THE ADJUSTMENT CLINIC

Rowena Diaz gestured to the carafe coffee pot on her desk. Badger Wicket pointed to the ice water pitcher as an alternative.

“I’ve already had my morning dose of caffeine.”

She smiled. “I may need you to infiltrate a medical research motivation course. It’s given almost every two-months around the country. I attended one at the last DIA meeting.” Diaz stared at a color picture of Ramses and she handed it to Wicket. “Nehman Ramses. His large round blue eyes remind me of pictures of Adolph Hitler.”

“I’ll sign up for the next course. In the meantime, I have a token staff cocooning Porfirio Quintos and his family plus I have immediate intake on what Murphy plans because of my security post there.” Wicket looked up from his notepad. “We have to be ready for dodging probes by the feds. Our person at the FDA sent us a note about a special team working with the DEA and the FBI on the Wilson killings.”

“There’s no way the government knows about the Adjustment Clinic.” Diaz wrote a note next to the phone. “Find out what Ramses and Noire are about at the FDA level and have our FDA contact keep track of any activity by the federal authorities on the Legg Pharmaceuticals business.” She gave Wicket a slight smile of dismissal and reached for the phone.

“Harvey, I need to talk to you.”

Brasher’s office was opposite hers. He knocked, entered and sat down in front of her desk.

“Remember, how we first started?”

“Of course.” Brasher thought back to their first days. “We set-up the people who were setting me up. They were championing a plot to set me up for a fall and we reversed it.”

“Exactly. We leaked their intentions to the press.”

“A deliberate internal conspiracy to make a drug go bad to lower the stock values of the company. They would buy up most of the stock and take over company management. We brought the federal securities and trade commission down on them and put you in the driver’s seat. You saved the drug company’s ass, Harvey.”

“Where are you going with this, Rowena?”

“I think we should start leaking things to the press about Wilson Medical Products at first and zoom in on Mary Murphy once we get media interest.” Diaz picked up a small memo sheet.

“What have you got that would perk up the interest of the press and not bring AC into view.” Brasher reached for the offered note.

“We have someone at the FDA remember?” She paused for him to read the paper. “It seems both the FDA and the DEA are interested in our Wilson bad-asses. But they’re looking at the Wilson hijack murders and snooping around Legg Pharmaceuticals. I made sure no trails lead back to AC.”

“Our FDA plant is in a really low-level position. She shouldn’t be noticed but she also has limitations as to what she can sniff out.” He looked out the window.