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They Key to Believing chapter 4 The Different Approach She didn’t know what had happened during that flight, but her headache was virtually gone when she got back into Seattle. she pulled her keys from her purse and unlocked her apartment door, made her way in, dropped her umbrella and luggage by the door, and slid her trench coat off. She was famished. Walking straight to her refrigerator, she grabbed her loaf of white bread, a package of sliced cheese, and her pack of deli ham. She walked to her fax machine and picked up the notes from Kyle. Setting her food down, she went back to get her briefcase by the front door. Bringing it to her desk, she set her computer down next to her late lunch. After the cables for the power supply and the modem were connected, she turned on the computer to let it start up while she got a glass of water from the sink. She made her sandwich while the modem dialed on to her Internet service provider. The laptop made mechanical clicking and whirring noises as she ate. Her next task was to get onto the Internet and go to a search engine. She typed “AIDS homeopathy” and hit enter. One web site was found. “Homeopathy and beauty aids” -- which was the wrong kind of aids. She typed in “HIV Homeopathy” and hit enter. There she found two sites, and went to them and started reading. She went back to her search engine, typing “HIV nutrition” and hit enter. There she found another three sites, and a few message boards. She started reading. She saved copies of the web sites on her computer. And then she started posting messages wherever she could on the Internet. “Hello. I’m a researcher working on helping AIDS patients and people who are HIV-positive. Is there anyone out there who would be interested in telling me about alternative medicines, homeopathy, or nutrition they use in order to help themselves out? I’d like to learn more about this aspect of treating HIV and AIDS. Your stories will remain completely confidential. Please e-mail me at S_Emerson@Madison-Ph.com. Thank you very much for your time. “Hello. I saw your posting on the web about using shark oil as a treatment for AIDS. Could you tell me how it works? I am very interested in learning about alternative treatments for AIDS. Please e-mail me at S_Emerson@Madison-Ph.com. Thank you.” “Hi. Your posting talks about hypnosis used for treating a number of disorders. I was wondering if you have had any experience dealing with people that were HIV-positive or who had AIDS, and how hypnosis helped them. Anything you could e-mail me would be very helpful. E-mail me at S_Emerson@Madison-Ph.com. Thanks for your help.” “Hello. I saw a few postings, including yours, about chiropractors working on AIDS patients. What benefit does going to a chiropractor have on someone testing HIV-positive? I’m very curious about this; if you have the time, I would like to hear more about it. Please e-mail me at S_Emerson@Madison-Ph.com. Thank you, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.” “Hi. I’m posting because I’ve seen very little information about this. I have heard both the pros and cons of AIDS patients taking marijuana. I’m curious if anyone has done any studies or if anyone out there has been taking it to help with regaining the appetite, etc., and if it has had any effect on their immune system. All letters sent to me will remain entirely confidential. Any information I could get would be a great help. Please e-mail me at S_Emerson@Madison-Ph.com. Thanks, and good luck.” “Hello. I’ve been looking for nutrition information for people that are HIV-positive or have full-blown AIDS. It is startlingly hard to find. Can anyone give me any dietary guidelines? Thank you in advance for any information at all. Please e-mail S_Emerson@Madison-Ph.com, and thanks again.” “I have heard of taking herbs for reducing side effects of AIDS drugs, as well as for improving the general health of AIDS patients. Does anyone have any information that they could send to me, or does anyone know where I could look to find that information? Please e-mail me at S_Emerson@Madison-Ph.com, and thanks a lot for the help. I really appreciate it.” She laced every posting with thank you notes and graciousness, hoping it would elicit more responses. She didn’t know if there was much of a network there on the Internet for AIDS patients. She went to a homeopathy web site and started reading. “The medical community has been focusing its efforts on coming up with ways to attack the AIDS virus. But there is another approach to fighting the disease as well: by bolstering the immune system. If you can improve your immune system, you will be better equipped to fight the virus. “Natural herbs and homeopathy is a good general way to do this. Herbs have been found to increase memory, alleviate nausea, increase sexual drive, stimulate brain strength, alleviate headaches, lower cholesterol and improve general health. There are also ways to strengthen the lymph nodes, the nervous system and the immune system with herbs and natural remedies by taking substances topically, as extracts; as supplements, as powders or as a regular part of your diet. These herbs and foods are not drugs and do not have the harmful side effects that many drugs have; in fact, they are wholly good for you; they are a part of nature and are meant to be ingested. “If these things exist in nature, then why do so many people in America, the richest country in the world, get sick? The choices we make for what we eat and how we take care of ourselves affect our health. As Americans we subject ourselves to more chemicals here than anywhere else in the world, and no one had these man-made chemicals in past generations to contend with. Also, in our modern diets, when we eat fast foods and limit ourselves in the choices of foods we eat, including the herbs, berries and barks that might have helpful remedies in them, we open ourselves up to ailments that were not a problem before. “Here is an example: Americans in their old age, especially women, are likely to get osteoporosis. However, the incidents of osteoporosis are much lower in other countries. Although in undeveloped countries people may die before getting osteoporosis, people in even more developed countries get osteoporosis less than they do in America. We have plenty of calcium in our diets; we have the opportunity to eat more cheese and dairy products than many people in other countries do. So why is osteoporosis so common? It is because of our diets; it is because of the foods we choose to eat in America. Americans have more protein, in the form of meats and red meats in particular, in their diet than people in other countries do. The excess protein, the protein that is not ingested in our systems, passes through our bodies, but in order to do so effectively, the protein pulls calcium out of our system in order to help it pass. So by eating more meat products, we pull calcium from our bones and do the harm we try to correct by ingesting more calcium. “The moral to the story? Two things. One is that our diets can improve, which will make us healthier. The other is that with the choices we have made with our food, we have eliminated some of the things we need from our food. And taking herbs and supplements can help bring them back.” Looking over what was listed, she knew she had a lot of reading to do. She got up and started a pot of tea in the kitchen. She saved the text from that web site and moved on to the next one. By ten in the evening she had gone through 140 pages of data from the Internet about homeopathy. She went back to the search engine and looked for AIDS clinical trials. She found reams of information of testing on other drugs, and she found some researchers working on vaccines. She pulled up their web pages and started reading. What she couldn’t find, however, were studies that worked with anything other than these two methods of attacking the virus. She knew she had to look for something else; researchers have been going along this one vein for so long that they did not stop to consider that there might be something worthwhile to pursue in another vein altogether. She also noted that nowhere could she find information on any researchers working on coming up with a direct cure for this disease. She reached into her briefcase and pulled out her list. 1. Improve Emivir 2. Integrase Inhibitor 3. Improve side effects and ease-of-use for drugs -------------------------- 4. a vaccine. 5. a cure. -------------------------- 6. psychological treatment 6a. alleviate depression, may help immune system 6b. help memory to take drugs, and keep positive attitude 7. homeopathy 7a. nutrition, diet and herbs to improve general health 7b. herbs to alleviate nausea for patients who experience side effects 7c. any vitamins and herbs with effects on immune system? 7d. is there a psychologically positive effect of eating things good for you? -------------------------- She wondered if she should have added some Internet topics to that list. alien abductions government conspiracies AIDS and homeopathy Looking over her notes, she thought that she should get through the first seven ideas before she tried to tackle more. After turned to her computer, she typed her original list and started adding notes. It was one-thirty Monday morning before she realized the time; she knew she couldn’t contact Kyle at this hour. She’d have to show everything to him in the morning. ### For once it was morning and Steve couldn’t sleep. Usually it was four in the morning when he went to bed, not when he woke up. Maybe this was a sign of his aging, he thought in passing. He tried not to think about things like that, he was under thirty, that couldn’t be it, he thought. He reached over and grabbed his driver’s license from the counter, next to his alarm clock and his wallet. He looked at his name on the divers license. “Stephen Errman” He didn’t like his last name, he thought it sounded like an appliance company name. He preferred going by the initial, so his name would be Steve E. It sounded like there was more of a story to his name if people didn’t hear his full last name. He looked at his bedroom walls. They were white, which were that way since he moved in. He didn’t want them in another color. There was no artwork on his walls. It looked stark. He didn’t like that. He figured that everyone must think that he didn’t care about decorating his apartment. Well, he didn’t care. But still, he occasionally thought about it. He thought about his plans for the weekend. Kyle told him about the dinner this weekend, and he was looking forward to seeing Sloane. Usually on the weekends he would go to the local bars and find someone to hit on to pass the time. He never thought of the women he talked to. He never thought about what they thought. He never