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“All of them,” said Pork. “You purchase all those animals to test your products.”
“That’s right. We develop drugs for diabetes, hyper- and hypo-thyroidism, and pancreatitis.”
“How do these animals have those conditions?” asked Miller. The man chuckled, shaking his head. “Is that funny?”
“Oh. No. We give them the diseases. If the animal doesn’t have a predisposition to it, we simply give them the disease. It’s fairly easy to do. Once they have the disease, we can then test the drugs on them to verify their safety and efficacy. We have a ninety-nine point nine percent success rate for drug efficacy.”
“What’s the rate of survival for the animals?” frowned Pork.
He stopped at a glass door, raising his entry card. Turning, he stared at the three men, giving a sour expression.
“I was led to believe that this wasn’t about animal rights,” he said.
“We’re not here to judge your use of the animals. That may come another day,” said Pork. The man started to speak, but he cut him off. “We’re here to ask where you get your animals and what you do with them when you’re done.”
“As I said, we purchase our animals from reputable sources in the area. They are all healthy and in good condition. We follow the federal guidelines for the treatment of the animals.”
“And when you’re done?” prodded Miller.
“When we’re done, some are released into the woods, others are euthanized.”
“Euthanized. You poke them, prod them, feed them the shit you’re developing, and then you kill them. Well, that seems fair,” said Baptiste. “Where do I sign up?”
“Gentlemen, I think we’re done with the tour,” said the man.
“What? We didn’t get to see the break rooms or the tanning beds,” said Miller. Again, Mikael started to speak, and he stopped him. “Don’t bother. Let me tell you what I see. I see a bunch of super smart kids who think they’re doing good work, but what they’re really doing is killing animals. You buy your luxury cars, probably more than you can afford. You live in condos and penthouse apartments. You take luxury vacations. And I’m going to bet, and this is the most disturbing part of it all, you sleep like a fucking baby at night.”
Mikael stared at the men, not saying a word. The security guards walked toward them, and Miller just shook his head.
“By the way, your security team fucking sucks,” he said, pulling back his jacket to reveal two handguns. “Good luck with that.”
Feeling defeated and wishing they could go back to Burns, they made the decision to see one more lab.
“Do you think they get their animals from the same people?” asked Pork.
“No. They’re too afraid of the diseases the animals might carry. I’d say they’re paying a ridiculous amount for them and not thinking twice about it.”
Crossing the Mississippi, they headed toward Belle Chasse and the Selective Review Laboratories. It didn’t sound fancy, and as it turned out, it was somewhere between the first and second one they’d seen that day.
SRL was a two-story building that was once an old department store. It had been remodeled and now housed more than a hundred employees, and a full-scale testing laboratory for devices. Everything from pacemakers to lasers were tested in the facility. They knew immediately that they were not working with Southeast Testing Centers. The animals in the building were rats and mice.
After a few questions, they left the building and began the ride south toward home. When the phone rang, Baptiste hit speaker.
“Hey, we’re headed back now,” he said.
“Did you do it?” asked Code.
“Did we do what?”
“Did you blow Southeast Testing?”
“Did we blow it? Are you fucking kidding? We left there two hours ago,” said Miller. “Now, don’t get me wrong. I wanted to blow it.”
“Dude, the whole fucking place was blown. People, animals, building, all of it is gone. Apparently, a few dozen luxury cars were destroyed as well.”
“Brother, we didn’t do it. But we can turn around and ask some questions,” said Pork.
“Please go back,” said Code. “I’m trying to reach Gaspar and the team, but they’re not answering. I’ll keep checking.” Hanging up the phone, they all looked at one another, shaking their heads.
