2025-09-30 21:58:35
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Chapter Five Hundred And Ninety-five
Lukas let Felix finish completely before he said anything, and then sat with it for a moment, because the situation deserved that. Felix was quiet on the other side of the desk, which was itself something — the Felix from several years ago had filled silences reflexively."I want to be honest with you about a few things," Lukas said. "In the order they need to be said.""All right.""The first is that what you've described — the isolation, the financial stress, the way the name follows you into professional situations — those are real and you're identifying them accurately. You're not misreading external consequences as an internal problem. That distinction matters, because the work you need to do is different from what it would be if this were primarily about your internal state. The recovery tools you've developed are right for what they address. This is a different problem.""It took me a while to separate the two," Felix said. "I kept asking myself whether the external situation w
Chapter Five Hundred And Ninety-four
He closed the door and they sat across from each other, Felix still with his coat in his lap, and Lukas waited because it was clear Felix needed a moment to find where to start, and this was the kind of conversation where the finding mattered and could not be rushed into."I'm not in crisis," Felix said finally. "I want to say that first because I know what crisis looks like from the inside and this isn't it. I'm not using. I'm not about to use. But I'm—" He stopped. "I'm in trouble of a different kind, and I've been trying to manage it alone for four months, and I've reached the point where I have to admit that I can't.""Tell me what's happening.""After my mother died, something changed in the practical dimensions of my life that I hadn't fully anticipated. While she was alive, even while she was in custody, the family still had a presence in the business world. People took her seriously. There were conversations I could have because of connections that existed through her. I told
Chapter Five Hundred And Ninety-three
The first settlement offer arrived four months after the regulatory findings were released, which was faster than anyone had predicted and which Meijer described as a sign that the companies had done the arithmetic."They've calculated that protracted litigation is more expensive than a negotiated outcome," she said, in the briefing she gave before the first formal session. "Both financially and reputationally. The regulatory findings gave the litigation a floor that they can see clearly, and they'd rather negotiate above the floor than litigate their way to it.""That analysis doesn't include what the victims want," Lukas said."No," she said. "That's what advocacy is for."He was sitting at the table as an advocate for the communities his healing network was connected to — the traditional knowledge holders, the healers, the communities in West and Central Africa whose medicinal plant knowledge had been systematically extracted and whose members had in some cases participated in tria
Chapter Five Hundred And Ninety-two
Meijer drafted the response to Meridien and sent him the draft, and he read it and called her."It's too formal," he said. "The letter they sent me was very careful. This response should be equally careful but shorter.""What do you want it to say.""That I have noted their inquiry, that I am participating in the regulatory working group in an independent scientific capacity, that all analysis I contribute will be provided through the working group's established processes and not through any party's legal proceedings, and that I am not available to serve as a witness for any corporate entity connected to the matters under review.""That's clear enough," Meijer said."I want it clear," Lukas said. "I don't want them to have any ambiguity about whether a different framing of the offer might produce a different answer."She sent the revised draft an hour later and he approved it and she sent it, and he thought that would be the end of it, but the end of it turned out to be a follow-up ca
Chapter Five Hundred And Ninety-one
Dekker called him two days after their previous conversation and asked if he was willing to consult with the regulatory working group that had been assembled to assess the products in question."In what capacity," he said."We have conventional pharmacologists and clinical trialists on the working group. What we don't have is someone with your background in traditional medicine and ethnobotanical research, and some of the compounds involved in these products have development histories that intersect with exactly that area. The extraction of traditional knowledge, the way it was processed into clinical applications, whether the trial data that was generated through unethical means is the data underpinning the efficacy claims." She paused. "You've been in this investigation long enough to understand the compounds and the network's methods. That's a specific combination we don't have."He said he would need to think about it and called Inge Petersen at his clinic, who was the person whos
Chapter Five Hundred And Ninety
His lawyer read the account details that evening, on a video call, and was quiet for a long moment before she said anything."The first question," she said, "is whether you have legal standing to access this account at all. Clara designated you as the person she was entrusting with this information, but designation in a letter is not the same as legal authority. The executor of her estate is the person with formal authority over her assets, and the executor will need to be involved.""Who is the executor.""Elise, from what I understand of the will. Which means your first call is to Elise, not to the prosecutors."He called Elise the following morning, and she answered quickly, which suggested she had been expecting the call or something like it."She wrote to you about an account," Elise said. It was not a question."Yes. Did she mention it in your letter.""She mentioned she had left you something beyond the formal bequest. She didn't specify what." A pause. "Tell me what it is."He
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