Chapter 10 - The Founder)
Malcolm Pierce did not look like a man who expected to be arrested.
He appeared on television that afternoon standing outside Pioneer's downtown offices in a charcoal suit.
Rachel watched from Tobe's hospital room.
Pierce spoke calmly into a wall of microphones.
"Pioneer Childhood Wellness Research has always placed child safety above every other priority."
Rachel almost threw the remote.
"We are deeply concerned by reports of contamination at Harbor House. We are cooperating fully with authorities."
"He's lying," Rachel said.
Dr. Patel was checking Tobe's chart.
"Turn it off if it's making you upset."
"No."
Rachel kept watching.
Pierce continued.
"Pioneer did not supply contaminated soil, nor did we knowingly expose children to unsafe materials."
Technically clever.
Maybe Pioneer had not physically supplied the soil.
Maybe a contractor had.
Maybe Pierce was trying to build distance between knowledge and action.
Then a reporter shouted, "Did Pioneer test an experimental supplement on infected children?"
Pierce's expression changed for less than a second.
"We reject that characterization."
Rachel leaned closer.
"What characterization do you accept?" another reporter asked.
Pierce ended the press conference.
That evening, federal investigators joined the case.
The reason had nothing to do with the worms.
Pioneer had used federal grant money.
False data had been submitted in funding applications.
Unauthorized human research could involve multiple regulatory violations.
Evidence moved quickly now.
Emails.
Financial transfers.
Video recordings.
Internal presentations.
Deleted files recovered from servers.
The picture became clearer.
Pierce had built Pioneer with legitimate research programs years earlier.
Then funding declined.
He needed results.
Interesting results.
Publishable results.
Data that could attract donors.
Harbor House gave him access to children whose families trusted a community program.
The contaminated soil should have ended the project.
Instead Pierce saw a population already experiencing measurable gastrointestinal effects.
He wrote to Elaine Ward:
Do not waste an uncontrolled natural exposure event.
Rachel read that sentence twice.
Then placed the page facedown.
Tobe was improving.
That was what mattered.
His obstruction had resolved without surgery.
Doctors had begun appropriate antiparasitic treatment under close supervision.
His appetite returned slowly.
His color improved.
For the first time in days, he asked if he could walk around.
Rachel helped him along the pediatric floor.
He pushed his IV pole while wearing yellow hospital socks.
They reached a window overlooking the city.
"That's a lot of buildings," he said.
"Chicago has a few."
He leaned against her.
"Do worms live in all of them?"
Rachel laughed unexpectedly.
"No."
"Good."
He thought for a moment.
"Can worms go to jail?"
"No."
"What about Miss Elaine?"
Rachel stopped smiling.
"Maybe."
"What about Dr. Pierce?"
Tobe had heard the name on television.
"Maybe."
"Did he put them in my stomach?"
"No."
That mattered.
Rachel wanted Tobe to understand the truth without carrying a nightmare larger than reality.
"The soil had something bad in it," she explained. "The adults were supposed to protect you from it. Some didn't."
"Mr. Wade did."
"Eventually."
Tobe looked up.
"That's still good."
Rachel squeezed his shoulder.
"Yes."
Back in the room, her phone buzzed.
Detective Shaw.
"We found Pierce's internal presentation."
"What presentation?"
"It explains PW 17."
Rachel's stomach tightened.
"What does it say?"
"The supplement was never designed to treat the infection."
"I know."
"It was designed to change symptom timing."
Rachel frowned.
"Why?"
"To make patterns easier to measure."
Rachel became still.
"What kind of patterns?"
"Bowel frequency. Pain episodes. Transit response."
She felt sick.
"They were making sick children more symptomatic."
"In some cases, possibly."
"On purpose."
"To produce measurable data."
Rachel closed her eyes.
That was the moment she stopped thinking of Pierce as merely greedy.
Greed explained fraud.
Ambition explained falsifying studies.
But this was different.
This required looking at a child in pain and deciding the pain was useful.
"Where is he?"
"Still cooperating through counsel."
"Meaning he's free."
"For now."
Rachel looked at Tobe.
"That needs to change."
It did.
May you like
The following morning, Malcolm Pierce was arrested.
But Elaine Ward was gone.
