Page 43 of Wild Fever
I told the other deputies to search the property and see if they could find any signs of forced entry.
I asked Dr. Cameron if he could think of anyone who might want to sabotage his operation. “Competitors, disgruntled employees, ex-wives, jealous husbands?"
Dr. Cameron's face tightened as he thought about it for a moment. "It's taken a lot of work, long hours, and plenty of ambition to create this facility. You don't achieve this level of success without pissing somebody off. We’ve had to let people go who weren’t team players over the years. But I can't think of anybody recently.” He took a breath and paused. "As forcompetitors, I know that X-Finivive is trying to develop a similar system, but they are nowhere near our level of advancement.”
"Where were you at the time of the malfunction?" I asked.
"I was at home, asleep.”
"Can anyone verify that?”
His brow wrinkled, and his eyes narrowed. "Why would you ask me something like that?”
“I’m just trying to get a full picture of the situation.”
"If you need to verify my whereabouts, you can talk to my wife.”
I smiled. "Great. I’ll need contact information for her.”
"Of course. Anything I can do to facilitate your investigation.” Dr. Cameron paused and chose his words. "Gentlemen, this is very concerning for me. Not only did we lose two valued individuals, but this will call into question the validity of what we're doing here. It will draw an extreme amount of scrutiny. I don't know if you have been keeping up with our operation over the years, but it has drawn an immense amount of backlash. We've had to fight tooth and nail to be able to offer this life-extending treatment to our patients. Not everybody agrees with what we’re doing. An incident like this is just fuel for our detractors. There are people out there who will do anything to bring us down.”
"Are you a publicly traded company?” I asked.
"We are not. Everything is private at this point, and I want to keep it that way. I don't want to lose control. This is my baby. I truly believe we are helping people enhance the quality of theirlives. Imagine someone facing a terminal disease, knowing that it's just a matter of time before they pass on.”
Kara flashed in my mind.
“Now imagine giving that same person the ability to wait until a treatment is available. There are so many exciting new drugs in the pipeline to treat terminal diseases. It is my firm belief that by the end of the decade, we will have cured most cancers and diseases. Gentlemen, we are approaching a time in history where death may become a thing of the past.”
It was a bold statement, and one I’d heard before. I’d believe it when I saw it.
The sheriff looked on with a great deal of skepticism. “What resuscitation attempts were made?”
Cameron shook his head. “There is no way to resuscitate them at this point. Bringing them out of stasis is a complex process and must be done with the utmost care. As I mentioned, their cellular structure is compromised.”
Daniels glared at him.
“Look, my priority right now is to determine the cause of the malfunction and make sure we don’t lose any more patients. Twenty lives are at stake, gentlemen.”
That hung there for a moment.
27
“Iwas doing my usual perimeter check,” the night security guard said when I interviewed him.
"It was pretty quiet on the island. I took a little break to smoke a cigarette and have a candy bar. By the time I got back to the lab, all hell had broken loose.”
We had stepped away from the crowd for a little privacy.
"Did you see anyone else on the island?"
"No. We have motion detectors around the property, but none of them were tripped. No alarms sounded. Nothing was broken into. At least, not that I can tell. It's possible that somebody could have accessed the network and disabled the security systems."
"How long have you been working here?"
"Almost two years now," Zach said.
"Have you experienced any break-ins or intruders during that time?”