even really knew what they thought about him. He knew that they paid him the attention he wanted, that they thought he was an important person, and they were honored that he was taking the time to talk to them. Well, he was passing the time, and he was horny, and he liked their attention. But that was his little secret, something the women didn’t need to know. Kyle probably didn’t even know that about Steve. Going to a benefit dinner, though, that was something he normally didn’t normally get the chance to do. And he could talk to her, even if she didn’t want to talk to him much. He knew from visiting Kyle at work that she probably didn’t even remember what Steve looked like. He knew he was a good-looking guy, he knew he was a good dresser, he knew he had a job that impressed women. Being a columnist for the city newspaper, having your name in the paper, well, that sounded impressive to a drunk woman. He thought about it for a moment, thinking that maybe if Kyle was going to have any late nights at work, maybe Steve could stop by to be social. Maybe then she would remember him for their dinner party that weekend. Maybe she would remember to call him this week, like she said she would when she got back in town. If not, he could visit Kyle, and then, maybe, Steve would be at least she might care to remember. Maybe. He knew it wasn’t a date. Kyle even made a point of mentioning that. Steve assumed that Kyle knew Steve was a bit of a drinker, and he liked to be social, and that he liked talking to women, and Steve assumed that was why Kyle warned him. Steve thought about how it would be an accomplishment if he could get her to like him. Steve knew there were many other women, but Sloane was a challenge, making it special. It would be like she was a prize for Steve. ### Kyle rolled over and looked at his clock. It read 6:11. He set his alarm for 7:00, but decided to get up early again. He got up quietly, so as not to wake up his wife, and went into the bathroom. After his shower, Kyle started shaving. He noticed something different about himself this morning; he didn’t know what it was, but it seemed that he was doing his morning rituals effortlessly today, as if they weren’t a chore. He continued shaving and looked over at his sleeping wife in the next room. Kyle grabbed his umbrella and his coat from next to the front door, like he did every morning. He walked outside and noticed the slight drizzle coming down over his awnings. He didn’t check out the window before he left to see if it was raining; he just knew that it would be, as always. For some reason the rain didn’t seem to bother him this morning. He got into his car. The morning talk show Kyle listened to talked about the weather. They put a caller on the air. “When it’s raining hard it can be beautiful, but when you get this drizzle it’s like God is spitting on you.” Kyle decided to turn the radio off and continued his commute to work through the streets of Seattle. He walked through the hallways of the company. He noticed that the lights were on in the lab. He walked through the door. Sloane was walking toward the doorway to meet him. “I heard your foot steps coming down the hall. I’ve been waiting to talk to you.” Kyle looked at her. She was wearing a gray pants suit; she looked very business-like, as if she were about to hold a press conference. Usually she just wore slacks and a blouse. “Are you dressed for the meeting?” “This?” She looked down at her clothes. “I guess I am.” “What for?” “I have a few ideas, and I thought I’d talk to Tyler at the end of the meeting for implementing them.” “Tyler? What on earth for?” “Maybe we could use him. Come here, I read your notes, and I had some additions for them. I’ve printed copies of my outline for the entire staff.” Taking him over to a back laboratory table, she wanted to discuss items in her notes and papers that were scattered across the smooth metal surface. “You’re going to need Howard’s help on this, and maybe someone else’s, to get all of these parts worked on. Maybe Ellen would be interested in working on this first part, but you guys can decide how to break things up.” “And you’re going to be working on this second part?” “Yes, but by all means I want people to help me. I want people to be a part of one of these teams in part one, and offer help to me if they want or if they come up with ideas in this second part.” “And where on earth did you come up with the third and fourth parts?” “Come here, let me show you something.” She walked Kyle to her office and turned her laptop screen toward him. It was already on and she was on the Internet. She opened her list of unopened e-mails. There were over 100 letters. “See this? I did a little research last night about homeopathy and alternative medicines and therapies. I posted messages on different bulletin boards asking for people’s comments on what has worked for them. These are the first, mind you, the first letters I’ve received. It hasn’t even been a day since I posted my messages. There’s something out there, when it comes to homeopathy, and I think we can tap into it, keeping our patients as healthy as they can be, physically and mentally, before they even touch our drugs.” “Maybe, but how do we make money with that?” “You know, Kyle, I’m glad you asked that. It makes us money if our studies show more positive results, if our patients are healthier. But we also make money with these last two points, here and here.” She pointed to the bottom of her sheet. “And they’ll make Tyler happy, too.” “A book? You know someone who might want to publish this?” “Maybe.” “You don’t think we’ll be laughed right out of the medical community?” “First of all, I think my name and the credibility it has can help with book sales. Secondly, if the ’medical community’ is going to judge us on something other than our research, then who cares what they do to us?” Kyle looked at her; he was amazed that she wanted to do something that seemed like it had nothing to do with medical research. “When did you come up with this? Where did you go this weekend?” “Miami and New York.” “Both? You were all over the place. Why?” “Miami to work with a researcher there and New York...” She paused for an almost undetectable amount of time. “...To talk with a publisher there. Vice-President in charge of new clients at Quentin Publishing.” Kyle was impressed. “At Quentin? You have someone there to help with it? And aren’t you exhausted? You were supposed to rest this weekend.” “I did, Kyle, I did.” Sloane smiled and gestured toward the door. They walked out into the main laboratory and most of the staff was there. Howard walked over to both of them, and Sloane spoke. “Kyle, brief Howard on what’s going on around here. I’ll call Tyler right before we start the meeting. Tell everyone we’ll meet at nine o’clock. I’m going to see what my e-mail says.” And with that she turned back to her office to go through her e-mail. From: ASTOAN@msu.dp.edu Date: Sunday, 11:43 p.m. Subject: re: Marijuana and AIDS I saw your posting asking about marijuana use and AIDS patients. What I don’t understand is why people don’t accept the medical benefits of marijuana use. Many people with AIDS I have talked to say that it improves their appetite, which is hard for them to keep when they experience their first real drops in T-Cell counts and their viral loads drastically increase. I’ve been told that marijuana not only increases cravings for food but also helps people hold down food better, which helps when people taking drugs have bad side effects. From: Kevin23852@aol.com Date: Sunday, 11:50 p.m. Subject: re: Depression and AIDS I had been diagnosed with depression and am on drugs for it. I saw your posting. Not only is depression a problem for healthy people, it is a bigger problem with AIDS patients, for two reasons. One is that they might not treat themselves as best they can. But the other is that depression is a syndrome, which the body treats in some respects like an illness. I know when I was going through the tough times I thought no one in the world knew what I was going through, and I felt so alone. And I don’t know if it was the feelings or my lack of caring about myself, but my health really suffered for it too. When someone has AIDS and is suffering from depression, they are in effect fighting two diseases -- two “syndromes” -- at once. The key is to alleviate depression so the body can focus on fighting AIDS. From: AIDScure7@hotlink.com Date: Sunday, 11:59 p.m. Subject: re: immune system versus fighting virus Most people are trying to fight the viruses in our bodies, like HIV, by attacking the viruses. Vaccines work by making the immune system fight the virus; we should be working on improving the immune system and not by getting drugs to attack the virus. I am on a nutritional system developed by doctors in North Carolina called Immuno-Fix, which is a food regimen as well as supplement system. It has produced dramatic results for me. I can get the address of them if you’re interested in starting up on Immuno-Fix. For once I feel like I’m taking my life in my own hands, and not waiting for doctors to probe me all the time. I’d suggest you try it. Sloane earmarked this response after replying to it, asking for the e-mail addresses for the doctors in North Carolina, because she would like any and all information they could give her. She then read on. From: jeremy_s@st.ind.wsn.edu Date: Monday, 12:11 A.M. Subject: re: Diet A friend of mine has AIDS and he has been told that a diet high in proteins and fats are good for him. He used to be a vegetarian on a macrobiotic diet; he had to drastically change his eating habits and eat a lot more meat, just to keep himself alive. So make sure to look into the amounts of fat and protein you consume. I would think that maybe you could look for books about bodybuilding to see what kind of foods might be good. Gook luck to you. From: 12364.8900@compuserve.com Date: Monday, 12:13 A.M. Subject: re: Shark liver oil I have read some amazing reports about the rejuvenating effects of shark liver oil on the immune system. I don’t have the documentation with me; search the Internet and you might find it. Keep you eyes open for it, or ask around. From: mikeboy@freemail.org Date: Monday, 12:20 A.M. Subject: ginger root -- your posting I have known people to take ginger root to eliminate nausea. It is often used with motion sickness; I don’t see why it wouldn’t be beneficial for nausea associated with side effects with AIDS drugs, too. Hope this helps. From: esmith@prodigy.com Date: Monday, 12:27 A.M. Subject: re: Oxygen therapy and ozone therapy Oxygen therapy and ozone therapy is being used in Canada, but it has been prohibited in the United States. They had good results, so why would the U.S. not let them continue to work? Because there’s no money in it; there’s no way to make