The Prague Plot: The Cold War Meets the Jihad (Jeannine Ryan Series Book 3) Read Online Free
Author: James E. Mosimann
swish of disturbed branches and the sound of rain pecking the window had lulled her senses. She had slept only a few hours.
She sat up, bare feet on the cold floor. She shivered, grasped her arms, and looked out the window. The storm had left a clear sky, but the back lawn was strewn with fallen branches amid a carpet of stripped leaves. Nothing moved. A lone squirrel huddled high on a branch, its fur fluffed against the cold.
Jeannine shook her head awake just as, dictated by the timer, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee filled the bedroom.
All right Jeannine, it’s time to face the day.
Jeannine Ryan headed her own firm, Ryan Associates, that specialized in statistical consulting. She was a Ph. D. statistician, a specialist in statistical forensics, the exposure of fraudulent data. Aileen Harris, a Ph.D. in Bioengineering, was a minority owner of the company. Previously, she and Jeannine had found suspicious data in a medical research project. Their discovery uncovered terrorist plans to use a novel medical device to assassinate an Israeli official. Jeannine and Aileen, together with Bill Hamm their friend, had thwarted the plot.
Jeannine and Bill were close, but their romance was on hold. At the moment, work came first. Bill had returned to the CIA and was overseas, based in Vienna, Austria. Jeannine was occupied with building Ryan Associates into a first-class consulting firm for the detection of fabricated research.
Thanks to a contract with the Israeli government, Ryan Associates was financially solid. However, Jeannine was keenly aware of the dangers of over-expansion that depended on “future” contracts. Her last employer, the consulting firm StatFind, was now defunct partly due to such expansion. Because of that experience, Jeannine kept expenses to a minimum. Ryan Associates worked from a modest office in the refurbished basement of her home in Bethesda.
The basement was at ground level. The most expensive part of the office design had been the construction of an outside rear entrance along with a driveway and rear parking area. Those features had been installed after dickering with the local home owner’s association and city officials. Approval had come at a potentially irritating cost; informally, Jeannine had agreed to help the home association when statistical assistance was needed.
After a quick shower, she slipped into her jeans and a gray pullover. She noted that they were the same size as when she had attended graduate school at Fairland University some years previously. Closer to thirty than twenty, Jeannine still drew second looks when she walked by.
Before going downstairs to the office, she stopped in the kitchen and poured a large cup of dark, French Roast coffee, black. She savored the rich aroma and sipped. Her head cleared.
Time to work.
***
Jeannine was in the basement office and on her second cup of coffee when the phone rang. She picked up.
“Jeannine, this is Larry Hodges at the Food and Drug Administration. What’s happening with Hus-Kinetika’s report defending its anticonvulsive drug, Xolak?”
“Dr. Hodges, it’s on my desk. I started it last night.”
“Jeannine, please. It’s Larry, remember. But when can I see your comments? An advisory committee has been formed to see if Xolak should be removed from the U. S. market. Two of the members will be in town next week for the American Pharmaceutical Society meeting. I need to give them the FDA’s evaluation.”
“OK, Larry, You’ll have my comments in 48 hours. All right?”
“Thanks. That's great. The Commissioner is pressing me to act. Hus-Kinetika is a Czech company and the State Department is on our back. There’s a lot at stake. There’s some sort of defense deal with the Czech Republic in the works and they don’t want any glitches. There are a lot of users of Xolak in this country.”
“I’ll do what I can, OK?”
Larry hesitated and then added.
“Jeannine, maybe we could do lunch to go over your
She sat up, bare feet on the cold floor. She shivered, grasped her arms, and looked out the window. The storm had left a clear sky, but the back lawn was strewn with fallen branches amid a carpet of stripped leaves. Nothing moved. A lone squirrel huddled high on a branch, its fur fluffed against the cold.
Jeannine shook her head awake just as, dictated by the timer, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee filled the bedroom.
All right Jeannine, it’s time to face the day.
Jeannine Ryan headed her own firm, Ryan Associates, that specialized in statistical consulting. She was a Ph. D. statistician, a specialist in statistical forensics, the exposure of fraudulent data. Aileen Harris, a Ph.D. in Bioengineering, was a minority owner of the company. Previously, she and Jeannine had found suspicious data in a medical research project. Their discovery uncovered terrorist plans to use a novel medical device to assassinate an Israeli official. Jeannine and Aileen, together with Bill Hamm their friend, had thwarted the plot.
Jeannine and Bill were close, but their romance was on hold. At the moment, work came first. Bill had returned to the CIA and was overseas, based in Vienna, Austria. Jeannine was occupied with building Ryan Associates into a first-class consulting firm for the detection of fabricated research.
Thanks to a contract with the Israeli government, Ryan Associates was financially solid. However, Jeannine was keenly aware of the dangers of over-expansion that depended on “future” contracts. Her last employer, the consulting firm StatFind, was now defunct partly due to such expansion. Because of that experience, Jeannine kept expenses to a minimum. Ryan Associates worked from a modest office in the refurbished basement of her home in Bethesda.
The basement was at ground level. The most expensive part of the office design had been the construction of an outside rear entrance along with a driveway and rear parking area. Those features had been installed after dickering with the local home owner’s association and city officials. Approval had come at a potentially irritating cost; informally, Jeannine had agreed to help the home association when statistical assistance was needed.
After a quick shower, she slipped into her jeans and a gray pullover. She noted that they were the same size as when she had attended graduate school at Fairland University some years previously. Closer to thirty than twenty, Jeannine still drew second looks when she walked by.
Before going downstairs to the office, she stopped in the kitchen and poured a large cup of dark, French Roast coffee, black. She savored the rich aroma and sipped. Her head cleared.
Time to work.
***
Jeannine was in the basement office and on her second cup of coffee when the phone rang. She picked up.
“Jeannine, this is Larry Hodges at the Food and Drug Administration. What’s happening with Hus-Kinetika’s report defending its anticonvulsive drug, Xolak?”
“Dr. Hodges, it’s on my desk. I started it last night.”
“Jeannine, please. It’s Larry, remember. But when can I see your comments? An advisory committee has been formed to see if Xolak should be removed from the U. S. market. Two of the members will be in town next week for the American Pharmaceutical Society meeting. I need to give them the FDA’s evaluation.”
“OK, Larry, You’ll have my comments in 48 hours. All right?”
“Thanks. That's great. The Commissioner is pressing me to act. Hus-Kinetika is a Czech company and the State Department is on our back. There’s a lot at stake. There’s some sort of defense deal with the Czech Republic in the works and they don’t want any glitches. There are a lot of users of Xolak in this country.”
“I’ll do what I can, OK?”
Larry hesitated and then added.
“Jeannine, maybe we could do lunch to go over your
Readers choose
John Shirley
Nancy Springer
Dana Donovan
Kayla Krantz
Shayna Varadeaux
Elisa Lorello
Kafū Nagai
Bruce Hale
Christine Bush
Dara Girard