Marilyn Holdsworth

Broken Pieces - Rachel Thompson

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Poison Pill by MA Granovsky

Chapter 2
October 14-15

“Why are you going to Istanbul?” asked Benedict once they boarded and he switched his seat with Olga’s neighbor.

Olga gave him a synopsis of what she’d be doing—spending hours at a client’s plant on the outskirts of Istanbul, interviewing people about where their physical and electronic documents were stored, and roughly sorting through hundreds of thousands of documents to see which ones needed to be sent back to New York for the pharmaceutical patent litigation in which their client was now embroiled.

“Sounds perfectly dreadful,” Benedict said when she concluded.

“It is that.” Olga yawned. “Sorry, need sleep. I’ve done these trips before, and if it weren’t for the pilot banking the plane to show us the pyramids on my last trip, I’d never have known that I was in Egypt. It’s airport, generic luxury business hotel, stuffy internal storage room with mountains of paper. And repeat.”

“How’d you become specialized in patent litigation?”

“I was a molecular biologist before going to law school and therefore I’m a valuable commodity in the legal world. Patent litigation is very lucrative, and it requires a scientific background.”

“My brother was a scientist, too.” Benedict looked out the window, but Olga saw in his reflection his narrowed eyes and creased brow.

“What kind of scientist?” she asked.

“He was a physician specializing in obesity. He then got his doctorate in biomedical science doing research into molecular pathways of brown fat cells. Mean anything to you?”

Olga nodded and tried to suppress another yawn. “It certainly does.” She hoped the conversation wasn’t going to veer toward the seriously scientific because her brain was rapidly shutting down and she was making heroic efforts just to stay awake out of politeness.

“You really do look done in,” Benedict said, “but when you’re in better shape, could I ask for your professional opinion on something?” He seemed to regret his request right after stating it. “I’m sorry. You must get this all the time and it’s probably awfully irritating.”

“Not at all.” Olga shook her head emphatically. “I like it when people think of me as an expert.”

“Well, you are one.”

“Oh, right. I’m not just a document mule.”

***

Two hours from landing, Olga woke up to the smell of dark coffee and freshly baked pastries. Breakfast was being served.

“I hope you’ll be able to stay for a few days after your work is done. It would be a pity to be in Istanbul, especially in the early fall, without having a chance to explore it,” said Benedict when he noticed that Olga had opened her eyes. She was still groggy. Benedict, on the other hand, appeared to be a morning person, and continued talking until Olga raised her hand to stop him.

“I can’t process information without coffee. So unless you want to repeat everything you just said, let me have the first cup, then we can converse.”

Benedict chuckled. “This is fantastic. Our relationship is progressing by leaps and bounds. We’ve already slept together and are now finding out about each other’s morning personalities.”

Olga smiled and sipped her coffee before replying. “All potential relationships should start on intercontinental flights.”

“If you do swing it so that you have free time, I’ll be happy to play tour guide.” Benedict said.

“Thank you. I’ll definitely take you up on the offer if I can.” As the coffee kicked in, a vague memory formed in Olga’s mind. “Did I dream it or did you want to ask me about something to do with patent law?”

Benedict shrugged. “It’ll keep. We’ll talk about it later.”

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Genre – Legal Thriller

Rating – PG

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