a great profit from oxygen. Look into it. But all I can think is that if companies can sell water for so much money, then oxygen therapy and o-zone therapy could be sold well too... Even though the U.S. drug companies don’t want us to know about it, it is still out there somewhere. The government can’t stop everyone. From: alexrand96@aol.com Date: Monday, 12:39 A.M. Subject: re: Aloe Vera Aloe Vera juice (not the topical stuff, 100 percent pure juice) has a lot of good health benefits. Go to a health store; they can special-order it for you and tell you more about it. I don’t know if it could help with what you’re looking for, but it might. From: 76538.45245@compuserve.com Date: Monday, 12:51 A.M. Subject: re: Essiac Tea I took Essiac Tea three times a day, and after three weeks my T-Cell count was up over 20 points. In three weeks -- that’s a great jump without drugs. It’s all-natural. There are a few places on the net that sell it. I swear by it. From: DoctorL@burns_hosp.gov Date: Monday, 1:01 A.M. Subject: re: Hypnosis I am a licensed psychotherapist, and have heard about using hypnosis to alleviate depression and to mentally fight AIDS. Usually I use psychotherapy alone with relatively positive results. In all honesty, if someone says that doing a rain dance every day makes patients feel better, it’s going to have a positive result, a positive effect on their immune system, even if there’s no scientific reason for it. That’s the hard part of doing studies on things like this -- there are so many other factors, and people in a control group may think that since they’re taking a certain supplement (even if it’s really a sugar pill placebo) may have positive results. Since we’re talking about affecting the mind and not directly the physical body, it’s hard to get definitive answers on what works, and things may work for only certain people, too. Some people can easily be hypnotized, for example, and others can’t. But visualization using hypnosis could have some great potential effects. From: ellen@computer_cafe.com Date: Monday, 1:19 A.M. Subject: lymph nodes I was told that the lymph nodes have a lot to do with the AIDS virus, and I know that there are good lymphatic herbs that can help the immune system. From: GAthens@aol.com Date: Monday, 1:27 A.M. Subject: Garlic I don’t know what kinds of applications it might have for AIDS patients, but I know that I have felt healthier and more energetic, as well as gotten sick less, since I’ve been adding garlic to my diet every day. (I also never get mosquito bites!) They have it in supplement form, but I just add it to my diet; it’s good tasting and then you can be sure you’re getting the pure stuff and it’s being properly digested in your body. They say that you only get like five percent of the vitamins out of supplements, so if you can get the real thing, by all means, take it. From: benk1847@uiuc.il.edu Date: Monday, 1:33 A.M. Subject: re: Oxygen therapy, ozone therapy I forgot to mention that oxygen as O3 (in its unstable state) will destroy all viruses and bacteria; that much is true. And it returns to its O2 state in minutes. Look for places. They don’t allow it in the United States. From: SydneyHelena@aol.com Date: Monday, 1:38 A.M. Subject: tomatoes I’ve loved tomatoes all of my life (and my parents get really good ones year ’round in Florida, I’m lucky), and lately I’ve heard about how good they are for you. Definitely for heart disease, but they’re also supposed to prevent some types of cancer too. It’s a vegetable (technically, it’s a fruit, because it grows seeds inside, like an orange, but you get the idea) that can be used in everything from a stir fry to a pasta sauce or a salad, it would be easy to add it into any meal, used as a garnish or sliced in for a sandwich. Even if you can’t have tomatoes in your meal, tomato soup is low-calorie and extremely good for you. It’s useful in so many ways, it might be good for AIDS patients too. From: SLAM4Silver@aol.com Date: Monday, 1:40 A.M. Subject: soy products, and potential AIDS help Hi. I’ll say this at the beginning, and I know AIDS was not an issue in Tibet all this time, but people have been known to live regularly well over 100 years, and I think they ate so much yogurt and soy. I don’t know anything about yogurt, other than they contain bacteria for your body’s defense system, but soy is supposed to be so good for you, containing isoflavins and other good stuff. And soy can be served as beans for snacking, tofu for protein, miso for excellent soup, and even in soy sauce for main courses. They even make soy milk for those who are lactose intolerant. I know you can take soy supplements, but if soy and yogurt are supposed to be so helpful to the human body, they may be helpful in the body when fighting AIDS as well. Sloane wrote in her note pad that garlic could be added to tomato soup, or a stir fry with soy sauce. Then she wrote that tofu could be added to all soups and to main courses; then she wrote that nutrition and diet need to be explored very seriously for this potential future book of theirs. From: Thompson@human.hea.gov Date: Monday, 2:08 A.M. Subject: re: Problems with marijuana usage Your concerns about marijuana usage for AIDS patients are well-founded. Since pot is usually smoked, respiratory problems like bronchitis are common with marijuana and AIDS patients; especially when their immune system is low. Continued usage can also affect memory loss and it can hamper the immune system. Cell metabolism can be impaired and endocrine gland changes can also result. This is why the government does not widely recommend the use of marijuana with AIDS patients. It was just after nine in the morning; she had only read through a small portion of the letters she received. Howard knocked on her door. “Come in.” Howard opened the door. “Is it show time, Doc?” “Okay, let’s go. Could you call Tyler as I start this and tell him to come to the lab?” She met him in the doorway and walked out to the main room. Forty laboratory technicians and researchers sat on the metal stools in front of laboratory tables. She walked to the front of the room, where Kyle was standing. All eyes were fixed on her. She started to speak to the room. “I know that probably most everyone on this team has been a little disappointed with the progress we haven’t been making since Emivir. And that is completely understandable: we made great progress in working on protease inhibitors -- and we should be very proud of ourselves -- but if you’re like me, you still want to move forward, and our lack of progress may seem daunting. “But we can’t give up. This is one big puzzle, solving the AIDS crisis, and we added a few pieces to the left corner. But we can make that corner bigger. Or we can work on another area of the puzzle. Or we can be placing the pieces we have fit together into larger groups of pieces. “There’s still a lot of work to be done, and in many other fields other than in protease inhibitors.” She turned to Kyle and signaled for him to pass out the outline she created. He handed her a copy first. “I’ve been thinking about short-term ways we could be attacking this puzzle. This is Roman numeral one on the outline Kyle is passing out to you. We can continue working on improving Emivir, which is a very worthwhile cause. I think, however, that some people -- maybe a lot of people -- need to switch gears to rejuvenate themselves. I know on some levels that I do. That’s why I listed three other possible options. We can work on an integrase inhibitor, so our cocktails attack the virus on three levels instead of two. We can focus our efforts on improving the dosages of these drugs, so they’re easier to take and we don’t have problems with patients misusing medications, and we can work on eliminating the side effects that make a number of people unable to take the drugs. Both of those steps will broaden the number of people who can take the drugs as well as broaden the number of success stories with the drugs. We could also be working on engineering our drugs to focus only on HIV-infected cells, instead of having the drugs travel through the entire system looking for the virus. “I’d like you to think about these options. If you have other ideas, please let me know. But I would like to work on all four of these plans. If we can agree on how they should be divided up, that would leave us with small groups of about ten people each. Kyle and Howard can help oversee how these groups are separated and what kind of progress you’re making. “I don’t want to do this if you don’t want to. I’m doing this for two reasons: one, because this is what needs to be done in order to make some progress in this fight, and two, because I think we need to do it for ourselves. If I’m wrong, let me know. “I’d also like to work on a vaccine and a cure. That’s Roman numeral two on the outline here. I say that I want to do it, and that this is what I personally am going to focus my energy on. It’s not that I don’t need help, or that I want to do it alone, but we need to make strides and advances on a regular basis in order to keep this department going strong in this company. We need to be producing a product in order to stay alive here. When it comes to ideas for a vaccine or for a cure, I’d like anyone’s help in working on these things, but it would have to be in addition to any work we take on for approaching our next step of research. “Now the third and fourth parts of this outline are another way to fight the virus, one that we in the pharmaceutical community doesn’t pay attention to.” She turned her head and saw Tyler open the door to the lab. Kyle handed him an outline and asked him to take a seat. For once Tyler Gillian had perfect timing. “I think we have been overlooking the psychological aspects of dealing with this disease. This is one reason why I want us to come up with a way to time-release and condense our cocktails so that the dosages can be bearable. Every time someone takes a pill -- and they might have to take a different pill up to sixty times a day -- they are reminded that they have a deadly disease, one that has probably cost them their jobs, or some of their friends and family. If we can make these drugs easier to take, it may alleviate depression, which has a negative effect on the ability of the immune system. “But there are other ways to also alleviate depression, and they may be in things like psychotherapy, discussion groups -- even hypnosis. “But more than depression I’d like to touch on homeopathy, the last point on the outline. We all know that a good diet is important to a healthy body, and that is more apparent and especially vital in a patient with full-blown AIDS. But it’s still something that we tend to overlook. If we can come up with guidelines for nutrition, as well as look into alternative therapies and medicines, we may