Fatal Reaction

going to be able to do it.”
    “Right now that depends on whether crystallography can get their act together and deliver the structure of ZKBP” she declared flatly. “Until then we’re just sitting around with our thumbs up our asses.”
    I looked over my shoulder at her lab. There were five or six benches, each under its own ventilation hood, with more than a dozen people that I could see, all hard at work. “Looks like you’re pretty busy,” I said.
    “Busy doin’ busy work,” she replied. “Right now what we’re doin’ is exactly the same kind of shit we’re supposed to be trying to make obsolete.”
    “What’s that?”
    “Trial and error. We make a compound, then we test it. Then we change it slightly and test it again. Then we compare the two of them then make a third molecule that maximizes the best features of the first two...She made a loud snoring sound and let her head flop down on I her chest like a marionette on a dropped string.
    “So when do you think Childress will solve the structure?” I asked, not knowing what else to say.
    “Who knows? So far they don’t even have diffraction-grade crystals.”
    “I apologize if I sound hopelessly ignorant, but why do they have to grow crystals in the first place?”
    Lou Remminger picked up my coffee cup and looked at the muddy liquid it contained. “Let’s say we wanted to learn the molecular structure of the coffee in this cup,’’ she began. “How would you go about doing that?”
    “I have no idea. Look at it under the microscope?”
    “Wouldn’t work. Coffee molecules aren’t big enough to see under a regular microscope. It would just look like dirty water. No, the first thing you’d want to do is separate out the coffee from everything else you’ve got in this cup. Right now there’s coffee, but there’s also water, sugar, and whatever it is they put in that Cremora shit. The first thing we’d want to do is filter out all that stuff so that all we have left is coffee. If you want to draw parallels to this project, filtering out the junk would be Dave Borland’s job.”
    “So then what happens once all you have left is coffee?”
    “Then we’d have to find a way to be able to see its molecular structure.”
    “Please don’t make me guess how to do that,” I pleaded.
    “The easiest way would be to crystallize it.”
    “How do you know it will form a crystal?”
    “In theory, given the right conditions, any substance can be made to crystallize.”
    “Anything?”
    “Anything. Of course, some things are easier than others. Sugar and salt, for example, crystallize real easy. ZKBP, on the other hand, is an absolute bitch.”
    “But why crystals?”
    “Because the shape of the crystal that any substance forms is unique to that substance. A sugar crystal looks different from a salt crystal. It’s like snowflakes. Every kind of molecule is unique.”
    “So assuming you are able to make a crystal of pure coffee, then what?”
    “Then we’d shoot special X rays into it and use a computer to map how the X rays diffract. That way we’ll be able to put together a picture of what the molecule looks like. It’s kind of like shining a laser beam at a crystal chandelier and then deducing what the chandelier looks like from the scattered dots of light.”
    “It sounds complicated.”
    “Actually, the hardest part is growing the crystals. Computers grind through the mountains of data generated by the diffraction. Once you get crystals you almost always get the structure. It’s just a matter of time.”
    “So what you’re saying is there’s a chance Childress won’t be able to grow crystals at all?” I asked with a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I couldn’t help but think of the millions of dollars Azor had already sunk into the project. Millions of dollars that would be as good as flushed down the toilet if Childress couldn’t come up with the crystals.
    “Crystallography is just like voodoo,” said Remminger. “Sometimes you just gotta believe.”
    “I can’t say I find that terribly reassuring,” I said, knowing that I sounded like a stereotypical lawyer.
    “Like my grandma always says: honey, sometimes you just gotta have faith.” I’m sure I didn’t look exactly convinced. “Did Stephen ever tell you how I decided to become a chemist?” she asked.
    “No.”
    “Well, I wasn’t much of a student growing up,” she began. “Not that that was any big deal. Most everyone where I grew up