standing on the river

The headline was the same in every newspaper in the country: THE END OF CRIME IN AMERICA with a picture of Dr. Steven Samuels in his lab at Sampson Pharmaceuticals. Ever since he was a child, Samuels dreamed of doing something that would make the world a better place and as he grew up, he never lost sight of his dream and worked toward it. School was easy, so he was number one in his class in high school and college and got a doctorate in neuro-pharmacology at twenty-five. His first job out of college was director of the Alderton lab, the largest and most advanced pharmaceutical laboratory in the world, where he developed drugs for several neurological disorders including bipolar and parkinsonism. But Bavotrin was going to make his dream come true. That drug would make it impossible to commit a crime so there'd be none. Without crime, prisons would be unnecessary, the death penalty would become irrelevant and people could live without fear. Everyone would live in peace and freedom without locked doors or guns in a bedside drawer. The world would be better for the work he did. But, of course, things never go exactly as planned and there were challenges outside the lab he had no control of that would affect his dream. One of them was his boss.Although Margaret McDurant was the head of one of the largest and most profitable companies in the world and had a long track record of extraordinary success, she could never let down. She had to operate at her highest level and could never drop her facade of invincibility in front of anyone because, being a woman, they would default to dismissing her abilities. She had to earn respect. It was never simply given. Her feelings were always under wraps as was every part of her. An exposed collarbone would emphasize her sexuality and reduce her gravitas. Even women might dismiss her. But Dorothy was different. She was a trusted insider, almost her equal when it came to getting things done and a sister at arms in a world of testosterone. McDurant had a dream. She was going to run the most profitable company in history - Samuels' drug was going to help her do that - and no one was going to stop her.Chapter 1- an introductionI met Asher Mizrachi briefly the day his family picked him up at the prison. A lot of bad things happened because of me but this wasn't one of them. He was about as naive as they come, fell in with the wrong guys and almost lost his future. But it's tough to avoid a dead end if you can't read the sign and Asher definitely couldn't read the sign.I was lucky to grow up in a comfortable part of the city with parents who surrounded me with books and a love of learning. Opportunity was like breakfast in the morning, so I expected to do something important someday. But things didn't go exactly as planned and I found myself sitting in a Senate hearing explaining how the project I thought would do a lot of good turned out so terribly bad.This is my story, but I start with Asher's because our lives had several parallels including parents who loved and cared for us. But his childhood collapsed on him and he reacted like any normal person would, by finding a way to cope with it. In that sense, we weren't much different.