really be on to something. There are herbs that may have a positive effect on the immune system. There may be herbs that alleviate some of the side effects current AIDS drug users experience. There are people who praise the benefits of acupuncture and acupressure to relieving symptoms of diseases. This information exists; we should utilize it and test it. “How do we go about utilizing this information? By making every aspect of homeopathy more accessible to AIDS patients. How do we do that? By researching what people recommend and running a clinical study. After the results come in, we publish a book. Not for the journals, although we can publish a report of our findings in the journals, too. But we publish a mainstream book. Each of us can write an essay in it, and the marketing department can clean it up.” Turning toward Tyler’s direction, she continued. “The book sales will get our names out into the open, it will make us look like we are a kind and caring company, making Madison Pharmaceuticals a good share of money. “But there’s another way it can make Madison Pharmaceuticals money, and that is to sell vitamins and herbal supplements, in the amounts that we tested our subjects with. They’re not drugs, so we don’t need to wait for approval, and we don’t have to claim a guarantee of positive side effects with taking them. The book will explain what these vitamins and herbs can do. It will be easy to make, and I think people will really want to buy it. “The key to this book is that we have to get it out quickly. If we get someone, a temp, to collect research, we could each write an essay within a month. During this time we could collect people for a study -- run a quick story, and finish the book with the results from a simple study of more immediate responses to vitamins -- and herbs in particular. Then we send the book off to press. Within the two months it will take to write and print the book we can produce the supplements -- in fact, we don’t even have to be the ones doing it, it can be outsourced. But we have to get this all done quickly. Hopefully we will all be up to the challenge. “Whether or not the alternative medicines have a direct physiological effect is almost irrelevant, although I think that they may. The psychological effect of taking positive steps to help you may produce a positive effect on the immune system. And focusing on the immune system and not on the virus will be positive for the patient mentally as well as physically. I think a greater effort has to be taken to build up the human immune system to this and stop it before it infects the body, where the immune system seems to just be fighting a losing battle. The susceptibility of the individual infected, their resistance, can possibly determine the development and spread of HIV more than the virus itself. “Okay, I think I’ve talked too much. But I also think that we could get through the research and have a homeopathic regimen outlined by the end of the week. If we immediately started a study, we could have a book almost finished by the time the study was done, which should be about a month. So in two months we could have a book out on the shelves, affecting people, all while we’re working on other levels of attacking the virus. “Okay, now I’ve definitely talked too much.” She heard a low laugh throughout the room; when she focused on the people she was talking to, she scanned the room and saw that most everyone was smiling at her. “I want to hear what you have to say, and I’m sure you guys want to talk to me and discuss some of these options. So, instead of making everyone listen, I’ll be in my office. Please come in and talk to me, give me input, tell me I’m crazy, anything. We’re in this together, remember that, and I want to know if we’re all on the same page. “I’m not doing any laboratory work today. I’ll be in my office. Please come in and talk to me, or if you already have an idea of how you want to focus your work, talk to Kyle and Howard. And most of all, thank you. You know we can do this. Thanks.” After she started walking through the room, one of the technicians started clapping. By the time she was in the back of the room, all 44 people were applauding her. It was a response she didn’t expect. She turned around and smiled at everyone, then turned back toward her office. She sat down and looked back at her list from the meeting. -------------------------- I. Staff Jobs: Four Teams for short-range progress 1. Improve Emivir for longer period of effectiveness in the body 2. Integrase Inhibitor, so there are three HIV enzymes being attacked 3. Improve side effects and ease-of-use for drugs, so drugs can be easily taken 4. Engineer drugs to attack only HIV-infected cells, instead of going through all of the blood stream -------------------------- II. Emerson Research: Individual, with input 5. Vaccines 5a. Kill the HIV virus; use dead virus as vaccine 5b. Use SIV virus; vaccine developed from monkey studies 5c. Find key to African women that makes them immune to HIV 5d. Confer via Internet with other researchers working on vaccines 6. A Cure 6a. Alternative therapies: radiation; hot and cold therapy, oxygen (or ozone) therapy, other options 6b. Drug therapy: After (I) is complete, can we speed the time to kill HIV? -------------------------- III. Psychological Treatment 7. Alleviate depression, may help immune system 8. Help memory to take drugs, and keep positive attitude 9. Hypnosis 10. Psychologically positive effect of eating things good for you (see point IV) -------------------------- IV. Homeopathy 11. Nutrition, diet and herbs to improve general health 12. Herbs to alleviate nausea and other side effects of taking drugs 13. Vitamins and herbs with effects on immune system 14. Use of chiropractors, massage, acupuncture, acupressure 15. Perform AIDS study with control group and group of patients who are following homeopathic guidelines 16. Package supplements for sale with book on fighting AIDS 16a. Quentin Publishing Company 16b. Researchers can each write sections, have it filled in and edited by Marketing Department. 16c. Winning the War from The inside: Homeopathic Remedies to Give You the Edge in Fighting AIDS -------------------------- Tyler was the first to walk into her office. “Just one thing I want to know.” “Yes, Tyler?” “Point 16c.” Looked at her notes, she then looked back at him as he continued. “Is that your catchy-marketing-style subhead for the title of the book?” “Actually, that was my effort at marketing to the masses. You can change it, but you get the idea.” “Actually, it’s pretty good,” Tyler said, looking at the page. “Do you think this book is a good idea? It’ll get the team out into the public, and that’s what you’ve wanted. It’ll make us look like a kind and caring research team, which is apparently something of a problem, at least in your eyes.” “Yes -- it might actually make you look human.” Tyler smiled and walked toward the door. Smiling at his comment, she said, “Let me know what you need, detail-wise. I know a publisher that might be interested in it. Quentin Publishing. I have a connection there.” Tyler turned back to Sloane. “You? Use connections? I thought you’d never stoop so low.” “If I didn’t think it would be a good book, I wouldn’t do my connection the favor.” Tyler smiled again and walked out the door. The rest of the day was spent in her office talking to people from the lab. She was surprised and relieved to know that everyone in the laboratory agreed that they needed to redirect their research. People told her they appreciated the fact that she gave them options of what interested them the most and that she wanted to hear their opinions. “We have to make sure we have enough people working on each aspect, but as long as there are enough people working on each part of the plan, things should work out just fine,” she told them. She also decided that after talking to people during the day that she would come up with reports on her progress for people to go over, in case they have any insight to ideas they would like to offer to her. What pleased her most was that everyone was pleased with the new work, even though it would mean a lot of overtime and very little rest in the next six months. ### Tyler came in to her office again toward the end of the day. “I just looked over the rest of your notes. I missed the beginning of your meeting.” “The beginning of the meeting was about redirecting our laboratory work; it didn’t have anything to do with P.R. or marketing.” “But my worry is that there is a Hell of a lot of work you’ve got this staff doing.” “Okay, but they all seem very interested in doing it.” “Well yes, but will there be time to work on this book project?” “Maybe, if you can help me out. Is there a receptionist or an office manager that can gather information, you know, get my letters from e-mail about homeopathy, get research about homeopathy, then print everything, sort it all, and make copies for my department? That way my time isn’t taken up doing that sort of thing and people can read information when they’re at home instead of wasting work time doing it.” “Sure, I can get a girl in here. What exactly would you need her for?” “To search the Internet and other sources for homeopathy information that would pertain to AIDS, the immune system, side effects like nausea, or even general health. Study anything from herbs to nutrition to supplements to hypnosis and psychotherapy. Get lists of chiropractors, and acupuncturists. To print out my e-mail I’ve been getting about homeopathy and collect with her data and sort it and reprint it for my staff, so they can decide what they want to write about. So we’ll have all the information we need to come up with a study quickly.” “So you need someone with Internet knowledge too?” “Yes. When could this happen?” Tyler answered, “Someone will be here tomorrow.” Tyler turned to the doorway. “You’re being awfully helpful,” he heard her say as he reached the doorway. “You’re scratching my back, so I figure I better scratch yours.” Tyler walked out of the room. She didn’t think that she was scratching anyone’s back. But for now she’d let him believe what he needed to. Leaned back, she looked at her watch. It was ten minutes to five o’clock. She couldn’t believe she spent the entire day just talking to people. She figured she could get more done once everyone in the office left. Then she thought about what Tyler said as he left. “He probably does think he’s doing a favor to me,” Sloane said aloud to herself as she leaned toward her laptop. Her phone rang. “Hello?” “It’s Colin. How was the weekend?” “Eventful. Thanks for the use of the plane.” “Not a problem. Listen, Tyler forwarded a copy of your meeting outline to me. You’ve got a lot of ideas here.” “Tyler’s even trying to help me out with the book idea.” “If that’s what one weekend with