Page 19 of Too Old for Love

“He said to tell you it is not your fault,” said Noah, wincing. “They knew he took the sheet but he did not admit to them that he’d given it to you. He hoped it would keep you safe.”

“Safe? Safe from what?” she asked, suddenly believing every single word they said to her.

“He does not understand all of what they were doing but he says that you would have. That’s why they got rid of you. He says there are many people involved, more than just Samantha and Abigail.” Noah’s face was a pasty gray color and Hex moved to his side, holding his arm in case he fell.

“What are they doing?” asked Everest. “Are they selling the drugs illegally?”

“No,” said Julia. “No, not selling. He can’t stay. He has to go now.”

As if a whoosh of air came through the room, Julia and Noah fell to their knees.

“Julia!” cried Joseph holding his wife to his chest.

“I’m okay,” she smiled. She turned to Noah. “Are you alright?”

“I am fine,” said Noah stoically, his own wife rushing into the room. Tru kneeled beside him, kissing his face.

“I could feel you in pain,” she said with a weak smile.

“They did awful things to him. Terrible. The coroner will cremate him but he has nowhere to be buried. No family,” said Noah with a pained expression.

“Yes, he does,” said Claudette standing in the doorway. “Everyone has a place to be buried. We’ll bring him here. Bury him like family. He tried to help Everest and that counts as family to me.”

“Thank you, Claudette,” smiled Julia.

“Wh-what is happening?” whispered Everest. “Why would they harm him? He had no skills to understand the systems we used.”

“He may have seen something or heard something that changed their attitude toward him,” said Luke.

“If they’re not selling those drugs, what are they doing?” asked Everest. “Everything goes through that system. Everything. Hospital and clinic networks are all connected now. There are enormous medical conglomerates under one name. Hospitals envelop smaller practices that will only do business at their hospital, x-ray facilities will only work with certain clinics and hospitals. It’s all tied in together.”

“What does that mean, Everest?” asked Eric.

“It means that you’ve been to your doctor for a physical, all of your medical records are now visible to anyone connected to that hospital. Let’s say you’re a healthy thirty-year-old patient. The hospital can now access your records. You might start getting e-mail notifications that it’s time for a baseline mammogram or EKG. If you’re older, maybe it’s time for your colonoscopy.

“You see the name on the e-mail and think, I have no clue who this clinic is. But someone, somewhere has searched the records for patients in a certain demographic and sent out e-mails for things that you could or should do.”

“Well, that’s not fucking terrifying at all,” frowned Cam.

“I have to be honest, I didn’t think much about it when I was working there. It seemed logical, time-saving for everyone. I just never thought about the invasiveness of it all,” she frowned.

“Everest, in your opinion, what do you think they’re doing? If they can’t sell the drugs, if they can’t distribute them, what are they doing?” asked Luke.

“I’m not sure unless they’re somehow substituting them at the distribution level. If they’re seeing the brand name drugs, it could mean that someone is swapping them out for the trial drugs. But I don’t understand why? And I don’t understand how doctor’s wouldn’t figure it out.”

“I think they have,” said Eric. “It’s why we were initially pulled in. Patients that were dying were showing signs of unknown substances in their bloodwork. The doctors couldn’t figure out what was happening.”

“But what do they gain by doing this?” she asked. “If patients are dying from the drugs, no one is going to agree to purchase the rights or test them further. You’re doing nothing except killing people.”

“Maybe it’s not about the drugs,” said Mike thoughtfully.

“What do you mean?” she frowned staring at him.

“Maybe it’s about the software program that your old company was selling. Maybe it has something to do with them being able to connect everything and take all the records of anyone involved.”

“It’s possible,” said Everest with a furrowed brow. “I mean, think of the possibilities of knowing every patients’ details, including personal data like date of birth, social security numbers, all of it. They have your name, address, phone number, place of employment. Everything.”

“They could rob you blind,” frowned Hex. “While you’re battling some unknown illness, they’re stealing your life from you.”