Distraction - Bruce Sterling [114]
“No, but I don’t have to. I only have to remove key opinion leaders, and the opposition will collapse. And if I can win your cooperation, we can get this all over with in short order. With dignity, maintaining all the proprieties. That’s in the best interests of the science community.”
Felzian crossed his arms triumphantly. “You’re sweet-talking me like this because you don’t really have anything on me.”
“Why should I resort to threats? You’re a reasonable man.”
“You’ve got nothing! And I’m supposed to collaborate with you, resign my Directorship, and quietly fall on my sword? You’ve got a lot of nerve.”
“But I’m telling you the truth.”
“The only problem I see here is you, And your problem is that you can’t do me any harm.”
Oscar sighed. “Yes, I can, actually. I’ve read your lab reports.”
“What are you talking about? I’m in administration! I haven’t published a paper in ten years.”
“Well, I’ve read your papers, Mr. Director. Of course, I’m not a trained geneticist, so, sad to say, I didn’t understand them. But I did audit them. They all received full-scale, nitpicking scans from an oppositional research team. You published seventy-five papers in your scientific career, every one of them jam-packed with numerical tables. Your numbers add up beautifully. Too beautifully, because six of them have the same sets of data.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean that someone got lazy at the lab bench, and skipped the boring gruntwork.”
Felzian turned red. “What? You can’t prove that.”
“Unfortunately for you, yes, I can prove it. Because it’s all there in black and white. Back in your publish-or-perish days, you were in a big hurry, you had to cut some corners. And that’s bad. It’s very bad. For a scientist, it’s professionally fatal. Once we out you as a scientific fraud, you won’t have a friend left to your name. Your colleagues will break your sword and tear off your epaulets.”
Felzian said nothing.
Oscar shrugged. “As I said before, I’m not a scientist. I don’t take scientific fraud with the lethal seriousness that you scientists do. Personally, I don’t see how your fraud did any great harm, since no one was paying attention to those papers anyway. You were just a fair-to-middling talent in a very competitive field, trying to pad out your résumé.”
“I was completely unaware of this so-called problem. It must have been my grad students.”
Oscar chuckled. “Look, we both know that can’t get you off the hook. Sure, you can hide behind buck-passing when it comes to mere financial fraud. But this isn’t mere money. These are your lab results, your contribution to science. You cooked the books. If I out you on that, we both know you’re through. So why discuss, this any further? Let’s get to the real agenda.”
“What is it you want from me?”
“I want you to resign, and I need your help in establishing the new Director.”
“Greta Penninger.”
“No,” Oscar said at once, “we both know that’s just not doable. Greta Penninger has been tactically useful to me, but I have another candidate that will be much more to your liking. In fact, he’s an old colleague of yours—Professor John Feduccia, the former president of Boston University.”
Felzian was astonished. “John Feduccia? How did he get onto the A-list?”
“Feduccia’s the ideal candidate! He’s very seasoned in administration, and he had an early career at the University of Texas, so that gives him the necessary local appeal. Plus, Feduccia is a personal friend of Senator Bambakias. Best of all, Feduccia is politically sound. He’s a Federal Democrat.”
Felzian stared at him in amazement. “Do you mean to tell me that you’ve been leading on poor Greta Penninger, while all this time you’ve been planning to bring in some Yankee who’s a personal crony of your boss?”
Oscar frowned. “Look, don’t be uncharitable. Of course I admire Greta Penninger. She was perfectly suited for the role that she’s already played here. She’s created a groundswell for change, but she can’t possibly run this facility. She doesn’t understand Washington. We need a responsible adult for that job, a seasoned