my plane produces, then use the plane whenever you want.” “Thanks, sir.” “Keep up the good work, and I’ll talk to you later.” “Have a good night, sir,” “You too.” Thinking about her New York “connection”, she realized she hadn’t even bounced the idea off of him. She figured she’d better call him at home. “Hello?” “Carter, hi, it’s me, Sloane.” “Hey, thanks for calling. I was wondering if you got in okay.” “Yeah, everything was fine,” she answered and remembered his trip to Ohio. “I didn’t even know if I’d get a hold of you or if you would still be at the plant doing your press check.” “No, I’ve been back for a bit. What’s going on? I can’t believe you’re calling to be social, that’s not like you.” “Well, no. Am I that transparent?” “It’s not transparency, not at all. So what’s going on?” “Late last night, as I was doing research on homeopathy for AIDS patients, I thought it would be a good idea to run a study. Not only publish the results in a journal but to write a book about it. To get the information out to the people.” Carter sounded pleased. “Tell me this is where I come in.” “Of course. I was wondering if you -- if Quentin Publishing -- would be interested in the book.” “Would your name be on it?” he asked. “Yes, I’d write some for it, as would a lot of people from my staff. We might all do a chapter or something. But I want to get this out quickly, because the longer we wait the longer people aren’t taking care of themselves. Madison was also thinking of running supplements that coincide with the results of the studies and with what we talk about in the book, you know, over the counter herbal extracts, vitamins and similar things.” “Sounds like a good idea, and I’m sure it would sell with your name on it. When you say quickly, exactly how quickly do you mean?” “How about a month?” “That’s all the time you need?” “We are expecting some results back in about three weeks. We’re collecting data, and we will be writing while the study is going on. We will write the study results when it is done, and voila. Just over a month.” “This is like a present. I think my bosses would love me for this.” “My bosses seem to love me for this too,” she said. “I’ll bounce it to them tomorrow,” he answered. “Can you have an outline to me by the weekend?” “Sure. I’ll fax it to you.... Do you think this could happen?” “I think this will almost certainly happen. This is what has been selling. I’m sure they’ll eat it up with a spoon.” “Good. I’ll get to work on it then.” “And thanks for thinking of me.” “Whom else would I have gone to?” Carter laughed. “Well, send me info as you get it, and I’ll let you know how the pitch goes. Talk to you soon.” “Bye.” Setting the receiver down, all she could think was that he respects her, she knows he does, maybe more than he does any other woman. “Who else would I think of?” She said to herself as she heard a knock on her door. “Come in.” Kyle opened the door. “Everybody’s getting pizza. Want some?” “Sure. Kyle, how do you think it went today?” “Great. I mean, really great. Everyone seems alive again. We’ve been working it out all day, and it seems pretty evenly divided. I think people that don’t have a preference on what they’re currently working on are happy that they’re given the choice and therefore go where they’re needed most. Everyone has been talking about ideas with each other all day. They’re all acting like they’re in college again.” “What does that mean?” “You know how you were in college? You wanted to conquer everything, and you thought you could, too. And then people get realistic once they’re in the real world. Well, they’re acting like they’re in college again, like they can do anything.” “Kyle, do people lose that feeling?” Kyle stopped. “Well, yeah, they do.” “They lose their enthusiasm?” Kyle looked at her. He realized that she had never lost that feeling in her life. “Yeah. Some people just need to be reminded of it.” Suddenly she realized why her staff needed the redirection: not because their track was difficult, but because they forgot about the track. She tried to smile at Kyle. “Let me know when the pizza arrives.” “Got it.” Kyle walked out the door. She thought about it. How do people lose their way? When they know something is right, how does the real world -- i.e., the facts of reality -- turn them away from what they knew was right? Shouldn’t reality reaffirm their views -- if their views were right? She rubbed her face. She knew she would not be able to understand that. Like the demanding lobby groups, or the sweet-talking of Tyler, or the begging of her family to adhere to values that don’t make sense to her, this would be another mystery of life that eluded her. She looked at her laptop computer again and started reading more of her e-mail. From: T_Manlin@nutrit.ala.com Date: Monday, 2:40 A.M. Subject: Acupressure and acupuncture I am a doctor that has been having acupuncture and acupressure therapy for my arthritis for years. I have been talking to the people that do this work and they have noticed that there has been an increase in AIDS patients that have come to them requesting sessions to improve their immune systems and their nervous systems. The acupuncturist I talk to said that they have had relatively good results with their patients; they can’t say whether their work directly increases the T-Cell count or reduces the viral load of patients, but it may help with an increase in energy levels, and otherwise may deliver a more positive attitude to the patients. I don’t know if there is any place for you to go to look into this, but I would suggest looking into acupuncture and acupressure to see if it helps you. She noticed that a lot people assumed she had AIDS. She read on. From: kate3954@electmail.org Date: Monday, 2:55 A.M. Subject: chiropractic There was a chiropractic study done that produced great results. Half of our subjects had above normal improvements in their CD4 count. The continuation was shot down, however, for political reasons. The drug companies who pay off the government would not like to give any credence to our findings. But the results were very promising. Keep in mind that it wasn’t a cure; it worked best when used in conjunction with medicine. Kyle came in with two slices of cheese pizza for her. She went back to reading. From: stavros@june.com Date: Monday, 3:02 A.M. Subject: re: cure for AIDS I have found a miracle cure that has been used by the Japanese for centuries to cure AIDS. Please visit my web site at http://www.stavros.com/AIDScure.html to see how they used colloidal minerals to cure AIDS and how you to can now use this revolutionary combination of all-natural products. Sloane quickly learned that e-mails touting cures and listing web sites to go to were sales pitches, usually for glorified water. She read on. From: 10465.6286@compuserve.com Date: Monday, 3:10 A.M. Subject: re: homeopathy versus drugs I heard of a study once where a doctor had 50 AIDS patients, and only four had survived. They were the only ones who refused to take AZT or other AIDS drugs. Have you heard of this? I keep trying to get information about it, but no one can help me out. Maybe you’ll have better luck with it. Good luck. From: tim_t@aol.com Date: Monday, 3:12 A.M. Subject: vitamin supplements I have AIDS. I was in a study where half of the patients (we were all just diagnosed and on the same medications) took a multi-vitamin pill and the other half didn’t. Although no one improved, the half that took the multi-vitamin supplement deteriorated at a slower rate than the control group did. I swear by vitamins now; I have had AIDS for four years and feel great. I think that if supplements work, everyone should take them. Reading a fraction of the responses, she kept all the files for the woman coming in tomorrow to process. Her watch read 7:30. She could continue her work at home, she thought, so she shut her computer down and placed it in her briefcase. She grabbed her trench coat and umbrella, picked up her briefcase and stepped out the door. About 15 people were still working, in the lab, and it caught her off guard. She looked up at the remaining staff. They returned her gaze. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” one of the technicians finally said. “I thought I was the last one here,” she said. “Oh, we might be going soon, we were just on a roll.” “Don’t work too late.” “We won’t. Good-night.” Walking out the door, she was content with the hope that everything was right once again, and made her way home. ### Walking into her apartment, she dropped everything off and went toward her desk. Thinking about the aspect of her plan that she had been avoiding all day, she couldn’t get her mind off a vaccine. She knew that because people still didn’t know enough about how the virus hides in the body, it would be impossible to know if a vaccine was even successful for a long time, but work on a vaccine needed to be started on, immediately. She also knew that tomorrow night there would have to be reports generated about homeopathic remedies that her and her staff would have to read. So tonight was her night to work on a vaccine. She walked over to her computer. She turned it on and let it start up while she started the shower. After her shower, she put on a sweat suit and looked through her mail. She noticed a lingerie mail order catalog, and opened it instead of throwing it away, like she usually would have. She browsed through the pages and eventually picked up the phone and called the toll-free number. “Hi, I’d like to order something from your most recent catalog... Yes, it item number A732-C. The full-length version... Extra-large. No, I’d like it in white. Oh, I get a monogram on the pocket? Oh, it’s S, E, E. Yes, E... Sloane Evelyn Emerson... How long will it take? Oh, it’s a Visa card. 8645, xxxx, xxxx, xxxx... February next year... Six to eight weeks? Okay... Yes, send to the address from the catalog... Yes, I guess it is kind of funny, that I bought that when there is so much lingerie in the catalog... Can I return it if it doesn’t fit? Okay. Thank you very much.” She hung up the phone, dropped the catalog on the cocktail table in front of her couch and walked over to her desk to get on the Internet. The catalog fell open on the cocktail table, and in the upper-right hand corner of the right page was the over-sized terry-cloth bathrobe she ordered. There were a number of sites on the Internet about research for AIDS vaccines. She copied the data, from trials and studies as well as from researcher’s papers, and took notes in a separate document. She looked over some of her notes as she finished reading, at two in the morning. 1. Most vaccines are live, attenuated vaccines, using live viruses that have been weakened (by deleting genes, or using strains that replicate only under certain conditions) so they don’t cause illness but can generate immune responses. In other words, the virus is changed to be non-threatening, but can still produce immunity to the unchanged virus. 