to know how they’re progressing.”
“I have an idea how we could get that.”
“Tell me.”
“At Newman-Price, my boss there convinced a medical journal called Myalosoma to publish an article that panned Glyptophan, but they were forced to retract it when they were threatened with an expensive libel suit. They then began reporting the truth about it and the positive results of the human testing. What if I were to impersonate another reporter from that magazine and pretend to be writing a follow-up article six months later on Glyptophan’s progress to date? I could contact Brian Kendrick himself and schedule an interview. He lives near Charlotte. I could drive up there and do an in-person interview.”
“Hmm, devious. Sounds like a great idea. Do you have the experience to pull something like that off?”
“I’ve done a lot of improv, and I’ve acted in community theater for a long time. This shouldn’t be difficult.”
“Okay, then. Please report to me as soon as you get back, and there’ll be a nice bonus for you, plus all your expenses will be paid.”
“Roger that. I’ll call Brian Kendrick right away and make an appointment.”
I called Fran that night and told her about the plan and that I had a feeling something might be in the offing depending on the results from the Glyptophan trials.
I arranged to meet her at her home tomorrow evening. I emailed Rudy and told him I had gotten an appointment to speak with Brian Kendrick tomorrow afternoon and that I would drive up there in the morning. I promised to email him the results tomorrow evening.
I slept in this morning since I didn’t really have to be at Fran’s until 6:00 PM. I had fibbed about the appointment with Brian and would just give him a call tomorrow evening for a quick update on the trials after I have dinner with Fran.
I packed a small suitcase, planning to stay with Fran for a couple of nights.
I drove straight to her house, where she and Mike greeted me. Over dinner, she filled me in on the recent happenings at the Kendrick house.
“It’s been very stressful for them now, especially since that intimidating encounter at the park. Fortunately, one of their three bodyguards was there to intervene on their behalf, but Julia was very freaked out by it. Brian even cut his travels off early to come back and be with the family.”
“Any idea what Israel has planned yet? Have you gotten anything from the wiretap on his phone?”
“Nothing actionable yet. One curious thing, though, was a call he made a while ago to a travel agency to look for Airbnb homes in the Charlotte area. Not sure what that’s about.”
“They might be setting up a place to hide someone,” said Mike. “Do you know the address of the rental home yet?”
Fran said, “We don’t even know the exact city or town. I sure hope you’re wrong about that. I hate to think who they might have in mind to hide.”
“I have to email Rudy Spangler tonight with the results of my ‘interview’ with Brian today. Do you think I should tell him the testing isn’t going well so that he may hold off on taking any immediate action?”
“As tempting as that sounds, I think it may backfire and blow your cover if you tell him that, and he finds out through other means that the testing is actually going well. Probably best to be straight with him.”
“I guess I’d better call Brian then and get some specifics to report. If I just make shit up, he may see through that too.”
“Yep. Why don’t you call him now and put your phone on speaker? I’d like to ask him something myself.”
I called Brian and explained my current assignment. He gave me a five-minute update on the status of the phase-2 trials. Everything was looking good so far, he said, but it was still early. The phase-2 trials typically last from one to two years, and they only began a few months ago. I took some notes to report to Rudy.
When the “interview” was done, Fran said, “Hey, Little Brother, did your bodyguards ever find the source of the surveillance that brought those two guys to the park?”
“As a matter of fact, they did. Nick checked the car over closely, looking for a transponder but didn’t find one. Harvey checked the house again, looking for bugs, and Woody surveyed the outside, thinking there might be a hidden camera somewhere. Sure enough, he found one mounted unobtrusively on the lamp post we have in a bush near the end of the driveway. It was able to transmit a wireless signal to a car parked up to a mile away, where it would trigger an audible alarm to let them know Julia was on the move. Since our house is right on a main road that leads into and out of Cherryville, we figure they had waiting cars stationed both north and south of here. They would be within a mile and hidden just off the main road. If the camera picked up Julia’s car leaving the driveway, both cars would be alerted, and the appropriate one would see her as she drove by.”
“Pretty damn clever. So, did Woody disable it?”
“Yeah. Now maybe they’ll be blind to her activities.”
“Okay, thanks for the update. You three try to relax a little now.”
“You mean four. Marie came down when Jules called her the other day. She’ll be staying with us for a while.”
“Well, I hope that doesn’t create even more tension for Jules. That Marie is a piece of work.”
“Yeah, but she’s starting to come around. I think it will do Jules some good to have her here.”
“Good. I hope so.”
“Listen, Fran, am I going to regret it if I keep going? I don’t know how I’d live with myself if something really bad were to happen.”
“Brian, I know what you’re saying, but won’t you always regret caving to these assholes if you give up? This has to be your and Julia’s decision, but just know that we’ve got tools in place to track what’s going on and hopefully prevent anything serious.”
I could hear Julia faintly in the background say, “Let’s keep moving forward for now.”
Then Brian said, “Thanks, Fran. I think we’ll just keep going.”
 Recognized |
Fran Pekarsky: One of three narrators of the story. She is an FBI agent from the North Carolina field office in Charlotte.
Dana Padgett: One of three narrators of the story. She is a confidential informant (CI) for Fran and works in Big Pharma.
Brian Kendrick: Fran's younger brother. He is the inventor of Dipraxa and Glyptophan.
Julia Kendrick: Brian's wife. She is a world-class violinist who now plays in a bluegrass band.
Johnny Kendrick: Brian and Julia's baby boy and Marie's grandson.
Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother. She is the third narrator of the story.
Cedric (aka Cecil): The doorman at the apartment house where Marie lives.
Lou D'Onofrio: Fran's boss at the FBI.
Leonard Merra: A vice president at the Big Pharma company where Dana works. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.
Rudy Spangler: A vice president at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in charge of stopping Glyptophan.
Peter Israel: The security chief at Gideon Pharmaceutical. He is in cahoots with Rudy Spangler to stop Glyptophan.
Woody Sandbulte: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.
Nick Burwell: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.
Harvey Briggs: One of three bodyguards hired by the Kendricks for protection.
Picture courtesy of Flux-Pro
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