He was experiencing a curious sensation. Although he was in the same room with his father for only the second time in his life, it felt natural. They were having one of those age‑old arguments. The younger generation had just challenged the older generation, and because of that sparks were set to fly.
This was the kind of thing that was supposed to happen between fathers and sons all the time. In fact, it felt good. It felt normal. More than that, he was finally being acknowledged.
My God, he thought, I share DNA with this man and yet we have so little in common.
Then he had a more scary thought: Maybe we have a lot in common.
"I think it's time you told me what the hell you're up to," Bartlett declared, ignoring the jibe. "How did you—"
"I'm trying to do us both a favor, but you're not cooperating. If the Gerex clinical trials are going half as well as I think they are, then it seems to me you've got everything to gain by publicity. I'm trying to write the first book that tells the Gerex story. So why the hell won't your legal flunkies let me interview Karl Van de Vliet?"
"That's actually none of your business." Bartlett's eyes abruptly turned cloudy. "I want you to stay the hell away from—"
"Right now I'm the best friend you've got in this world. Believe me." Stone couldn't believe he was saying this. For how many years had he loathed and despised this man? But now, for the first time, he actually needed something from him. "I want to tell the real story of what Van de Vliet has accomplished. What Gerex has accomplished. It'll be the latest word on stem cell technology. But your office keeps giving me the runaround."
"We have a damned good reason to keep our work proprietary just now," Bartlett declared. "This is like the Manhattan Project." His eyes bored in. "The results of the clinical trials are going to cause a press feeding frenzy, and I want to be in a position to control that when the time comes."
This is incredible, Stone told himself. We 're talking as though we have no history. You have a granddaughter by me whom you've never even seen. Don't you at least care about her?