BAD WINE CRAPPY CHOCOLATE

CHAPTER FIFTEEN-4

"Are you also going to pardon Senator Cane for ignoring this?" Brandon asked Cybil.  He tossed the Anderson Report at his sister.

Chris initially reacted as though a ghost had crossed his path.  Cybil quickly glanced through most of it, reading only the conclusion in its entirety.

"Bardy was telling the truth!" she exclaimed.  "This says Vitala is a fraud!"

I'm going to spend the rest of my life defending my past, the senator thought dejectedly. Then he said aloud: "I knew of it. But I never had a chance to read that report. There were many other studies done of Vitala that reached a different conclusion. It's never been proven that the human body becomes dependent on the drug to survive. But it has been established, beyond any doubt, that it prolongs the user's life."

"All of those studies were complete bullshit!" Brandon countered, as a nearby geyser erupted. "They mistakenly attributed the deaths caused by Vitala withdrawal to other causes. The body produces more genetic mutations to offset the drug's effect. And the mutations continue to increase with age, because nature doesn't want us to live too long. That's why people have to keep increasing the dosage as they get older."

"Higher doses at the prices Allisours charges," Max Bardy commented as he walked by.  "Now that's brutality, senator."

"The people live longer because of their diets and the ban on smoking," Brandon continued. "That's why the life expectancy hasn't increased anywhere near as dramatically in the countries where people haven't changed their lifestyles. The only thing Vitala really does is make people physically dependent on it! I've never seen a serious scientific study that proved its benefit."

"I've never seen a study that proved the benefits of breathing," Chris fired back, "but I'm sure there is one. And if you were so damn worried about the safety of the drug, you should have done your own research. All you had to do was join the National Science Institute, as I recommended, and you would have had unlimited resources at your disposal. You could have had a wonderful career there. And by the way, the institute just released a study showing that Vitala prevents brain cancer."

"You know they're a sham! The members are all political appointees. That's why they didn't mention that the Mibil can cause the disease. That would have offended the good people at Allisours. All the institute does is make a lot of noise.  It's just a waste of energy!"

"I know no such thing.  It's part of the system we put in place to assure the public's well being."

"We're in the middle of the wilderness trying to save Cybil's life. Do you still think the system is working?" Brandon asked incredulously.

"I've spent the majority of my life making the current form of government a reality," the senator said.  "It's not perfect, but yes, I still believe in it. The things I've helped create have always been intended to protect the people's best interests. And if you hadn't been so fixated on your own self-interest, you might have become aware of that. But instead of taking a position at the National Science Institute, you went to work for a private company in order to earn the maximum amount of credits possible. You never learned how the government systems function. Of course, even the maximum amount wasn't enough to satisfy you! You had to steal more credits!"

"Do you still think listening to people's private conversations is in the public's best interest?" Brandon demanded.

"We're trying to catch criminals.  They're the only ones that have anything to fear from the practice."

Chris's body trembled as he stood up and started walking away from his son.

"I think you lied about who our parents were because you were afraid we'd find out the truth!" Brandon screamed at him.