บท 714: Ch 714 - Off and Running
"Brent Donaldson is a forty-year-old mechanic who had been maintaining Julie's car for over ten years," Lindsey said. "A few days ago, two sums of money went into Brent's account—seven hundred thousand dollars, and then a million. After that, he serviced Julie's car, and then he immediately quit."
She grimaced. "Brent thought that he had gotten away with it, and he was planning to leave the country. Our agents picked him up an hour ago, on the way to the airport, and he confessed within ten minutes. We have a recording where he admitted to sabotaging Julie's car." She paused. "But Alex, you need to know who gave him the money."
"Wasn't it Riley?" Alex asked, frowning.
"No, it was a woman named Alyssa Hart," Lindsey said. "I believe you've met her."
***
While Alex was meeting with Lindsey, Norman was strolling down the street with Riley and reporting the latest developments.
"The Robinson Group has been completely shut down," he said. "We've filed a lawsuit against them and against Maryann herself, demanding fifteen million in compensation. Meanwhile, Quality Pharmaceuticals is racing to make more of the product. The latest batch of samples attracted a lot of big customers. After they saw the efficacy of the drug, they placed huge orders, and each one is worth millions of dollars. It was insane." He grinned. "Tomorrow afternoon, we'll hold a press conference, and then our stock price will surge. We're also trying to line up celebrities for our advertising campaign."
Riley nodded with satisfaction. "We've won! But we need to keep this pace up. Alex and his people are overwhelmed, and they can't respond fast enough."
"But if you press them too hard, it may backfire," Norman warned him. "It could drive them to take risks, and then they might be able to turn things around."
He was thinking about his conversation with Alex the night before.
"Our strategy has always been to move slowly and secretly," he continued. "We need to take our time and plan our attack. We must take Alex out in one move. His counterattacks are too powerful, and he is not a normal adversary."
"All right, Norman, I get the message." Riley sounded a little irritated. "Look. We've shut his company down, but he still looks like he doesn't have a care in the world. Why do you think that is?"
Norman had no answer.
Riley went on, "Alex created Golden Health. And if he can invent one miraculous medicine, then he can modify it a little and make another. So we have to move quickly. We can't give him the time to develop another formula. We're charging into the gap left by the collapse of his healing powder. Do you understand? We have the production capacity, and we have the advertising budget. We're going to make our product a household name, and there won't be any room for any new drug Alex can come up with."
He smiled. "Quality Pharmaceuticals will be famous worldwide because we're ready and able to capitalize on the opportunity. We can never allow Alex to catch up."
"Yes, of course," Norman replied respectfully. "You're right."
***
At three o'clock the next afternoon, hundreds of reporters were gathered in an auditorium in the Naysmith Group's building. A large-screen T.V. displayed a close-up view of the podium.
On the platform were several senior executives of Quality Pharmaceuticals, and among them was Norman Fuller, the new CEO.
Norman stepped up to the podium with a big smile on his face.
"Welcome, everyone," he said. "Thank you very much for being here today." He had never held a public role like this before, but he felt comfortable in front of the cameras.
He began telling the story of how the Robinson Group had robbed Quality Pharmaceuticals of their secret formula and had started producing it without authorization.
"And so you see," Norman went on, "the incredible new trauma medication that they are calling Golden Health was, in fact, developed here by Quality Pharmaceuticals. Its true name, which they changed to hide their theft, is Dynamic Health.
"The Robinson Group's crimes have seriously affected the entire pharmaceutical industry, not to mention eroding the faith and trust that our customers place in us. This must not go unpunished.
"We will pursue this until all the guilty parties have been brought to justice."
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