2. The level of attenuation will vary because of the number or location of engineered deletions. In other words, the more you change the live virus, the less effective it will be. 3. From other studies on monkeys, the longer they wait before infecting vaccinated monkeys, the better the chance of protection. In other words, the longer the vaccine is left without being tested in the body, the better it worked. 4. There is a naturally occurring attenuated HIV strain that lacks HIV’s nef gene. Of the few cases where people had this strain, none of them could get AIDS. 5. A very small fraction of people vaccinated do develop disease. An attenuated AIDS vaccine can still cause the virus to grow in some patients. This is a concern for administering a potentially deadly disease to a person receiving a vaccine. An attenuated HIV also may mutate and end up reverting to a virulent form. This needs to be researched further. 6. Other viruses are cleared from the body, but HIV inserts itself into genes and stays there forever. This may cause complications in fighting the virus over a sustained period of time. 7. Chronic HIV infection may lead to diseases other than AIDS. 8. A study of monkeys vaccinated showed healthy monkeys, but infected newborns. They passed the virus, in an unchecked form, to their children. 9. In past trials on humans: They showed a stimulated production of antibodies, but levels went down in a short period of time. 10. People who stay alive despite being infected can give us insight as to how to go about creating a vaccine. There are two types of such people: one is the person who maintains relatively normal levels of T-Cells; the other is the person with a low T-Cell count that can still remain healthy. 11. Each subtype of the virus (there are nearly ten in each of both types) within a group is about 30 percent different from any of the others. But other virus vaccines only protected people against one or a limited number of strains. 12. Broad-based immunity may be dependent therefore on a cocktail of vaccines that would address the wide variety of mutation. 13. HIV can be transmitted into the body: 13a. as a free virus, 13b. within infected cells, and 13c. via sexual contact (mucus activity). Therefore a vaccine might need to be able to defend against all types of infection as well, otherwise a vaccine might work well in protection against sexual encounters, but not in injections, for instance. 14. Adjuvants can help with an AIDS vaccine that may not have the full virus. 15. There is no good animal model to study HIV vaccines. 16. live recombinant vectors may be another avenue 16a. vaccines of HIV genome combined with non-disease-producing carrier viruses such as vaccinia. 17. Safety concerns, particularly with infants, must be taken into consideration before research can continue. 18. Human immune system tissues have been transplanted into mice to test HIV vaccines. Looking over her list, she remembered reading a line from one of the sites. The site stated that a vaccine has to be developed and produced to prevent infection not only in the United States, but world-wide. That statement bothered her, not because she wanted to limit the use of a vaccine, but because the vaccine would obviously be used in any country, not just the United States. “Ninety percent of people infected are in undeveloped countries,” she thought. “Why would we limit the usage of the vaccine to just the United States?” Then it occurred to her why that statement was in the report she read. It was not because it was a statement about the elimination of the virus on a world-wide scale, it was a statement about the United States having to probably pay for the world wide use of the vaccine. If a third world country needed it but couldn’t afford it, that statement suggested that it would be the United States’ responsibility -- not any other country -- to pay for it. That we were expected to pay for it somehow, and not the people that would be demanding it for free. She leaned back in her chair. “Who pays for their free vaccines? The taxpayers.” She thought back to her conversation with Toby about getting something for free -- that nothing is free, that someone pays for it somewhere. She thought about the lobbyists who wanted Madison Pharmaceuticals to give drugs to people who couldn’t afford it. Someone has to pay for it somewhere, she thought. Who would end up paying? Her last dream came to mind again -- vaccinating African children because it would look good in the papers, that they would look like a kind and caring company. All she could do was look back over her notes. She knew there was more she had to read, but she needed her sleep. ### At just before 10:00 a.m. Tuesday morning at Quentin Publishing the conference room started to fill with employees. Account managers and Vice-Presidents came to this monthly status meeting, and Carter Donovan was no exception. This time, though, he had an ace up his sleeve. After everyone took their seats at the long oval mahogany table, the meeting began. Profit margins and schedules were discussed, as were upcoming books. This is when Carter chimed in. “I think I have a new client who could give us some really good exposure.” “What’s the book about?” whined Shelly Stempel, the first to reject an idea, the first to claim someone else’s good idea as her own and the first to attempt to charm anyone in the office to get her way. Somehow, Carter thought, she managed to get promoted anyway. “It’s about AIDS and homeopathy, additional steps an individual can take to bolster their immune system and improve their general health. It’s about taking charge as an individual, making it through AIDS.” “That sounds like it might have some potential,” answered Bryce Farrell, the head of their marketing department. He was a “yes” man, when he thought it would get him somewhere. “You’ve received offers like this before, but then there is no credence to the author so we don’t jump on it. But without a lot of exposure, it might not go anywhere.” “There’s no reason this book shouldn’t have a lot of exposure. I haven’t told you the punch line yet,” Carter answered. “It’s the client’s name that will get this book in all of the papers and put this book on the best sellers lists.” “And?” Shelly asked. “Dr. Sloane Emerson.” “You got Ms. Emerson?” Bryce asked. “She won’t even do press conferences.” “I know, but she wants to do a book. Emerson and her staff will be writing it, it should be done in a month. Madison Pharmaceuticals wants to advertise with the release of this book too, maybe bring out a line of supplements for AIDS patients that go in conjunction with the study they’re doing, the results of which will be uncovered in this book.” “How did you get her?” someone asked at the other end of the room. “I have my ways,” Carter answered. Let them think I wooed her, he thought. Let them think that I managed to convince her with my business sense. “And I’m sure we could convince her to do some publicity stuff, even if it is minimal, like a press conference instead of a book signing.” “The more we could get from her,” Bryce said, “the more we could--” “Look, this is a surprise that we’ve got her in the first place. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. This is a gem. Let’s not screw this up. I’ll take care of it.” Carter looked around the room at the expressions on everyone’s faces to make sure they wouldn’t try to get in his way. “Now, Dr. Emerson wants to get this book out as soon as possible, you know, so it can help as many people as possible. I couldn’t agree with her more. While she’s still riding on her Emivir fame and while the AIDS topic is still hot is the best time to jump on this. I think maybe we should send someone out there to proof pages as they’re being written, so we can go to press with this ASAP. I’ll bounce some numbers around, and get exact figures for print counts and the like before she’s got a finished manuscript.” Carter sat down. “Good work, Carter,” Bryce said. Carter knew Bryce was angry that Carter was getting the attention, but he was covering it up well. Besides, Bryce knew that he’d only get on the bosses’ bad list if he rejected this book, which seemed as good as gold for them. “Thanks, Bryce,” Carter answered. “Yeah, good work, Carter,” Shelly added, as if she was trying to play with the big boys by following their lead. Carter smiled at her without speaking or verbally thanking her, then went back to his papers. The meeting continued for only a few more minutes. Then everyone left for their offices. Carter walked over to the window, looked at the view from the conference room. He looked over at the thousands of offices and thought that they were filled with people working, like him. Or were they like Shelly and Bryce? Carter looked down at his watch. It read 10:30. With the time change, Carter figured Sloane wasn’t even in the office yet, so there was no point in calling to tell her the good news. Carter was wrong. She arrived in her laboratory before seven. Looking over the last of her notes, she read about vaccines. She would have the new girl print up her notes for the staff, so they could think about vaccines as well as their new work. She looked over the list of possible types of vaccines in which she found merit. 1. Sub-unit Vaccine: a piece of the outer surface of HIV, genetically engineered. 2. Recombinant Vector Vaccine: a live virus such as vaccinia (smallpox vaccine) modified to transport part of HIV. 3. Vaccine Combination: use recombinant vector vaccine followed by booster shots of sub-unit vaccine. 4. Peptide Vaccine: chemically synthesized pieces of HIV proteins (peptides). 5. Virus-Like Particle Vaccine: a non-infectious HIV that has one or more, but not all, HIV proteins. 6. Plasmid DNA Vaccine (nucleic acid vaccine): direct injection of genes coding for HIV proteins. 7. Whole-Inactivated Virus Vaccine: HIV inactivated by chemicals, irradiation, etc., so it is not infectious. 