read part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4
Shortly the lift stopped and the doors opened. He scanned
the place and saw a long corridor. He tried to see where the CCTV cameras were
installed. They were indeed in place as Sanjog had described. He avoided the lights
and stuck to the darker areas and quietly moved down the corridor. He could
start to smell ether or chloroform all around; perhaps there was a lab here too,
he thought. Then the smells became stronger.
As he turned at the corner, he saw something that he could
have never anticipated in a thousand years! The corridor was filled with rows
and rows of cells just big enough to hold one bed and monitoring equipment
each. On most beds lay a man writhing in pain or passed out or screaming to be
let out. Some of them showed aggressive behavior and were shackled. It was
almost like a prison. He felt nauseous and weak.
Every word that
Sanjog had said seemed to be true! There were some deadly secrets here!
He wondered if they were indeed the missing inmates. Was
Alok trapped here too? Where would he find him? His head reeled and he held the
wall for support.
He gathered himself still feeling weak in the knees, but this was
no time to ponder. He used his mobile to click photographs, as many as he
could.
Suddenly he heard
footsteps behind him!
*************
He found a nursing table nearby and for the moment it looked like a
good place to hide. He quickly ran to it and hid under it just in the nick of
time. He held his breath as he heard voices nearby. He put his mobile in
recording mode.
“How is the subject no 16 responding to TYC1654?” asked a
voice.
He thought he had
heard that voice before. Who could it be?
“I had given him a dose of 4mg on day 1 and put him on
increasing dose. Today is day 6 and when I administered 14 ml, he suffered a
heart attack. So 12ml would be the optimum dose. The results are also better at
12 ml because he was beginning to show improvement by day 5” said the other.
“I suggest that you try out 12 ml from day 1 to 5 on 3 more
subjects and monitor the results. Have them injected with the strain of
staphylococcus 24A and wait for 15 days then start the treatment. If we are
successful, try it on a larger group say 20 or 25. I will ask production to
give us few more vials of TYC1654. Then we will file for NDI and go ahead with
the official trials. Our drug will make us the undisputed number one in the
world. We will have a drug more potent than Vancomycin and Rifampin!” the voice
announced, quivering with excitement as he spoke the last line..
Abhijeet felt breathless. He wanted to scream.
The inmates were
being used for human trials!
These poor people were being treated worse than guinea
pigs! They did not deserve to be treated like that!
Any new drug had to be first tried in the lab, in vitro and then on animals like rats,
monkeys etc, in vivo. When all results
were satisfactory and had passed all toxicology tests, only then permission for
human trial is given.
But the trials had to be carried out in controlled
conditions and with volunteers only. This took a very long time. There was
always a risk that some other company that is doing a similar trial finishes
first and gets the patent.
So Life Biotech had been secretly conducting human trials directly without completing the
mandatory animal trials. The inmates were the easiest bait; no one would look
for them. So whenever they need subjects,
they picked up the poor souls from the charitable home as they would do anything for
money.
The voices slowly drifted away and when he could hear them
no more, he quickly emerged from his hiding and ran to the lift. He didn’t need
the access card to go up. He pressed G and was soon out of the building. He had
been lucky this time but he wondered if he would be next time.
*************
He sat in his car for a very long time with tears rolling
down his cheeks. They had made him accomplice without even letting him know. He
had been testing and analyzing samples from not volunteers but from forcefully
held people. The samples were from people who were forcefully injected with the bacteria and then treated for the same! It was all so
horribly wrong!