8. Live-Attenuated Virus Vaccine: live HIV where one or more disease-promoting genes have been deleted. “If we could generate estimates of how HIV usually mutates in the body we might be able to create a drug that can recognize the mutations and attack them all. Or maybe the drug would be an injection of engineered cells that could actually mutate the way HIV would, to change while the virus is changing, and be able to stop it.” Her eyes widened. “But that would be a cure, not a vaccine,” she thought. “But that might be almost impossible,” she thought again. She looked at her laptop. She created a new file and typed in her idea. It was eight o’clock; a good portion of her staff was already in the laboratory working. She saw Howard at the other side of the room. She walked over. “Howard, good morning.” “Good morning.” “Have you made any progress on placing people into teams?” “They pretty much placed themselves by the end of the work day yesterday. They were coming up with outlines after work, divisions of labor, brainstorming, that kind of thing when you left.” “What time did everyone leave yesterday?” “Most everyone stayed late. I left at about eight-thirty. I know Kyle was here late, with some of the staff, until like eleven or twelve.” “And they’re here this early?” “You know, they’ve got work to do.” Howard smiled then. “Can you have a list for me of what everyone is working on, by group?” “Sure can. Anything else?” “Let everyone know that sometime today they’ll have reams of information about homeopathy for them to read when they get a chance. Tell them to think about two things: one, which aspect of homeopathy interests them the most for writing about, and two, what exactly should be done in the study.” “Got it.” “And one of the first things they’ll get this morning is a few sheets of notes I’ve taken about work done so far on vaccines for HIV, along with a few ideas I had for further research. If they can go over it and bounce around any ideas in their heads, that would be great, too.” “So you kept working last night, after you got home?” “Of course. What else was I going to do?” Howard knew that most people would have said that with an air of hostility toward others, that most people long for more of a social life. He knew that for her, however, it was a proclamation of her love for her work. Walking back toward her office, she saw Kyle come in the laboratory door. “Good morning, Kyle.” “Good morning.” “You know,” she said, leaning closer to him and starting to whisper, “you shouldn’t stay here so late. Some people will think you’re obsessed with your work.” She looked at him and smiled. Kyle smiled back and she turned back toward her office. “Kyle,” she said, as she kept walking, “ask Howard what we were just talking about. He can fill you in.” “Got it, chief,” Kyle answered as he took off his trench coat. “Oh, Kyle,” she said before Kyle was out of speaking range, “let me know if there’s anything about this dinner event that I’m supposed to know. I should probably call Steve back, too... And thanks.” Kyle was pleased that Sloane wanted to call Steve, and he thought about the fact that just four work days earlier he did not want to get up in the morning to come into work. “So this is what it’s supposed to feel like,” he proudly thought, and walked across the laboratory toward Howard. Going back into her office, she started thinking about the vaccines again when she heard a knock on her door. It was the new girl, Julie, a temp, who would be working for her for the next month. Julie was handed Sloane’s notes on the vaccines she researched the night before to print and copy. Then she gave Julie access to her e-mail to get the information about natural remedies. “Save any messages for me that aren’t about homeopathy,” she explained. “And tell me: do you know a lot about getting information in the Internet?” “It’s my specialty.” “Perfect. If you can find anything along the lines of what’s in the e-mail letters, pull up the information and organize it all. And make sure to keep the e-mail addresses and dates of the mailings, so we know how to contact these people if we need to, and have records of where all of this dated information is from.” “How quickly do you need this?” “The end of the day?” Julie lost her smile. “I’ll do what I can, Ms. Emerson, but if I have until tomorrow I can get a more thorough report out for you.” “Okay, let me know how it goes.” The phone rang. She picked up the receiver. “Sloane Emerson.” “It’s me, Carter.” “Hey, Carter, how are you?” “Oh, I’m fine.” “When was it I saw you last? I think it was about a year ago.” “It was just a little under forty-eight hours ago, actually.” “Wow, it seems like a world away already.” They both laughed. “So what do I owe the honor of this phone call?” “Well, I heard that you wanted to print a book.” “Oh, yeah, that. But I can’t imagine why I didn’t think of writing my biography before.” Carter started laughing again before he started speaking. “Listen, we had a meeting this morning, and I mentioned your book in the meeting, and everyone was stunned. You better be serious about this, or I’ll be the laughing stock of this company.” “Why is that?” “Because I told them I got you on board.” “And not that I came to you? For shame, Carter.” “You can’t back down on me now, or you’ll destroy my illustrious career.” “Not a problem. We’re still going to do this. Now, I know you’re not one for press releases, so I can imagine you’d hate book signing events.” “Good guess. But I can handle a press conference or two for this, I understand that these things need to be done. I mean, we’re trying to sell a book here, which you need to market me for; we’re selling a book, not saving lives.” “You just might be. Saving lives, that is. Either way I’ll speed this along by sending someone to your office to proofread chapters as they’re written.” “Smashing idea, chap.” Carter started laughing again. She did her best to continue. “Can they be here in two weeks, and stay for a week?” “That would be perfect. You’ll have work for them by then?” “Definitely. Carter, the professional side of me would feel safer with this book if you came with the proofreader... And thanks for helping me on this.” “You’re helping me out on this. Just one favor.” “Yes?” “When this goes to press, can I cash in my rain check and get you to go to the press run with me?” “You know, I’d love to see it. I’ll be there.” “Great. Call me if there are any changes.” “And you do the same.” After hanging up the phone, she walked out into the laboratory and checked up on the groups. The next few days were filled with work, except for the visit the office got from Steve on Wednesday. Steve came there to see Kyle, Kyle knew that, everyone else knew that, but in the back of Steve’s mind he knew he was visiting in part to make an impression on her. Steve barely got a chance to talk to her while he was there. He’d try to ask a question periodically, but he knew that this wasn’t his field and he didn’t know everything they did for these drugs. Steve managed to get her alone for a bit to talk about her work. “So how do the integrase inhibitors work?” Steve asked her. “Basically, they attack a certain part of the virus. The more kinds of inhibitors that work, well, that means that the virus is being attacked on different levels. And it’s therefore being attacked more efficiently, so to speak.” “So why the work on improving Emivir?” “Well,” Kyle stopped by her office and cut in, “AIDS can last in the body for over three years, and these inhibitors are effective for two years in the human body. The goal is to improve Emivir, making it fight long enough in the human body to work until the virus is dead in the body.” Kyle looked at both Sloane and Steve. “I didn’t mean to interrupt,” Kyle said, “but this is why were trying to find more improvements in the drugs.” Both of them looked over at Kyle and smiled. Sloane knew she wasn’t good at explaining the technical details quickly to people who didn’t work on these drugs, so she appreciated the help. Steve appreciated the information as well, but in the back of his mind he would have preferred to hear Sloane give him the explanation. Before Steve could give a heart-felt thanks, Kyle already started walking toward another room to do more work. “I hate to sound like I don’t understand this all,” Steve said. “That’s okay,” she answered. Kyle walked out of the room. “I need practice in explaining things like this in more regular terms anyway. I hope that I haven’t been too confusing with the details or anything.” “No, not at all. The next thing I want to know about, though, is why you guys are working on the side effects of these drugs.” “If the medicine is easier to take, there is a greater chance of having the medication taken properly. And if people don’t want to take these drugs because they might make you throw up, well, then those people will be less likely to take these drugs properly too.” “That sounds like reason enough.” “Consider the fact that these people have a disease that will eventually kill them. They don’t need to be reminded of having to take their medication a number of times a day. Getting rid of having to take these drugs so often and getting rid of some of the side effects, well, that will alleviate the depression that taking these drugs cause.” “And if the patients aren’t happy...” Steve started and she finished his thought with “Then the medicine won’t be as effective. Your body will physically feel worse if you aren’t mentally prepared for dealing with it all. So that’s what we’re going for.” “It sounds like you’ve got a lot of work to do, but then again, you’ve done a lot of work so far, too.” “I suppose. But it never seems like enough work is being done.” “You’re only human. You’ve got to let yourself rest, too. That’s what charitable dinners are for.” Steve thought that would be a good way to make the conversation turn a little more social, even though he was enjoying hearing about these details and wanted to learn more. They talked for a few minutes before he left for home. “If you need anything,” Steve said as he left, “you have my number, right? I’d welcome the call.” She thought for a moment about what the average woman would need when they were bogged down with too much on their mind. “I need a dozen roses,” she said as she started to smile. Then she thanked him before getting ready to go home herself. “I’m sorry I haven’t called, but I’ll keep it in mind. Thanks, Steve.” That gave Steve an idea, and he hoped that it would work. Knowing she would have to leave work soon, he stopped at a store, bought flowers, got her address from the phone book, and went to her apartment to wait for her. she worked for another hour before collecting her things to leave, but when she got home she didn’t expect to see a dozen roses waiting at her front door. Steve walked from the corner coffee shop to see her picking up the flowers to get to her door. “Just because I got a cup of coffee, I missed you getting the flowers?” “What on Earth are these for?” “You might not think you need them, but for the work you have done, well, you have deserved these flowers for a while,” Steve answered. “...Don’t you have to work in the morning?” “I handed in my weekly article today. I don’t have a thing to do tomorrow.” Steve stood there, next to her, and did his best to not act like he needed an invitation to come in to her home. She looked at the flowers, tried to figure out how to pick them up with the keys and the books and the briefcase in her hands, and Steve took the ball. “Here, wait,” he said, “you look like you need some help,” he said, reaching down to pick up the roses. She looked at the flowers again and said thanks. “You’re welcome to come in, but I haven’t cleaned or anything --” “I’m male and I’m sure your place is cleaner than mine.” Steve followed her in to her home. She told him he was more than welcome to sit on the couch. “Now I just feel bad for not getting you coffee too,” Steve said. “I don’t need any,” she answered. “Well,” Steve started as she found some music to play, “it looks like you have a nice place. It is kind of dark in here, but I don’t mind that at all.” “It hides the fact that I haven’t cleaned,” she answered. “You don’t mind the fact that I haven’t put any art up on the walls?” “Often I think stuff hanging on the walls just makes a place look more dirty.” She liked that answer. “I don’t keep things on my walls,” Steve continued. “I have enough stuff in my apartment as it is; I don’t need any more in there.” Smiling, she sat down next to him. “Yeah, Steve, you’ve been letting me talk every time we see each other, but I don’t even know anything about you.” “But I told you I wanted to be your listening post; I’m sure it’s hard for you to go through all your research when you have no one to talk to about it.” She thought about that for a moment... Maybe that was part of the problem, maybe she needed someone to talk to, and maybe she didn’t have to be the strong one all the time. She didn’t know how to talk to people; maybe she needed to practice. “It’s hard when you feel like you’re getting nowhere at your work.” “And you’ve always been the strong one, haven’t you?” Steve asked. He couldn’t believe how smoothly everything seemed to be going when she kept talking to him, when he was sitting on her couch in a darkened room. “The problem is that everyone expects that of me now.” “What do you mean?” “Everyone sees me as a cold-hearted workaholic, and no one thinks that I may need something every once in a while.” “But you do,” Steve said. “But no one gives me that, Steve. No one mentally gives me an inch of rope. Why have they needed to, I may just hang myself with any rope at all.” “Will you?” Steve asked. “Steve! ... I think people would be let down if they saw less than what I have given in the past. I have made my bed and now I have to --” “Less than perfection?” Steve cut in, still thinking about Sloane laying down in the bed she made. Knowing she had to stop ranting, they shared a moment of silence. “You know I don’t know you like the palm of my hand, but you seem to ask too much of yourself. I even like you...” “Why?” Sloane cut in and asked. “You’re captivating,” Steve answered. “You have an answer for everything.” Sloane was impressed that he thought it was captivating that she had answers. Maybe this was what she needed, she thought, maybe she needed this kind of mindless admiration to satiate herself, to make her feel better. She leaned over toward Steve; he instinctively put his arms around her so she could relax. “I don’t know what to do here.” “Do whatever you want,” Steve answered. She sat up on the couch around his legs and turned to face Steve. She was inches away from his face, and Steve was painfully aware of it. He knew he wanted to kiss her so badly, but he also knew that with a mind like hers she would have to want it first. They stared at each other for a moment. Sloane spoke first. “You know I have to go to work in the morning.” He knew in that instant that she had turned into the voice of reason again and that the chance was lost for the two of them. He moved one hand to touch her cheek as he spoke, “You know I am here if you need anything.” Sloane rested her forehead on his and answered, “I know.” For a moment they stayed in this position before she gestured to move; Steve followed her lead as she said her farewell to him at her front door. “I’ll see you this weekend,” he said as Steve left for his car. The both of them thought of each other, for entirely different reasons. Sloane thought it is probably good to think about something other than work for a while; Steve thought that sexual tension was good, it was refreshing for him, and that in a way it was sometimes better than getting the girl. The next few days were filled with work. Work on Emivir. Work on the integrase inhibitor. Work on removing side effects of existing drugs, and work on time-release drugs. Work on an outline for a book on homeopathy, and a regimen for a study group. The outline and regimen was pretty much done on Thursday, thanks to the help of Julie, pooling all the existing research together. Monday they had made a call for HIV-infected people as well as people with full-blown AIDS; since they could be in any condition they had three hundred people applying by Wednesday morning. By Thursday they had decided on two hundred people for the study; one hundred were in the control group, and each person in the control group matched the conditions of someone in the test group. Howard was in charge of directing the regimens of the groups; they had placebo pills for those in the control group. They were to also monitor what people ate by diaries they kept. The study was about to begin, and everything was going ahead of schedule. Thursday afternoon Sloane was in her office working out vaccine tests and theories on paper. Kyle walked into her office without knocking on the door. “Kyle?” Kyle realized he didn’t knock; he looked at the doorknob in his hand. “Oh, I’m sorry, but it’s just that there seems to be something working in the search for the integrase inhibitor.” “Already? What is it?” “Come out here and look.” Kyle directed her to one of the tables. He gestured to the microscope; she looked in. “What am I looking at?” “It looks like we’ve got the splicing to work. What we’ve got here is an integrase inhibitor, but one derived from a genetically engineered human cell, and not from a synthetic one.” Her eyes widened; she slowly lifted her head from the microscope. “So the chances of it lasting are better than the synthetic ones in testing now.” She leaned back into the microscope. “Possibly.” “How...” She pulled back from the microscope and looked around before focusing on Kyle. “How on earth did you do this so fast?” “We don’t know how stable it is; we’d have to replicate the process a few times. These cells existed from a failed experiment that they gave up on a few weeks ago, trying to make a natural versus the synthetic version of Emivir. Actually, it took about seven weeks to get the natural cells engineered to this point. To replicate this again should take a little less than two months.” “And that was the experiment they were working on?” “Yes, modifying the protease inhibitor. This time, though, instead of trying to improve on Emivir, they tried to replicate it using natural tissues.” “But they couldn’t get it to that point, so they put it on hold.” “Yeah, and now that they looked at it again they realized it might be easier to alter it to become an effective integrase inhibitor instead of a protease inhibitor. And it seems that they were right.” Her eyes were as wide as saucers. There were about fifteen people standing around her. She started to open her mouth; she smiled instead. “If you didn’t mention the idea of the integrase inhibitors, we would have never thought of this,” Ellen, one of the researchers, said to her. Turning to Ellen, she said, “Yes, but you did this.” Ellen and Sloane smiled at each other briefly. It was all that they needed. “Well,” Sloane said, “run tests on this sample, and start working on the next samples. And someone work on an outline and it’s proposed functions, and let’s work on F.D.A. approval for this beast. Who knows how much we’ll have to modify this, but this is...” Sloane shook her head slightly, then looked up. “This is excellent news.” Standing up, she said, “I’m sure Colin Madison would like to come down here for this news. Leave the sample at the microscope for a bit. I’ll give him a call. And remember, I need you all to look over the notes for the homeopathy, as well as the outlines Howard has made for a regimen for the study, and decide what aspect of this book you’d like to be a part of. In just over a week we’re going to have someone from Quentin Publishing here to proofread our work; it would be nice to actually have something for them.” Walking toward her office, she turned around and said, “If we’re doing press conferences, Quentin would like the additional publicity for the book, too.” Most of the staff was just standing in their places, looking at her. “You know, I’ll be proud to have my name with everyone’s here on that book,” she said as she walked away. Everyone started to smile; the sound of their breathing and the ticking of the wall clock was all that could be heard. “Hey, let’s go out Friday night. Drinks or something,” Sloane said. She thought of how Carter treated a drink with her. “To celebrate.” She turned and walked back into her office to call Colin. Later that day, Colin walked into the lab. They brought the sample to the microscope for him. He seemed very pleased. He turned to Sloane. “How long?” “It will probably take about two months to replicate this sample; we’ll need to wait that long to conduct more tests. This won’t be ready to test on anyone for a number of months.” “Well, the FDA will hold us up for at least that long.” “Probably, even if they rush it, but they already pulled one favor for us with Emivir. It still can’t take less than four months for them to start to look at it, so I think we’ll have time.” “And the paperwork?” “I already had it filled it out.” “Did you come up with this?” “Actually, no. It was a fluke from working on making a natural, but engineered, version of the synthetic Emivir. Ellen here made the connection to try those cells -- which they had frozen and kept dormant -- for an integrase inhibitor.” Ellen Thompson just smiled. “Well,” Colin said, as he began to raise his voice and speak to the entire room, “are you planning on having some sort of celebration for these people?” “I suggested getting together tomorrow, but there’s no plan yet.” “It’s at my house now. Not formal, don’t worry, but at least you’ll have free drinks.” Everyone in the lab started smiling. A few let out a small chuckle. “Colin, that’s very --” “It’s nothing. I have to make sure I keep you guys happy, don’t I?” “I think we’re pretty happy, sir.” Colin smiled, told them to come to his place at seven in the evening tomorrow night, and then he walked out of the lab. All she could think was that she wanted to call Carter and tell him the good news. She stopped herself, though; she decided it would be better to wait until their next business call to share her news with him. Click here for Chapter 5 of The Key To Believing U.S. Government Copyright © 2003 Janet Kuypers

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